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posted by
cmn32480
on Friday April 29 2016, @11:29PM
from the inconvenient-timing-for-a-new-os dept.
from the inconvenient-timing-for-a-new-os dept.
El Reg reports
Microsoft's relentless Windows 10 nagware has interrupted a live TV weather forecast, urging meteorologist Metinka Slater to upgrade.
The operating system suddenly popped up a box on screen insisting the station's computer be upgraded to the latest version--while Slater was on air describing thunderstorms rolling through Iowa, USA.
The cyber-badgering blatted over her doppler weather radar, which was being broadcast on KCCI 8 News [April 27].
"Microsoft recommends upgrading to Windows 10. Gosh, what should I do?" Slater asked sarcastically.
So, do you know of a case of MSFT update pushiness that rivals this?
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Windows 10 Nagware Interrupts Live TV Weather Forecast
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Everything you know is wrong!
(Score: 1, Disagree) by toygeek on Friday April 29 2016, @11:32PM
Sure, blame Microsoft, it's the easy thing to do. They're a great scapegoat. But if you're the IT guy responsible for the machine that displays on-air, then it's your job to make sure that nothing obnoxious can happen. If you know that Windows 7 or 8 has this popup, then it's your job to disable it.
There is no Sig. Okay, maybe a short one. http://miscdotgeek.com
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 29 2016, @11:49PM
Seriously, given the way Microsoft has been ramming Windows 10 down everyone's throat, how can any IT guy be 100% sure that "nothing obnoxious can happen"? By installing some other OS. Therefore it is a Microsoft problem.
(Score: 1, Informative) by IndigoFreak on Saturday April 30 2016, @12:17AM
It's IT's job to know. Also, this wasn't some random hidden feature of windows 10. It's been a feature of windows since at least Windows XP.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Blightbow on Saturday April 30 2016, @12:20AM
Also, this wasn't some random hidden feature of windows 10. It's been a feature of windows since at least Windows XP.
Wasn't the nagware rolled out in the August update? (i.e. this thing [infoworld.com])
(Score: 5, Informative) by wendo on Saturday April 30 2016, @01:06AM
Yes, and then the fix to turn it off was reset with the next update, then the next update after that stopped obeying the setting altogether, and so it's gone on, and on, and on.
The IT guy may very well have disabled the damn thing, then the next update re-enabled it etc etc. And these changes are baked into "critical" updates
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday April 30 2016, @07:16AM
Why is everyone acting like every random little TV station actually has an IT guy?
Like most small businesses, they are probably just barley holding their computers together, and if something goes belly up they throw a new laptop in, and the old one goes to the closet of failures and sits there till someone gives it to their kids. If the Station has any tech guys he's a video tech and uses off the shelf software and computers to edit news clips.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 30 2016, @08:30AM
This is the NBC affiliate for Des Moines.
The Des Moines metro area has a population over 600,000.
This isn't some go-fer's email machine.
It's the one that puts content on the air.
If I had equipment on which hundreds of thousands of people depended, I think I'd want to keep that in top condition.
Now, you may be right that these Windoze users just stack up the failures until the pile is big enough for somebody to become interested them.
For my part, I wonder just how loud the wake up gong has to be before places dump that company|OS--particularly now that it has become this intrusive.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by IndigoFreak on Saturday April 30 2016, @01:08AM
[quote]upgraded to the latest version[/quote]
Took that the wrong way. Thought it was telling her to update windows, as in bug fixes. Not that she was on Win 7/8 and to get Windows 10.
My fault there.
But my other point remains. IT should know of this and fix it. If it actually is impossible to banish, then they need to be looking into another OS. If their IT department never brought this up as a possibility to management, then the IT staff isn't doing their job. Finger may need to be pointed in other places however.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 30 2016, @12:22AM
Same for a FOSS OS.
...or has someone used a Linux distro or *BSD spin that does this kind of nagging?
With Linux updates|upgrades[1], the downloads and the installation are separate operations (unless the user/admin specifies otherwise).
Both the download and the installation of software is done in the background.
That is to say that by default this stuff is completely unobtrusive with FOSS.
[1] With Linux, you can even have multiple OS kernels on your box at one time and select with one you want to use at startup.
As for Windoze:
German Basketball Team Relegated to Lower Division Due to Untimely Windows Updates [soylentnews.org]
The OS update seized control of the box and the humans had to wait over 15 minutes while the payware OS did what it pleased.
Thinking that an OS vendor wouldn't ship the thing with insane settings, the box's owner hadn't changed any defaults.
