How Windows 10 became malware

[steven36]

Any software — even a premier operating system — that gets onto computers through stealth means has crossed over to the dark side

 

 

Several weeks ago my wife came fuming into my office.

 

“Windows 10 just hijacked my computer,” she complained. “Without asking, Microsoft upgraded me from Windows 7, even though I didn’t want Windows 10, and I had to wait for the installation to finish before I could get any work done.”

 

I asked her whether she had accidentally clicked “OK” on any upgrade notifications, ignored any warnings that she had received or gotten any other notices about the upgrade. No on all counts, she answered before leaving to wrestle with her new operating system.

 

I admit to having been skeptical. Would Microsoft really take over someone’s computer without warning and install a significant chunk of software without explicit permission? That’s what malware does, I thought, not software from one of the biggest tech firms on the planet with the largest operating system installed base on desktop and laptops PCs.

 

Turns out, she was right. And I wasn’t the only tech writer whose spouse had this experience: The same thing happened to the wife of PC World’s Brad Chacos. 

 

All this made me wonder: If software from any other company behaved the way the Windows 10 upgrade does, would it be considered malware?

 

To find out, I delved into how the controversial upgrade works. Microsoft has been aggressive in its attempts to get as many people as possible to upgrade to Windows 10 in advance of the company’s self-imposed July 29 deadline for free upgrades from Windows 7 and Windows 8.1.

 

Last year Microsoft installed its Get Windows 10 app on millions of Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 PCs. It alerted people that they could “reserve” the free upgrade if they wanted. When the app popped up on people’s PCs, they could close its window and block any action it might take in the time-honored way of clicking on the X in the upper right of the dialog box.

 

 

Since then Microsoft has gotten increasingly aggressive in getting people to upgrade to Windows 10. It began stealthily downloading the bits required for the upgrade to PCs automatically without telling people. And then this spring Microsoft sprung a trap. When the upgrade app appeared, if someone clicked the X in its dialog box in order to close it and cancel an upgrade, Windows did the exact opposite of what the person intended to do: It upgraded that person’s PC to Windows 10. Microsoft did that even though the app always behaved in the opposite way before then, which is pretty much the way any legitimate app behaves — closing a dialog box and canceling any actions.

 

When Microsoft made that change, it violated its own recommended design guidelines, notes Computerworld’s Gregg Keizer. Microsoft tells developers that clicking an X to close a dialog box and halt any action the box might take is the right way to do things. The company writes on a website devoted to design guidelines, "The Close button on the title bar should have the same effect as the Cancel or Close button within the dialog box. Never give it the same effect as OK.”

 

In this case, that’s exactly what clicking X did: gave it the same effect as OK.

 

So is the Windows 10 upgrade malware? One place to look for clues is in Microsoft’s document, “How to prevent and remove viruses and other malware.” That document warns, “Never click 'Agree' or 'OK' to close a window that you suspect might be spyware. Instead, click the red 'x' in the corner of the window or press Alt + F4 on your keyboard to close a window." And it defines spyware, in part, this way: “Spyware can install on your computer without your knowledge. These programs can change your computer’s configuration or collect advertising data and personal information.”

 

So let’s see: The Windows 10 upgrade downloads its bits to your PC without your knowledge. It changes your computer’s configuration. By default, Windows 10 collects advertising data and personal information. And if you try to stop the upgrade by doing what Microsoft tells you to do with every other application — click the X on its dialog box — it installs anyway.

 

Sounds like malware to me, malware that forces a Windows 10 upgrade. Sure, it isn't malware that's designed with a malicious purpose. It's not being installed on your computer with the aim of stealing your data or locking up your files until you pay Microsoft a ransom. But getting upgraded to a new operating system against your will can have drastic consequences, such as programs that won't work with the newer OS. If you unexpectedly find your PC upgraded to Windows 10, you might have to shell out for upgrades to other programs just to accomplish what you could do before the upgrade.

 

Microsoft should immediately reverse course and let people decide for themselves whether they want to upgrade to Windows 10, rather than to use malware tricks to get them to upgrade.

 

The Source

[steven36]

1 hour ago, minoskid said:

----------------------

Most all these articles about windows 10 are mostly written by Windows 10 users.. If  you dont believe me look at  Preston Gralla's  articles

Hands on: New build of Windows 10 Anniversary Update preview tweaks Edge, Wi-Fi Sense

http://www.computerworld.com/article/3070017/microsoft-windows/hands-on-new-build-of-windows-10-anniversary-update-preview-tweaks-edge-wi-fi-sense.html

 

If Microdoft would remove there Malware GWX  from older flavors of windows  then these Articles by Windows 10 users would stop 

[Reefa]

Unnecessary and off Topic Posts Removed...Please stay with the Topic...

[straycat19]

Too little, too late.  Where were all these intelligent writers when Microsoft first started 'infecting' systems with GWX?  It is wasn't for the various 'anti-malware' programs like GWX Control Panel the number of 'infections' would have been much worse.  

 

4 hours ago, steven36 said:

Several weeks ago

 

So this intelligent geek didn't even think about protecting his systems in all this time and thus his wife paid the price.  I must like my wife more because I fixed her system a year ago to stop all this upgrade and telemetry nonsense.

