Beware the Undertoad (Microsoft Win 10)

Is it just me, or is MS trying to force Win 10 on everyone who does their Windows Updates today?
I carefully selected which updates to download & install, and 3 times Windows starts with trying to download and install Win 10. I did not select Win 10 for download & install and had to keep cancelling the install attempt by MS. And each time I restarted my PC, the whole process started again with MS searching for updates and after about five minutes of that, beginning to install Win 10 without my knowledge or permission. That's some sneaky s*#t if you ask me. I felt lucky that I had walked back to my PC to see what was the holdup on the update search to be able to cancel the attempted install of Win 10 again. I absolutely, positively do NOT want to spend hours and hours and days and days fine tuning the security settings on Win 10 until I can sleep at night! Maybe I'll try it in another 10 months when they have the bugs worked out, but not now.

The title to my post is a literary reference btw. We'll see who knows that one.

I have since turned off automatic updates, it wasn't working anyways before now but I never had a problem with it trying to force an upgrade on the OS before.

There's a Windows update that they snuck in there a while back that does that. I found the KB number for it and uninstalled that update and then hid it so that it wouldn't be visible to Win update in the future. Google around and you will find the solution.

Not only is MS trying to force Win 10 on everybody, it also is using Win 10 to completely datamine every single thing you do. Beware of Win 10 - it's probably the most intrusive legal "big brother is watching piece of SW ever created" - it essentially has been written to be spyware, which, if some kid in the basement in China were writing it he would be considered a criminal to us but since a big US corporation is doing it, it's apparently OK. In the US, where corporations essentially can not do wrong from the legal system perspective, it will be just fine but, unless MS has disabled some of those "features" in other countries, especially the EU, they will eventually run afoul of the law there.

E.J. Peiker wrote: 
Not only is MS trying to force Win 10 on everybody, it also is using Win 10 to completely datamine every single thing you do.  Beware of Win 10 - it's probably the most intrusive legal "big brother is watching piece of SW ever created" - it essentially has been written to be spyware, which, if some kid in the basement in China were writing it he would be considered a criminal to us but since a big US corporation is doing it, it's apparently OK.  In the US, where corporations essentially can not do wrong from the legal system perspective, it will be just fine but, unless MS has disabled some of those "features" in other countries, especially the EU, they will eventually run afoul of the law there.

Agreed. All too often I feel we live in a country that is really "In Corporations We Trust". And smart people don't trust them.

Go to the installed updates and find KB3035583 and uninstall it.

Yes, that's the one, and also make sure you turn off automatic updates or it will just reinstall it.  Then reboot and go into Windows Update, it will find that one as one that needs to be isntalled.  Now right click on it and hide it.  problem solved.

I did what EJ suggested and found this site: http://www.ghacks.net/2015/04/17/how-to ... s-7-and-8/ I followed his instructions and got rid of KB2952664 and KB3035583. All is good now!

I also just noticed that even if you hide those updates, Windows Update can still give you a splash screen telling you to update.  The number of people that are going to be upgrading without even realizing it is huge, I can already smell the class action lawsuit by people whose mission critical apps break as a result.  Between the shenanigans at Adobe, the almost forced upgrade at MS and the constant stream of software that changes everything without documenting it and often breaking it from Apple, I'm not sure what to do.

Apple just released a patch to iTunes which basically breaks iTunes on the Windows platform for nVidia graphics card users.  The software landscape is getting pretty crazy and it's all about mining your information so that they can make money off of it.

Thanks EJ and Alan. I found the KB3035583 listed under two different dates, one in Update history and a different one in Installed Updates - where it can actually be uninstalled! But it's deleted now and hidden. What shocked me was how many times (numerous) MS Updates had attempted to download Win 10! I did not know this had been happening, yowza! But I will sleep better tonight.

Paranoia does run rampant about this for sure. I for one will not spend my time contemplating what Microsoft knows or doesn't know about what I do on my computer. What I watched on Netflix last night, what I buy from Amazon, my views on Obama, or even if they are conspiring to take over my life and turn me into a zombie. I simply don't care about what they think they know about me. There are ways around this anyway. The game is always played by two players. It may be time to increase your computer and online knowledge.

I understand the premise of their privacy invasion and I do agree Microsoft, Apple, Google and every other big online player are nothing but money hungry dumpster divers. They don't even have to spy on me online to find that out I will tell them to their face. I believe there are much more dangerous, real world, everyday intrusions into our lives at this very moment that make what Microsoft and other do look like child's play. Those are the ones that get my attention. A person must arm themselves with knowledge. If you don't you are the weak prey they they will prey upon. Since this effects each person they are the ones that must learn to prevent it. Blaming the spying eyes or oppressive leaders after it happens will do you no good.

Sure it's a problem if you accidentally install windows 10 and then a mission critical program or hardware does not work. But then again if what you do is considered "mission critical" then you better understand something about your computer before installing a new operating system or it does it for you. This information is available you just need to spend some time researching it. I have no doubt that in 5 years (or less) we will look back at this windows 10 thing and say; that was nothing, you should see what they are trying to force down our throats now!

I have always kept up on all updates for windows. Yes windows 10 was downloaded to my machine without my knowledge or me doing anything. But it is not going to install automatically anytime soon. I'm sure it will at some point in the future but I will be installing it within the next 6 months or at least by July 2016 anyway so no big deal.

Now where is my tin foil hat...

EJ -
Since I still don't want to trust MS and drink their Win-10 cool-aid, I rechecked the update list again this AM after seeing a new Install Win 10 pop up after boot-up. I found the KB3035583 listed as installed again yesterday after I had removed it. A second uninstall attempt resulted in a "We couldn't complete the updates, undoing changes" message. Online research indicated this may be due to the GWX.exe file still existing on my PC and the remedy is to remove that file by taking ownership and then removing it. Do you recommend this step? And if so can you recommend a "Taking ownership" software to install for this type of purpose.
Thanks again.