See also "anti-pattern" in the comment by Gravis.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 30 2016, @12:30AM
I would say, "If you've never seen an OSX error message on a kiosk or billboard, you need to get out more," but you're exactly the kind of blind bigot who would ignore it. Your bias is strong, trendy hip dude.
(Score: 3, Funny) by tibman on Saturday April 30 2016, @02:01AM
That's fair. I've even seen occasional kernel panics. Where a bluescreen would make me laugh, a kernel panic makes me feel sad and want to help the poor kiosk : P
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 2) by SDRefugee on Saturday April 30 2016, @03:06PM
I was in a BurgerKing a while back and there on one of those fancy big screen displays they use to show their menu, was a black screen and a "grub error 25"... LOL! It just proves that ANY OS, MS/Apple or even my beloved Linux can puke errors at inopportune times...
America should be proud of Edward Snowden, the hero, whether they know it or not..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 30 2016, @03:21PM
that's not really a fair example. that linux box is probably some embedded appliance running a severely outdated kernel/os. Most of these systems never get updated once flashed and were built on ancient kernels, etc. to begin with. That probably goes for win/mac kiosks/appliances too. The O/P was probably not an embedded appliance.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Bot on Sunday May 01 2016, @03:00AM
Error 25 : Disk read error
hardware fault, ergo not OS fault.
Windows probs seen in public places are like 1-2 a year for me.
I do not recall having seen any linux kiosks crap out, OTOH systemd has not been out that long.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 4, Touché) by toygeek on Saturday April 30 2016, @12:37AM
Okay, then (by your approximation) it was the IT guys job to install *nix or OS X and migrate the user to it. But, they didn't. So this is IT's fault.
There is no Sig. Okay, maybe a short one. http://miscdotgeek.com
(Score: 5, Informative) by PinkyGigglebrain on Saturday April 30 2016, @03:21AM
Okay, then (by your approximation) it was the IT guys job to install *nix or OS X and migrate the user to it. But, they didn't. So this is IT's fault.
The IT person probably WANTED to do something but couldn't because the software that they used to generate the weather display was Windows only. I've seen more than one situation where a company will buy a "full package", a software/hardware bundle, and be told that if they touch the software or even tweak the OS configuration in any way you void the warranty/service contract. I can tell you from experience that when the boss sees that phrase on a purchase that costs literally tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars the very next words out of their mouths is to the IT guy' "You touch it your fired".
I do not miss that job in the least :/
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 30 2016, @02:19PM
And often version dependent. it wont run on something newer.
Oh, and i know people who have disabled this damned popup, just to have it come back later.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Hairyfeet on Saturday April 30 2016, @01:06AM
Uhh you just run a simple tool like Never10 [grc.com] and call it a fucking day? I mean good God man, if their IT guy is so damned lazy he can't take a whole 10 seconds Googling after all the news in the media about Windows 10 upgrade nags? he really doesn't need to be doing that job. I keep Never10 on the flash toolbox I keep on my keyring and its clicky clicky simple, you can turn upgrades on or off with the same tool, any IT guy with any sense at all really needs a flash toolbox on his keyring with common fixes to common problems and if he knew (which is part of his fricking job) that they weren't going to Win 10 he should have done fixed this issue.
BTW how much you wanna bet they are running this on a Windows Home box? this is one of the reasons i don't do large business IT anymore, got tired of dealing with "IT staff" that would try to brownnose and save a couple bucks by buying Win Home boxes at Dell and then I'd have to come along and use reg hacks and shit to deal with the lack of Group Policy because numbnuts decided to save a dollar...sigh.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by stormreaver on Saturday April 30 2016, @03:34AM
Uhh you just run a simple tool like Never10 and call it a fucking day?
That you consider this kind of behavior in an operating system to be acceptable, and even normal, is disturbing. It is neither normal, nor acceptable. And yes, this is very much Microsoft's fault.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 30 2016, @03:54AM
You are aware that Never10 has only been available for a couple of weeks, yes? GWX Control Panel has been around a few weeks longer, but the point is, malware blockers for this particular series of unwanted software are relatively new. It's not inconceivable that the station's IT people haven't kept on top of the problem and recent solutions or had sufficient time to vet them.
This cannot be sufficiently emphasized. Microsoft's ongoing updating and re-enabling of the GWX malware where customers have found a way to disable it is reprehensible. Shoving it on to computers while hiding any option to dissent is just evil. Wasting bandwidth and disk storage pushing it onto systems on the slim chance a user might choose to accept the installation, or more likely, as has happened to too many people, in order to slip an installation acknowledgement past them, is despicable.
