Posted on 03/16/2016 6:58:30 PM PDT by Utilizer
Despite significant user outcry that the Windows 10 upgrade mechanism has gone rogue, installing on customers' Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 machines when their backs turned or otherwise away from the computer, Microsoft is pleading innocent. We first brought you news of the automatic Windows 10 upgrades over the weekend, and in nearly every case, Windows 10 installed without user intervention — something that is clearly not supposed to happen based on previous commentary from Windows chief Terry Myerson.
Microsoft issued the following statement regarding the “unplanned” upgrades:
We shared in late October on the Windows Blog, we are committed to making it easy for our Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 customers to upgrade to Windows 10. As stated in that post, we have updated the upgrade experience to make it easier for customers to schedule a time for their upgrade to take place. Customers continue to be fully in control of their devices, and can choose to not install the Windows 10 upgrade or remove the upgrade from Windows Update (WU) by changing the WU settings.
(Excerpt) Read more at hothardware.com ...
Has anyone else gotten phone calls from Indians in a PhD ne tank with heavy accents claiming to represent Windows, warning you that they have “received signals malware may have been put on your computer”? They called several times. I finally put them on call screening.
After telling them to go urinate up a snake rope.
Phone tank. Dang auto correct.
Macafee tells me I’m OK.
Rumor is a lot of those Indian Microsoft fraud calls are from legitimate help centers in their off hours.
In other words, legitimate Indian computer help centers that are contacted by Dell, HP, etc to help their customers are doing the fraud calls from their customer lists in the off hours. Dell, HP, etc are innocent in this, the contracted call centers go rogue on their own. Beware. Don’t give anyone remote control of your computer, unless you know who they are and called them first.
It installed, uninvited, on my next-door neighbor's machine last week. I'm his personal PC guru.
This generally happens when Automatic update is set to automatic download and install.
I’ve got an HP, he was making noises like, “Well, if you don’t mind losing your computer ..” started asking me to make keystrokes. Hung up and filed e-mail ‘No call’ list complaint (for what good it will do) and after a couple more calls, call screening. Yeah, it smelled bad.
Thanks for the heads up.
I wasn't. I'm also glad that they gave me 8.1 its much better than 8.0. Not sure what there is to complain about this upgrade.
People are stupid. This is why so many settle for apple products.
They have no idea how things work and they aren’t interested in learning.
They want a car where they don’t ever have to check the oil or fill it with gas or buy tires or shocks. They just want to turn the key and go.
For the sake of your safety, you both should seriously refrain from advertising that you’re using XP. Unsecured sites like FR can very easily be sniffed, and your IPs can be discovered. As soon as that happens, it’s less than 10 minutes of work to compromise your XP machine. I’ve seen it, and I’ve done it myself (white hat) for my employer. There are 12 year old Russian kids who could do it with an IP address.
Seriously, if you’re using XP, please consider another OS. I don’t even care if you go to a Mac or Linux, just get the heck off of XP! You’re putting every last byte of personal data at risk of theft, and it’s technically impossible to browse the web securely anymore with XP due to cipher constraints at the OS kernel level.
On this issue, guys, seriously, Microsoft didn’t force the upgrade of your system for you. There are dozens of places you could disable it. If you had that little white Windows logo in your system tray for any appreciable amount of time, and you thought, “Oh, I’ll just ignore it, and I’ll be fine.” Nope.
There have been dozens of articles posted on FR and across the web on how to remove the installer and very specific instructions from Microsoft on how to disable the upgrade. Ignoring the warning signs is not reason enough to blame MS.
All of that said, and to soothe the people who are seething as they read what I just wrote, shame on Microsoft for even pushing Windows 10 as hard as they have. I get what they’re trying to do, but to force it on people leaves them with a bad taste in their mouth. Oh, and good luck upgrading your computer. Add any new hardware or switch to a new platform, and you’re going to have to pony up for another Windows 10 license.
Microsoft’s been making outstanding strides in the safety, security, and stability of their operating environments, but they’re pulling the rug out from themselves with shenanigans like this.
You know something, I don’t like veiled threats.
Once again, all you have to do is run GWX Control Panel to eliminate all the Windows 10 upgrade nags safely.
http://ultimateoutsider.com/downloads/
Don’t let the Apple or Linux advocates scare you into something you don’t need.
Advice appreciated. I finally replaced my 10 year old desktop with XP for a new dell Inspiron 3252 (Pentium processor) yesterday. It booted up fine and I elected not to sign in with a Microsoft ID and clicked on as many privacy things as I could. I had seen so many threads in the past warning about Windows 10. I have a notebook I use for email and internet that has 8.1 and I have avoided the upgrade to 10. Any tips on what I need to do to my new desktop to make it more secure. It came with a one year McAfee. I also do not use the cloud at all. Thanks for any help!
I KNOW that you’re using XP, because you’ve broadcasted that.
I KNOW that support for XP stopped in April of 2014.
I KNOW that there are no fewer than 12 exploitable holes in the Windows XP kernel that are actively compromised on a regular basis.
I’m an IT professional and have worked in white hat hacking to provide vulnerability reports to security professional, so yes, I absolutely know something. I can tell you with 100% certainty that your machine is vulnerable. There’s literally NOTHING you can do to protect yourself if you’re using XP. There’s no third-party software. There’s no anti-virus, anti-malware, anti-anything that will keep your machine safe. XP can’t use the latest security ciphers (TLS1.2) or use the latest certificate signature algorithms (SHA256+). That means that it doesn’t matter what you do, what browser you use, etc., you are browsing the web unsecured.
I’m trying to help you understand that tech people don’t see you as some martyr for a cause (i.e. “You can pry XP from my cold dead hands!”), we see you as a stubborn fool for continuing to use an operating system that is publicly, globally understood to be a sink for hackers.
Take it for what you want, Mene, seriously. I’m not threatening you, I’m trying to help you. If you want dismiss my warnings, caveat emptor.
Please see my post 53. Thanks
Press Win+S, which will bring up the search bar, and type “Customer Experience Improvement.” One of the top results should be to change the program settings. Click on that, and you’ll get a very simple window asking if you want to be in the program. Select “No, I don’t want to participate in the program” and most of the telemetry stuff that phones home to MS will be turned off.
Make sure Windows Firewall is turned on (Win+S > Search for Firewall), and turn on User Account Control (Win+S > Search for “User Account Control”) to either the second or third level. That will prevent anything from being installed on your system without your notification. Never turn it off!
McAfee is “okay,” but it’s free and will force you to upgrade in a year for a fee. If you’re using Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 (wasn’t clear on which you got), Windows Defender is MORE than sufficient as an anti-virus/anti-malware program. Matter of fact, Microsoft’s Defender keeps the pace with, and in the case of system performance it BEATS, third-party AV products. You can see if it’s running by searching for Defender.
Sounds like you’re already on the right path!
Can't be said enough. The final straw for me was the "Install it Now or Tonight" message. The icon is now gone.
Over the weekend, my 92 year old mom called me in a panic because Win 10 was installing in front of her eyes. Luckily it stopped at the "I have read and consent to..." message and she was able to get out of it but she probably has most of the files downloaded. I'll install the control panel on her pc tonight.
Which is why my XP machine is only used off line for CAD work.
Yes. See also "The Big Lie".
Then why do so many report identical experiences?
Mass hysteria?
I don’t know about that Microsoft. Just this past week, my computer has tried, it seems, 50 different ways to start downloading/installing/upgrading Windows 10 on my computer without my consent.
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