back to article Microsoft's Windows 10 nagware storms live TV weather forecast

Microsoft's relentless Windows 10 nagware has interrupted a live TV weather forecast, urging meteorologist Metinka Slater to upgrade. The operating system suddenly popped up a box on screen insisting the station's computer be upgraded to the latest version – while Slater was on air describing thunderstorms rolling through Iowa …

  1. cirby

    Oh, yeah...

    We set up a Twitter wall for a major convention, and due to the setup it was a pain to get to the computer. We set it to autorun, and it did fine.

    ...until the second morning of the show, where the Windows 10 ad popped up.

    I've also had it come up during major presentations at conventions, too. A thousand people watching the presenter run back to the computer because of this stupid thing.

    1. Roq D. Kasba

      Re: Oh, yeah...

      Does this happen on server OS software too? The times when I see this kind of thing are when people are using client/desktop software for jobs that are better suited to server versions.

      We run huge live shows with dozens of projectors and led walls playing back to create a 360° image with complex maps synced to automated stage objects in real time. That would look very bad if in front of the incumbent head of state of (whichever country) we spoiled the show by trying to cobble together consumer/desktop software to do a server's job.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Oh, yeah...

        Since when is running a display a server's job? There's a reason that desktop CPUs include a GPU, and server CPUs do not.

        1. BinkyTheMagicPaperclip Silver badge

          Re: Oh, yeah...

          There was in the days when a GUI only displayed images, now a GPU is a useful calculation device it's frankly a little shortsighted not to include it in many of the Xeons.

          1. Simon Harris

            "frankly a little shortsighted"

            But if you do need GPU co-processing support in a server wouldn't it be better it go for a full-feature dedicated GPU (or two, or however many you can link together these days), rather than a cut-down version built into the CPU die?

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Oh, yeah...

          Presumably he meant media server, which are very much targeted toward running lots of large displays/projectors etc, and a lot of them run on some version of windows. Eg Hippotizer, Avolites ai, d3 etc. However the windows they run is usually pretty locked/stripped down and you'd like to think they'd have this covered.

          We do the odd live event using cheaper desktop machines and back in the day I was caught out by a random windows update which rebooted the machine while I wasn't there, which showed the whole reboot to desktop cycle on the big projectors. That was embarrassing. But it's a good way to learn for the future...

          1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

            Re: Oh, yeah...

            "That was embarrassing. But it's a good way to learn for the future"

            Yup. Microsoft, read and learn.

          2. Roq D. Kasba

            Re: Oh, yeah...@casinowilhelm

            Yes, of course, thank you for being smart!

        3. Innocent-Bystander*

          Re: Oh, yeah...

          Since when is running a display a server's job?

          When you run huge LED walls and a dozen projectors stacked and blended, all driving the same (usually insanely high resolution) video or composite, desktop gear just won't cut it. Usually you get into specialized equipment. Servers, scalers, video repeaters, mixers... the setup is ellaborate to say the least.

          Desktops need not apply.

          The IT side of large venue setups also tends to run older OS' than Windows 7 so I doubt the nag screens would be a problem.

          1. Mpeler

            Re: Oh, yeah...

            I think you mean workstation, not server. And anything older than Windows 7 is not supported, even though the nagware appears and runs on Vista, aka twisted sister.

            If indeed you ARE driving large numbers of displays, the server versions of the older OS's (XP and dare I say win2k) are only useful in the amount of memory they support, and the number of physical processors they allow. However the newer profi graphics cards won't run in equipment old enough to have been home

            to the Datacenter or Enterprise servers of the XP and 2K timeframe. And good luck with the protected media path and HDCP on those...

        4. sawatts

          Re: Oh, yeah...

          I remember arriving at work (c.2000?) to find our Windows network was borked.

          Discovered that this was due to a modal dialog sitting on the Domain Controller's login screen. The DC was locked away in a secure cell. Clicked "Okay" and the network came back to life.

        5. The Vociferous Time Waster

          Re: Oh, yeah...

          I have met people who run a server OS on their laptops. I laughed at them and then concluded their interview.

          1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

            Re: Oh, yeah...

            "I laughed at them and then concluded their interview."

            They never knew how lucky they were.

      2. 1Rafayal

        Re: Oh, yeah...

        I dont think you would see Microsoft advertising a desktop OS on an exsiting installation of a server OS.

        That just doesn't make any sense to man nor beast.

        A lot of people here will now start to cry, whinge an moan about how this will impact bussiness, blah blah blah.

        You dont get the GWX box pop up if you are running the enterprise versions of Windows. So, if this news station had been running an enterprise version of what looks like either Vista or 7, the popup would never have ruined their lovely weather report.

        Fully prepared for the downvotes.

        1. Bob Vistakin
          Linux

          Sure it's not part of the real forecast?

          "And today as you can see, we expect a huge pile of shite to descend down on the good folks of Iowa from which there is no escape. Reports indicate this will happen more and more frequently as the desperation of those behind it increases. Citizens are advised to stay indoors and close their Windows. For good."

        2. DaddyHoggy

          Re: Oh, yeah...

          My university's simulation lab runs Enterprise Windows 7, several, but not all of the PCs now have the GWX icon in the Taskbar. So, despite their assurances - MS are creeping GWX into even Enterprise level Win 7 installations (we've not had any pop-ups, and we don't have the 3.5GB stub tucked away ready to go, but the icon, that's definitely there).

          1. P. Lee

            Re: Oh, yeah...

            >A lot of people here will now start to cry, whinge an moan about how this will impact bussiness, blah blah blah.

            "Hey, you didn't pay us for the most expensive version of Windows, so we're going to punish you with annoying and disruptive adverts, and we think that's a valid business model. Here's DaddyHoggy

            to explain why this is acceptable. In the meantime, please buy more of our stuff."

            Oddly enough, Suse doesn't nag me even though I'm two versions behind, neither does it listen in on my conversations in case I want to use voice control nor does it randomly upload my data to some cloud. It lacks all that functionality without me even having to reconfigure it!

            1. 1Rafayal

              Re: Oh, yeah...

              P. Lee

              just out of interest, do you use Google?

              1. asdf

                Re: Oh, yeah...

                >P. Lee

                >just out of interest, do you use Google?

                If you can't beat em join em eh? Everyone else is doing it. Windows 10 usability is actually decent imho but because Microsoft is no longer in the business of selling an OS and getting the hell out of the way my home computer very rarely boots into it now (only way I can be sure I am not being data mined as I no longer trust them even in the least bit, at least with Google any decent IT person knew their business model was a trojan horse up front). Also having to enter lots of ip addresses to block at your router to keep various other family windows machines from phoning home is garbage.

                1. asdf

                  Re: Oh, yeah...

                  At least with Android you can run AOSP with F-Droid (with no accounts) and be reasonably sure you are not being data mined (if you pay attention to what you install, plus you can get the source to everything which is not a panacea but is a good start). In fact if you do it right and run Orbot you can be reasonally sure your ISP is not able to data mine you as well (good idea to put as much of your traffic as you can tolerate on Tor in general). Registry hacks and praying Microsoft honors the GUI options they do happen to give in addition to having to monitor the telemetry KB# means no dice.

                2. Danny 14

                  Re: Oh, yeah...

                  GWX hasn't hit our "pro" or "enterprise" pcs as you need WSUS to be immune (for the time being at least). The standalone "pro" have full blown nag screens, and standalone "enterprise" have GWX but no nag.

                  Our W10 test image is running LTSB so no edge or cortana (yey! bonus!) and apparently the updates wont be shoved down our throat. As far as the PCs go, they run web apps coded internally, office 2013 and a few graphics packages - nothing major and certainly nothing from the MS store (so LTSB suits us just fine).

                  Incidentally, our W8.1 unattend file worked straight away, no fiddling and no changes at all - this surprised me. The new golden sample was created in an afternoon, the only difference is that OOBE is about twice as slow as 8.1 in unattend.

                  "why" are we moving to 10? Don't think I am yet, but I want an image ready *just* in case MS do something stupid with WSUS customers....

                3. asdf

                  Re: Oh, yeah...

                  >P. Lee

                  >just out of interest, do you use Google?

                  Another big difference is Google hasn't been convicted of leveraging their monopoly illegally (yet). Not saying Google isn't evil (especially privacy wise) but Microsoft because of their past behavior is going to be held to a higher standard. You can get a smart phone very easily without giving a cent to Google or even having to install their spyware but its still not trivial to buy a PC without a windows license.

            2. This post has been deleted by its author

              1. 1Rafayal

                Re: Oh, yeah...

                if you have a mic attached and if you have Cortana enabled and if you have opted in to allowing Microsoft to collect usage data then people assume that Cortana is listening to everything you say and reporting it back to Microsoft.

                Despite the fact that Cortana only really works for Americans properly. And even then it can only perform simplistic operations, its clunky and not as nice to use as Siri or OK Google, or even the XBox One OS which probably is listening to everything you say.

                But in all honesty, its just FUD. If everyone who had Windows 10 installed with a mic attached and Cortana setup correctly, how exactly would MS crunch all the data? And what would they be looking for?

                At least with Samsung TVs that apparently do listen in for certain things, they know what they are looking for.

                But dont bother listening to me, I am apparently a Microsoft apologist.

        3. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

          Re: Oh, yeah...

          "So, if this news station had been running an enterprise version of what looks like either Vista or 7, the popup would never have ruined their lovely weather report."

          Disregarding for a moment the post which says your assumption isn't true, let's examine the implications a little further. At some point in the past, probably several years ago, they set up this system. They used what would at that time have been a perfectly appropriate version of Windows, Vista or 7, probably Professional. Now you're saying that they should have spent extra on Enterprise, even if they had no other reason to do so, because they should have predicted that Microsoft would do this and they should have protected themselves. They may be doing weather forecasting but that doesn't extend so far into the future.

          1. 1Rafayal

            Re: Oh, yeah...

            @Doctor Syntax.

            Unless I have completely read this article wrong:

            https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/kb/3080351

            Then it would appear to me that the GWX nag and download is automatically suppressed from certain enterprise versions of Windows. It also looks like the icon for GWX is also automatically suppressed from certain enterprise versions of Windows.

