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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.
(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.