from the win-win-win-win-win-win-win-win-win-windows dept.
New Info From MS to Prevent Windows 10 Installation on Your Domain.
I know that many here simply don't care about Windows. Fortunately or not, some of us are tied to it for our livelihood, and it is the vehicle by which we keep a roof over our heads and food in our stomachs.
In a not very surprising statement, Microsoft has announced via their Technet Blog that they are expanding the un-requested installation of Windows 10 onto PC's that are domain connected.
The response to Windows 10 has been incredible with over 200 million devices running Windows 10 around the world. A portion of that excitement is due to our popular free upgrade offer on qualified Windows 7 and 8.1 devices running Windows Home and Pro editions.
Many consumers have taken advantage of this offer thanks to an easy-to-use app called "Get Windows 10". This app introduces users to Windows 10, checks their PC for compatibility with Windows 10, and notifies the user when their PC is ready to upgrade. The Get Windows 10 app has been a popular method for consumers to quickly and easily upgrade to Windows 10.
Somebody drank a little too much Kool-aid before writing this blog post.
MS released a knowledge base article on January 13, 2016, that tells how to prevent installation via both Group Policy and via registry key.
I also note that there are still no instructions from MS on how to turn off the telemetry and phoning home of the new operating system.
No Escape: MSFT Injects "Get Windows 10" Nagware into Biz PCs
from the one-microsoft-way dept.
El Reg reports:
Microsoft's relentless campaign to push Windows 10 onto every PC on the planet knows no bounds: now business desktops will be nagged to upgrade.
When Redmond started quietly installing Windows 10 on computers via Windows Update, it was aimed at getting home users off Windows 7 and 8. If you were using Windows Pro or Enterprise, or managed your machines using a domain, you weren't supposed to be pestered with dialog boxes offering the free upgrade.
Until now.
According to Microsoft on [January 13], the controversial try-hard "Get Windows 10" nagware is now coming to an office near you:
We will begin to roll out the "Get Windows 10" app to additional devices that meet the following criteria, in the US later this month and in additional markets shortly thereafter:
- Running and licensed for Windows 7 Pro or Windows 8.1 Pro
- Configured to receive updates directly from the Windows Update service (i.e. updates are not managed by WSUS or System Center Configuration Manager on those devices)
- Joined to an Active Directory domain
[...] The pushy assumption by Microsoft that we should unquestioningly swallow Windows 10 will continue to aggravate: it's straight out of its 1990s bullyboy playbook, except rather than screw over its rivals, Microsoft is now turning the screws on its own customers.
An app that allows a Windows user to take back control of his machine (for now) was previously mentioned here by DonkeyChan, Hairyfeet, et al.
Related Stories
If you're using a PC running Windows 7 or 8, you may be getting a little sick of endless popup screens telling you to upgrade to version 10. And you may be worried about inadvertently installing the upgrade as part of a security update.
Microsoft will start pushing out a Windows 10 upgrade as a recommended, virtually mandatory, update very soon (it's right now only an optional download). Some people are tempted to turn off Windows Update completely to avoid getting the new operating system – don't. It'll leave your computer vulnerable to attack as you'll no longer get security patches.
It's actually rather easy to turn off the Windows 10 upgrade function without losing vital regular software updates. Microsoft even has an official document [*] explaining how to do it.
[...] Make sure you follow all the steps, but essentially you have to:
1. Open the Registry Editor (search for regedit in the Start Menu and run it).
2. Set [DWORD value] DisableOSUpgrade to 1 in HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate
3. Set [DWORD value] ReservationsAllowed to 0 in HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\OSUpgrade
Or, the obligatory recommendation to run FOSS instead.
[*] Javascript required.
(Score: 5, Informative) by aristarchus on Thursday January 21 2016, @09:07AM
I know that many here simply don't care about Windows.
No, we have been burned, lied to, abused, blue-screened. So we care, we care with a white hot hate will last long after Micro$erf is dead and gone. Our hatred of Micro$orf makes Ahab's relation to Moby Dick seem to be that of BFFs. "With my last breath, I spit at thee! From hell's heart, I stab at thee!" (Really, there is just nothing like Quaker curses in the Voice of Ricardo Monteblan.)