            Now, on to what version of Windows would be suitable for them to deploy in house. As a news station they have been operating for over 60 years and have what looks to be just under 150 members of staff. Deploying and maintaining the professional version of Windows Vista or 7 would be, in my opinion, the wrong choice in terms of administration and cost for an organisation of this size.

            I would imagine that who ever is in charge of their IT function would have (or in this case should have) made use of Microsoft's volume licensing deals in order to get the best value out of the software that they are clearly using. However, you are making the assumption that they are using the professional version in the first place, and not the home version - either way it makes no difference because both versions would get the nag.

            I wont speculate as to what productivity or office software they are running, I think everyone can make an educated guess on that.

            Administering this many WIndows 7 or Vista Professional installations is, at best, as fun as setting your balls on fire. Thus making the Enterprise version not only cheaper but easier to maintain. Additionally, many IT teams that have to work with Windows installed on the desktop will go with the enterprise version as it is simply given away for free with what ever else they might have licensed from Microsoft.

            Using the enterprise version means that they have full control over the update process, and in the case of Windows 10, no GWX nags, downloads or icons.

            @DaddyHoggy

            Do people in your lab have admin rights on those machines by any chance? Given that some have the icon present and some dont, I would start to think that maybe someone has been playing around with the way they are configured? Or possibly the way they are updated?

            In general, if organisations are using enterprise versions of Windows, the GWX nag, download and tray icon are automatically suppressed. The only way it would become apparent is if the administrator either chose to allow it to appear or made a mistake during a patch run.

            The whole GWX nag and download is aimed at the home consumer, not at business. Business has been bombarded already with Windows 10 nags, but in a completely different way entirely.

            Lets see if I can reach 100 downvotes for this.

            1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

              Re: Oh, yeah...

              "have what looks to be just under 150 members of staff. Deploying and maintaining the professional version of Windows Vista or 7 would be, in my opinion, the wrong choice in terms of administration and cost for an organisation of this size."

              What size does an organisation have to be before, in your opinion, it takes on the extra overhead of specialised staff to run its IT system? Not that it matters, their finance department is likely to have the say over this.

              "I would imagine that who ever is in charge of their IT function would have (or in this case should have) made use of Microsoft's volume licensing deals in order to get the best value out of the software that they are clearly using"

              Whoever is in charge of their IT function might well have been told to keep their hands off studio kit. In fact, it may well have been bought in completely separately from any other IT in the business as a specialised hardware/software bundle for this purpose.

              In any event there is no excuse whatsoever, zero, zilch, nil for a vendor overriding what the user is doing to display messages or initiate updates at arbitrary times. None.

              1. nkuk

                Re: Oh, yeah...

                "In any event there is no excuse whatsoever, zero, zilch, nil for a vendor overriding what the user is doing to display messages or initiate updates at arbitrary times. None."

                This. Its pretty obvious Microsoft don't see it that way, they see the your desktop as their advertising space and its steadily getting worse.

                1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

                  Re: Oh, yeah...

                  "This. Its pretty obvious Microsoft don't see it that way, they see the your desktop as their advertising space and its steadily getting worse."

                  Just because that's the way they see it doesn't make it excusable.

                  1. bombastic bob Silver badge

                    Re: Oh, yeah...

                    <quote>

                    "This. Its pretty obvious Microsoft don't see it that way, they see the your desktop as their advertising space and its steadily getting worse."

                    Just because that's the way they see it doesn't make it excusable.

                    </quote>

                    yeah, I don't want my DESKTOP SCREEN looking like the TV from 'Idiocracy' with ads all around the outside, and about 1/3 of the screen devoted to actual content...

                    oh, wait, like a TYPICAL WEB SITE in the 21st century, except it's the "new desktop model"

                    /me self-slap for giving Micro-shaft yet ANOTHER way of SCREWING UP THE OS

                2. Josh 14

                  Re: Oh, yeah...

                  And a solid reason is given, once again, to move away from MS.

                  I do understand that many things are tied to Windows, but enough of this can only aid in pushing customers, and their suppliers away from a software environment which is turning more and more malicious.

                  Not only do we have to secure against malware slinging idiots and the click on anything users, but now we have to defend against the OS manufacturer as well?

                  A few machines used for gaming are running Win7 or 10 at my home, but my personal machines are now running various flavors of *nix, and a few people I help are starting to consider the expense of Apple products just to avoid the MS idiocy.

            2. Avatar of They
              Thumb Down

              Re: Oh, yeah...

              Whoops.

              http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/01/14/get_windows_10_business_pcs/

              Nagware is now available on biz pc's.

              M$ really want to peddle their wares.

              1. 1Rafayal

                Re: Oh, yeah...

                Hm, let me see - trust The Register when it comes to reporting things about Microsoft, or trust searching the internet... I know which one I would go for.

                I still dont have my 100 downvotes for my second post. As soon as I do I am making a donation of £10 to Clic.

                At least then something sensible will have happened.

                1. David Neil

                  Re: Oh, yeah...

                  Give them the money and stop waving your hands in the air saying "look how clever I am"

                  1. Nigel 11

                    Re: Oh, yeah...

                    Give them the money

                    You mean the $50,000 that you might have to pay to have a consultant come in and rewrite some vital application code so that it runs on Windows 10? If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

                    (Hypothetically assume that it was an old old application when it was installed on Windows 7 ... but it worked AOK then and now. Also assume that somewhere down the years, the source code and/or the organisation that wrote the original have disappeared. And that they have actually tried reinstalling it on Windows 10 without success. )

            3. Roland6 Silver badge

              Re: Oh, yeah... @1Rafayal

              So 1Rafayal, given the rules around Microsoft volume licensing agreements, could you enlighten us as to how the tens of thousands of SME's ie. any business with 1 or more Windows PC, could have simply purchased a version of Windows that enabled them to avoid the GWX nagware? Remember, MS themselves were selling and licensing 'Pro' editions of Windows and Office as being for business usage...

              1. Anonymous Coward
                Anonymous Coward

                Microsoft apologists

                Wow, they are out in full force today with their "blame the victim" mentality. A local TV station with a few dozen employees should be running the Enterprise or Server version of Windows for the on air weather map, because it can't POSSIBLY be Microsoft's fault for creating this bullshit malware Windows 10 GWX infestation that requires its own anti-malware solution called GWX Control panel to eliminate!

              2. 1Rafayal

                Re: Oh, yeah... @1Rafayal

                @Rolan6

                you mean the licensing agreements for Server, Office, Exchange, SQL Server etc that all come with

                Windows Enterprise entitlements?

                Those ones?

                Or maybe the licensing agreements you get with the MS Action Pack?

                Or maybe the agreements tied into your MSDN subscription?

                Or I guess there is the gold partnership subscription agreement...

                Can you think of any more?

                The fact of the matter is, like it or not, for everyone who is complaining about the GWX nag affecting business, it comes down to how your organisation is handling its licensing. Even if your organisation installed the dreaded Windows 10, there would be no automatic updates unless the administrators allowed them to take place.

                Even WIndows 10 Pro users can defer updates for what, for 3 months or something?

                1. Roland6 Silver badge

                  Re: Oh, yeah... @1Rafayal

                  you mean the licensing agreements for Server, Office, Exchange, SQL Server etc that all come with Windows Enterprise entitlements?

                  Don't know what you mean, neither of the Server 2012 R2 and Exchange Server 2012 licenses I recently obtained through VLSC (UK) had any client OS entitlements.

                  Or maybe the licensing agreements you get with the MS Action Pack?

                  Or maybe the agreements tied into your MSDN subscription?

                  Or I guess there is the gold partnership subscription agreement...

                  Do these supply Enterprise volume licenses that satisfy the MS no GWX nagware criteria?

                  Can you think of any more?

                  Software purchased from high st. outlets and wholesalers that come with the relevant Enterprise volume licenses ...

                  Remember, I'm not talking about IT nerds who are prepared to jump through MS's hoops to get free software, I'm talking about normal people who need a computer to do the accounts, send email, browse the web and prepare proposals/quotes/invoices...

                  1. 1Rafayal

                    Re: Oh, yeah... @1Rafayal

                    @Roland6

                    Obtaining an license agreement for SQL Server 2014 will give you Windows 10 enterprise entitlements. Same goes for some Office 2016 license agreements.

                    With the MS action pack, you get access to a number of Windows licenses, they are enterprise licenses. I cannot remember how many you get off the top of my head, maybe 5? But yes, this means the GWX nag and download would automatically be suppressed, unless the user chose to make any changes themselves. Even the system tray icon is suppressed.

                    Now, lets get on to the point that so many people have obviously missed - I haven't said at all that people should go out and buy an enterprise license, haven't said it once. I dont even think its possible for the consumer to buy one - officially. i guess a uni student or power geek might want to install and use it, but I am going to go out on a limb and say those people are going to be few and far between.

                    My comments above have all been to do with business, not the average end user at home. I have made that perfectly clear. If people work for an organisation using say Windows 7 enterprise, which is entirely likely given the administration options available for it, then they wont see the nag.

                    I dont understand why organisations who are using Windows wouldn't want to use the enterprise version, otherwise they are literally leaving the update schedule up to Microsoft. And if organisations start using Windows 10, which is going to happen at some point, then the update schedule becomes even more pernicious.

                    How is this not sensible?

                    1. Roland6 Silver badge

                      Re: Oh, yeah... @1Rafayal

                      @1Rfayal - "My comments above have all been to do with business" - So have mine.

                      Business'es come in many sizes, a very large number will have simply walked into a reseller eg. PC World (UK) and been sold a system or two by their 'business' section. I've done work for larger SME's where they've purchased PC's direct from Dell and simply had a local maintainer install Office on them and connect them to the network.

                      Yes Enterprise licenses, which are only available through volume licensing, maybe wonderful but for many businesses they simply don't exist because they are not aware of them and have little real reason to investigate.

                      Plus who back in 2012~15 (when many migrated off XP on to 7) knew that one of the benefits of Windows Enterprise licensing would be that they would be excluded from the GWX nag? I'm a 100% confident that you didn't know before MS released KB3080351 in mid 2015!

                    2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

                      Re: Oh, yeah... @1Rafayal

                      "I dont understand why organisations who are using Windows wouldn't want to use the enterprise version,"

                      As asked elsewhere, when does switching to enterprise/volume licensing become economic? How about my local newsagent who runs a couple of PCs in the back room? Can't you understand why they don't have an IT department, a sysadmin and an MS enterprise/volume licensing server to monitor it?