 

Robert wrote:EJ -
Since I still don't want to trust MS and drink their Win-10 cool-aid, I rechecked the update list again this AM after seeing a new Install Win 10 pop up after boot-up. I found the KB3035583 listed as installed again yesterday after I had removed it. A second uninstall attempt resulted in a "We couldn't complete the updates, undoing changes" message. Online research indicated this may be due to the GWX.exe file still existing on my PC and the remedy is to remove that file by taking ownership and then removing it. Do you recommend this step? And if so can you recommend a "Taking ownership" software to install for this type of purpose.
Thanks again.

Please reread my second post in this thread to learn how to prevent it from reinstalling in the future

E.J. Peiker wrote:Yes, that's the one, and also make sure you turn off automatic updates or it will just reinstall it.  Then reboot and go into Windows Update, it will find that one as one that needs to be isntalled.  Now right click on it and hide it.  problem solved.

Alright, I thought I did all that. Changed auto update to: Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them. Uninstalled KB3035583, when restarted did a Win update and unchecked the box for KB3035583 and rt clicked it and selected hide. But it still came back later that day. And does the GWX.exe file need to be removed to stop this process from repeating? What about the other settings in the Windows Update Settings?  I left the box checked for Recommended Updates to be given to me the same way as the Important updates (let me choose whether to download & install them). And l left checked the box for Give me updates for other MS products when I update. However, the statement below that makes me wonder if MS may be circumventing the whole unchecked auto updates setup:
"Note: Windows update might update itself automatically first when checking for other updates."


I have also found and selected "Hide" for the somewhat hidden update to install Win 10 in the Update menu. I'll see how that works out.
And that may have been the problem, that the Windows Update list was not showing the Win 10 update. It showed the other usual updates to select, but the Windows 10 update was collapsed out of the list and had to be shown up by clicking on the tab to the left indicating types of updates (important, recommended, etc.). As a result, when I had clicked on update, the Win 10 update was slipped into the list to be included as well. As I said originally, that's some sneaky s*&t MS is doing.

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Hmm, that's all I needed to do but you do need to do it for the other KB item that Tim linked above, that's another one they snuck in there. It seems MS strategy is just to keep putting this piece of crap in under different names therby getting people to upgrade without knowing they are doing it. The way MS is handling this Win 10 upgrade thing is bordering on criminal in my mind. In the US it's legal but in the EU, if they are doing this same thing, which I doubt, they would be in big trouble. They had to pay billions when they auto installed Internet Explorer and made it the default there.

I've cleared an entire suite of Windows 10 update files (three or four of them) off of four computers over the past two days; that should take care of things...until, at some point soon, MS slips another prompt through labeled as a "security update" that I mistakenly allow to be installed. This really is infuriating.

Kerry wrote:I've cleared an entire suite of Windows 10 update files (three or four of them) off of four computers over the past two days; that should take care of things...until, at some point soon, MS slips another prompt through labeled as a "security update" that I mistakenly allow to be installed.  This really is infuriating.

I think at this point I'm just going to reject all Windows updates and only allow Office and MSE database updates to go through.  Win 7.1 is pretty darn mature and pretty secure

Kerry wrote:I've cleared an entire suite of Windows 10 update files (three or four of them) off of four computers over the past two days; that should take care of things...until, at some point soon, MS slips another prompt through labeled as a "security update" that I mistakenly allow to be installed.  This really is infuriating.

And even if we uncheck all Update settings and do our updates completely manually, we still can't know WHAT the latest KB------------- file is for. If we click on the more information link for it, MS says that nothing more is available about that specific update - yet. I know the one related to Win 10 that I can't remove now, KB3035583, was a "Recommended" update, vs an "Important" update - if that makes a difference.

Since Windows 10 is so terrifying, let's hear some Windows 10 horror stories, shall we?

I did google for them but those I found were at least a few months old. Some of them don't seem to be that scary anyway.


Oh, sorry, I don't have one to share.

DChan wrote:Since Windows 10 is so terrifying, let's hear some Windows 10 horror stories, shall we?

I did google for them but those I found were at least a few months old. Some of them don't seem to be that scary anyway.


Oh, sorry, I don't have one to share.

That is actually completely beside the point.  The point is that we have a major corporation intruding our systems with software that we did not ask for that has a primary purpose of tracking every single thing you do and sending that information back to that corporation.

E.J. Peiker wrote:

DChan wrote:Since Windows 10 is so terrifying, let's hear some Windows 10 horror stories, shall we?

I did google for them but those I found were at least a few months old. Some of them don't seem to be that scary anyway.


Oh, sorry, I don't have one to share.

That is actually completely beside the point.  The point is that we have a major corporation intruding our systems with software that we did not ask for that has a primary purpose of tracking every single thing you do and sending that information back to that corporation.

And there's your Windows 10 horror story.

Kerry wrote:

E.J. Peiker wrote:

DChan wrote:Since Windows 10 is so terrifying, let's hear some Windows 10 horror stories, shall we?

I did google for them but those I found were at least a few months old. Some of them don't seem to be that scary anyway.


Oh, sorry, I don't have one to share.

That is actually completely beside the point.  The point is that we have a major corporation intruding our systems with software that we did not ask for that has a primary purpose of tracking every single thing you do and sending that information back to that corporation.

And there's your Windows 10 horror story.

But, I have found more than one articles on the net that show you how to turn those "tracking devices" off. No?