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 21 2016, @10:12AM
I gotta say, aristarchus, that for as much as you drive me nuts with some of your non-sequitrs, inflexible opinions, and general disdain for human life, you strike me as an intelligent and well-educated person. Someone I'd even hoist a beer with. Prost!
Your post above post is gold.
May you live long and prosper.
(Score: 2) by kurenai.tsubasa on Thursday January 21 2016, @02:03PM
Prost! here as well. You're already at +5 so have a +i, Insightful mod!
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Thursday January 21 2016, @02:57PM
I used windows from 3.1 in about 1993 until about 2000. Sure it was ropey, but them all computers were back then. I'm afraid I simply don't care about Windows, and I'm surprised so many people do.
(Score: 2) by Yog-Yogguth on Thursday January 21 2016, @05:17PM
Like others I Just want to add my wholehearted agreement and praise for your +5 post: well written Aristarchus!
Bite harder Ouroboros, bite! tails.boum.org/ linux USB CD secure desktop IRC *crypt tor (not endorsements (XKeyScore))
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 21 2016, @09:20AM
The response to Windows 10 has been incredible with over 200 million devices running Windows 10 around the world.
I don't think it counts as a positive if you didn't install it voluntarily. How many of that 200 million are people who tried to avoid Win10, but it wormed it's way in anyway? Or people who accidentally clicked on that stupid icon taking up precious taskbar space?
The response to HIV has been incredible with over 35 million people having HIV around the world.
For a long time it was a running joke that Windows was a virus, but now it also spreads like one. Be careful, don't have unprotected updates!
(Score: 3, Touché) by LoRdTAW on Thursday January 21 2016, @01:48PM
Most of them were people who just wanted Windows 8 gone. It like saying you cured 200 million cancer patients with AIDS.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 21 2016, @03:08PM
It like saying you cured 200 million cancer patients with AIDS.
That's not exactly fair to AIDS (more specifically, to T-cells):
Enlisting the AIDS virus to fight cancer [sciencedaily.com]
Cancer Cured By HIV [slashdot.org]
:)
(Score: 2) by Bogsnoticus on Friday January 22 2016, @02:17AM
Windows was never considered a virus.
Virii tend to be small, compact, efficient, well written, and fully supported by their authors.
Genius by birth. Evil by choice.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Friday January 22 2016, @02:29AM
Or people who accidentally clicked on that stupid icon taking up precious taskbar space?
That's pretty much what my son did on his Windows 8 laptop. When the update started, he decided to go through with it, as he had no real affection for Windows 8.
The update took about 3 hours or so (I think), and seemed to go reasonably well.
Over the next 6 weeks or so however, his laptop became more and more sluggish, and games that he had no problem with before would crash, or play in a window instead of full screen, and Libreoffice would try to run it's installer instead of just starting. All sorts of annoyances
Eventually we used the Windows 8 install disc we'd made to factory reset the thing, and it's got Windows 8 to this day, and works fine.
(Well, you know, fine for Windows 8).
(Score: 2, Disagree) by elgrantrolo on Thursday January 21 2016, @09:54AM
Well... it's not optional. In the same way that it has not been optional for MS to:
Now the situation is different: MS does not have and cannot expect to have 90%+ of the PC OS market share. They need to protect their ecosystem and if that means phoning home and "pro-actively managing" what goes on the in the ecosystem, they will do it. If users dislike it, they are already moving to alternatives anyway. 20% of a huge market of pay as you go users might suit them better than 90% of a smaller market with many millions of (annoying and demanding) freeloaders.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by lc on Thursday January 21 2016, @11:00AM
"get the blame for Windows XP being hijacked for botnets"
Of course a botnet may hijack any system, but how easy is it for a botnet to gain root access and do crazy things on another OS? How difficult is it to clean?
"get the blame for blue screens when people have faulty hardware plugged in"
What is the percentage of blue screens by hardware fault as against Windows' fault? I have had one or two blue screen due to faulty memory, and at least a hundred blue screens due to software problem
"get the reputation of unreliability when other people's device drivers misbehave"
Again, what is the percentage of unreliability due to "other" device drivers against crazy things windows did?
"get the reputation for a dodgy "ecosystem" when other companies add ad/malware to OEM PCs or to various Setup.exe"
I have not had this problem so far. Sorry.