                2. asdf

                  Re: Oh, yeah... @1Rafayal

                  >Even WIndows 10 Pro users can defer updates for what, for 3 months or something?

                  Now nice of Microsoft to give their users 3 months free of yet more telemetry tracking only updates.

                3. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

                  Re: Oh, yeah... @1Rafayal

                  "The fact of the matter is, like it or not, for everyone who is complaining about the GWX nag affecting business, it comes down to how your organisation is handling its licensing."

                  Bearing in mind it's almost impossible to buy a PC without a Windows Licence already attached, when does it become economic to add in the costs and complexity of enterprise licensing? Does an enterprise/volume licence take into account the already purchased licences?

                  Those are real questions by the way. I'm not involved with that side of the business.

            4. Mpeler
              FAIL

              Re: Oh, yeah...

              Aim low enough and you'll never miss.

              Apparently you're another paid shill from Micro$oft, flogging a television station for not using an inappropriate version (Enterprise) of Windows.

              Nice threadjacking.

              Here's a downvote for your efforts. Not 100 but I'm sure you'll garner more. Perhaps you could add them to your "new customer totals" or some such.

              Nagware is just another form of malware, a virus named GWX.

            5. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Oh, yeah...

              @ 1Rafayal

              I won't down vote you, but I will speak harshly at you. So we're a 600+ employee company and have about 400 PCs/Laptops/Thin Clients. We purchase these machines from DELL with our custom W7 Pro image applied. I'd like to see how purchasing Enterprise licenses (which are totally unnecessary) for each of those machines would be cheaper and easier for us. The Ent keys are definitely more expensive.

              We have had to suppress the W10 GWX crap through GPO to keep it off our PRO stations. I've made this comment many times on this subject, "Microsoft can go F themselves with w10" as far as I'm concerned. It will NEVER EVER EVER be used by my company (at least not while I'm in charge).

              if there comes a time when W7 is no longer useable, I will begin using a Linux or VDI solution. Redmond has gotten it's last Windows dollar from me. GWX has cost me many hours in both personal and business time, without even a reach around.

          2. Zot

            Re: Oh, yeah...

            "So, if this news station had been running an enterprise version of what looks like either Vista or 7, the popup would never have ruined their lovely weather report."

            But how would they have known this? They're just meteorologist presenters with a laptop.

            Besides, the next day they'll reboot it and it get stuck in crash loop like the last update.

        4. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

          Re: Oh, yeah...

          "That just doesn't make any sense to man nor beast."

          We're talking about Microsoft here - oh, I see what you mean: beast.

        5. raving angry loony

          Re: Oh, yeah...

          Have a downvote. Because expecting people to purchase enterprise versions for obviously small office requirements is never an excuse to foist spam-ware on anyone. You make a good Microsoft apologist though, have you considered working for their marketing dept?

          1. asdf

            Re: Oh, yeah...

            >You make a good Microsoft apologist though

            For once at least not everything is AC or an account that was made yesterday (his 2011 looks like). Pretty sure his living depends on Microsoft in some way but is nice to see some progress.

          2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

            Re: Oh, yeah...

            "You make a good Microsoft apologist though, have you considered working for their marketing dept?"

            I'm sure a few people think he is. However I don't think they'd want him. He's doing a very good job of arguing that Windows isn't a good choice for businesses that are too small to employ specialist Windows admins. He'd make a very good salesman for Macs.

    2. 2460 Something

      Re: Oh, yeah...

      Why they cannot allow people to make up their own minds is beyond me. Shoving it down peoples throats is not helping their case.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Oh, yeah...

        Why they cannot allow people to make up their own minds is beyond me. Shoving it down peoples throats is not helping their case.

        I'd call it a clear sign of desperation. They *know* the ship is sinking because year on year they're cashing less and have more and more trouble flogging their warez - that's what drives that desperate need to move to subscription services.

        The problem is that Adobe's move to subscription services has already started to fuel a whole ecosystem of replacements, and Microsoft too has the problem that it's no longer the only game in town. Get too expensive and they'll make it worth the pain to switch, and I'm having a feeling Apple is calmly playing for that.

        All they have to do is wait..

      2. Alumoi Silver badge

        Re: Oh, yeah...

        Why they cannot allow people to make up their own minds is beyond me. Shoving it down peoples throats is not helping their case.

        Well, it works pretty well for religion, so ...

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Oh, yeah...

          Shoving it down peoples throats is not helping their case.

          Well, it works pretty well for religion, so ...

          Let's not talk about Catholic priests here, shall we?

          /tiptoes away..

    3. leexgx

      Re: Oh, yeah...

      daft thing is just turn off Recommended updates and no more GWX nag screen (as long as you have not installed it already if so uninstall it) as long as you don't turn off windows update you get the security updates you don't need the recommended ones

  2. Palpy

    Heh. Well --

    -- not exactly a thousand people watching. We have a web-based system monitoring about 50 remote industrial installations -- very simple installations, actually, just a few monitored data points for each.

    Lately we've noticed Win 10 nag screens overlaying the automation map. We just close it, of course, and put a penny in the SD card slot for Bill. I'm sure he appreciates it.

  3. Carl D

    Do what I've done

    >> "Microsoft recommends upgrading to Windows 10. Gosh, what should I do?" Slater asked sarcastically <<

    Clean install. Dual boot - Windows 7 and Linux Mint.

    Windows 7 at SP1 level only. No Internet access allowed (Network adapter disabled in Control Panel). Rarely used these days. Just for games and one or two other programs.

    I only use Mint online.

    No 'Patch Tuesday' woes anymore (which seem to be getting worse) and no Windows 10 nagware.

    Now I have a peaceful, stress free computing experience.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Do what I've done

      As long as you didn't install Mint on 20th Feb.

      Linux isn't immune to problems, if you kid yourself into believing that Linux = Safety, then you're painting a target on your forehead. You still need to apply good security practice. If it's entirely stress free then you're probably missing something.

      1. Tomato42
        Stop

        Re: Do what I've done

        at least Linux problems don't require an army of people hunting all the updates that normal people do not want, and even with that the little buggers get through

        while if you install Gnome Classic desktop, you won't see TIKFAM forced on you next restart after update

        1. Michael Habel

          Re: Do what I've done

          while if you install Gnome Classic desktop, you won't see TIKFAM forced on you next restart after update

          I can only assume your referring to Ubuntu, and it Unity GUI, then. As Mint can only be guilty of having a slight Windows 7 Aero tinge about it.

        2. Mpeler
          Coat

          Re: Do what I've done (@tomato42)

          "an army of people hunting all the updates"

          But isn't that what open source is all about?

          (Ducks and runs) (cheese and quackers)...

    2. BobChip
      Linux

      Re: Do what I've done

      Have an upvote from me!

      I went one small step further. Mint 17 is the host system in which I live for all my regular needs, with a copy of Win 7 available as a guest in VirtualBox - and like yours it never talks to the net, ever. I rarely have any use for M$ these days, but it is there at a single click of the mouse if ever I want it. No need to reboot if you want Windows.

      1. Fred T

        Re: Do what I've done

        Two steps further: I no longer have any Windows VM let alone a partititon. When you don't use something for over 3 years, it's a clear indication it will never be used.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Do what I've done

        Heck, if you install the "evaluation" version of MSWin7 Enterprise, and run a particular registry hack taht allows the eval version to run forever, the GWX nagware won't even run. So I guess being a pirate has even more benefits now.

    3. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: Do what I've done

      "Windows 7 at SP1 level only. No Internet access allowed (Network adapter disabled in Control Panel)."

      They probably needed a connection to get the forecast maps onto the PC in the first place. One doesn't just install a PC nor install an OS on it just for the sake of it. One does it to perform a job and the job will have other requirements beyond the hardware & OS.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Do what I've done

      Clean install. Dual boot - Windows 7 and Linux Mint.

      That's a lot of extra work. For home I just bought a Mac years ago (on which I also run a Linux VM). However, that does sod all for enterprises which have plenty of Windows stations and can't just switch or lose their existing investment in MS software and skills.

      I've seen various posts that state the GWX dialogue is suppressed on Enterprise setups, but "suppressed" implies something unwanted is still happening in the background, it only doesn't show it. It would be better if Windows had a "do not f*cking touch this system with anything related to version updates like Win 10" switch because, as far as I know, they're *your* systems and Microsoft has no business messing around with them without your permission.

      I'm surprised nobody has as yet complained about MS breaking computer laws. As far as I know, no EULA can override criminal law, even if MS says so. You can't tell me it's hard to prove intent as it shows up on a lot of screens on a daily basis.

      1. Lusty

        Re: Do what I've done

        "For home I just bought a Mac years ago"

        Are you saying your Mac doesn't badger you to upgrade, because I have a Mac, iPad and two iPhones and I'll say you're a liar. Apple are far worse for this kind of crap, the iPhone is effectively unusable if you decide not to upgrade to the latest version, and even when you click no thanks it then does another popup rather than accepting no as the answer.

        Linux doesn't badger me, but to remain in support it would seem I do these days have to put up with an ever changing interface and command set because apparently modern programmers aren't able to modify and update code, they have to start every change with a completely new project. Yum and ifconfig are my current irks here - there was nothing wrong that couldn't have been updated.../rant

        1. WolfFan

          Re: Do what I've done

          "For home I just bought a Mac years ago"

          Are you saying your Mac doesn't badger you to upgrade, because I have a Mac, iPad and two iPhones and I'll say you're a liar. Apple are far worse for this kind of crap, the iPhone is effectively unusable if you decide not to upgrade to the latest version, and even when you click no thanks it then does another popup rather than accepting no as the answer.

          Oh? Really? Until quite recently I had an older iPhone, a 4s. It worked quite well for my purposes, despite never having been updated past iOS 8. (I had seen reports indicating that 4ses got really slow with iOS 9, especially 4ses which didn't have much storage.) It's been replaced by a Donny Trump iPhone (hey, I have big hands, I just like small phones) which has a lot more storage space and iOS 9.3. Once I told the iPhone that I didn't want the upgrade the little red dot vanished, never to return. And it's not as though I paid particular attention to the little red dot, either, I went several months before even bothering to tell it to go away. [looks at iPhone. Hmm. I have several apps with little red dots on them now. Hmm. I don't bloody care. I'll get around to them later. Or maybe not.]

