steven36 Posted June 8, 2016 Share Posted June 8, 2016 We had to cut it down. A lot JUST AS with any long-term relationship, the breach of trust between Microsoft and its customers has been hard to take. The year in the run up to the launch of Windows 10 was full of promises of how the company had changed under Satya Nadella, and how groovy and open it was going to be. But then Updategate happened. Here's the whole saga in 10 key moments. 1. UWX plants 'nagware' on users' machines from Windows Update - April 2015 So we knew that Microsoft was downloading a little program called GWX designed to help with the upgrade process when the time came. It arrived at a time when optimism and trust were at an all-time high after the Windows 8 debacle. What we didn't know was that UWX was silently waiting to play tricks on us to get us to upgrade. 2. Background downloading - July 2015 Microsoft begins downloading Windows 10 automatically to users who haven't indicated that they're interested. Many are on metered connections and find themselves lumbered with a bill for 6GB of data for an operating system they aren't ready for. 3. Microsoft tells us in retrospect how we could have prevented things - October 2015 Microsoft has remained largely tight lipped throughout the process of alienating an ever growing army of disillusioned punters. But the firm published a blog post in October explaining all the ways that you can prevent the background updates on monitored connections and the advertising that had started to appear in the start menu. Stuff it really ought to have been shouting from the rooftops on day one. 4. Microsoft goes on the record as saying Windows 7 is unsafe. It isn't - January 2016 As the company celebrates reaching 200 million active users (still a relatively tiny share of the market), Microsoft's chief marketing officer, Chris Capossela, tells Twit TV: "As we're pushing our hardware partners to build great new stuff that takes advantage of Windows 10, that obviously makes the old stuff really bad, and not to mention viruses and security problems. So we really are trying to push people to get to Windows 10." Holy smoke. Do we smell cows with gastric flu? 5. Updating to Windows 10 becomes a 'Recommended' update - February 2016 Up to this point, Microsoft had labelled the update as 'Optional'. In fairness, the firm warned us in advance that it would up the ante and make the update 'Recommended', meaning that it required users to actively opt out. This led to some unexpected borkage for the casual computer user who leaves everything on automatic. Windows 10 has good compatibility with old drivers and bespoke software, but it's far from perfect. 6. Microsoft hides the latest version of GWX in a security update - March 2016 Deleting the GWX patch simply caused it to reload itself the following month. Users got wise and apps were designed to block its installation, but Microsoft got sneaky and hid GWX inside a security update marked as 'Important', so even more people downloaded it. Not cool Microsoft. Not cool. 7. Microsoft begins disabling features in Windows 10 Pro to force sysadmins to upgrade to Enterprise - March 2016 The Professional edition of Windows was sufficient for the vast majority of small businesses for years. But that all changed with Windows 10. Suddenly companies that hadn't updated found their employees getting nag screens to tell their sysadmin that they needed to upgrade. A number of key features in Windows 10 were blocked, forcing companies to upgrade if they didn't want employees wasting time playing Candy Crush. 8. Microsoft starts telling users when their upgrade will be and disables the X button - May 2016 The dirtiest trick of all came last month when GWX start scheduling updates to Windows 10 and making opting out very confusing. Worst of all, the behaviour of the 'X' button, which traditionally means 'close window and do nothing', had been implemented as 'close window and accept upgrade'. It was a nasty and very deliberate ruse from which Microsoft eventually had to climb down. 9. Microsoft offers GWX for installation for the 14th time - May 2016 Promising that GWX would be wound down after Windows 10 goes paid-for in July didn't stop GWX reappearing for the 14th time in the latest set of patches. It would seem to suggest that Microsoft isn't done with us yet and the death throes of the free year, which has seen an upgrade rate of only about 15 per cent of those eligible, and less than 20 per cent market share, mean that there are likely to be a few last ditch attempts to throw Windows 10 at us 10. Petitioning begins to launch EFF investigation into Updategate - June 2016 Moving to the present, and after months of people ranting in forums about class-action lawsuits they didn't have a clue how to implement, someone finally set up a petition. It asks the Electronic Freedom Foundation to investigate Microsoft's practices in the rollout of Windows 10. The EFF has a lot of clout, but it's ultimately powerless, so we'll be interested to see what, if anything, it can do. Nevertheless, users have gone to the right place to bring together their collective frustration. Obviously, there are some key moments from the past 11 months that we've missed, such as the update that interrupted a TV weather forecast, the implementation of compulsory feedback for the Insider programme and the EOL announcements for certain chipsets that bring forward EOL for Windows 7 and 8. We're sure you can think of plenty more. Discuss. For the record, the thing that still sticks in our craw about all this is the wall of silence. We've managed one audience with Microsoft this year to talk about Windows and we got a lot of textbook marketing bullshit. We think we deserve better. You certainly do. The Source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JUST AS with any long-term relationship, the breach of trust between Microsoft and its customers has been hard to take. The year in the run up to the launch of Windows 10 was full of promises of how the company had changed under Satya Nadella, and how groovy and open it was going to be. But then Updategate happened. Here's the whole saga in 10 key moments. 