
Microsoft hits new low – sneaks Win 10 ads into IE security patch - TravelTechGuy
http://betanews.com/2016/03/09/windows-10-advertising-in-ie-security-patch/
======
Silhouette
Earlier HN discussion about this:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11262037](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11262037)

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makecheck
As much as I don’t like Microsoft, they are far from the first to create
“updates” or “fixes” that have other crap bundled into them, and plenty of
developers should be blamed for this anti-user practice.

Still, it’s a shame. Technologically, near-instant software updates ought to
be fantastic. In reality, developers have abused this power.

And when there is abuse, you need a system that returns power to the users.

For instance, an update protocol should probably use cryptography, with keys
distributed across a web of trust that the user is part of. If the web of
trust collectively distrusts an update (e.g. because several people had
problems with updates signed by that key), it should automatically raise red
flags for other users and not be installed automatically. For random 3rd-party
developers, this would make it hard to push unwanted updates; and for big
companies that don’t want to have a poor public image, it would be incentive
to not push updates that aggravate a lot of users.

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bragh
Also, automatically starting the Windows 10 upgrades without permission:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/4a5edx/psa_window...](https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/4a5edx/psa_windows_7_computers_are_being_reported_as/)
Any goodwill they gained this week by other actions, such as porting SQL
Server to Linux and R tooling for Visual Studio, is now lost. How do you trust
any company that starts behaving like that?

~~~
pjmlp
By having worked in companies of similar size and learning how they are
schizophrenic.

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9248
Just like some people mentioned in the comments on the previous article.

I have every important update installed. And every optional/recommended update
hidden. I can't replicate the behavior.

The older GWX update (KB303555XX something) is still tagged as recommended,
not important.

The only time I saw the ad, is when I visited msn.com _before_ updating. Now I
can't seem to replicate even that.

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TechGlobe
This article seems to have been written like clickbait. It's kind of hard to
take seriously because if that. Plus Apple has done this with Safari, and no
one has batted an eye at that. This just seems like an overreaction.

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reustle
Can you link to a case where Apple did this? Not doubting you, just curious.

~~~
pritambaral
[http://i.stack.imgur.com/BkQTT.png](http://i.stack.imgur.com/BkQTT.png)

[http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/153379/disable-
try-...](http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/153379/disable-try-the-new-
safari-popup)

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capote
Why do so many people not want to upgrade to Windows 10? It looks better and
will be supported for longer. And the upgrade is free. What is all the fuss
all about?

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krapp
The fuss is about the fact that Microsoft is employing dark patterns and
aggressive tactics to trick and nag people into upgrading their operating
systems, sometimes against their will. That and the telemetry, embedded
advertising, extreme bandwidth use, privacy concerns, etc, but for me
personally, just the fact that they're working so hard to make it not an
option leads me to never want to touch it or any future version of Windows
again.

Which is unfortunate because I actually don't hate Windows. Microsoft,
though...

~~~
capote
Interesting. I dislike Windows in general because it is too complicated, but I
like Microsoft in general for things like C#.

