Microsoft uses Windows Update to force Windows 10 ads onto older PCs Microsoft is installing an update on Windows 7 and 8 machines which will push users to upgrade to Windows 10. The update – KB 3035583 – is vague about its purpose. The official description states: This update enables additional capabilities for Windows Update notifications when new updates are available to the user. It …
This carries the same stench that the (now roundly hated) WGA1 update had upon unsuspecting Windows XP users.
It looks like Microsoft is back to its old tricks.
1 The acronym 'WGA' is defined by me to mean: "We're Greedy Assholes", not "Windows Genuine Advantage".
You should have installed FreeBSD or some other variant of *BSD. Linux is a mess today and that is not going to change any time soon.
Disclaimer: I am currently running Gentoo Linux, but I am working on moving to FreeBSD or PC-BSD as a desktop in the future. When that happens depends on the amount of money I have. At the moment that change is long distance away. I hope that is going to change.
"Then they start squabbling about which distribution is best."
Yes, the German phrase is "Jammern auf einem hohen Niveau", "moaning at a high level". Essentially since your typical Linux distribution solves most of the problems a typical Windows user has (i.e. getting software without malware, getting updates, etc) there are few things your typical Linux/BSD user has to complain about.
There's also another side to it. Since the Unix "philosophy" allows you to do a lot with very little code, and open source projects is now something quite a lot of developers want to do, there is a certain over supply of developer resources. The result of this are over complex projects like Systemd, Pulseaudio or Network Manager. Or on a grander scale, web standards becoming more and more complex, because it now seems as if we could afford it.
>"Then they start squabbling about which distribution is best.
They all will have systemd (svchost.exe) in three years or less for the most part so they all suck. The BSD variants as you may know are not different distros. They are different OSs entirely that are actually based on Unix instead of a windows wannabe pretending to maybe kind be like Unix sometimes.
This post has been deleted by its author
Build 10041, looks as though it was thrown together and compiled quickly after the Christmas Party and last updated on New Year's day with a severe hangover, given its regression over the previous build. Before this, it was looking good, now everyone wonders if October 2015 is even realistic as a release date.
10049 is even worse, made my laptop completely unusable. On a positive front,a fresh install of 8.1 then upgrade to 10041 and finally 10049 is looking much more positive.
Pre-10041 I was feeling quite confident about Windows 10 given the smoothness of the upgrade from 7 to 8, it looked like Microsoft were going to achieve the same success again. Now I'm a little worried and am preparing for a fresh install and possibly wait until the 364th day of the 1 year free upgrade.
However, sneaking Win10 onto home users' machines for free would probably be a benefit to everybody.
No it isn't. Given that Windows 10 hasn't fully backed off from the Metro UI disgrace, it's going to cause unending headaches to those of us who have non-IT family members, who will proceed to nag us on "where did everything go?".
With a dozen cousins the other end of splendid Teamviewer, with their mystic mix of XPs-various, Vista and 7, and tragic malware scans once a month, I'd like to know what 'basics' I could export to the over-60s who are online and hyperactive daily, preferably without 'learning' anything they didn't have to know before. Sure, tidy Linux, so that nothing they've ever bought (software/USB plugins) ever works again?
In which case you would have got something more exactly meeting your requirements by turning off the "automatic reboot after update" setting.
Run
gpedit.msc
Go to
Computer configuration| Administrative Templates | Windows Components | Windows Update
Enable
"No auto-restart"
Users who wish to leave auto-restart enabled may still find it useful to change the value of
"Reprompt for restart".
Unless you have users who you wish to force to restart, you might have found the default interval too short.
"Doesn't everyone have updates set so that they can have a look at what they're about to download..."
Yes! Have you *read* the descriptions of these updates? (Obviously not!)
"KB0012345: Fixes some things on computers running Windows." And you "click here for more info" which takes you to a web page containing EXACTLY THE SAME TEXT.
No I don't find this frustrating or anything.
I'll trump the "Exactly the same text".
There are also the " more information " links that just go to a generic page (This is what drivers do....) and at the top of the list is the "Page not available" messages. ( Are they really too badly managed to realise that that they have to get the information pages out at the same time as the download link?)
All of which with the subject of this thread just add to the evidence of Microsoft's strange deathwish-like ability to shoot itself in the foot even when it seems to be trying to get things right.
Dammit, I like Microsoft. And if they piss me off like this what do they do to less positive users?
".. and watch out for the "Optional" KB2952664 update... it looks as though it preps your 'puter for Win10 by installing loads of tattleware as well as some system mods... nasty stuff I'd say!"
Thanks. I found that in the "optional updates" section and immediately told it to go hide itself.
Strange, yes we do have the updates to indicate we don't want the update. However, you can uninstall the update, block it out as your would normally do, but, microsoft will install it anyway whether you want it or not. I have done that twice this morning alone just to check. I even put it in the hidden update and they still installed it. I'm going to report it to the FCC and see what they say. I absolutely do not want windows 10. I have installed it onto others computers and find windows 10 to be absolutely junk. It took a doped up nerd to come up with this setup. (programming).
To be a little more plain in what I mean. I even turned off my automatic update and they still installed it.
"Specifically the part where it says that most users never look at the Windows Update screen, much less check stuff out. Some even have everything installing automatically."
That's still not "forcing" them. Maybe you should look up what that word actually means: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/force#English
Also agree on the not forcing them thing. But given that Windows 10 is supposedly going to be a free upgrade for 7,8 and 8.1 users is forcing the less technically astute to upgrade to a more up to date and supported OS a bad thing necessarily?
But more crucially from what I can tell the idea in the article that this is an update that's basically adware trying to get you to install Windows 10 is pure speculation. It may well simply be boot strapper for starting the Windows 10 install of you choose to do it, especially on Windows 7 where there isn't the option to present it through the store like they did for the 8 to 8.1 update.
From the app name (Get Windows 10) and the phase names (AnticipationUX, Reservation, Reserved, RTM, GA, various Upgrade phases, and, finally, UpgradeSetupFailed) it sounds like it could be the Windows 10 installer for Windows 7, not just an advert pusher... although AnticipationUX sounds like the advert pushing part.
This post has been deleted by its author
Confused author, you can change all you want to, unchecking the update, hiding the update, etc, and they will go ahead and install anyway. I have tried it many times, even with turned off automatic updates on my machine.
I agree, unchecking updates usually will keep them from installing. But not this time.
Found the bastard on my machine the other day, having read about it elsewhere. I could uninstall it, but I think I'll leave it go. It'll be interesting to compare what the come-on says vs my experiences trying out the preview.
The way to get people on board is to develop a product good enough that the on-line reviews sell it for you. Deceitfully dumping commercial/marketing software on people's machines doesn't quite do it, I think.
Oh, I don't know, it worked for Google with Chrome.
That only took off in such massive popularity when they started dumping on people's PCs who weren't unticking the right boxes when doing other stuff. Before that I didn't know a single non-geek who used it. After than 6 month period, it was on every friend's PC that I came to fix, even if they hadn't noticed. Now it's the most popular single browser.
On the other hand, Apple did much the same thing with Safari. And I don't know anyone who uses it as their main browser on a PC, and even most of the Mac users I know don't. So maybe you need both software quality and sleazy marketing skills?
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