          1. ThomH

            Re: Do what I've done

            My iOS 8-running iPad seems to have the red dot permanently. That's the full extent of Apple's expression of its feelings as to whether I should update. It's really grasping to claim that the Windows 10 update prompts aren't the most obnoxious in the business, even if inexplicably dragging Apple into things is usually a winning strategy.

          2. Lusty

            Re: Do what I've done

            I've no idea what device you have, but you don't have an iPhone running a recent version (but not latest) if it isn't nagging you. Perhaps you update more than you think, but quite a large portion of the Internet is now filled with people asking how to get rid of update reminders on IOS 9. I have followed several of the methods such as removing the downloaded update file, but within a couple of weeks the phone gets a new copy without my permission and starts nagging again. This is on the iPad Air, 5S and 6S and has been the case for several versions now.

            1. davemcwish

              Re: Do what I've done

              I get the same intermittent nag running 9.2.1 and have to keep selecting 'remind me later'; there isn't a 'bugger off' option. The red dot with '178' over the App Store icon seems happy enough.

            2. ThomH

              Re: Do what I've done

              Researched; iOS 9 nags you to update to newer iOS 9s a lot more than pre-9 nags. That's probably the reason for the disparity in anecdotes.

              That being said, "Apple are far worse for this kind of crap" is still patently false. Microsoft has sent the update as automatically approved, has promoted it from 'optional' to 'recommended' within its update classification system, offered prompts with only 'upgrade now' or 'upgrade later' as options, and has started prompting users whose administrators have used the official Microsoft tools to prevent that. And unlike iOS, Windows offers no official way to delete the update once it has been silently downloaded.

              Hits for '"ios 9" nag': 77,200. Hits for '"windows 10" nag': 148,000.

              1. Roland6 Silver badge

                Re: Do what I've done

                Researched; iOS 9 nags you to update to newer iOS 9s a lot more than pre-9 nags. That's probably the reason for the disparity in anecdotes.

                Definitely the iOS 9.3 & 9.3.1 updates nag nag nag. I'm getting the update nag about once a day on my iPad2, what is strange is that the Air2, which also hasn't been updated isn't displaying the nag's...

                1. Anonymous Coward
                  Anonymous Coward

                  Re: Do what I've done

                  Definitely the iOS 9.3 & 9.3.1 updates nag nag nag. I'm getting the update nag about once a day on my iPad2, what is strange is that the Air2, which also hasn't been updated isn't displaying the nag's...

                  Innocent question: I know there is a LOT wrong with Win 10, which is why people have to be nagged into upgrading, but what is wrong with iOS upgrades?

                  I'm asking this from the perspective of someone who has reasonably up to date devices - I have yet to find a reason not to update with Apple. It may not happen immediately (usually because the downloads are in the GB range so I need to plan this downtime), but I have as yet found no argument not to update. That makes it very different from Win 10.

                  1. Roland6 Silver badge

                    Re: Do what I've done

                    Innocent question: I know there is a LOT wrong with Win 10, which is why people have to be nagged into upgrading, but what is wrong with iOS upgrades?

                    There are two big issues:

                    1. Time: to do the upgrade you really need to confirm everything has been backed up and that there is space on the device in which to perform the upgrade. Basically, I've there and got the t-shirt too many times to know that whilst an update should run without problems, it is better to allow for contingency, just in case you have to either recover the system or press another one into service (whilst you recover the failed device). So I usually delay doing a version upgrade until a convenient time - for both the regular user(s) of the device and myself.

                    2. With iOS 9.3 there have been many reports of the update failing on iPad2's, with a problematic recovery. Hence it has been sensible with these devices to wait; 9.3.1 doesn't attempt to fix the iPad2 installer problems, so it may be advisable to wait until they do... But this is really just a special case of point 1 above.

                    So fundamentally, the issue comes back to time management, the value I place on my time and where installing updates fits into my priorities and schedule.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Do what I've done

          Are you saying your Mac doesn't badger you to upgrade, because I have a Mac, iPad and two iPhones and I'll say you're a liar

          Well, thank you for that unwarranted character assassination, so let me return the favour by stating that comprehensive reading may not be your strength, nor your depth of knowledge about iOS and OSX.

          One by one:

          My Mac will not interrupt a presentation or otherwise nag me in the middle of using it for work - it nicely stays out of the way and at best I can see a red dot on the App Store icon.

          Secondly, no it doesn't nag me to upgrade because:

          1 - I don't have the App Store in the dock, because I use the dock for apps I use often

          2 - Over 5 years of OSX use I have as yet to come across an update that borks the system. However, as I back up daily and run Time Machine, I consider a dud upgrade an acceptable risk so my Mac is permitted to update what it can except for full OS updates - which it won't do automatically anyway. So I don't see any nag unless I go looking for it, and I generally do that after an update has been out for 24..48 hours so that any problems are known.

          Thirdly, ditto for iOS. That you're so keen to see the app store icon or are incapable of moving it somewhere less irritating is your problem, not mine. I have a home screen with icons I use a lot, and a second screen with groups where everything else lives. Here too, apps update automatically, the OS I do manually because one device is a bit short on storage (too many movies on it :) ). So, again, no nagging.

          You strike me as as the sort of person who will rather whinge for weeks about something than actually using Google for 10 seconds to solve a problem himself.

          I understand you may not be feeling yourself, you can do that later privately*

          * RIP, Spike Milligan

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I have a machine that's quite old, and doesn't have some CPU feature that's required for Win 10. But it STILL tells me to upgrade, then when it finishes downloading, tells me that was a waste of time and bandwidth.

    Until it asks again. WTF seriously.

    1. Rich 11 Silver badge

      I had the same happen on an old notebook last month, when I finally decided I'd let it upgrade so I could take a proper look at Win10. After the third download and installation failure I disabled the upgrade option and decided I'd use another sacrificial machine instead -- next year, maybe.

      1. paulc

        " I disabled the upgrade option and decided I'd use another sacrificial machine instead -- next year, maybe."

        after July it won't be free...

        I keeping my win 8.1 laptop disconnected from the net until then...

        If it still nags me or tries to put that telemetry rubbish on, it gets wiped, Linux mint putting on and an old copy of XP will be used in a virtual machine for playing FS98 on...

        1. Sebastian A

          after July it won't be free...

          I only hope. That way the nagging may stop.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      That happened to me as well

      MS assume that everyone has bought a new machine in the past 12 years. For various reasons, I haven't seen the need. I run Win7 Enterprise and have SATA-3 SSDs running in SATA-1 mode using the last of the P4s.

      It is fast enough for all but very demanding tasks, none of which I need very often.

    3. Dale 3

      Bandwidth

      You think that was a waste of bandwidth? My Win10 clean install (on a new PC) downloads the equivalent of itself *every day*.

      Previously my monthly usage was around 30GB (some might consider that low in this modern era, but I don't do a lot of video watching). I was a bit miffed I had chosen my ISP's "unlimited" package over their cheaper capped option because I really struggled to get anywhere near the 40GB cap. Since installing the new PC with Win10 in February, last month's usage was 97GB without me even trying. This month I'm already at 96GB with a week to go until my next billing date. And that's *after* I switched off the peer-to-peer Windows Updates sharing which is on by default.

      Next thing is to install something like ZoneAlam to try to find out where 4GB went in a 24 hour period when all I did was check email. Anyway who gets their Win10 by accident (I'm thinking grandparents who got the cheapest capped broadband because all they're doing is email and occasional Skype), is going to get horribly burned when they blow their cap in the first week.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I have a machine that's quite old, and doesn't have some CPU feature that's required for Win 10. But it STILL tells me to upgrade, then when it finishes downloading, tells me that was a waste of time and bandwidth.

      It is. Even when you DO manage to install it, you've set yourself up for the endless stream of patches that inevitably follow any Microsoft product. I remember the days when a Service Pack was a major event, but that merely shows my age..

  5. JeffyPoooh
    Pint

    Microsoft showing off their coding skills...

    10 PRINT "Upgrade this PC to Windows 10"

    20 PRINT "This PC is not compatible with Windows 10"

    30 GOTO 10

    Seriously. How friggin' hard is it to set a flag?

    Call it the 'This_PC_is_not_compatible_with_Windows_10' flag.

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Re: Microsoft showing off their coding skills...

      Everybody would be setting it in the registry. Far better to repeatedly nag, say, 2% of users who can't upgrade using their own bandwidth and time.

    2. bombastic bob Silver badge

      Re: Microsoft showing off their coding skills...

      <quote>

      10 PRINT "Upgrade this PC to Windows 10"

      20 PRINT "This PC is not compatible with Windows 10"

      30 GOTO 10

      </quote>

      you need an extra "GOTO 10" line (yes that was a vague Futurama reference, like when Calculon asked Bender sarcastically if he had an extra "GOTO 10" line)

      because, as we all know, it would be even STUPIDER if it DID have an extra 'GOTO 10' line.

    3. hplasm
      Devil

      Re: Microsoft showing off their coding skills...

      1. set a flag

      2.Call it the 'This_PC_is_not_compatible_with_Windows_10' flag.

      3. Sell it

      4. Massive profit!!

      Win10 isn't ready for prime time (TV) yet.

      1. chivo243 Silver badge

        Re: Microsoft showing off their coding skills...

        @hplasm

        "Win10 isn't ready for prime time (TV) yet."

        +1 for the embedded joke.

      2. BurnT'offering

        Re: Microsoft showing off their coding skills...

        5. Buy flag

        6. March on Seattle, waving flag

        1. Stoneshop
          Headmaster

          Re: Microsoft showing off their coding skills...

          5. Buy flag

          6. March on Seattle, waving flag

          You misspelled 'Redmond' and 'pitchforks'. Torches are also required.

          1. BurnT'offering

            Re: Microsoft showing off their coding skills...

            Who plays Igor now that Ballmer is gone?

