After outcry, Microsoft presses pause on unsolicited Windows 10 web app installs

[Karlston]

After outcry, Microsoft presses pause on unsolicited Windows 10 web app installs

The company says part of it was a bug

On Saturday, I pointed out how Microsoft force-restarting Windows 10 computers to install unwanted web apps was the latest proof you don’t own your own Windows PC. Today, the company says it was at least partly a mistake — and will be pausing the “migration” that brought web apps to your Start Menu this way.

 

Originally, Microsoft tells The Verge, the idea was that any website you pinned to the Start Menu would launch in Microsoft Edge, and it simply intended to turn those shortcuts into more visible tiles now. But — in what Microsoft is calling a bug — the change also turned its existing Microsoft Office web shortcuts into PWA web apps as well. That’s something you can normally do from inside the Edge browser, but not something that would happen by itself.

Web versions of Microsoft Office appeared in my list of programs.

Screenshot: Sean Hollister/The Verge

Microsoft says it’s actually been pinning Office web shortcuts to the Start Menu since May 2019. If we assume that practice is OK and give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt, I can see how this chain of events might have unfolded in a way Microsoft didn’t plan.

 

But that doesn’t actually address any of my previous concerns:

• Why was Microsoft using my Start Menu as free advertising for its Office products to begin with, web shortcut or no?
• Why do these shortcuts fire up Microsoft Edge, instead of respecting my own default choice of browser?
• Why does Microsoft believe it has the right to force-restart my PC at all? What was so critical about this update to make that worthwhile?

Microsoft has clearly heard some displeasure, and it’s reacting to that today. But it’s not clear whether anything will change as a result. Microsoft is still advertising its own apps in your Start Menu alongside the programs you’ve actually installed, it’s giving them premium space in your Start Menu without asking, they’ll still open in Microsoft’s own Edge browser which the company no longer lets you remove, and — most annoyingly — the company isn’t addressing its practice of forced updates and reboots.

 

Update 11:09PM ET: Added more clarity from Microsoft around what the company says it did and did not intend to happen.

 

 

After outcry, Microsoft presses pause on unsolicited Windows 10 web app installs

 

[steven36]

When  The  Verge posted the Microsoft just force restarted my Windows PC again to install more unwanted apps article   Windows  Fanboys were  in the comments  harassing the journalist  . They  was upset and needed  a box of crying tissues  and were making up  there usual excuses  For M$  strange  behavior problems  that center around trying make a quick buck.  Anybody that  said  they had the problem they was ranting off about you  should  of bought  the pro version  so you you can delay  Windows reboots (These settings are known to reset to default on updates so not really a permanent fix )  or you should buy LTS  .  (When  it  cost 1000s of dollars  and is  almost impossible  for a consumers to find someone that will sell to them even if they can afford it .)  Most Fanboys  that push LTS  steal  Windows 10  by pirating it and  technically M$ could sue you for this .  That why you shouldn't listen  to fanboys and should complain  it worked  in this case M$ caved in . It worked lots of times with Google as well. That why Windows users keep getting on  they just sit there  like a knot on the log and don't say nothing .  In the Linux  Community that not how we roll Linux fanboys complain about anything they don't  like and it keeps distros  in line .We dont act like  the Linux companies don't stink .  

[Sylence]

• Why do these shortcuts fire up Microsoft Edge, instead of respecting my own default choice of browser?

 

because other browsers might not support PWAs and the shortcuts that turned into PWA were actually Edge PWA.

 

• Why does Microsoft believe it has the right to force-restart my PC at all? What was so critical about this update to make that worthwhile?

 

what forced restart?

Windows update has the option to prevent auto restart.

 

https://imgur.com/a/eg4zOZ0

 

 

 

 

Windows 10 has never auto restarted my computer when that option is turned off

 

[BimBamSmash]

It looks like the term "bug" is now being used to refer to devs' snooping behaviors - though only after they are discovered and met with public outcry. 

