Security → Microsoft Auto-Scheduling Windows 10 Updates

 
»www.tomshardware.com/new ··· 802.html

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Windows 10 has been with us for a little over eight months now, which means there are only about four months remaining to get a free upgrade from an older Windows operating system. As the clock counts down, Microsoft has begun to auto-schedule PCs to upgrade to Windows 10 with or without consent from end users....

Now, as we near the end of the free upgrade period, Microsoft's malware-like upgrade system is becoming even more intrusive by autoscheduling upgrades to Windows 10. I noticed that the Windows 10 upgrade reminder pop-up on a Windows 7 PC was no longer asking me to upgrade; instead, it's now informing me that it has already scheduled an update for May 17....

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we have to wonder why MS seems so obsessed with getting people on windows 10.. the only thing i can figure is because win 10 actually is adware and MS wants to make money off of the ads..

or else it is spyware and they are trying to fulfill their contract with the government to capture every keystroke and every spoken word..

it is kind of scary to think of windows 10 being adware when there are malicious ads.. we can control malicious ads in browsers, but how do you control malicious ads in windows?

By switching to a real OS, not an advertising and snooping platform masquerading as an OS?

i think you are right..

Here are 7 'whys' to choose from. Select all or any:

1. The faster Microsoft can get people to wind down Win 7 and 8.1 usage, the faster they can ignore further 'support' for those OS's, regardless of promises and commitments they've made.
2. The more users they push into Win10, the better their usage stats look in the marketplace (and the more attractive MS will seem in the investment markets). Usage stats are the sizzle that sells the steaks these days, rather than relying on actual product merits... or so Microsoft seems to believe.
3. They actually believe their own hype that Windows 10 makes the world a kinder, better place - the more it's adopted, the kinder and better place the world and life in it will then become.
4. There are some Microsoft managers' positions on the line with their board and with stockholders, based on all the "better-than-sliced-bread" and "an OS to end all OS's" claims they've sold those people within/outside Microsoft to get them to abandon MS's traditional strategies of product development and marketing. If this product adoption sinks in the marketplace, so do they.
5. redwolfe_98 is right: Win10 is positioned as adware, and vast user participation is required to make that play - and successfully 'sell' to the data buyers.
6. redwolfe_98 is right: Win10 is government-approved spyware to enhance the 3-letter agencies' data hauls.
7. Microsoft is so desperate to look good with their product adoption stats, they've lost all touch with reality and sanity, and now have a subliminal corporate death wish.

My money is squarely on #4 to win, #2 to place, and #1 to show. My 'dark horse' money is on #7.

>>blackbird: 7. Microsoft is so desperate to look good with their product adoption stats, they've lost all touch with reality and sanity, and now have a subliminal corporate death wish.

I'll take that category Alex for $1,000,000,000...'-}}

I wish I could remove the update for the win10 pop up.

I think you're missing one possibility: Microsoft is in love with the idea of "software as service" and is getting as many people onto the "free" version as possible in order to try to "convince" them to start paying a subscription fee for their O/S.

"First one's free, kid...."

On a technical level, the advertisements built into Windows 10 are all served over https/ssl encrypted connections and therefore users would need something like Adguard to filter those ads system-wide. Although intercepting/mitm ssl/tls encrypted communications has its own pros and cons.

Alternatively, we could always use another OS, otherwise continuing the full-time job that is taming the Windows 10 beast.

 
Microsoft is adding more ads to the Windows 10 Start menu
»www.theverge.com/2016/5/ ··· y-update

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Microsoft is planning to double the amount of promoted apps in the Start menu with the upcoming Anniversary Update to Windows 10. The software maker revealed at its WinHEC conference last week that the amount will increase from five currently up to 10 in the Anniversary Update that's due to roll out in July....

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Even the more staid ComputerWorld site is expressing concern about Microsoft's tactics...

»www.computerworld.com/ar ··· ush.html

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...According to both the latest and the previous versions of the support document, the upgrade and its scheduled implementation is approved when the user either clicks the "OK" button or the "X" in the upper right corner of the notification.