By rights, antivirus products -- Symantec, Trend Micro, ESET, AVG, Avira, etc. -- should detect and obliterate GWX as the malware it is. In my experience some of them are excessively zealous about blocking less-nefarious software (e.g. port scanners, key recovery tools, some hex editors); the least they could do is protect their customers against a legitimate PUP.
(Score: 1, Troll) by Hairyfeet on Sunday May 01 2016, @12:43AM
Do you say the same for Android? For Linux? Because OSes have been offering to upgrade you to the latest version for years, people are only flipping their shit here because they were trained to whip out their CC when it came to getting a new copy of Windows.
Now am I gonna use Windows 10? Nope because I don't like it, its got too damned much "cloud" shit baked in and until some pirate group releases a "gamer edition" with all that crap ripped out I'm not letting MSFT waste my bandwidth but its literally a single button to say "No I don't want this" in any PROFESSIONAL edition of Windows, which this dumbass SHOULD have had loaded in a business environment.
So quit trying to lay off shitty IT personnel on MSFT, the guy should have been doing his fucking job. I mean for fucks sake man, if his company is all running windows Pro its a single checkbox in Group Policy which will then filter down to all the boxes on the domain (he DID have them on a fricking domain...right?), this is the kind of shit a fricking 16 year old intern can do man, its all GUI. If he WAS stupid enough to go buy win Home boxes from Dell or Worst Buy then its his stupidity and he should have at least had the common fricking sense to go around with a flash stick, shouldn't he?
this is like saying Linux is shit because some company like Walmart buys a bunch of shit boxes that don't run worth a fuck and just slaps a distro on 'em...its not Linux' fault is it because its not being run properly? If you are using win Pro, which again is DESIGNED FOR BUSINESSES, this isn't an issue, its a checkbox, and its that way on Windows Home because you are dealing with the kind of users I deal with every day, the kind that think random texts saying "You won a walmart gift card, just give us your CC number" is legit so if you don't make a pop up the size of a billboard they will never even know it fricking exists.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 30 2016, @03:34PM
it's sad how windows user think it's ok to just install some more untrustworthy BS to fix a problem caused by untrustworthy BS slaveware. Then, this jackass blames them for not giving MS more money and paying some super whore like himself to setup group policy on "enterprise" windows boxes. ridiculous idiocy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 02 2016, @03:14PM
Yeah, then you get a restart bomb when MS tries to re-foist GWXUI.dll on you.
From experience: Last week I had to re-image my personal laptop when a GWXUI update on Win 8.1 caused a fatal error on boot. I was using GWX Control Panel to take away the Windows 10 updates.
The OP is flatly wrong. It is Microsoft's problem that they're forcing this shit with no way to disable it. We need more public incidents just like this to call the attention of the public to Microsoft's screwup.
(Score: 2) by snick on Saturday April 30 2016, @01:58AM
Of you imagine that OSX doesn't nag users to install updates, then you clearly aren't an OSX user.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 30 2016, @04:01AM
Yeah, install another proprietary operating system that doesn't respect the users' freedoms. That'll solve the problem!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Gravis on Saturday April 30 2016, @12:16AM
You are right, it's not a Microsoft problem, it's an anti-pattern in UI design that Microsoft can't seem to stop using.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by butthurt on Saturday April 30 2016, @12:58AM
Windows 7 was released in 2009. These adverts only started appearing some time after the release of Windows 10 in August of 2015. If you're implying that Microsoft notified its customers before pushing out these adverts, would you please provide a citation for that? If Microsoft placed the ads without giving prior notification, then Microsoft could have anticipated things like this happening. Unless, that is, they didn't hear about billboards and airport displays showing the "blue screen of death."