1. UWX plants 'nagware' on users' machines from Windows Update - April 2015 So we knew that Microsoft was downloading a little program called GWX designed to help with the upgrade process when the time came. It arrived at a time when optimism and trust were at an all-time high after the Windows 8 debacle. What we didn't know was that UWX was silently waiting to play tricks on us to get us to upgrade. 2. Background downloading - July 2015 Microsoft begins downloading Windows 10 automatically to users who haven't indicated that they're interested. Many are on metered connections and find themselves lumbered with a bill for 6GB of data for an operating system they aren't ready for. 3. Microsoft tells us in retrospect how we could have prevented things - October 2015 Microsoft has remained largely tight lipped throughout the process of alienating an ever growing army of disillusioned punters. But the firm published a blog post in October explaining all the ways that you can prevent the background updates on monitored connections and the advertising that had started to appear in the start menu. Stuff it really ought to have been shouting from the rooftops on day one. 4. Microsoft goes on the record as saying Windows 7 is unsafe. It isn't - January 2016 As the company celebrates reaching 200 million active users (still a relatively tiny share of the market), Microsoft's chief marketing officer, Chris Capossela, tells Twit TV: "As we're pushing our hardware partners to build great new stuff that takes advantage of Windows 10, that obviously makes the old stuff really bad, and not to mention viruses and security problems. So we really are trying to push people to get to Windows 10." Holy smoke. Do we smell cows with gastric flu? 5. Updating to Windows 10 becomes a 'Recommended' update - February 2016 Up to this point, Microsoft had labelled the update as 'Optional'. In fairness, the firm warned us in advance that it would up the ante and make the update 'Recommended', meaning that it required users to actively opt out. This led to some unexpected borkage for the casual computer user who leaves everything on automatic. Windows 10 has good compatibility with old drivers and bespoke software, but it's far from perfect. 6. Microsoft hides the latest version of GWX in a security update - March 2016 Deleting the GWX patch simply caused it to reload itself the following month. Users got wise and apps were designed to block its installation, but Microsoft got sneaky and hid GWX inside a security update marked as 'Important', so even more people downloaded it. Not cool Microsoft. Not cool. 7. Microsoft begins disabling features in Windows 10 Pro to force sysadmins to upgrade to Enterprise - March 2016 The Professional edition of Windows was sufficient for the vast majority of small businesses for years. But that all changed with Windows 10. Suddenly companies that hadn't updated found their employees getting nag screens to tell their sysadmin that they needed to upgrade. A number of key features in Windows 10 were blocked, forcing companies to upgrade if they didn't want employees wasting time playing Candy Crush. 8. Microsoft starts telling users when their upgrade will be and disables the X button - May 2016 The dirtiest trick of all came last month when GWX start scheduling updates to Windows 10 and making opting out very confusing. Worst of all, the behaviour of the 'X' button, which traditionally means 'close window and do nothing', had been implemented as 'close window and accept upgrade'. It was a nasty and very deliberate ruse from which Microsoft eventually had to climb down. 9. Microsoft offers GWX for installation for the 14th time - May 2016 Promising that GWX would be wound down after Windows 10 goes paid-for in July didn't stop GWX reappearing for the 14th time in the latest set of patches. It would seem to suggest that Microsoft isn't done with us yet and the death throes of the free year, which has seen an upgrade rate of only about 15 per cent of those eligible, and less than 20 per cent market share, mean that there are likely to be a few last ditch attempts to throw Windows 10 at us 10. Petitioning begins to launch EFF investigation into Updategate - June 2016 Moving to the present, and after months of people ranting in forums about class-action lawsuits they didn't have a clue how to implement, someone finally set up a petition. It asks the Electronic Freedom Foundation to investigate Microsoft's practices in the rollout of Windows 10. The EFF has a lot of clout, but it's ultimately powerless, so we'll be interested to see what, if anything, it can do. Nevertheless, users have gone to the right place to bring together their collective frustration. Obviously, there are some key moments from the past 11 months that we've missed, such as the update that interrupted a TV weather forecast, the implementation of compulsory feedback for the Insider programme and the EOL announcements for certain chipsets that bring forward EOL for Windows 7 and 8. We're sure you can think of plenty more. Discuss. For the record, the thing that still sticks in our craw about all this is the wall of silence. We've managed one audience with Microsoft this year to talk about Windows and we got a lot of textbook marketing bullshit. We think we deserve better. You certainly do. The Source
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