Microsoft is trying a lot of new things with Windows 10, unfortunately they seem to be things no one has asked for. We have seen them about face on providing Knowledge Base information on updates, from hiding the actual updates which were being installed to providing a way for admins to actually see which updates were being pushed. Then they tried out reinstalling and resetting default programs during updates, again something not particularly well received and so was discontinued. Now Microsoft has found yet another trick to advertise the availability of Win10 to those who have not yet upgraded. After this latest patch opening a new blank tab gives you a nice blue bar with the text 'Microsoft recommends upgrading to Windows 10.' … because the pop up and emails were apparently not enough.
The Inquirer might be stretching it a bit when they refer to it as adware but it is certainly not the security patch it is billed as. For a bit of added class you will never see KB3146449 in your list of installed updates, the only way you will know is if you get that message. The hidden update is the real worry here, if a patch is released which you cannot determine is actually installed the difficulty to troubleshoot problems is vastly increased. Advertise if you want but please don't make a habit of pushing hidden updates, OK?
"JUST WHEN YOU thought Microsoft had stooped as low as it could with Updategate, along comes another low blow. This time it's an advertising payload hidden in a security patch."
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- Qualcomm ARM server chips try on Red Hat Enterprise Linux for size @ The Register
- Home Ebola testing with a Tricorder? There's an app for that @ The Register
- How to Easily Back Up and Restore Linux File Permissions @ Linux.com
- Microsoft has released a Debian Linux switch OS. Repeat, a Debian Linux switch operating system @ The Register
M$ is going to fail at
M$ is going to fail at getting most 7 users into updating to windows 10, they failed with 8/8.1! The only thing that Really worries me is that M$ has given the PC/laptop OEMs the “option” of not including any M$ windows secure boot OFF functionality in the OEM’s UEFI/BIOS for PCs/Laptops that come with windows 10 factory installed! What is a user to do for any user custom Linux builds on any hardware with a M$ windows Secure BOOT that can NOT be disabled, there were problems with the mainstream Linux Distros in the past just getting M$ to supply the Secure Boot Keys for many mainstream Linux Distros.
M$ is going to have to be closely watched for these nefarious Security updates pushing ad ware, along with reviewers even more closely looking at new PC/Laptop firmware to test for the presence of a M$ windows secure BOOT OFF SWITCH! Redmond will/must never be trusted by those that want to have user choice of software/OSs on the users own hardware! Even on M$’s FEB 2016 updates I found a KB that was not listed in the windows update list, but is appeared in my list of installed updates without me having the option of hiding it!
W10 adoption is really high,
W10 adoption is really high, so saying they’ll fail at getting most W7 users to update is a bit ignorant of the facts.
The secure boot issue is a bit more complicated. The purpose of this is to prevent boot-time viruses from getting on your system.
Is it a problem for Linux? Plenty of distros support it, and those that don’t should so perhaps I’m misinformed there but I don’t think it’s a huge issue. One of the main reasons people say they go with Linux is the supposed added security anyway:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2951559/operating-systems/how-to-install-linux-on-a-pc-with-secure-boot-enabled.html
I’m not saying I agree with everything Microsoft is doing though.
I wouldn’t exactly call W10
I wouldn’t exactly call W10 adoption as being really high, if anything it’s fairly disappointing when you consider how hard Microsoft have been pushing it on people and it being a free upgrade, if we’re to believe Microsoft about how good W10 is you’d expect people to be flocking to it in their droves, not for it’s adoption to be trailing that of an OS people paid for.
If it was really that good wouldn’t we be seeing a 70-80% market share for W10 over six months after release and not the rather abysmal 13%
Welp, my laptop just upgraded
Welp, my laptop just upgraded to Win 10 again last night. I received a pop-up that had a counter and said it would install in 1 hour. It gave me three options:
I (stupidly) thought that if I closed the window, it wouldn’t force the update. One hour later, I’m surfing the web and suddenly my computer shuts down and begins upgrading.
Personally, I don’t have anything against Win 10 – my primary desktop is already converted and I’m fine. This laptop, however, has a graphics driver issue and the start up goes from a zippy 15 seconds with Win 7 to a snail-paced 2.5 minutes(!) with Win 10.
It has an AMD 6770M, so I’ll see if Crimson will work but if not, it’s back to restoring 7. Good news: since it’s updated, I qualify for the free Win10 indefinitely on this machine.