 

4 July is our national independence day but 30 July is going to be the world's independence day from Microsoft.  

[steven36]

1 hour ago, straycat19 said:

Too little, too late.  Where were all these intelligent writers when Microsoft first started 'infecting' systems with GWX?  It is wasn't for the various 'anti-malware' programs like GWX Control Panel the number of 'infections' would have been much worse.  

What happen was most people have used windows every since they been online and never had to worry about nothing like this they went almost a year and just told it no and it went away .... They been mutating GWX  its much worse than it was back in June 2015 . I never had any problem with GWX on my PC  and i never needed GWX Control Panel only PCs I needed GWX Control Panel for were pcs that had auto updates on before  and thats because it was not my PC and i wanted to hurry up and get done and remove what windows 10 downloaded. GWX Control Panel only removes get windows 10 updates it dont remove spy/telemetry updates .

 

When I 1st bought this PC and updated i ran a batch that removed them all and turned updates off and on patch Tuesday  i just hide Get windows 10 updates  and update. I  never needed GWX Control Panel on my  windows PC ..It  has never had auto updates on i turned them off on a clean reformat .  My own PC i'm more picky and never installed 3rd party tools to do it i just hide get windows 10 updates on patch Tuesday  or if im on windows and someone says there out ill check for updates and hide them sometimes they come out 2 or 3 weeks before patch Tuesday.

 

Here is the full list it gets updated every month

http://www.overclock.net/t/1587577/windows-7-updates-list-descriptions-windows-10-preparation-telemetry

 

[straycat19]

2 hours ago, steven36 said:

I  never needed GWX Control Panel on my  windows PC

 

I don't use it either.  I just turned off all updates after May 2015 on all my systems.  I never take anyone's word for gospel when it comes to computers so I have to try out everything for myself before I use it on anyone's computer.  I found it to be a good alternative for people who have no computer knowledge or not enough to be willing to pick and choose updates.  We have been using it on computers since it was available as a reasonable resolution to the continuous updates that Microsoft was sending.  We knew that the upgrade push was going to escalate since one of our team has a brother at Microsoft, but even he didn't know the extent to which they were going to go, and he is in the windows group.  So they are even keeping this information from their own developers.  Their new motto should be "We're Microsoft, Screw the World!'.

[steven36]

2 minutes ago, straycat19 said:

 

I don't use it either.  I just turned off all updates after May 2015 on all my systems.  I never take anyone's word for gospel when it comes to computers so I have to try out everything for myself before I use it on anyone's computer.  I found it to be a good alternative for people who have no computer knowledge or not enough to be willing to pick and choose updates.  We have been using it on computers since it was available as a reasonable resolution to the continuous updates that Microsoft was sending.  We knew that the upgrade push was going to escalate since one of our team has a brother at Microsoft, but even he didn't know the extent to which they were going to go, and he is in the windows group.  So they are even keeping this information from their own developers.  Their new motto should be "We're Microsoft, Screw the World!'.

Microsoft really cant keep no secrets  the great IP sniffer tells all and my Firewall can block all even it can block the windows 10 from  updateing if adjusted  it too . fact is I dont trust host blocks because i seen developers that dont have no were the amount of money Microsoft does get around host blocks so i firewall everything Microsoft calls out  its not very hard ether.

[Ryrynz]

She didn't want 10? Why? Probably no good reason... Could've upgraded a long time ago without affecting productivity.

She'll probably start using 10 and like it. People are stupid.

[Conley Powell]

     Surely Microsoft is paying Ryrynz. Few people would be that irritating for free.

[steven36]

3 hours ago, TheDevilInMe said:

A neighbour allowed me access to her son's laptop to upload pics. 

I noticed the GWX icon on his taskbar, obviously some people haven't seen the online Win 10 wildfire rhetoric detailing the mess Micro$oft created.

 

If anybody has the bright idea to upgrade to Win 10, and downgrade to their current OS afterwards is a fool asking for trouble. 

The way GWX is suppose  to work it uses telemetry from windows 10 users and if you're PC version has been successfully upgraded by so many Windows 10 users then they will upgrade you and they update its database every so often ..When i bought a PC back last fall  it said it was upgradeable to windows 10 and when i took out the box and  hooked up to the wifi it downloaded windows 10 updates and the ELUA pop up too accept or decline Windows 10 so i declined it  according to Microsoft you should not accept or decline anything you should click the red x  and when they done it on GWX it took it as a yes and upgraded them anyhow .  All you have to do is click decline and it want install . 

 

I reformatted mine when it done this and reinstalled and waited tell it was done  disabled auto updates  then turned  the wifi on  i done updates and hid  any updates i could find that were get windows 10 and ran a nice batch file that removes unneeded windows 10 updates  and telemetry updates to make sure and  Ive never had any trouble since i just  hide the bad updates  when i check for updates .

 

As far upgrading back to windows 7 or 8.1 it just depends  i dont consider it a downgrade its a upgrade if you ask me, but it is risky you could end up with windows 10  . I used Windows 10 on a PC with a factory image of windows 8 and my image failed when I tired to reformat it so i had too reinstall windows 10 on it clean  to fix it. Now i dont have windows on this pc at all no more its Linux  But i i had Windows 10 on a pc i have with Windows 7 on it and when i rolled it back it took but still i had trouble and had to do a windows repair to boot back into windows 7 but the PC still runs OK tell this day