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How does Windows decide whether your computer has full Internet access?

devblogs.microsoft.com

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Re: How does Windows decide whether your computer has full Internet access?

#261

Post by josephcsible »

unnah wrote: post #120
josephcsible wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What explanation other than malice is there for Microsoft not giving you that button all the time?

It was becoming common knowledge that you could disconnect your machine from networks during installation to use Windows with a local account (i.e. the normal kind of user account that people have used for decades). Microsoft wants people to register online during installation and to use the online account on all their computers, in order to increase the market share of the Windows app store and other Microsoft onlin…

That explanation is exactly what I meant by malice. Microsoft is trying to force people to do something to their own computers that they don't want to do and that isn't actually necessary to do.

Re: How does Windows decide whether your computer has full Internet access?

#262

Post by josephcsible »

LocalH wrote: post #245
RunSet wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are so quick to assume malice whenever a multinational conglomerate practices deception in pursuit of profit. Whatever happened to engaging in good faith?

The pursuit of profit, purely for the sake of profit and no other goal, is malicious.

What? No it isn't, and profit has nothing to do with why this particular decision by Microsoft was.

Re: How does Windows decide whether your computer has full Internet access?

#263

Post by josephcsible »

DangitBobby wrote: post #223
kiwijamo wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you able to e.g. install apps without an apple account? I seem to recall simple things like that wasn't possible unless you had signed into an apple account.

Not being able to use the app store is pretty different from not being able to setup the computer.

Since iOS doesn't let you sideload apps, it's actually not very different at all.

Re: How does Windows decide whether your computer has full Internet access?

#264

Post by jakub_g »

The annoying thing is that some MS programs detect internet connectivity in their own ways (or do networking via some custom network stack), that do not work properly. Each time I had a proxy like Fiddler running, Outlook would think I'm offline. Everything else worked fine.

Re: How does Windows decide whether your computer has full Internet access?

#265

Post by josephcsible »

jonathantf2 wrote: post #191
albertopv wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows experience is worse and worse. On my Windows 10 company provided PC I found games installed remotely. In a professional PC! A friend of mine found Spotify installed [1]. That's insane. [1] https://www.windowslatest.com/2022/09/28/spotify-app-is-auto...

Your company hasn't set it up properly then, there's an option to "disable consumer experiences" ( https://admx.help/?Category=Windows_10_2016&Policy=Microsoft... )

So is Windows 10 Pro not meant for companies then? Because that option doesn't work on it.

Re: How does Windows decide whether your computer has full Internet access?

#266

Post by josephcsible »

AshamedCaptain wrote: post #236
jonathantf2 wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your company hasn't set it up properly then, there's an option to "disable consumer experiences" ( https://admx.help/?Category=Windows_10_2016&Policy=Microsoft... )

One of the companies I was in actually blocked the entire MS Store through policy, but this results in most of Windows 10 going batshit insane (e.g. the Settings app will not even allow you to change keyboard layouts, because to retrieve language files it must go to the MS Store).

That reminds me of when they made it impossible to get rid of IE by making it a hard dependency of most of the rest of the OS. Why won't they get in as much trouble for this as they did for that?

Re: How does Windows decide whether your computer has full Internet access?

#267

Post by josephcsible »

c0nsumer wrote: post #210
albertopv wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows experience is worse and worse. On my Windows 10 company provided PC I found games installed remotely. In a professional PC! A friend of mine found Spotify installed [1]. That's insane. [1] https://www.windowslatest.com/2022/09/28/spotify-app-is-auto...

Your company isn't managing the OS properly/normally then. They can stop all of this from being installed, but aren't. (Source: Windows OS admin/engineer for large company where we /do/ manage all of this.)

Is your company big enough to be able to afford Windows 10 Enterprise instead only Windows 10 Pro? Because on the latter, you can't stop all of that from being installed.

Re: How does Windows decide whether your computer has full Internet access?

#268

Post by josephcsible »

marginalia_nu wrote: post #165
aoetalks wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you want to block windows updates?

Sometimes Windows installs an upgrade that insists I must connect my user account to a Microsoft account. It will not let me boot the OS if I don't. Only hell if I know what my Microsoft account is. I never use it. I need to use my web browser to find out. But I can't, because I need to set up my Microsoft account first. So I have to use another computer which will let me use it even without a Microsoft account, and…

> eroded my trust for Windows' updates

Remember that security vulnerabilities in Windows are discovered all the time, so it's dangerous to use Windows without installing the updates. If you (rightfully) don't want to install the updates, then you should switch to an OS that actually respects your freedom instead, like Linux.

Re: How does Windows decide whether your computer has full Internet access?

#269

Post by ddlutz »

hsbauauvhabzb wrote: post #39

Two things I’ve always wanted to do is figure out how to cache windows updates on my local network without an enterprise windows install, and how to block windows updates by sinkholing domains and/or ip addresses (I work in IT security). Can anyone give any tips on either of these?

I'm surprised "in-home router-level network caching" hasn't become a thing, really. Lets say you have a family of 4, all with iphones that need updating, windows updates, downloading same games from steam, app store, etc. It could be significantly sped up for whole house to download file 1 time instead of 4.

Re: How does Windows decide whether your computer has full Internet access?

#270

Post by marginalia_nu »

josephcsible wrote: post #268
marginalia_nu wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes Windows installs an upgrade that insists I must connect my user account to a Microsoft account. It will not let me boot the OS if I don't. Only hell if I know what my Microsoft account is. I never use it. I need to use my web browser to find out. But I can't, because I need to set up my Microsoft account first. So I have to use another computer which will let me use it even without a Microsoft account, and…

> eroded my trust for Windows' updates Remember that security vulnerabilities in Windows are discovered all the time, so it's dangerous to use Windows without installing the updates. If you (rightfully) don't want to install the updates, then you should switch to an OS that actually respects your freedom instead, like Linux.

I can also just accept the risk.

(I already do all my important work on Linux, since like 20 years)

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