It seems plausible to me that this television station had installed Wnidows 7 before these adverts started coming out. Perhaps they hired someone temporarily to set up their computer in a way that was thought to necessitate little to no maintenance. If, as you seem to imply, this studio ought to have someone who keeps abreast of Microsoft's doings, in case Microsoft chooses to create further annoyances, that will be an additional cost for them. If they already have IT staff, it will take up time that could have been used more productively. Whether in money or in time, there's a cost for them.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Dunbal on Saturday April 30 2016, @01:24AM
Whooooooooooooooooosh way to miss the fucking point. Yes, blah blah your strawman about blaming the tech guy at the station is an entirely different issue. The point is IMAGINE HOW ANNOYING THIS IS BECAUSE IT IS HAPPENING ON EVERY SINGLE COMPUTER IN THE WORLD that has a non Windows 10 Microsoft OS. THIS is what we are blaming Microsoft for.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by RedBear on Saturday April 30 2016, @01:49AM
So, what you're saying is that Microsoft absolutely did not send out an automatic Windows update for Windows 7/8/8.1 that installs a random pop-up nagware advertisement for Windows 10? Gosh, that seems like a remarkably nonsensical thing to say. And if I have the perfect foreknowledge necessary to disable this obnoxious random pop-up before it does harm, I am then supposed to know, prior to it being reported by anyone else, when they create yet another update to re-enable it?
I find your blame-shifting quite unreasonable. My operating system should not be my enemy. At least, not my deliberate enemy.
But nice job on the victim blaming. And if I stab you in the throat while we're having a pleasant conversation with no indication of animosity, your quick death will be entirely your fault for not making the effort to find out that I had a knife in my pocket, and not wearing an armored plate around your throat to deal with my completely random attack. Even though it's my hand, my knife and my Genuine Throat Stabbing Action[TM], I will hold no responsibility for the throat-stabbing occurrence.
It never ceases to amaze me how many people adore and cling to the complete anti-logic of victim blaming. It's a good indication of how broken the human brain is.
By the way, anyone thinking that this wouldn't happen with OS X should think again. It may not be as obnoxious as the Windows 10 nagware but I have seen a small dialog pop-up from time to time on Macs that are left on an older version of OS X, asking if you want to upgrade to the latest OS X. As far as I know this has only started happening since the OS X upgrades have become free (as in beer). The dialog seems to appear at random times every few days or so. I haven't looked into it so I have no idea how it might be disabled on OS X. This article contains an image showing an example of the OS X nag dialog:
http://www.zdnet.com/article/2015-the-year-windows-os-x-and-ios-became-naggy-and-annoying/ [zdnet.com]
¯\_ʕ◔.◔ʔ_/¯ LOL. I dunno. I'm just a bear.
... Peace out. Got bear stuff to do. 彡ʕ⌐■.■ʔ
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 30 2016, @04:07AM
Agreed. Apple is far less nefarious about it, but older operating systems do periodically encourage upgrading to the latest version. Unlike Microsoft, though, it's just a small notification bubble, and when you say no -- and unlike Microsoft, Apple does offer a very clear "no thanks" option -- it goes away for two or three months.
I just wish there was a "no, and don't ask me again" option. My 8yo Mac Mini may technically be capable of running the latest version of OS X, but it would be just barely. If Apple hadn't artificially limited the maximum RAM the Macs of that era could support, then we might be on to something, but that's fodder for a different rant. As it is, the Mini is working fine with the older OS version, doing what I require of it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 30 2016, @03:39PM
they are slaves that are pregnant with the master's baby. they defend the master b/c they still live on the plantation.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Tork on Saturday April 30 2016, @01:52AM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 3, Insightful) by hash14 on Saturday April 30 2016, @05:05AM
Oh come on... is it too much to expect nowadays that your OS shouldn't be intruding into the things that you're doing and forcing you to act on its whims? Is the Operating System supposed to serve the user's purpose or the other way around?
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Saturday April 30 2016, @08:30AM
The other way round, of course. That's why you have wizards asking you to do specific things, instead of a command line where you give commands to the computer.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 30 2016, @02:52PM
Let me remind you of this... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NsXHPq71Bs [youtube.com]
(Score: 1) by Francis on Saturday April 30 2016, @03:11PM
This kind of attitude is why Windows is no longer running directly on my hardware. I only have an install at all because a small number of programs that I need don't have alternatives that run on other OSes.
If MS would get its head out of its ass long enough to pay attention to what people are actually doing with the software, they wouldn't need to force people to upgrade. If it were just one or two things, this wouldn't be an issue, but it's not really the responsibility of the user to know to disable things like that. MS shouldn't be doing it at all, they have a marketing department and they regularly have ads on TV, the internet and they could do the newspaper if they want.
They're trying to sell people on an inferior product and people know that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 30 2016, @03:28PM
oh yeah, it's IT's fault they didn't anticipate their adversary's(MS) next move or in what exact way MS had already worked against them. Windows makes otherwise competent IT staff look bumbling b/c of how things are bastardized, hidden and constantly reworked to attempt to further subjugate it's users. What kind of sell out defends MS scum?