"If you click on OK or on the red 'X', you're all set for the upgrade and there is nothing further to do," the document stated. The "X" Microsoft mentioned is one way to close a window in Windows.

But Microsoft's interpretation of clicking the X is contrary to decades of practice in windowed user interfaces (UIs) and normal user expectations: To users, shutting a window by clicking the X tells the OS to remove the notification or application frame without expressing an opinion, selecting an option or calling up an operation.

Instead, Microsoft equates closing the window with approving the scheduled upgrade.

Microsoft has applied some unusual stratagems in its efforts to get customers to upgrade to Windows 10, but this behavior is among its most aggressive simply because it is deceptive in the context of normal Windows UI behavior....

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[emphasis mine]

 
They want us folks to wish that we had never begged and pleaded for the return of the Start menu, so they poisoned THAT too (not just Windows Updates).

 
REALLY ?!

That's feckin' Malware - in MY book (and in Mrs. Brown's).

It's time for another rename/nickname.

Introducing Malware-soft !

(If it walks like a Duck....)

Microsoft is changing it's leanings and acting like a typical monopoly rather then a company intent on selling something to their audience, making them happy and spreading the positive by word of mouth. I wouldn't be surprised what they try next. I remember reading a few years ago the "rumor" they wished to rent their software rather then sell it.

If they give the software to the public, then allow other companies to pay for the tracking information they obtain, MS can probably get more money then selling the product in the first place. With this push possibly the hope is to "outsell" the Mac also? That is the main competition I believe.

Maybe Microsoft still needs to learn that people having things forced on them are not likely to respond favourably. Trying to force an operating system loaded with spyware is likely to alienate people who know what it is, and how much revenue from advertising companies is likely to result with people becoming angry with the whole scenario.

A better idea for anyone in the market for a different operating system model is either Mac OS or Linux.

Effectively no one knows about malware/adware. If people did know i would not have a job. about 80 to 95% of my service calls and walk ins are for spyware and virus removal.

About 3 years ago now out of about 350 computers in one year for private customers (non buis) a solid 300 were spyware adware or virus clean ups. Other shops have similar numbers in the area. About 90+% of all customer computers are malware related jobs. The one shop alone that sends me work on occasion does about 1500 comps a year that are all spyware and virus clean ups. They also build custom pcs refurb used computers etc. So basically out of 3 shops counting my own buis your talking around 2k spyware and virus clean ups per year out of just over 2k jobs total (not counting pre built customs comps refurbs etc)

As for a better idea i agree with linux but not mac. If/when windows goes under and it will mac is in a place to take over that market share. It will get targeted and apple will start to also ease up on their security side of things in favor of ease of use and kicking out new versions faster. mac os x s already getting hit with some minor stuff mostly browser high jacks. I have removed the old fbi warning virus a few times from browsers on mac os x variants. Pretty simple to remove but still it is there. Now that one can hit linux as well. It is also very common on android.

What this shows is that the writers of this crap target the os based on market share. Linux can get hit to it has plenty of security flaws. But it has less market share. Even if market share for linux say ubuntu was to jump to windows levels today it would take probably 2 years for malware authors to take advantage of it.

I have installed linux in some flavor or another in 2 rooming houses for people working to get back on their feet. The idea is simple even IF they fry their own home directory the rerst of the users will be unaffected.

That is where linux has its main strength. It's approach to multi user machines. Long as the user is not root it is very hard to infect the entire system. Priv escalation could be used to infect system wide. But that would mean a few things have to happen.

I don't suppose getting some one to infect them selves would be very hard. The malwares author would just have to give them simple instructions like

open a terminal and type these commands
sudo apt-.........
...
sudo apt-get install mymalware

People will do exactly as told just to watch that porn.
In other words it does not matter how secure a computer is if the user bypasses it all to infect them self.