  6. From the States

    GWX Control Panel might help here

    I have not used GWX Control Panel but have heard it recommended for stopping this behavior.

    http://ultimateoutsider.com/downloads/

    1. bob, mon!
      Thumb Up

      Re: GWX Control Panel might help here

      Works great for me, I have it installed on a physical machine and on a VM. Recommended if you've a reason to stay on Win7.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: GWX Control Panel might help here

        Recommended if you've a reason to stay on Win7.

        There are reasons not to?

        1. Tomato42
          Linux

          Re: GWX Control Panel might help here

          > There are reasons not to?

          you may need Win 7 for the occasional application that doesn't have Linux native version or doesn't work in wine

          1. MrTuK

            Re: GWX Control Panel might help here

            Very true, but they are getting fewer by the day as I have found out myself.

        2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

          Re: GWX Control Panel might help here

          "There are reasons not to?"

          Yes, if you're just running on a VM for some occasional requirement W2K might do just as well.

    2. Ralph B

      Re: GWX Control Panel might help here

      There is a smaller-footprint alternative to GWX Control Panel - Steve Gibson's Never10.

  7. Mark 85

    People... uninstall the main bad boy update KB3035583. Do note that this will keep popping up every time you update. Then get GMX Control Panel. It'll keep the wolf at bay until you can get Mint sorted. It's working for a lot of us.

    Disclaimer -- Yes, I'm still sorting it out and looking for a few work arounds for certain software that "insists" on being Win7 only. <sigh>

    1. werdsmith Silver badge

      Dozens of Win 7 desktops here in the office and none of them nag for Win 10 upgrade.

      Now I don't know why that is because I don't admin the windows, but I think it might be because they are all on an AD domain and managed by group policy and WSUS. So the Win 10 nagware thing is a function of home user setups, so it makes me wonder what kind of organisation this TV station is if they are using off the shelf windows setups.

      1. MrTuK

        Sorry, but Wn7 64 Professional is not home software, the word "Professional" gives you a hint !

        Home software like Win 7 Home, is for the Home user and has a reduced price because of this !

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          How brainwashed by Microsoft do you have to become to believe that marketing-applied labels (and prices) like "Professional" and "Home" should affect whether you're bombarded by self-reinstalling nagware? Professional and Home should just be applied to reflect feature sets, not justify nagging or spyware.

        2. werdsmith Silver badge

          Win7 Professional certainly is home software if you choose to use it at home.

          But my comment was not about the marketing label on the name of the OS, I was talking about the way the computer was deployed and managed. The clue is in "AD, Group Policy and WSUS".

          However, @MrTuk, the apology with which you began your comment is accepted.

          1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

            "Win7 Professional certainly is home software if you choose to use it at home."

            And by the same token it's professional software if you choose to use it professionally. As per my comment above, they've probably been using a set-up that's worked well for them over the years. Why should they be expected to have had the foresight to set it up differently so that their vendor couldn't do this to them years in the future?

        3. dajames

          ... Wn7 64 Professional is not home software, the word "Professional" gives you a hint !

          This is Microsoft we're talking about. "Professional" means "this is the version with the minimum feature set that actually works" and "Home" means "this is a half-arsed cheapskate version from which we've removed a bunch of useful stuff that home users may not miss just so we can push the price down without tempting IT departments to cut corners".

          Note the emphasis. The networking tools, for example, in "Home" versions of Windows are so seriously crippled that anyone with pretensions toward being a power user - or even an enthusiastic hobbyist - should just say "no" and walk away. It's not just about using workgroups (or the latest atrocity "Homegroups") instead of domains.

          Don't start me on (lack of) tools for managing permissions in Windows "Home" versions!

        4. BlackDuke07
          Trollface

          My car has a Sport badge on it, am I to believe that I shouldn't be using it to drive to and from work? Lmfao. Someone really believes marketing.

        5. WolfFan

          Sorry, but Wn7 64 Professional is not home software, the word "Professional" gives you a hint !

          Home software like Win 7 Home, is for the Home user and has a reduced price because of this !

          Do tell. [Looks at desktop, running Win 7 Pro. Looks at laptop, running Win 10 Pro. Looks around. Notes that am at home. Oh. Wait. Am at home in the home office. And, yes, I do have an Active Directory DC running. No, I didn't pay for it, or pirate it, I got it courtesy of MS's very own Dreamspark.] Thou art a ninny.

      2. Stoneshop

        so it makes me wonder what kind of organisation this TV station is if they are using off the shelf windows setups.

        At work we have two systems rotating status displays for various tasks. One status display being a weather radar, BTW. Both just run a browser, full-screen, so you wouldn't even know which browser that was, let alone what OS would be underneath. Normally, that wouldn't matter much either, and running Linux on them would make (temporarily) adding particular status screens remotely much easier. However, for network reasons they need to be part of the AD (but not WSUS), so, W7Pro it is, and they had been showing the GWX task bar icon when you got out of full-screen mode until we kneecapped the updater.

        It's perfectly possible that this rain radar display is a special snowflake that needs to be set up the way it is because of a particular video card that interfaces with the studio gear.

      3. Roland6 Silver badge

        "so it makes me wonder what kind of organisation this TV station is if they are using off the shelf windows setups."

        Simple, just like any other company with a volume licence agreement they buy PC's with a pre-existing Windows licence, let the user connect it to the domain and let Group Policy and Sysem Center do their work. For your typical office worker, why go to the trouble and expense of doing a bespoke build when all they will be running is Office, Acrobat Reader, Remote Desktop, IE/Chrome and a network printer?

  8. Gray
    Devil

    Surprise?

    – but this is ridiculous

    No, this is the new Microsoft.

  9. Winkypop Silver badge
    Trollface

    Stormy weather

    I've already predicted whether I will weather Win10.

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

    The sun'll come out

    Tomorrow

    Bet your bottom dollar

    That tomorrow

    There'll be sun!

    1. Ralph B

      Re: Stormy weather

      > There'll be sun!

      You're forgetting about oracle.

      1. Mpeler
        Mushroom

        Re: Stormy weather

        'orrible. The Animals of Redmond have made it

        The House of the Setting Sun...

  10. sms123

    don't do it!

    The best part was the lady saying don't do it at the end (referring to the upgrade)

  11. Daniel B.
    FAIL

    Funny

    Microsoft is only giving itself bad PR with the stupid nagware thing. Just stop it, MSFT, fix your current OS instead of trying to force it on everyone else.

    Give us an option to disable that stupid Metro GUI thing. It's less annoying in W10, but it still manages to screw up things.

    Maybe then you'll start getting voluntary upgrades!

    1. MrTuK

      Re: Funny

      Maybe you'll get voluntary upgrades - hmmmm, remove the spyware data slurping aswell then everyone will jump to Win 10 !

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Pirate

        Re: Funny

        Maybe you'll get voluntary upgrades - hmmmm, remove the spyware data slurping aswell then everyone will jump to Win 10 !

        Hmmm... that would rather defeat the point though, wouldn't it... What'd be in it for M$?

  12. Christian Berger

    That's why you should always avoid complexity

    The Windows 10 upgrade ads are just another bit of the needless complexity you get when using Windows, or increasingly systems designed by "Freedesktop/systemd" people.

    That's why you should always try to cut down your systems as far as possible. Every feature you don't need is a potential bug, even though I'm sure Microsoft considers the Windows 10 ad screens an essential feature. It's just like the OpenSSL "keep alive" feature.

    1. Hans 1

      Re: That's why you should always avoid complexity

      To MS, ads are "fun facts, tips, and tricks."

    2. Tomato42
      Facepalm

      Re: That's why you should always avoid complexity

      Here, have a rock, it has all your computing needs covered.

      1. hplasm
        Devil

        Re: That's why you should always avoid complexity

        "Here, have a rock, it has all your computing needs covered."

        No, it's trying to install Win10 on it. Oh wait, that's a brick...

    3. Adelio

      Re: That's why you should always avoid complexity

      And that's why i was so mad when we were told to upgrade office to 2016 at work.

      All i use is Outlook, Excel and Word. NOTHING else. So why do i not get ANY option to just install the applications I do use and skip those I DO NOT use? It's the principle of the thing. Not just how much space it takes up. but it then insists on downloading loads of updates for those applications i DO NOT USE!

      More time wastted.

  13. RIBrsiq
    Thumb Up

    This is bloody hilarious!

    Talk about shooting one's self in the foot!!

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Station TV announcement: The 5:17 to Doncaster....

    UPGRADE TO WINDOWS 10 !!

    1. Ole Juul

      Re: Station TV announcement: The 5:17 to Doncaster....

      An ad placed like that in the middle of a network show could run half a million dollars. I hope Microsoft pays up.

      1. MrTuK

        Re: Station TV announcement: The 5:17 to Doncaster....

        The cherry on the cake would have been if she had commented "Only when Hell freezes over !".

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Linux

          Re: Station TV announcement: The 5:17 to Doncaster....

          ...or... "Looks like it's time to upgrade to Linux"

          ;)

        2. Stoneshop

          Re: Station TV announcement: The 5:17 to Doncaster....

          "Only when Hell freezes over !".

          Current temperature in Hell is 7C, 44F

          http://www.yr.no/sted/Norge/Rogaland/Stavanger/Stavanger/ (Hell is just a few km east of Stavanger)

          1. PhilBuk

            Re: Station TV announcement: The 5:17 to Doncaster....

            At the moment, it's colder on the Wirral at 6C.

            Phil.

  15. arctic_haze
    Facepalm

    Flash!

    The Reg advices us to get rid of this bug infested spawn.

    Months later it serves us video in the obsolete format.

    How come?!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Flash!

      That's because War Rocket Ajax had not been dispatched due to an ongoing upgrade to Windows 10.

      1. WolfFan

        Re: Flash!

        That's because War Rocket Ajax had not been dispatched due to an ongoing upgrade to Windows 10.

        Does War Rocket Ajax have to bring back the body? Wouldn't it be better to dump it out at sea, far, far, FAR out at sea?

        1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
          Big Brother

          "Flash is a terrorist who may or may not, exist. Dump his body!"

          You mean like with that Saudi guy?

          "Yeah. Sea Burial. It's all in the Koran and totally halal, here, honest guv! From the carrier deck."

  16. wolfetone Silver badge
    Linux

    Bring back the Amiga with Video Toasters, all is forgiven.

    Or just upgrade to Linux. Either or.

