Windows 7 computers are automatically starting the Windows 10 upgrade • Hacker News Board

Re: Windows 7 computers are automatically starting the Windows 10 upgrade

#101

Post by spriggan3 » Tue, Mar 15, 2016, 12:12 AM UTC

BuckRogers wrote: post #84

MS is getting pretty draconian with the Windows 10 shtick. I'm not sure why there's such a push, just let people buy a Windows 10 computer when the Windows 7 machines fail. Fighting MS on this is a losing battle, all the workarounds are going to be a non-stop, futile exercise. Unless I have a specific needs for Windows, if this makes anyone uncomfortable to read (like myself)- I think this is the ideal time to jump o…

> MS is getting pretty draconian with the Windows 10 shtick

They likely have a long term strategy around Windows 10, what it is I don't know but I know for a fact that it requires pushing W10 on as much PC as possible, whether the user wants it or not. I'm on W8. I will upgrade one day, I don't want to do it now (I'm working with an old soundcard that barely supports W8, so there is a risk with upgrading to 10), yet everyday I get a "Upgrade to 10" popup which almost tricked me into upgrading once. They are so aggressive about updating I fear this "free" upgrade might be a trap on the long run. I feel like I'm no longer in control of some software I've bought( yes, because licenses aren't free).

Re: Windows 7 computers are automatically starting the Windows 10 upgrade

#102

Post by 21 » Tue, Mar 15, 2016, 12:12 AM UTC

charonn0 wrote: post #79

Laaw wrote: post #61

Good, Windows 7 is a security problem (or will be, soon).

In what way? I've been planning to remain on Windows 7 for the foreseeable future and 7's security wasn't really on my radar.

Windows 8/10 has some newer security mitigations, so technically they are somewhat harder to exploit.

Re: Windows 7 computers are automatically starting the Windows 10 upgrade

#103

Post by foxyv » Tue, Mar 15, 2016, 12:14 AM UTC

Prompted by Windows 10 privacy issues, I switched to Mint on my laptop recently and was pleasantly surprised. I've been constantly trying to switch to Linux but having to revert because of driver incompatibility. That has completely changed in the past 3 years.

It makes my laptop feel speedy again. Before it was really slow with Microsoft sitting on top of it. I recently slapped an SSD into it and it's even better. Turned a no starter laptop into a real machine.

It's still not an operating system that can be used by new users, but I have a lot of fun with it. It helps a lot that Steam has a Linux client now and I don't play many big name titles.

Windows 10 isn't that bad if you don't mind buying a new computer, but I think it may be the bane of people like my parents who use a computer for 10 years without upgrading. You would think that with the minimal changes to the Windows kernel that the driver support wouldn't be an issue. The invasive marketing and privacy violations aren't anything new. Just more so.

Re: Windows 7 computers are automatically starting the Windows 10 upgrade

#104

Post by acdha » Tue, Mar 15, 2016, 12:15 AM UTC

WireWrap wrote: post #77

martinald wrote: post #60

Sorry, why is this a big deal? We've completely accepted auto updates for browsers (chrme & firefox) - years ago. Obviously better, compatibility improves and security issues are easier to push out and fix. To me the browser is as important as the OS, I spend the vast majority of my time in it. Why should MSFT not do this? It's a free update. They're not charging for it. On many aspects, it's a lot better than Window…

> We've completely accepted auto updates for browsers (chrme & firefox) - years ago. Enabling automatic updates from outside organizations SHOULD get you fired in any and every business where security is important. I've never seen it done in such environments, and certainly would never do it myself.

That's an understandable motivation but it has to be balanced against the risks of keeping your users vulnerable for longer periods of time. It's rather expensive to have a 24x7 security team to review & push updates.

For something like Chrome that's probably a net loss because the Google team is very good and browsers are both Internet-exposed and generally self-contained. For something like Windows, the reverse is true because there are a lot more things to test, many with local apps or settings which have a lower chance of being tested upstream in the exact combinations which you use.

Re: Windows 7 computers are automatically starting the Windows 10 upgrade

#105

Post by chris_wot » Tue, Mar 15, 2016, 12:18 AM UTC

tekklloneer wrote: post #72

acqq wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the same link I've already given above? And fascinatingly for you, "the writing was on the wall," and for some other commenters, it's unimaginable that it even happens. The perceptions of individuals are really hugely different.

