[aprssig] Latest updates on Windows 10 Hard-sell Tactics Aimed At Win 7 & 8 Users

Sun Dec 13 19:51:36 EST 2015

Resistance is futile, you will be assimilated.  :-(

On 12/13/2015 4:04 PM, Stephen H. Smith via aprssig wrote:
> [This is a shortened version of the page located on my website at: 
> <http://WA8LMF.net/Windows10-Info> .  This page is constantly being 
> updated as news breaks. ]
>
> Since I last posted on this issue, Microsoft has ratcheted up the 
> hard-sell tactics to an even more outrageous level, including forcibly 
> overriding user-installed registry settings to opt-out of the forced 
> download of Windows 10.
> _______________________________________
>
> Windows 10 Information
> Read This Before Installing Windows 10
> (or even if you don't want to)
> _______________________________________
>
> Microsoft is currently engaged in an unprecedented hard-sell campaign 
> to push rapid adoption of Windows 10 by existing users of Win 7 and 
> 8.     This includes a series of nagware popups urging you to “Get 
> Windows 10” being stealth installed on Window 7 and 8 devices in the 
> guise of bug fixes and security updates by Windows Update.    [MS 
> refers to this campaign as "GWX"; short for "Get Windows X" where "X" 
> is Roman numeral "10".]
>
> (This is part of a desperate attempt by MS to catch up with Apple and 
> Android in the mobile device market by creating a large installed base 
> of a desktop OS capable of running smartphone/tablet-style "apps" sold 
> through an app store. So far developers have been overwhelmingly 
> uninterested in writing apps for the Windows Phone "Android wanna-be" 
> because of it's tiny market share. MS's objective is to seed the 
> market for "apps" by forcing Win 10 onto a billion-plus devices within 
> two years. This is also why they are trying to give away the Win 10 
> upgrade for free.)
>
> More recently, Microsoft has actually been stealth-downloading 
> gigabytes of install files (actually an image of the complete Win 10 
> install DVD) for Windows 10 onto Win7 and Win8 systems without warning 
> or permission. (This can completely fill up the remaining free space 
> on low-end Windows 8.1 tablets with 1 or 2 GB of flash memory, 
> rendering them essentially unusable.)  In a few instances, MS has 
> actually launched the Win 10 install without warning or permission.
>
> Further, MS is now stealth-installing the privacy-invading "telemetry 
> modules" (a.ka. spyware) from Windows 10 into Windows 7 and 8.x 
> systems via Windows Update under the double-think euphemism of 
> Customer Experience Improvement Program a.k.a. "CEIP".
>
> Most recently, Microsoft has been forcibly resetting the user-set 
> "System Policy" registry flag "DisableOSUpgrade"=True" (which is 
> supposed to prevent the downloading of the Get Windows 10 nagware and 
> DVD image) to "False" via mislabled "security updates" from Windows 
> Update.
>
> Reportedly, MS will ratchet up the hard-sell early in 2016 by 
> reclassifying the Get Windows 10 nagware from being an "optional" 
> update to a "critical" or "important" one in Windows Update, and 
> attempt to launch the upgrade install automatically.
> _________________________________________________
>
> Win 10 is the last discrete version of Windows ever.
>
> From now on, it will be continually and endlessly changing with silent 
> FORCED updates done without your knowledge or consent. Unlike previous 
> versions of Windows, where Window Update would present a list of 
> patches and let you pick and choose which ones to apply (and undo if 
> they caused problems), Win 10 just silently forces changes into your 
> system.
>
> This would be great --IF-- MS didn't have such a horrible record of 
> botched updates.  In just the FIRST week of Win 10 release, there have 
> been three major screwups that have bricked just-installed Win 10 
> installations. One driver update for certain video chips locked 
> machines into endless reboots, and one totally killed many machines 
> rendering them unable to boot at all.
>
> This continual unannounced changing of Win 10 means you are dealing 
> with an unknown endlessly moving target.  Just because programs and 
> device drivers worked today, there is no assurance they will work 
> tomorrow, next week or next month, due to the endless stealth updates.
>
>
> For hams, this is going to be especially significant, because much ham 
> software hasn't changed significantly since the XP era of the mid-to 
> late 2000's. Sooner or later some unknown update will start breaking 
> these elderly programs, with no recourse to uninstall the offending 
> patch (if you can even identify it).
> _________________________________________________
>
> Windows 10 has escalated invasion of privacy and user data-mining to 
> an unprecedented level.  Win 10 is far more "cloud-oriented" than 
> previous versions of Windows.
>
> As part of this, it's embedded "telemetry" reports practically 
> everything you do, every program you run, every file you open back to 
> the MS mother ship for analysis and marketing purposes. It shares your 
> WiFi passwords with friends on your contact list. It contains hooks to 
> pop up ads in the middle of LOCALLY RUNNING programs. It attempts to 
> default file saves of local programs to Microsoft's cloud, rather than 
> to your own hard disk.    It ignores entries in the Windows HOSTS file 
> aimed at blocking unwanted communications to specific URLs.   MS has 
> taken it upon itself to scan your local files to determine which of 
> your BitTorrent downloads and installed programs are "illegal".
>
> The “telemetry” modules “phone home” to dozens of domains at 
> Microsoft. [Full list on my website.]
>
> Download tools & info to remove the unwanted Get Windows 10 nagware 
> and installer (and to immunize your system from repeated attempts to 
> re-download it)  from my website at: <http://WA8LMF.net> .  Click on 
> the Windows 10 Info link at the top of my homepage.
> __________________________________________
>
> Stephen H. Smith    wa8lmf (at) aol.com
> Skype:        WA8LMF
> EchoLink:  Node #  14400  [Think bottom of the 2-meter band]
> Home Page:          http://wa8lmf.net
>
>  _______ Windows 10 Outrages! _______
>    <http://WA8LMF.net/Windows10_Info>
>
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