Posted on 04/06/2015 8:03:32 AM PDT by dayglored
Late last month a mysterious patch suddenly appeared as an Optional entry in the Windows Automatic Update chute. At the time I wrote:
Conjecture at this point: It's somehow related to the ability to upgrade directly from Windows 7 or 8 to Windows 10. But of course, the official documentation doesn't say anything of the sort.
The crows have come home to roost and, thanks to a German researcher named Gerard Himmelein at heise.de, we now have a more thorough understanding of exactly what Microsoft's dishing out (a Google English translation of the post is available). Yesterday Jan Willem Aldershoff at Myce posted an analysis in English, with a Dutch-language screenshot, and this morning Vlad Dudau at Neowin gave us an English-language shot.
Microsoft provides an explanation -- of sorts -- in the KB article:
This update enables additional capabilities for Windows Update notifications when new updates are available to the user. It applies to a computer that is running Windows 8.1 or Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1).That's the entirety of the official explanation.
Analysis shows, though, that KB 3035583 is a shill for Windows 10. As poster rugk on the "eset Security Forum" says, it's "an adware/PUA/PUS/PUP for Windows 10 upgrade."
...
(Excerpt) Read more at infoworld.com ...
The tempest-in-a-teapot uproar seems to be because Microsoft isn't telling users the truth about what the update does. That naturally makes people suspicious. Yeah, it's sorta sneaky...
The article makes it sound like this is a bad thing -- frankly I'm not sure it is. After all, the Windows 10 upgrade is free for all the Win7 and Win8.x users that this nagware is going to annoy, so what's the big deal?
I am currently taking the position that it's within the bounds of allowable nagging, if perhaps not in the best of taste since it's not being described honestly.
I'm curious what other FReepers think, so have at it...
It may be something else: it provides the “hooks” to do the Windows 7 to Windows 10 upgrade for more safely without losing apps or user data. I believe Apple has done this before in the past with MacOS X versions.
This is just nagware. They’re going to put a tile on your Start screen to keep you up to date on Windows 10. When 10 goes retail, they’ll start pushing users to upgrade to 10.
The problem I have with this is that Windows 10 is going to force users “into the cloud.” There are going to be some interesting back-channel changes with 10 that even I, as an MCP, are unsure I like. Microsoft needs to understand that not everyone wants to be connected to the cloud. That WILL be a deal breaker for me with MS desktop OS.
will you get a windows 10 product key with this upgrade ? Will you have to pay to get a fresh install ?
It’s fine with me.
It is a rare bird that will be annoyed by this, or even know about it.
“will you get a windows 10 product key with this upgrade ? Will you have to pay to get a fresh install ?”
And a way to create restore media. I would hate to have to reinstall 8.0 and take a few days to upgrade from there back to 10... lol
Interesting, I agree about that cloud thing and don’t want anything to do with it.
Sure enough. My Mavericks (10.9) system reminds me that Yosemite (10.10) is available every chance it gets. And I'm not doing it because I don't like the "flat" look of the UI in the newer release.
Aside: It's the same problem I have with Windows Metro's "flat" look. Dammit I paid for good graphics processing hardware that can do shading and pseudo-3D effects, I don't want to lose them just because some low-end cell phone doesn't have the same GPU hardware.
Cloud-centric computing is most definitely NOT my thing. The main reason I have kicked Win 8 to the curb.
IMHO, MSFT is committing a fatal error by forcing everyone to use the cloud.
I for one have no use for it. Way too unstable for me.
Well, it pales in comparison to the firmware that came with my Brother printer.
In addition to the driver and some enhanced features, I now get annoying daily pop-up ads enticing me to buy Dragon and other products from the code’s author, Nuance Software.
And if I am in the middle of a document or some other activity the machine will grind to an immediate halt until I click out of that ad with a “no”. Damned annoying!
OK- FReeper with tech super skills— I’ve had it with this windows crap of patch patch BS and continual forced upgrades.
How to do I get free of windows? (Not “get a Mac”- I know that route). Do I convert opsystem to Linux? If so how to do that.
Truly- can’t stand bill gates or his spawn. The apple cores are as looney or more so and more expensive as such.
Need compatible with windows apps, but NOT windows. Help if you would. Thank you, and Happy Easter.
You might take a look at WINE on Linux. Linux is a superb operating system, but natively it is not at all compatible with Windows apps. The WINE package simulates a Windows app-support environment in which many/most standard Windows applications can run successfully.
My personal experience has been to run one of each OS; I ran WINE on Linux many years ago, and found I had enough Windows apps that didn't perform adequately with WINE that it was worth having a real copy of Windows around for those apps. Others' experience differs considerably.
I'm pinging ShadowAce on this question because he knows a lot more current info on WINE and other options than I do.
Happy Easter to you too!
Seriously, bring back 95 or XP.
I just upgraded this weekend. Got tired of being an antiyosemite...
Like dayglored, I don't like the flat look, but it is noticeably faster.
And it did give me the option of NOT being connected to the cloud. Just what I want, every scrap of data I own being elsewhere! NOT!
*sigh* I’m upgrading to Win 7 next weekend. My new CAD program just won’t run on XP. Dammit.
With Windows 8, you can switch to an offline account still.
.
I can’t imagine that the cloud can be considered workable for many.
What happens when your connection goes down? Too bad I guess!
In keeping with the abundance of bad ideas that confound life these days.
.
KB 3035583
No sign of that anywhere on my Win-7, SP-1 machines.
MalwareBytes grabs all the PUPs.
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