 

This used to be exclusive to Facebook's vocabulary. It is only natural for others to start using the same when FB managed to walk away unhindered from their recent Instagram camera snooping debacle.

 

I wonder what they were really after here. Office gets all kinds of promos almost everywhere in the MS ecosystem in one form or another. It is not like no one's ever heard of this suite before.

 

I reckon they're trying to make sure they have something in place to counter Google's Workspace offering. In the days of work-from-home, some people suddenly realize they need some sort of Office app installed on their personal machines, but their workplace doesn't have the necessary licensing covered for such scenarios. That's when free web-based variants become attractive. Surely MS doesn't want Google to take advantage of this crack in the system.

[steven36]

2 hours ago, BimBamSmash said:

I reckon they're trying to make sure they have something in place to counter Google's Workspace offering. In the days of work-from-home, some people suddenly realize they need some sort of Office app installed on their personal machines, but their workplace doesn't have the necessary licensing covered for such scenarios. That's when free web-based variants become attractive. Surely MS doesn't want Google to take advantage of this crack in the system.

This is BS  people  don't need  ads to to know  they need to install  Office at home  it's nothing new to install it at home  .I installed it for my nephew because he needed it for school years ago  he  bought it  without M$ reminding him  same as other PCs in imy home they needed it  for when they worked at home so  they always had Office .

 

Working at home sometimes  is not new on Windows  just doing it  full time is, .  Only time windows XP  and windows  7 had bloatware  and demo apps was because  some PC vendor took a payoff  same reason Lenvo had  spyware in it before  they load  PCs full of Garbage  to pay for the windows tax.  This the same OS  that phase out Cortana,  but  keeps there Candy Crush  . 1st thing i done with Windows 10 when I installed  it was remove all the Garbage .  Windows 10 was the 1st OS  ever  that came full of junk  to pay  for them giving it away for free.

 

Google dont load your PC  full of ads.Windows is not Android,  if you install Google's crap its because you  chose too , They never forced nothing on nobody in Windows  they used Ads in  there search engine and  in products  like Avast with a opt in  you just told it no  and  they didn't install it.  But   with Microsoft they baked in Edge Browser in hopes to get back users  from Google  that were never forced to use Google to begin with.   Why would they done this out  of desperation  when  they are the most  used Office product ?  It backfired  on them  because people  got mad and hollered  they needed sued for antitrust  .

 

Same as when you installed Windows 10 Microsoft preloaded  it with other adware like Facebook app because Facebook paid them to put it there they put shortcuts  to office in hopes people  would replace  whatever  they bought before or get for free like (Open source Offices) that they   will replace it with Windows 365  or Windows  363  since it is down a lot. They done it to try and make a  quick buck.   No doubt about  it there  going to lose some home users to non cloud based Offices  and as long  there not a closed  off OS  like Apple  they not much they can do to change  it.  Last time Microsoft closed  off  there OS  and try to  force people to just use  Windows apps  they got sued for Antitrust  that the only reason your not still using IE   on windows  if they  would of never got sued  they would of figured  out a way to get rid of Google apps on Windows.  So now they use  there OS as a ad receptacle instead  .

 

The reason Google  came to power was just bad business decisions Yahoo  or Microsoft ether one could  of bought Google when it was new for a few million  but they didn't and that's the bottom line. . 

 

Edit: losing data  on Windows is nothing New the power can just blink off  and cause this  it  use to happen to me  right often  if i was  downloading  something  even with  resume  it would corrupt  the files and i would have to start over  but that's considered  a natural  loss. My friend about a month  ago Windows 10 screwed  up  they lost the whole image  and when they fixed  it and run  file recover  software they lost everything they had   because all recovered files were corrupt.  That why its best not  to store files  on the drive that windows is on.

[Karlston]

This behaviour is just Microsoft being Microsoft.

 

They pull a stunt like this... world+dog screams at them... they apologise or blame it on something else... time passes...  Rinse and repeat...