Ah The nefarious now or later
Ah The nefarious now or later with no chance to decline! It’s best to have a windows 7 system image backup to re-image the drive. Make the windows 7 system image backup after you get rid of the offending KB’s from the last year or two, there are about 10+ of them! That way you can re-image back to 7 and get on with things. So now with 10 things are borked, and you will probably have to do a ISO image install of windows 10, but things may still be borked after that. I guess it’s time to get a Linux Mint ISO burned onto a DVD to have in case M$’s PC/Laptop land grab goes any further, to set up if M$’s pushes the nefarious forcing into windows 7 via security updates.
I do regular windows 7 system image backups so if things are forced I can just not Agree to that windows 10 EULA, and if my system will not revert properly I can still go with the backup image. You should not configure windows 7 update into automatic mode, just keep it there in the remind you mode but let you choose to download and install the updates. I usually review the updates and hide any that are not clearly marked as for security only. It looks like M$ may get into some legal trouble if they go on messing via the security updates, as some users’ time is money and people need their PC/Laptop for work related use, many self employed users need their PC/Laptop hardware left the way that the users configured them to work with the user’s choice of OS and software!
“I qualify for the free Win10 indefinitely on this machine.”
No you qualify to become indefinitely part of M$’s product to pay for that “FREE” OS that is windows 10, it’s so full of spyware and metrics gathering, and the forcing of things that may decide to remove some of your applications, you agreed to the EULA for 10, you have no will of your own now.
what M$ doing is beyond
what M$ doing is beyond ridiculous, it’s sad and upsetting, they know that most ppl payed for their crappy OS.
they can do a Free version, and add as much crap as they want in it, but this is not free, i really hope someone take them to court over some crap and get few billions off M$’s back.
It’s pretty funny following a
It’s pretty funny following a couple people on Twitter and seeing Windows 10 automatically download itself.
A couple of people in particular is the YouTube personality, Dunkey, and Jayztwocents had it happen to him while he was live streaming.
It’s such a shame too, I wasn’t very excited about Windows 10 but I was interested in the games that they were releasing onto the platform.
Now I’m not even going to buy the games because not only are the locked to W10 (and run poorly) but they’re also locked to the MS store.
It’s hard for me to even get mad at the kind of shit that Microsoft pulls anymore, I feel more disappointed than anything.
my better half woke up and
my better half woke up and had win10 magically installed overnight.. It turns out that it is not an issue, but she did not have to accept on anything, only the EULA, which as it turns out, goes and tries to rollback to win 8.1 in her case… totally unacceptable… I have been an insider and will continue to do so, but this ramming it down peoples’ throats also now with a toolbar looking thing in internet explorer..
I have two computers with the
I have two computers with the windows 10 upgrade notification on them. At no point has it even remotely forced me to upgrade. I don’t think I’ve even seen it show a dialog box.
Some people do not realize
Some people do not realize this but you should never click on that notification or tray icon, as that will be your acceptance of a download and install. Even for windows updates set to notify the user, but let the user decide to download and install. Do not even click in the client area of the notification balloon that pops up from the tray icon, if you click in that area it will be interpreted as a yes to download and install without review, and without having the chance to UN-check and hide the updates individually!
M$ is very nefarious in its practices when updating to catch unsuspecting users off guard, and upon any M$ update notice the user should immediately go to the start menu and manually select windows update and run windows update manually from there so that users can be offered a chance to review the individual updates, UN-chenk them, and hide the ones that the user does not want to install.
Win10 is a pain in the back
Win10 is a pain in the back in many cases. I haven’t up(?)graded yet my main system, just running them in my second system alongside win 7, and with all these things I am reading I think I was right to not up(?)grade yet.
For example Win10 auto resets files associations. I changed image file associations to open with Irfanview and latter I received a number of irritating messages from Win10 that was resetting every one of those associations back to their default windows program. Really Microsoft? Without asking, you know better what I WANT? Go AND F Y.
I hope people are pissed off
I hope people are pissed off enough to ditch 10 entirely.
It would be nice to see people on technically literate sites like PCPer refuse to install 10 and spread the information about how its spyware.
Actually, wouldn’t this be a
Actually, wouldn’t this be a call to ditch Windows SEVEN entirely? Windows 10 folks don’t get this pop-up! 😉
Ha Ha wink wink! You don’t
Ha Ha wink wink! You don’t get any choice with windows 10, so the pop-up not being there in windows 10 is a moot point. With windows 10 consumer versions those updates are rammed down users’ throats, along with the adware, and the personal metrics gathering! Windows 10 folks can bend over and take it like they agreed to in that windows 10 EULA! Smile now while we push hard our M$ updates/spyware into your welcoming windows 10 update portal!