The difference in context is important. If you're working in IT, the writing was on the wall.

There are literally millions of businesses with no IT department who bought consumer workstations or laptops running outside of a domain. There are millions of small businesses who literally don't have the expertise (or frankly, the need) to run a domain controller, and who certainly don't have enough money to justify purchasing a server and a Windows server license to do so.

I'm genuinely curious as to whether I'll be down voted for this. It's completely the case, and I'm not asking not to be downvote do, but could folks at least explain why they don't like the comment?

Re: Windows 7 computers are automatically starting the Windows 10 upgrade

#106

Post by daveguy » Tue, Mar 15, 2016, 12:19 AM UTC

electrotype wrote: post #50

newman314 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shutup10 and Spybot Anti-beacon

And why those?

Shutup10 gets rid of the nagware, anti-beacon stops the phone home.

Re: Windows 7 computers are automatically starting the Windows 10 upgrade

#107

Post by yardie » Tue, Mar 15, 2016, 12:19 AM UTC

acqq wrote: post #74

yardie wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the sys admin is doing there jobs correctly than system updates should be coming from a Windows update server using group policy rather than directly over the Internet. Nothing kills productivity like 1000 PCs trying to download the same files simultaneously.

What about a lot of computers which aren't in the possession of huge enterprises?

"the computers of some large justice/gov systems around the world"

Re: Windows 7 computers are automatically starting the Windows 10 upgrade

#108

Post by chris_wot » Tue, Mar 15, 2016, 12:19 AM UTC

throwaway_1012 wrote: post #85

Agreed. Where do the shills like shanselman go when you actually have a genuine criticism?

Dude. Personal attacks aren't welcome here. I think you know this, as you are using a throwaway account.

Re: Windows 7 computers are automatically starting the Windows 10 upgrade

#109

Post by robertelder » Tue, Mar 15, 2016, 12:22 AM UTC

bbradley406 wrote: post #80

robertelder wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On that topic, she just said that she has spent that past 2 days trying to get wifi to work. Does anyone here have suggestions for fixing/debugging this? I haven't used windows in quite a while, so my approach is just to go into device manager and try to click on 'update driver', find and diagnose problems etc. Tried deleting and re-creating the wifi connection, re-entering the password. The wifi connection appears,…

Given that it appears to partially work, I would guess that the auto-updated driver doesn't work properly on Windows 10. Can you determine the model / chipset of the wireless card?

Dell Wireless 1703 802.11b/g/n is as much detail as I've been able to get. She's trying to download some drivers from the Dell site at the moment (I'm very fortunate that she is computer literate enough to do this much).

Re: Windows 7 computers are automatically starting the Windows 10 upgrade

#110

Post by shostack » Tue, Mar 15, 2016, 12:25 AM UTC

existencebox wrote: post #94

HelloMcFly wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Perhaps people from MS trying to do damage control? While I appreciate the rest of your comment, I personally find comment like these are obnoxious. I sincerely doubt that vote and comment brigading are anywhere near as prevalent as reddit and this community seem to so routinely imply. Perhaps I'm the naive one, but it is tiresome to so regularly see comments (especially those close to one's own personal beliefs) c…

I'm going to make a few statements here to address the parent and children; but let me put the normal disclaimers here: I ONLY can speak for myself, I do not speak for MS or any of my coworkers. Simply put, the sort of behavior implied (vote brigading) doesn't mesh with my understanding of how I or any of my coworker/HN reader peers tend to behave. I could be totally off the mark with this but it just doesn't mesh wi…

Out of curiosity, are you an engineer there? If so I'm wondering how close you are and how much visibility you have into the marketing and PR side of things over there.

This strikes me as the kind of thing that engineers might be kept in the dark about, but some PR agency somewhere may have outsourced something like this and done so in a way as to provide plausible deniability. A quick googling shows this wouldn't be the first time MS has resorted to astroturfing [1].

So while I don't doubt the sincerity of how you or any of your immediate coworkers/HN reader peers tend to behave, I think the facts speak a bit more clearly to the possibility of other parts of the MS organism being willing to do this sort of thing.

[1] https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&e...