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Microsoft no longer allows admins to block Windows Store access in Win10 Pro

zdnet.com

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Re: Microsoft no longer allows admins to block Windows Store access in Win10 Pro

#151

Post by CaptSpify »

thothamon wrote: post #139

Just one more reason for me to avoid Windows whenever possible, for myself and for my companies. I grant Microsoft today is a much better corporate citizen than it was 15 years ago, and I appreciate that. But a move like this feels very much like the bad old days to me.

Every time they release a new open-source product, everyone jumps up and down saying "look, they've totally changed!"

No, unfortunately they haven't. They're just putting on a new coat of paint. They have improved, sure, but rising one or two levels when you've dug yourself down twenty isn't actually that much of an improvement.

Re: Microsoft no longer allows admins to block Windows Store access in Win10 Pro

#152

Post by protomyth »

mikestew wrote: post #94
Animats wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. That's not how sales organizations for competent companies work. IBM, in the mainframe era, was very good at this. It was IBM policy that if you called anyone within IBM sales with a problem, it was the IBM employee's job to get you to the right people. All IBM salespeople had a little printed pocket book of phone numbers within IBM, a directory of contacts for various types of problems.

Man, I can't upvote this enough. Say what you will about the IBM of old or new, when you called you didn't have to put up with this runaround of putting the onus on the potential customer. "Hi, IBM, I'd like to give you money." "Just a moment, sir, and the next person you speak with will be the one that can help you." "Hi, Microsoft, I'd like to give you money but fuck me if I can figure out which SKU or how much." "…

IBM is still like that. I called with an issue on an old iSeries machine[1] and mentioned that I might want to purchase a new one[2]. I got no less that 3 calls within 4 hours asking me about my purchasing needs and giving me exact prices and plans. They would be fine with taking my money.

1) I guess if the switch its connected to gets reset, the older version of the OS cannot reconnect automatically.

2) accounting software will make you buy strange things

Re: Microsoft no longer allows admins to block Windows Store access in Win10 Pro

#153

Post by khedoros »

hackuser wrote: post #134
Animats wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. That's not how sales organizations for competent companies work. IBM, in the mainframe era, was very good at this. It was IBM policy that if you called anyone within IBM sales with a problem, it was the IBM employee's job to get you to the right people. All IBM salespeople had a little printed pocket book of phone numbers within IBM, a directory of contacts for various types of problems.

For the record, that hasn't been my experience with IBM; I used to get a pretty bad runaround, but perhaps that's changed - I stopped using their products as a result.

I took "mainframe era" to be roughly the 50s through 70s or 80s. Are you talking about the same time period?

Re: Microsoft no longer allows admins to block Windows Store access in Win10 Pro

#154

Post by chrismarlow9 »

Someone1234 wrote: post #2

If Microsoft wants SMBs to use Enterprise then make the Enterprise edition more easily available to SMBs, don't try to force them to move to it by making petty little changes to make their life more difficult. I can go on the Google Apps website right now and buy myself seats with a few clicks and a few minutes. If I want to buy Windows Enterprise licenses it will take weeks, cost an unclear amount (at the onset), an…

I worked for a startup a while back and we tried to get quotes on running Microsoft SQL server. The sales rep could not comprehend that we were a web company. They continued to try to ask us about how we would be using it to manage our in-house inventory. Even after explaining, "no we're a web company, like myspace", the rep still didn't get it. We used MySQL.

Re: Microsoft no longer allows admins to block Windows Store access in Win10 Pro

#155

Post by tdkl »

Grishnakh wrote: post #140
TheRealDunkirk wrote: post #102

The ball is back in Apple's court. They seem to take the end user more seriously, but they've been mixed. I made a comment taking Microsoft to task when their surreptitious telemetry came to light, and someone pointed me to proof that Apple was doing about the same thing. This is Apple's chance to continue to distance themselves from their competition. They've done well standing up for privacy, with the recent FBI de…

>They seem to take the end user more seriously Unless you're trying to keep music on your computer and use iTunes, in which case they upload all your music to the cloud and delete it off your PC. >Man, I really wish Google would release their desktop Linux. Ubuntu is OK, but someone with pockets like that could finish the job, and make a credible, consumer-accessible, 3rd alternative to keep BOTH #1 and #2 on their t…

Also Ubuntu, they started a great thing for making Linux on desktop friendlier, then completely discarded the opportunity of Windows 8 being a shitshow and jumped on the mobile/tablet bandwagon.

Now there's another opportunity with Windows10, but not much has changed for the desktop and I won't even mention their mobile success.

Pity.