People complained, true. But no one hacked into MS executives' homes and surveyed around, leaving the front door open on way out.
By the way, if you don't like your country, you can move out. How practical would that be? (Writing from a linux box, but I do have windows for "compatibility reasons").
(Score: 2) by elgrantrolo on Friday January 22 2016, @12:20PM
In relation to botnets/viruses, let's not forget that when XP was launched it was not internet facing for a lot of people. The users did not know better and the software authors certainly didn't care about permissions or the impact of their software on the rest of the PC. As someone who ran XP sp1 and sp2 at home with a normal user, for me it was NOT the MS products that failed to work properly without elevated rights.
Fast forward to 2016, it is now practical to have minor and major updates (OS, 3rd party software, drivers, everything) rolled out to everyone automatically, even if there's many GBs of files to download. It will irk those on dialup, but we're talking about a mass market product that will not and cannot please everyone - it is not the same as to suggest move out of the country, especially when devices get replaced much more often than people change jobs or countries.
MS chose to push the new OS to everyone instead of risking another XP2 staying active for 10 years, with the support demands that it entails, plus the market perception of not being innovative, not getting on with the times, etc... However, their support lifecycle is public, which is more than I can say for other software houses and OEMs. Keep up or be left out is the rule rather than the exception but I see MS getting special treatment when they do something about controlling what's going on with the client base. For me, to let MS know about what apps I have installed, the PC uptime and what patches are applied is not a big deal and certainly is nothing like surveying my home and leaving the door open. I doubt very much that Google captures less than that about the Android tablet I use, or all the phones that millions of people have with the ability to know geo location and money transactions made.
Finally, I'll just say that "disagree" is a more useful moderation than what we used to have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 21 2016, @12:29PM
Revisionist history. Many of the issues mentioned should have been impossible/mitigated by a well architected OS.
(Score: 1) by WillR on Thursday January 21 2016, @07:29PM
Is your message here "If you want a well-architected OS, buy an iPad"?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 22 2016, @08:31AM
I think the message is that they should have stuck with a micro-.kernel based architecture like NT 3.51, instead of putting the graphics drivers into kernel mode as they did with NT 4.0.
Incidentally, for years NT 3.51 was known as the most stable Windows ever, where as NT 4.0 probably was the (NT) version that bluescreened the most.
If you want a stable monolithic kernel, you need strict control with all drivers. Like things are done in the Linux world (which is why anyone running binary drivers like the nVidia/ATI ones get told to reproduce the bug without those drivers by kernel developers).
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 21 2016, @01:47PM
1. When you, by default, make the first created user on a new install an administrator. It is your fault when your machines become easy pickings for botnets.
2. I don't think any reasonable person blames Microsoft for faulty hardware. I think stop codes could at least point at a device in particular instead of just being 0x000000001
3. Same as number 2, probably because you needed filler for this rant.
4. Windows Platform Binaries are an abomination that could never be used for anything but shaddy shit by OEMs, bad guys, 3 letter agencies. And it 100% Microsoft's doing.
Finally, one does not protect their business by shitting on their customers. No matter how much you twist telemetry's actual meaning.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Thursday January 21 2016, @05:34PM
When you, by default, make the first created user on a new install an administrator. It is your fault when your machines become easy pickings for botnets.
If the user created during installation lacks "wheel group" or "sudoers" group membership required to elevate to administrative privilege, then how will any user on that system have privileges to perform necessary administrative actions, such as installing new software or creating other users?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 21 2016, @07:49PM
Windows used to require 2 admins. One was the built-in Administrator account which is there but disabled by default. It would then grant the first new user on the machine the rank of 2nd admin...by default.
The right thing to do would be to make the first logon create a secure password for Administrator, enable the account and then create a new Limited account for the 'owner'. I don't understand why it would need 2 admin accounts.
Instead, XP would just let them create their new 2nd admin account with no password requirements at all. No excuse for this.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Monday January 25 2016, @02:18AM
Yes, Windows XP's model was stupid. That's why Windows Vista switched to UAC, which brought a model closer to that of sudo.
(Score: 2) by http on Friday January 22 2016, @07:00AM
They typed in the root password at least twice during the install.