    1. Peter Gordon

      Yeah, but then she just would have had a Guru Meditation instead ;-)

  17. Ken Moorhouse Silver badge

    Defibrillators and other such tools

    You can imagine what would happen if $Deity forbid, a senior Microsoft official were laid out on a pavement with the Medics in attendance. So they were stood around fiddling with their Life-Saving equipment, neglecting the patient. "FFS don't just stand there, DO something" say a group of passers-by. A medic breaks off from concentrating to reply "We are - we're just waiting for Windows 10 to install and then we'll be right with him."

  18. Gde

    $&%#! Microsoft!

    "Don't you just love when that happens?" says the presenter with a good natured smile.

    What do you suppose she was really thinking? How much of her audience was thinking the same thing?

    Does anyone, ANYONE at Microsoft realize what a laughingstock this has become.

    A client of mine asked me how Microsoft believes they can charge for Windows 10 after July when they've clearly established it's not worth paying for?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Holmes

      Re: $&%#! Microsoft!

      Who said anything about MSFT charging for it after July?...

      Once the last of the mugs has installed it "free" for them, M$ will start offering the rest of us money to install it :D

      1. Shufflemoomin

        Re: $&%#! Microsoft!

        Not only will they charge for it after July, they'll charge anyone who got it for "free" if they have to change their motherboard for any reason. Microsoft not only forced people into upgrading, they know that they've got you by the bollocks some time down the line when you need to change a piece of hardware and the only way to get back up and running is to hand over your credit card.

        1. Innocent-Bystander*

          Re: $&%#! Microsoft!

          Not only will they charge for it after July, they'll charge anyone who got it for "free" if they have to change their motherboard for any reason.

          That's only true for those who upgraded from an originally OEM license. Those who upgraded from Retail, get Retail Windows 10. All their upgrade licenses carry the rights of the originals.

          1. Alfie Noakes

            Re: $&%#! Microsoft!

            Re: "That's only true for those who upgraded from an originally OEM license..."

            It is a good job that Microsoft made that transparently clear in their upgrade nagware popups - er, they did, didn't they?

    2. Updraft102

      Re: $&%#! Microsoft!

      They're charging for it now. Build a PC today and see if they will give you the OEM version of Windows 10 for free!

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: $&%#! Microsoft!

      "A client of mine asked me how Microsoft believes they can charge for Windows 10 after July when they've clearly established it's not worth paying for?"

      An ex-girlfriend of mine asked me why she believes she can charge for sex (get me to marry her) when she's clearly established sex with her (no strings attached) is not worth paying for?

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Small misfire by M$ leads to a Butterfly Effect...?

    The mass media has done a lousy job of exposing Microsoft's dirty tricks lately. Maybe if more of these surprises happen, it'll anger enough people. Then maybe, just maybe, a senior executive will ask tough questions of Micro$oft suits on a Golf course someday. Because for sure, whining on forums no one ever reads at Redmond won't cut it for Windows-10 slurping & forced-updates....

    1. diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

      Re: Small misfire by M$ leads to a Butterfly Effect...?

      Trust me, Microsoft reads these forums. They treat these comments seriously.

      C.

      1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

        Re: Small misfire by M$ leads to a Butterfly Effect...?

        Really?

        Are you having a larf?

        MS does what it wants to do and to hell with what the users think or more importantly want.

        There are hundred if not thousands of posts here decrying Windows 10 for a multitude of reasons.

        Nothing that MS says or does leads me to think that they are listening.

        More likely they are putting their fingers in their ears and shouting

        "LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-I can't Hear you!".

        If they do read this forum and want to reply directly and tell us how they are going to address the concerns of the commentards who post here, I am sure that El-Reg will give them that opportunity.

        But will they jump into the Lions den?

        Please note, if there is a reply we don't want some marketing tripletalk who will spend 500 words and say absolutely nothing.

        {Proudly posted from a Windows 10 free Environment}

        1. VinceH
          Coat

          Re: Small misfire by M$ leads to a Butterfly Effect...?

          More likely they are putting their fingers in their ears and shouting

          "LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-I can't Hear you!".

          Well, given that we've long since established that's what muppets in advertising do when ad blocking is justified to them, it must well and truly prove that advertising works!

      2. CAPS LOCK

        "Trust me, Microsoft reads these forums. "

        .. and writes in them too. Where are all the Microsoft Online Reputation Managers this morning? Carter must be having a lie in. (Oow, I done a pun)

        1. Kubla Cant

          Re: "Trust me, Microsoft reads these forums. "

          Where are all the Microsoft Online Reputation Managers this morning?

          I assumed that they were responsible for the many (and prolix) posts saying "wrong edition of Windows... should be using WSUS... should know better... should have an IT Department staffed by Windows experts...".

          It's striking how this band of smartarses knows the TV station's business better than the TV station, when none of them appear to work there.

      3. Jay 2
        FAIL

        Re: Small misfire by M$ leads to a Butterfly Effect...?

        Colour me unconvinced. The fact that Win 8 launched with TIFKAM and no start menu (or similar) says otherwise.

      4. wolfetone Silver badge

        Re: Small misfire by M$ leads to a Butterfly Effect...?

        "Trust me, Microsoft reads these forums. They treat these comments seriously."

        Hopefully they read this:

        Your software sucks. Sort it out.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Paris Hilton

          Re: Small misfire by M$ leads to a Butterfly Effect...?

          I for one am quite sure they do read old Reg... and whenever the hoi palloi start looking too revolting they buy one of those premium Lumia "reviews" so they can use $AD_REVENUE as leverage to bully the management into doing stupid things.

          What else is that corporation likely to do? Fix their software??? Flush all that $PROFIT into an interminable herculean undertaking, just to address a small PR problem? Seriously?

          Embrace... extend...

      5. Simon Harris
        Happy

        Re: Small misfire by M$ leads to a Butterfly Effect...?

        "Trust me, Microsoft reads these forums."

        I think you forgot to write that post in The Colour Of Irony.

      6. Chika
        FAIL

        Re: Small misfire by M$ leads to a Butterfly Effect...?

        Trust me, Microsoft reads these forums. They treat these comments seriously.

        I trust you, but that isn't the problem.

        If they do read these comments, this one included, then the question has to be asked as to why they continue to push as they do.

        • Why do they insist on pushing W10 on people who have no intention of downgrading to W10?
        • Why do they continue to slurp when it has been expressed by so many that this is not acceptible?
        • Why do they continue with a policy of mandatory updates even though it has been shown more than once that their quality control is at fault?
        The trouble is that they have been in the wrong before but never admit it until well after they have been proven to be in the wrong, usually when the product or action in question is no longer relevant. If this really is an attempt to kick-start LoD, then they'd be better off saying so!

        No, I trust you. But Microsoft? I'd trust them no further than I could spit a rat.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Poor IT Standards at this outfit

    Any Computer running in a corporate environment that sees this message is an immediate red flag that your IT is not being managed correctly. It's not hard to decline the appropriate updates in WSUS/SCCM and make sure you block GWX completely..

    The Win 10 nagware is not a problem for 90% of Windows users, it's the people that read this website and other tech publications that don't like it because we like control of our environment and they would have you believe that this nagware is tantamount to a home invasion. In realiy, does this affect your every day life?

    The muggles are lapping Win 10 up in their millions, we just need to ignore it and get on with our lives. There are bigger things to worry about.

    If you REALLY don't like it, buy a Mac or install Linux.

    1. Adam 52 Silver badge

      Re: Poor IT Standards at this outfit

      Ignoring your other points, which are also rubbish, but this one:

      "nagware is not a problem for 90% of Windows users"

      Is absurd. My parents and the rest of their 70-year old peer group have a problem with it

      because it scares them. My girlfriend doesn't care about computers but does want to edit her GoPro footage in peace and doesn't want continual Microsoft spam just because she linked her Hotmail account to a Windows 10 login.

      Normal end-users do care, and they are turning to Reg readers for advice.

      1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

        Re: Poor IT Standards at this outfit

        "My parents and the rest of their 70-year old peer group have a problem with it"

        You should help them out, install something better.

        1. VinceH

          Re: Poor IT Standards at this outfit

          "You should help them out, install something better."

          It has to be said (although I don't like Google) when my step dad wanted a new computer several years ago, persuading him to get a Chromebook was a sensible move - it's more than adequate for his needs. (Though for other people, mileages may obviously vary).

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Poor IT Standards at this outfit

      Any Computer running in a corporate environment that sees this message is an immediate red flag that your IT is not being managed correctly.

      Indeed. If you have staff devoted to keeping your systems running and malware-free, then this is a sign that they're falling down on the job. Anyone in such a role should be classifying GWX as Malware and Microsoft as a threat Actor and acting accordingly.

      However, not all organisations are large enough to be able to afford dedicated support staff, so they have to trust the vendor of the OS. In such cases, Microsoft should be apportioned 100% of the blame.

    3. James 51

      Re: Poor IT Standards at this outfit

      I'd like to be able to buy linux too. I know Dell have their dev models but I can't wait for the day Currys start setting linux PCs.

      Oh wait, weren't they called netbooks? Just get some popcorn in that scenario and enjoy the show.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        @James 51 - Re: Poor IT Standards at this outfit

        Me too. I periodically have a walk around Currys and spend a few seconds admiring the new technology the vendors want us to enthuse over. It is only seconds, though, because the moment I read "Windows 10" it's like a cloud has just covered the sun. Linux - any variety - would immediately get my interest.

        1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

          Re: @James 51 - Poor IT Standards at this outfit

          "I periodically have a walk around Currys"

          If you walk round Currys hoping to find Linux in any guise other than Android you must have time to waste.

        2. Stoneshop
          Linux

          Re: @James 51 - Poor IT Standards at this outfit

          I periodically have a walk around Currys and spend a few seconds rebooting the systems from an USB stick with a live Linux distro.

          1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

            Re: @James 51 - Poor IT Standards at this outfit

            "I periodically have a walk around Currys and spend a few seconds rebooting the systems from an USB stick with a live Linux distro."

            You shouldn't do that. What happens when the customer gets home & finds that all he's bought is another W10 box?