More like a call to ditch
More like a call to ditch Microsoft entirely IMO, when a company starts dictating what you should do with your own computer it’s time to question if they really know what best for you.
I know when the commentors
I know when the commentors whip out “M$” we are in for a good ride. /unfolds chair and gets the popcorn.
I’m not a big
I’m not a big hater-of-all-doings-by-Microsoft, but I have to admit, their hard-sell upgrade tactics are just about perfectly designed to rile people up.
You make the popcorn. I’ll bring the soda!
The “$” represents Monopoly,
The “$” represents Monopoly, so it stays until M$’s PC/laptop OS marketshare drops below 50%! I’ll bet that you loved Ma Bell and the Standard OIL Trust as well! What a bunch of sheeple over the last 40 years allowng M$ to have its way! And the real funny part is that M$ is doing its Apple style closed ecosystem of people’s Third party OEM PC/laptop hardware, something that even Apple does not do, and it’s easy to avoid Apple, but NOT M$ because the big PC/Laptop OS monopoly from Redmond is trying to take over hardware that it did not even make or brand with its name!
M$ is merely the supplier of the OS and nothing more to the third party OEM PC/Laptop makers. This is the sickness in the market that has lasted for 40 years for CPU and OS suppliers having such unnatural control over the third party OEM PC/laptop marketplace. This is the new gilded age of Trusts and people are letting it happen, what a bunch of Tools the elected officials have been over the last 40 years, and the technology business is just as bad if not worse than the Oil Business of the last decades of the 19th century, enjoy your nose rings!
I’ve not upgraded and of my
I’ve not upgraded and of my home computers or any work pcs.
I brought a new dell xps 13 9350 that came with windows 10 and the first thing I did was format the drive and install windows 7. It was a complete pig to do due to drivers required for NVMe and usb3.
It makes me wonder, seen as the OS is free to get people duped into getting it, if the OEM’s are pocketing the money as they don’t have to pay for an OS or if MS are slipping them a few £££ (in your case $$$) to install this malware.
This poop will certainly get worse as it continues until OEM’s stop installing it on new systems. Only way that will happen is if people stop buying into it.
In that case, what do they use instead??
Had to hide KB3035583 for the
Had to hide KB3035583 for the 9th time in 10 months. This is beyond ridiculous. M$ is really pushing its luck this time. Latest list of update to avoid at all cost:
2015 bad:
KB2952664
KB2977759
KB2990214
KB3021917
KB3022345
KB3035583
KB3046480
KB3050265
KB3065987
KB3068708
KB3075249
KB3075851
KB3080149
KB3083324
KB3083710
2016 bad:
KB3123862
KB3146449
NOTE: Disable Windows auto update! Do a manual update once a month and screen out M$ bullshit.
Ya, KB3035583 is even
Ya, KB3035583 is even starting to show up on my corporate network. Not impressed.
Thanks for that list of
Thanks for that list of updates to avoid. I have uninstalled them on my main computer, our other computers have some uninstalled and auto updates off.
I kept thinking I should upgrade to windows 10 being as I’m a pc gamer. I tried to do it on an old socket 939 system just to see how good/bad it was. It would not even install. Tried 7 times, including unplugging most everything and even switching video cards, and no luck.
At this point I won’t be leaving Windows 7. It works perfectly on all our computers and does everything we want. If games come out for Windows 10 only I won’t get them.
Maybe in a few years if this mess gets sorted I’ll get Windows 10. I don’t see that happening anytime soon, free or not.
The Windows 10 upgrade is a
The Windows 10 upgrade is a giant cluster f***. Unless your computer shipped with Windows 10, I really urge my customers to never “upgrade” their existing machines to it. If your computer came with 7 or 8.1, leave it alone. The computer was engineered for those OS’s, not for Windows 10.
For 7, I agree, but I think
For 7, I agree, but I think the 8.1 folks should go ahead and upgrade to the latest version of 10. Most of the initial bugs have been squished for now, and 8.1 is an even more annoying mishmash OS than 10. At least I was happy enough with the switch, being an idiot who upgraded on the very day 10 was released.
The culprit here is
The culprit here is KB3139929. Do NOT install that, I mean it’s an IE update anyway so ignore it.
KB3146449 gets installed through that update (KB3139929).
Windows lovers are still not
Windows lovers are still not getting the message that Windows OSes have very serious issues of stability, adware and malware that is being pushed thru these updates.
Windows lovers have found their match in Microsoft. I am hoping that Microsoft will make your life miserable. That is it.