Every one talks about drive by downloads but in all my years of doing this work ive yet to honestly see one. I see ones that will start a download sure but not auto install it yes i know they exist how ever out of all the systems i have ever cleaned up if they were there on the system those drive by installs were so far and few between that they never stuck out in my mind and i never found them. Meaning 90+% likely 98 or 99% of all infections are from user downloaded installed and ran malware programs. Even the few drive by downloads i have seen (by looking hard for them) all require some sort of user interaction to trigger them to start downloading. Clicking on a banner that says error your pc is infected.

Missing codec click here speed up your pc click here free game lick here free porn click here free..... you get the idea.
Linux mac some damn unheard of os not yet on the market wont stop this. People want free and they want it now. Promise them that they will infect them self regardless of what security is in place.

Remember that Microsoft was very much the bad-acting monopoly when Bill Gates was the CEO. He had to bow out and lie low for a while, though, once they got into legal trouble about this. Now that their legal sanctions have largely expired, he's back on the scene again, calling the shots behind the facade of Nadella as CEO. So it should really come as no surprise to anyone that Microsoft is reverting back to dirty tricks, if they ever really stopped using them to begin with; it certainly comes as no surprise to me.Remember, though, that they don't actually "sell" you their software, anyway; instead they "license" it to you. So in their minds it probably makes perfect sense to move to a subscription model where if you stop paying then it stops working, or you at least lose access to patches and upgrades and such. This is how much of the software world works already.

If what I've read over the years is true, then it might be legitimately argued that Microsoft has been undercharging for OEM OS loads for decades now - that the amount they receive from their OS software on each new system shipped is too low compared to the value that the customer receives from it. I don't know how much faith I'd put in these reports, though, especially given what Microsoft will try to do to an OEM who tries to push buck against these arrangements, which have generally required exclusivity for Microsoft and carrot/stick enforcement on their part.

quote:

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or else it is spyware and they are trying to fulfill their contract with the government to capture every keystroke and every spoken word..

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Exactly...... You couldnt be m0re right!!!

Switch to BeOS.

Just run Never10.

I got a new Mac with Mac OS Snow Leopard in 2011. Since then there have been Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks, Yosemite, and now El Capitan. That have been 5 new versions in as many years. I would say that Apple is already cranking out new versions fast.

Why is what Microsoft does with the Start menu a practical problem (moral, yes, that's a problem)? Just get Start10.
»www.stardock.com/product ··· start10/

I use Start8 on Windows 8.0 Pro. I used it on the Win 10 Enterprise beta because Stardock did not yet have a Start10. It worked fine except for problems with the taskbar but that was fixed in Start10. Start10 can give you Windows 7 Start menu (that's what I use in Start8).

So, where are the Microsoft ads?

"Microsoft's malware-like upgrade system"

I have been doing some thinking lately regarding the telemetry data that Windows 10 sends to Microsoft. Now hear me out on this, considering just how many devices are running Windows (Windows 10 along with Windows 7 and 8.1 with telemetry patches) that's a whole lot of data that's being sent Microsoft's way. They must be receiving on the order (at least) 4 GBs an hour from devices all over the world. Multiply that by 24 hours per day and then 7 days a week, that's almost 700 GBs of data per week. That's a whole lot of data to be sifting through.

Now, I'm as worried about my privacy as the next person here on this site is but I have to wonder just how usable all of this data that Microsoft is collecting really is? At some point you have so much data coming in that it becomes information overload and you have to start narrowing down what you want from that data and dumping the rest.

Hell, even the NSA has admitted that they've collected so much data over the years that because the amount is so... staggering, the data might as well be absolutely useless because there's just so much of it that they can't possibly process it all and make any use out of it.

Big Data is cool and all but if you don't have the computing power to crunch it all it might as well be absolutely useless.

8. They're so desperate to have a chunk of the mobile market that they're shoving a platform down the user's throats as a way to show their developer partners that they have a userbase to develop apps for. This is the whole reason why the UWP or Universal Windows Platform was created; UWP apps can run on both traditional Windows 10 desktops/notebooks, XBOX One's, Surface tablets, and Windows Mobile phones without any modifications. The same app, regardless of what device type you're on, as long as it runs a version of Windows 10, that device will run that app with the UI that's appropriate for that device type.