I browse at -1 when I have mod points. It's unsettling.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Monday January 25 2016, @02:16AM
Then root is the "first created user on a new install" and "an administrator", which Anonymous Coward #292531 claims makes the operating system publisher blameworthy.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Friday January 22 2016, @03:05AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 21 2016, @01:41PM
The only way they got those number was by giving it away. If they had kept on with the buy before use model it would have ruined them. Microsoft is shoving windows 10 on every machine they can. They don't care if the machine doesn't have drivers or doesn't spec to run it.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 21 2016, @03:18PM
The only way they got those number was by giving it away.
The only way they got those numbers was by aggressively, sneakily and/or deceivingly pushing it on users.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Thursday January 21 2016, @05:36PM
Yes, but the users allow this, they know about it (it's all over the press, and it's pretty hard to not notice your computer's OS has been changed anyway since W10 doesn't look the same as older versions), and they refuse to do anything about it. I don't see the problem. If customers absolutely refuse to look for alternatives to a vendor that abuses them, then why shouldn't the vendor abuse them?
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Thursday January 21 2016, @06:01PM
Yes, but the users allow this
Some people are incredibly resistant to making any sort of effort to learn anything about their PC's, even if doing so would make their lives, or at least their jobs, a great deal easier. I used to joke with a co-worker: "I'll spend an hour doing something that will save me 5 minutes per month, you won't spend 5 minutes to do something that will save you an hour per week". Only it wasn't a joke, it was really the truth. Granted, I would gladly spend the hour that way because it was more interesting than my actual job was at the time, but in the long run I kept increasing my productivity.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by canopic jug on Thursday January 21 2016, @01:44PM
some of us are tied to it for our livelihood, and it is the vehicle by which we keep a roof over our heads and food in our stomachs.
That's just the yuppie nuremberg defense [urbandictionary.com] in action again. Putting food on the table, paying the bills, covering the mortgage and so on can be applied to other illegal and unethical activities. It can just as well be an excuse for drug dealing or theft. Just because one could make money off of an activity doesn't mean one necessarily should, especially if it hurts society as a whole.
Further, spending resources on broken Windows(r)(tm), no pun intended, is just another example of the Broken Window Fallacy [bastiat.org]. Resources wasted chasing the pipe dream of a some day functional M$ "ecosystem" are resources that could have been spent making actual progress on a working system, actually advancing instead of running full-speed in place. Unlike what M$ and its minions would have people believe, computers are not an end in themselves, but a means to an end. Fiddling with M$ Windows is not only overhead, it is unnecessary overhead.
People pushing M$ Windows are the digital equivalent of those scavengers cutting down utility poles and digging up cables to get at the copper. It's financially bad all the way around, even for the scavenger, though they may in the short term walk off with a little money.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 3, Funny) by isostatic on Thursday January 21 2016, @02:12PM
can be applied to other illegal and unethical activities. It can just as well be an excuse for drug dealing or theft
I can see helping people use windows to be unethical, but is drug dealing really in the same category? On the ethics scale that's a misdemeanour at best!
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 21 2016, @02:48PM
One has Win 8 HP, the other has Win 8P. I did the free update to Win 10 on both of them, made sure it was activated, then wiped the drive and downloaded Win 10 ISO from M$ and did a fresh install to get rid of the bundled crap. Following me so far? Next I disconnected the drive and hooked up a new drive and installed Linux. Done. I use Linux for just about everything, and have Windows on a disconnected drive if I need it. It takes less than 5 minutes to swap cables to power up the other OS. Why don't I do a dual boot or bios boot choice? Because I don't trust Windows, I will not have my Linux drive hooked up while Windows is running.
(Score: 2) by Yog-Yogguth on Thursday January 21 2016, @05:31PM
Parent post is great advice for those who still need Windows for "that last application". Dual boot isn't really an option any more (and even before Windows 10 it was a bad option for anyone wanting to get to know Linux because dual booting would more often than not require constant additional effort to use Linux first and foremost).
I'm happy that none of it applies to me but for those who still need Windows "something" (for any reason) it's really excellent advice!
Bite harder Ouroboros, bite! tails.boum.org/ linux USB CD secure desktop IRC *crypt tor (not endorsements (XKeyScore))
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 22 2016, @06:48AM
Worked for me! I bought a refurbished laptop that had Windows 8. null and I installed Mint Linux. After the install, the Windows partition would no longer boot! Problem solved! Now if only Microsoft could provide more user-friendly solutions like this!
(Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Thursday January 21 2016, @07:21PM
You may want to get a spare SATA cable if you are doing that. Those cables are only rated for about 50 insertion cycles.
I personally would not trust windows 10 with access to the same hardware either (due to the BIOS firmware), but that may be just too much tin-foil.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 22 2016, @01:52AM
Personally my test box for cleaning infected drives is set up with multiple single tray hot swappable racks with 5.25" mounting so any 3.5 or 2.5 drive can be mounted in the tray.
Have windows drives and linux drives and just slide in the one I want to boot, put a dirty drive in tray in the "data" slot [OS in "os" slot].
Much less expensive to wear out a tray or the drive connectors.
Just as a specification go to newegg [dot com] and search for N82E16817995104
Watch the pictures and read that it is NOT tray-less, MUST have a tray for multiple OS setup. [even for different data drives]
DISCLAIMER: this is just a quick find for an example of the many types and styles of single drive swappable trays
(Score: 2) by iamjacksusername on Thursday January 21 2016, @04:59PM
Microsoft has released the settings to turn off the telemetry in Windows 10. Note that some of these settings also apply to Windows 8 and Windows 7, particularly the Internet Explorer. settings. See the below Technet article.
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt577208(v=vs.85).aspx [microsoft.com]
That said, the decision to force Windows 10 onto domain pc's is... not a good. All my sites are either WSUS or SCCM but I know many MSPs tend to leave Auto updates turned on pointing to Microsoft Update... I do not agree with that in theory though I understand the business reasons for it. I wonder if a business who experiences a disruption from this "upgrade" might have basis for a claim in Small Claims Court for any service fees they incurred to unwind it?
In any case, food for thought.
(Score: 2) by jummama on Thursday January 21 2016, @06:54PM
I'm guessing there's something in the EULA that would prevent a small business from winning that, and the larger ones will probably not be affected.
That said, if this breaks enough stuff, I wouldn't be surprised to see a class action happen.
(Score: 2) by iamjacksusername on Thursday January 21 2016, @07:11PM
A contract can claim anything it wants; it does not make it enforceable. Small claims court is a actually particularly effective venue for a lot of things. Judges tend to be older and more skeptical about technology. I would imagine, if there is a large enough disruption to make the news, judges may simply award some damages, especially when a plaintiff can produce a receipt for the $1000 or $800 they paid a consultant. Also - consider the language Microsoft uses. This is an "upgrade". Microsoft calls it an upgrade. Setting your computer to automatically install updates is not the same as consenting to an automatic version upgrade. I think that is a pretty plain principle that an older judge would understand.
Microsoft may have a lot of money and attorneys but dealing with thousands of small claims in hundreds of courts across the country? I do not think they have thought this policy all the way through.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 21 2016, @06:45PM
Some day, in the not too distant future, Windows will go all the way to 11. It will come with a tiny model of Stonehedge.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by jummama on Thursday January 21 2016, @06:57PM
Stonehenge will be the new API to supersede all the previous variations on the Windows API over the years, and will be better than MFC, WinForms, WPF, and FormerlyKnownAsMetro, they promise!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 23 2016, @12:23AM
Spybot Anti-Beacon is a standalone tool which was designed to block and stop the various tracking (telemetry) issues present in Windows 10. It has since been modified to block similar tracking functionality in Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 operating systems.
Anti-Beacon is small, simple to use, and is provided free of charge. It was created to address the privacy concerns of users of Windows 10 who do not wish to have information about their PC usage sent to Microsoft.
https://www.safer-networking.org/spybot-anti-beacon/ [safer-networking.org]
GWX Control Panel
This is a free tool that can remove and disable the 'Get Windows 10' notification area icon on Windows 7 and Windows 8. Recent versions can also disable 'Upgrade to Windows 10' behavior in the Windows Update control panel and do much more. See the user guide at the Ultimate Outsider blog. You can still download GWX Control Panel as a standalone executable if you don't like installers. Please see the "GWX CONTROL PANEL RELEASE NOTES" section at the user guide for MD5 and SHA-1 checksums of all official releases.
http://ultimateoutsider.com/downloads/ [ultimateoutsider.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 24 2016, @11:03PM
prostitutes say the same thing.