      2. nematoad Silver badge
        Linux

        Re: Poor IT Standards at this outfit

        "I'd like to be able to buy linux too. "

        Why on earth would you want to buy Linux when it available free of charge. All you need to do is a little research, choose a distro that appeals and download it. It's as simple as that.

        Many Linux distos are easy to install, hold your hand through the process and will set up your computer so that it is ready to go as soon as you reboot.

        If however, you are a bit uncertain how it all works why not try running a distro or two in a VM? That way you can practise installing stuff without ever breaking anything. Most modern distros work well with Virtualbox and when I run it in "seamless" mode it is sometime difficult to tell which is the host and which is the client.

        It works, all it needs is a little application and research and away you go.

        1. James 51

          Re: Poor IT Standards at this outfit

          Because I shouldn't have to go through the hassle of checking stuff like UEFI with Secure Boot or pay for a Windows license I am not going to use and if it hits the shelves, perhaps game developers and device makers will make more of an effort to make sure their stuff works on linux without command line fu.

        2. Dave 126 Silver badge

          Re: Poor IT Standards at this outfit

          >Why on earth would you want to buy Linux when it available free of charge.

          There are some good reasons for buying a Linux PC - all the drivers will be supplied and tested. This isn't a comment about the availability of Linux drivers - I understand that's all good - but of assurance. It happens in the Windows world as well - CAD vendors have lists of certified workstations that have been extensively tested with their software. You have the peace of mind that the hardware, drivers, OS version and application version will all play nice together.

          1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

            Re: Poor IT Standards at this outfit

            "There are some good reasons for buying a Linux PC - all the drivers will be supplied and tested."

            Which would stop them switching to an unsupported Wifi card in the middle of a production run.

    4. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: Poor IT Standards at this outfit

      "Any Computer running in a corporate environment that sees this message is an immediate red flag that your IT is not being managed correctly."

      For some values of corporate. There are very many medium-sized businesses that can't afford a team of BOFHs to look after their systems.

      They have been sold the idea of a small network of computers running Windows Professional as a cheap and simple way of meeting their computing needs. Maybe they should have known better. Maybe they should have known the salesman was lying because they could see his lips moving. Nevertheless they have bought this stuff in good faith and are now finding that faith misplaced. They are businesses in their own fields, not in computing; they should not be required to run the overhead of an IT department to deal with what they've been sold.

      1. Sean Timarco Baggaley

        Re: Poor IT Standards at this outfit

        "They are businesses in their own fields, not in computing; they should not be required to run the overhead of an IT department to deal with what they've been sold."

        By that logic, the following also applies to all businesses:

        They are businesses in their own fields, not in accounting; they should not be required to run the overhead of an accountancy department...

        They are businesses in their own fields, not in sales; they should not be required to run the overhead of a sales department...

        They are businesses in their own fields, not in writing; they should not be required to run the overhead of hiring people who can spell...

        Etc.

        For fuck's sake, IT isn't new. We've had PCs in some form or another since the early 1980s, and financiers were getting share prices over telegraph wires well over a century ago; why the hell do people still act like the computer was only invented last week?

        Computers have been a basic component of damned near ALL businesses for well over a generation now. There's no excuse for skimping on an IT department, and yes, the TV station in question has either done precisely that, or they have hired incompetent staff. Any competent IT admin today knows where to find the support pages on MS' website.

        1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

          Re: Poor IT Standards at this outfit

          "Computers have been a basic component of damned near ALL businesses for well over a generation now. There's no excuse for skimping on an IT department"

          Chairs and desks have been basic components of damned near ALL businesses for well over a generation now. Is it your contention that they should all have a chair and desk department to make sure they're all working OK, set to the correct heights & so on?

      2. Roland6 Silver badge

        Re: Poor IT Standards at this outfit

        Maybe they should have known the salesman was lying because they could see his lips moving.

        I suspect in many cases the 'salesman' was an El reg reader... ie. someone who does IT for a living.

    5. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Poor IT Standards at this outfit

      Live in the back of nowhere with low speed heavily capped, hideously expensive data access - then you'll know!

    6. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Poor IT Standards at this outfit

      I should have given you an upvote for suggesting the option of buying a Mac, as that is what my wife has just done. She just has no desire for another Windows machine.

      Not helped by the fact that GWX put her sister's machine into limbo by filling up the SSD & making it unusable; only way out was a wipe & reinstall which I think a PC shop did for her (and not for free...).

    7. Mpeler
      WTF?

      Re: Poor IT Standards at this outfit

      "The Win 10 nagware is not a problem for 90% of Windows users"

      And 97 percent of statistics are made up.

      And "Statistics are like a drunk with a lampost: used more for support than illumination."

      "Never trust statistics unless you fiddled the figures yourself"

      - Churchill

      and of course there's a Dilbert too:

      Studies have shown...

  21. Dr Patrick J R Harkin

    Here is today's forecast:

    Iowa: Windows 7, rising to 10 later. Linux imminent.

  22. Craig 31

    re: Nag Nag Nag

    I'm a senior IT technician at the local school here in Leeds and I've had to use the GWX popup blocker software because of well .... I had the pop but get this, my pc is part of a windows vanilla domain.

    1. romanempire
      Boffin

      Re: re: Nag Nag Nag

      No WSUS server I'm guessing, otherwise you'd have been able to block that update from reaching your machines. Or do you just let all the updates through without checking/testing/filtering.

      P.

      1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

        WSUS server is missing!!

        "It's shit! Why don't you install shit manager to make it less shit" and other amazing truthinessisms from the network domain.

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Aesop's Fables: The North Wind and the Sun. If only there had been Sunshine forecast.

    I posted this previously (Aesop's Fables: The North Wind and the Sun) but its a little more omnious now, well, now we have this Video.. ;)

    "..has been indicating heavy amounts of rainfall" (if only it was Sunshine, poor MS) "across South West Iowa. Argh, Microsoft recommends upgrade to Windows 10, Argh, What should I do? Don't you love it when that pops up. Argh. Erm. Hmmm..".

    "The Winds have been vey gusty overnight aswell. Its that Windows 10 right, that's what people are going it say - Don't do it!"

    Here again, if you missed it last time (esp. for Microsoft)

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

    Aesop's Fables: The North Wind and the Sun

    (Have the folk at Microsoft never heard of it? They really need to)

    The North Wind boasted of great strength. The Sun argued that there was great power in gentleness. "We shall have a contest," said the Sun.

    Far below, a man traveled a winding road. He was wearing a warm winter coat.

    "As a test of strength," said the Sun, "Let us see which of us can take the coat off of that man."

    "It will be quite simple for me to force him to remove his coat," bragged the Wind.

    The Wind blew so hard, the birds clung to the trees. The world was filled with dust and leaves. But the harder the wind blew down the road, the tighter the shivering man clung to his coat.

    Then, the Sun came out from behind a cloud. Sun warmed the air and the frosty ground. The man on the road unbuttoned his coat.The sun grew slowly brighter and brighter. Soon the man felt so hot, he took off his coat and sat down in a shady spot.

    "How did you do that?" said the Wind.

    "It was easy," said the Sun, "I lit the day. Through gentleness I got my way."

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

    1. israel_hands

      Re: Aesop's Fables: The North Wind and the Sun. If only there had been Sunshine forecast.

      I've always though that fable was bullshit. The sun clearly picked an event that was massively tilted in his favour.

      It's like me challenging Stephen Hawking to an arm-wrestle then claiming it proves that science is bullshit.

      (That being said, I agree with the point you're making).

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Aesop's Fables: The North Wind and the Sun. If only there had been Sunshine forecast.

        Yeah but the Sun could also just shut down, then the Wind would soon die anyway.

        It's fucking no contest, man!

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    As someone who grew up with DOS and embraced Windows

    my first choice for a system like this (or the system driving an estate agents carousel display c.2005) would *not* be Windows.

    Reminiscent of seeing a Windows message box on ATMS ....

  25. You Are Not Free

    The free "GWX Control Panel" utility

    Handles the GWX issues quite nicely.

    http://ultimateoutsider.com/downloads/

  26. Carl D

    Now they've really gone too far

    http://frupic.frubar.net/shots/33621.jpg

    Lucky I don't have my Atari 2600 and Atari 400 anymore, they would probably be next.

  27. Yugguy

    Get real people to test your new OSes Microsoft!

    It's no point using excitable, tabula rasa foetuses in your user acceptance groups.

    You need the 50 year old secretaries and data inputters that wil actually have to produce real results with your products.

  28. myhandler

    That Steve Gibson "Never 10" works a treat.. showed my Win64Pro system was 'enabled' - not any more it ain't.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Steve Gibson? Isn't he the clown that demanded Microsoft remove raw socket support from windows lest the Internet implode under the weight of a malware apocalypse?

  29. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    Last week a lecturer at the local Civic Society said that recently he'd been told that there was a PC available in a hall where he was to speak so he turned up with just his Powerpoint (probably on a thumb drive!). The PC spent 55 minutes downloading updates.

    To forestall what seem to be usual comments: just a PC in a hall, no WSUS, no IT department to run a single PC. Yes, I know the organisers shouldn't have connected it to the net but they probably weren't Register readers who'd have known that.

  30. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Microsoft?

    What troubles me is why the TV station was using a Microsoft Windows device in the first place. This is the Media after all, I thought only Apple devices were allowed into the media and advertising industries.

  31. Delbert Grady

    It only happened once to me..

    then installed the recent GWX stopper util, disabled Windows update and removed the half dozen telemetry and spy-ware patches MS installed and then it was 'corrected' .... it happened to some of my neighbours computers too, and i 'corrected' them as well. I won't use Windows on the net.. i unplug it from the net, only need it just to run one or two programming bits of sw.

  32. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "There will be a cold front penetrating the Sunny spell and leading to frozen conditions. Prepare ahead of time or you could be faced with a repeating pattern for future forecasts"

  33. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Wonderful, just wonderful.

    Microsoft have finished shooting themselves in the foot and are now working their way up to the kneecaps.

  34. Unicornpiss
    Meh

    You have to deploy a policy to stop this

    Typically any machine we use in a high-stakes presentation also will have the WSUS service disabled as well.