Microsoft sees money in the mobile market but because they were sleeping at the wheel for as long as they were, Apple and Google cornered the mobile market leaving Microsoft in a very precarious predicament. A world without Microsoft. This scared the living shit out Microsoft when they realized that they had nothing to offer to counter what Apple and Google had. As of right now, they have a mobile platform but if you look at it as it is today, it's absolutely useless; there's no apps. With no apps, who the hell would want to run that platform? If you guessed "no one", you'd be right. Microsoft knows this.

But instead of doing things the right way they decided to go back to acting like the thousand pound gorilla that they used to be before the big bad DOJ came down on then like the hand of God. Microsoft's hoping that if they can shove their Windows 10 platform down enough throats they can turn to their app developer partners and say "See? We have users! Now go make them apps! Let's kill Apple and Google!"

A lot depends on what is being done with the data as and after it arrives at MS. If it's indeed simply performance feedback and details, most of that can be sliced/diced upon arrival and speedily routed to various databases that archive and summarize various kinds of things that happened, when, and what else was going on for eventual usage by different-purposed analysers. Other kinds of data can again be sliced/diced to determine what software got used in what order or combination. As far as marketable 'ordinary' user data, the data-handling problems seem not all that different from what any power-house data marketeer has to deal with from countless tracking cookies, website clicks, user-agent sniffing, etc.

Where I would think things could bog down for MS would be if every Win10 user made heavy use of Cortana, especially if MS was tracking that in any detail pertaining to which user said what. Likewise if MS were to go in-depth into analysis of file accesses, keystroking, file data, etc on user systems with any regularity. Part of the thing to keep in mind is that most of us have very little idea how MS is actually using the telemetry, now or future. If they're merely pinging a system for specific information details from time to time, even though a particular telemetry type may transmit off-system with regularity, MS may only use/store the data corresponding to a specific pinged inquiry. The intended usage sets the relevant data size, and in turn, the storage level necessary to support it.

In any case, the devil isn't necessarily in what MS may or may not be doing at the moment, it's in the technical capability and level of access to user and system data to which MS has granted itself unfettered reporting access. If they can quietly and routinely access a system, telemeter all manner of data from it, and process that in whatever way seems attractive at the time, then the system and the user data is potentially pwned. If they can unilaterally change the EULA to support that, the pwning can easily be legitimized whenever and in whatever way their legal team advises. The actuality of a user not being pwned by MS thus now depends solely on MS honoring the user trust placed with them and in MS's good-intentions. Based on their actions to date, there's no way on God's green earth that I can trust Microsoft in that way.

 
Sorry for the rant, as I also realize that you are trying to be helpful....

While I do not speak of Win 10 (nor Win 8.x) from personal experience and usage, I have empathy for those who have, and who have expressed their hate at what the Windows OS has become.

That said, I have no interest in, and should not HAVE to add 3rd party apps to fix or replace whatever MS has broken or removed, and I simply REFUSE to do it, as long as earlier Windows versions still function to my satisfaction - and they DO.

Same with my not using CTR and newer versions of FireFox - as good an app as CTR actually is.

YOU are a walking talking example of proof of the problems which can arise from embracing everything new which comes along in OSes and in and browsers, making changes and/or adding apps and extensions, to try to get those new versions to behave, and then suffering more issues than if you had stayed with earlier versions and left most of the stuff alone.

I simply don't wish to go thru all of that - at least not while I still have other choices - and I DO have those choices.

There HAS to be a reasonable middle ground between genuine security dangers and the exaggerated ones which are foisted upon all of us by companies who have something to gain by doing so, and I for one am not biting.

So far, I have had almost zero difficulties with my computers as a consequence of taking that position, and that is since BEFORE the days of internet.

Or, the new BeOS successor known as Haiku... »www.haiku-os.org

I seriously doubt Linux will ever be in the position to have any more than the thin sliver of a share of the market place that they have now. There's just too much infighting in the Linux community to really get anything meaningful accomplished.

I have a feeling that when Microsoft is dead and buried, both Google and Apple will be the ones to replace them.