Re: Microsoft no longer allows admins to block Windows Store access in Win10 Pro

#156

Post by hackbinary »

leonroy wrote: post #150
Someone1234 wrote: post #2

If Microsoft wants SMBs to use Enterprise then make the Enterprise edition more easily available to SMBs, don't try to force them to move to it by making petty little changes to make their life more difficult. I can go on the Google Apps website right now and buy myself seats with a few clicks and a few minutes. If I want to buy Windows Enterprise licenses it will take weeks, cost an unclear amount (at the onset), an…

Adding my voice to the chorus. The Microsoft Windows ecosystem is a god send for those wanting to enforce single sign on, roaming profiles and group policy to control things deploy Chrome, 7-Zip or all manner of apps straight to the desktop or lock down access for say the demo room machines but give full access to engineering notebooks and enforce things like password policy, mapped network drives, etc. It honestly j…

> So every iOS or Android device which pops up on our Windows DHCP/DNS needs a CAL

Only if you have Device CALs. If you are using User CALs then each user is licensed for as many devices as they/you want.

We have good sales company (in the UK) with a really great sales REP. We moved with him when he changed companies a couple of years back. We call him up, and we have an open license the next day. That said there are some pretty aweful MS partners.

Re: Microsoft no longer allows admins to block Windows Store access in Win10 Pro

#157

Post by rchowe »

fencepost wrote: post #138
rchowe wrote: post #17

The reasoning behind this made a lot more sense to me once I started to do a back-of-the-envelope calculation. There can't have been that many end users who had Windows 10 Pro and went into group policy to turn off the store. So you're looking at small businesses who were using PCs with Win10 Pro on them (likely that came with the PC) that were turning off access to the store but can't any more. The IT admins for the…

>So you're looking at small businesses who were using PCs with Win10 Pro on them (likely that came with the PC) that were turning off access to the store but can't any more. The IT admins for these companies are the people Microsoft wants to upsell. Or you're looking at small businesses (4-80 users) in regulated industries who have remained on Windows 7 and the IT folks who have recommended doing so in large part due…

Even better point than mine. This is probably gonna suck for independent medical practices.

Re: Microsoft no longer allows admins to block Windows Store access in Win10 Pro

#158

Post by jalami »

Microsoft isn't the only guy doing this. I understand enterprise/professional customers have gotten exceptions for years, but for everyone else this is common practice on almost all other platforms. I still think it's a bad practice.

Microsoft is just following the other companies that are winning and somehow doing so without pissing their userbases off. Their main asset, as I see it, are people that cannot or will not switch. So as it is for most companies with a semi-loyal userbase: lock it down before the garden empties too much.

IOS has an appstore, Android has an appstore, Mac has an appstore, Chrome has an appstore, Firefox has an appstore, Ubuntu kind of has an appstore. Firefox, iOS and Chrome don't allow you to install outside of their appstore without running different builds. Android makes it difficult, removing it is even more difficult and you lose half your phone in the process. Sure there's homebrew, f-droid, cydia and chocolatey for hackers, but that's a tiny subset. Windows really wants control like everyone else. The internet has changed a lot since the decentralized software and hardware days Microsoft is used to. Microsoft doesn't get to sell their user metrics, control what users install on their systems or where they're installing from. They don't get to charge uploaders or put fees on downloaders/purchasers. The Windows store is pretty much a flop at this point, but they want it to be the canonical way to install software on Windows like every other platform.

Not a Windows problem really, they just get the negative press that every system should get for trying to force people into a garden. If it gains steam years down the road, I could see them pull a Firefox and lock down external installs without 'approval' for security.

Just a few weeks ago I bought a Microsoft Miracast dongle, OS independent or so it claimed. Only way to configure it was to have a Windows10 computer and download the driver/configuration software from their Appstore. I no longer own it. I really don't think this is an isolated problem though.

Edit: Clarification

Re: Microsoft no longer allows admins to block Windows Store access in Win10 Pro

#159

Post by MereInterest »

794CD01 wrote: post #128
pdkl95 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> taking away control from users If you don't control something, you de facto don't own it. You're advocating for a future without personal property. If you doubt this, see John Deere. > improve the overall security of the internet When someone else has remote control over your system, your system is - by definition - insecure. The recent drama involving the FBI and an iphone is a perfect example: the phone is insecu…

I'm not advocating. I am pointing out that user control is fundamentally anti-security. Bad security may very well be worth the tradeoff if you value other things like freedom, fashion, backwards compatibility, fewer restarts, price, etc.

User control is, by definition, security. The goal of security is to keep control in the hands of the owner. To remove control in the name of security is at best deceptive and self-defeating.

Re: Microsoft no longer allows admins to block Windows Store access in Win10 Pro

#160

Post by karmicthreat »

nitrogen wrote: post #64
merb wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

bizspark is only for up to 7 people. I mean you could actually create a single account and use the same key for multiple machines but if it comes to office your limited to 2 keys per user. but you could install every key on up to 2 machines but licensing forbids to use both installations at once.

Does Microsoft still unleash the BSA on small businesses that are out of compliance?

I'm pretty sure no business can be in compliance since different parts of microsoft will give you a different story about what needs to be licensed.
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