    That said, you can pry Windows 7 out of my cold dead CPU if I have to use a MS operating system. I have an almost pathological hatred of pop-ups and advertising of any kind, beneficial or not. I go to great lengths to keep from seeing advertising. Perhaps if everyone was like me, no one would make money and the economy would crumble. If your site has an annoying, blinky ad that can't be blocked, or is one of those that force you to enable ads to continue, we're done. I'll find an alternative vendor.

  35. Hans Neeson-Bumpsadese Silver badge

    Microsoft has been making a sledgehammer-meets-nut job of injecting Windows 10 into people's PC

    In comparison to the nut-job meets sledgehammer days when it injected Steve Ballmer into high office.

  36. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    there's no bad advertising :(

    and yeah, soon you'll have a Steve Balmer replicant claiming, internally, that you know, it's a bit naff, but HEY, WE GOT FREE, NATIONAL COVERAGE!!!!!

    Still, doesn't beat those large BSD panels you come across at stations, airports and cash mashines across the world. Microsoft ARE FAMOUS!!!

    1. dajames

      Re: there's no bad advertising :(

      ... doesn't beat those large BSD panels you come across at stations, airports and cash mashines across the world.

      I had a brief alternative reality moment there ...

      You might want to look into the difference between BSD (a version of Unix) and BSoD (a Windows error report).

      1. Mpeler
        Coat

        Re: there's no bad advertising :( (@dajames)

        "You might want to look into the difference between BSD (a version of Unix) and BSoD (a Windows error report)."
        There is one?

    2. bombastic bob Silver badge

      Re: there's no bad advertising :(

      <quote>

      and yeah, soon you'll have a Steve Balmer replicant claiming, internally, that you know, it's a bit naff, but HEY, WE GOT FREE, NATIONAL COVERAGE!!!!!

      </quote>

      it's an easter egg in the GWX panel. Just shake your PC vigorously, next time it comes up. That activates the easter egg. (maybe some might activate if you put it in a microwave oven on high for 3 minutes, or use the CD/DVD tray for a coffee cup holder)

      (ok I've been reading BOFH too much)

  37. jaywin

    Two things...

    Two things surprise me about this incident:

    1) They're not using a dedicated SDI output from the machine, relying on Windows to properly manage it's monitors, and probably using an HDMI output and HDMI-SDI converter...

    2) They're using the primary screen to output their weather maps. This is madness, as all wonders of messages can and do appear on the primary screen, not just this nag screen. Add a second monitor, using a usb-vga if needed, and set that as the primary screen, then run your critical software on the secondary output - voila - no more nag screen, volume popups, notifications, "java wants to update" balloons, taskbar if someone nudges the windows key, etc.

    1. itzman
      Windows

      Re: Two things...

      You forgot the third thing. The cost and scarcity of someone who knows that wot u sed was the 'right' way to do it..

      You have no IDEA how really computer illiterate 99% of businesses really are. Yea, even unto fortune 500 companies.

      They buy some stuff, a PFY installs it. It works to do what teh job requires, and they learn JUST enough to make it do that.

  38. beavershoes

    Microsoft is acting like nagging is good for everybody

    when the truth of the matter is, the nagging only benefits Microsoft.

  39. Zippy_UK

    USE THIS WONDERFUL OPERATING SYSTEM

    Great free advertising to persuade customers to switch to Microsoft. The marketing department will be ecstatic

  40. Sean Timarco Baggaley

    Windows Home and Professional are aimed at individual users...

    ... not large corporate networks.

    MS' primary assumption is that BOTH Home and Pro users will not usually have professional IT administrators to support them. That means Microsoft themselves have to do that.

    Hence the alleged "nagware".

    This is MS making it crystal clear that they are simply not willing to provide endless ongoing free support to Home and Pro users for older versions of their OS.

    The only reason Windows Pro connects to AD and the like is because many freelancers need to be able to connect to their clients' networks to do their work. It is not intended to be installed on clients in a complex corporate network environment with paid IT staff.

    1. nkuk

      Re: Windows Home and Professional are aimed at individual users...

      I disagree, maintenance costs are factored into the cost of a Windows licence, and home users would have to pay for Support as it stands anyway. MS don't provide free technical support.

      MS is also obliged to maintain Windows 7 until 2020 whether one person or 100 million people are using it. They still have to test and produce security fixes so the number of end users is pretty irrelevant.

  41. Joeyfallon

    Never10 from Steve Gibson

    This works, from the great Steve Gibson. Stop the Win10 nag screens the easy, officially approved way https://www.grc.com/never10.htm

  42. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    Selection bias?

    A good many commentators here seem to work in large businesses, or even medium-sized businesses that are able to run specialised IT departments or market to such businesses.

    For smaller businesses, and even some middle-sized businesses, this would be an inconceivable luxury. In such businesses the "IT guy", even if there is one, might be doing the job part time. He might simply be an application specialist. He might even be the business owner running routine backups along with all his other tasks (had this as a client). This is life in a large number of businesses. Just because the big-business-only group haven't experienced it they would be wrong to assume it doesn't happen.

    For such businesses PCs are simply tools for staff to do their jobs, just as typewriters were in their day. They may be buying them one at a time as they need them so "enterprise" discounts don't apply, even if the eventual totals might suggest otherwise. In some instances they (and larger businesses) may be buying the PC and its operating system as an integral component of some larger bundle where specialist software is tied to the OS*. They may be buying a mixture of Windows and Macs for different purposes.

    They have paid good money for such tools, just as they did for typewriters, just as they do for office furniture. As such they should be entitled to expect those tools to just get on with being used and not have minds of their own. If maintenance is required it should be able to fit the users' schedule and not the vendors. Nobody would, for example, expect the manufacturer to flag down a company car in the middle of a journey because an oil-filter change was due.

    If the vendor that supplied those tools can't get them to work that way it's the vendor, that has failed and not the customer. And a vendor that not only fails in this way but is so arrogant as to continue blaming the customer is one that shouldn't expect to survive.

    *I've seen this in a business which had its own large IT department. Processors were embedded in industrial printers and enveloping lines and their maintenance was outside the scope of the IT department. (For the enveloping lines, IIRC, the take-it-or-leave-it choice was a real-time Unix variant.) Similar considerations apply to laboratory equipment, scanners etc in the medical world and, no doubt to all manner of process control equipment.

  43. Anonymous Coward
    Meh

    I remember when my XBox...

    started nagging me to buy an XBox 360 every time I went to join an online game.

    I bought a Wii. And later a PS3.

    Just sayin'...

  44. Tony Pomfret
    FAIL

    Developer working from home... not!

    Windows 10 installed itself (no query) on my office PC while I was working at home, This update bust file sharing via Hamachi! The following day was then wasted on trying to get Hamachi working... my day ended in rolling back to Win7. Cheers MS! :(

  45. anthonyhegedus Silver badge

    When are people going to realise that almost everything microsoft produce is basically shite? Their software is bad.

    1. Chika
      Alert

      When are people going to realise that almost everything microsoft produce is basically shite?

      I'm not totally convinced about that. No company is completely bad or they'd go out of business right at the start, but no company is completely good either. I rather liked Windows 2000 and once they'd stopped buggering around, XP was fine. W7 and Windows Server 2008 were the best things out there since W2K and I'm not completely against Windows Server 2012 as long as it is rigged for reasonable running (if the GUI has to be loaded, I'll take that with Classic Shell).

      But each of the above systems has its flaws and the other systems not mentioned here all have something good about them if you look hard enough. It's just that more recent ideas behind the designs of systems, especially the GUIs (which is why I'm less likely to write off server OS releases), have pushed ideas that have royally pissed off (and on) users one way of another.

      They aren't totally shite, but you can see where the shite lies more easily in the recent releases.

      Hey! Now there's an idea for a new icon!!!

  46. ben kendim

    LG Smart TV did the same thing

    I have an L 'never again!' G smart TV, that displayed an update box that was overlaid on the BROADCAST TV screen and would not go away unless I accepted their new terms and conditions...

  47. Jeffrey Nonken

    GWX Control Panel FTW

    I'm sure it's been mentioned, but I'm not prepared to read all 156 comments to check. Mind you, GWX Control Panel is mitigation, not a cure. The cure is for Microsoft to pull their collective head out.

    For those people who are saying "Windows Enterprise blah blah...", you're suggesting the station should have to spend extra money just to avoid this pervasive nagging? Sounds like a protection racket to me.

    1. Chika

      Re: GWX Control Panel FTW

      For those people who are saying "Windows Enterprise blah blah...", you're suggesting the station should have to spend extra money just to avoid this pervasive nagging? Sounds like a protection racket to me.

      If you ever saw the price of deploying Enterprise... ;)

    2. bombastic bob Silver badge

      Re: GWX Control Panel FTW

      <quote>

      I'm sure it's been mentioned, but I'm not prepared to read all 156 comments to check.

      </quote>

      I'm reading them, and have seen GWX and the Steve Gibson one mentioned at least 4 times (each), probably more for GWX control pane. it's starting to look like SPAMMING

  48. jms222

    It scares me that a surgeon might be looking at a display with his or her hands inside me and get something like that.

    Now I can appreciate the MS view that they would rather support _just_ Windows 10 but there should be an official way to declare that yes I know and stop nagging me.

    1. Chika

      It scares me that a surgeon might be looking at a display with his or her hands inside me and get something like that.

      That point was made a long time ago and it's certainly appreciated.

      Now I can appreciate the MS view that they would rather support _just_ Windows 10 but there should be an official way to declare that yes I know and stop nagging me.

      There is. The current mitigating softwares out there, GWX Control Panel and Never 10, will do the necessary disabling for you, especially if you don't like the idea of mucking about in the registry, and will allow reversion so that you can downgrade to W10 should you really want to.

      But I agree. Nagging at users and forcing software on you is wrong - if anything it's as bad as a drive-by virus. Even the fact that there is a registry key that does this is hidden in plain sight.

      1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

        "There is. The current mitigating softwares out there, GWX Control Panel and Never 10"

        I doubt Microsoft consider these as official.

        1. Mark 85

          I'm waiting for the lawsuits from MS to those two, maybe "interfering with trade" or perhaps an update that gets around them with a warning that you are violating their EULA by having those two programs....

  49. W. Anderson

    What else to expect from Microsoft

    Any company that is using Microsoft software for such an important application like TV Weather forecasting needs to be done in by this practice, just to 'metaphorically' knock them on the head about the disastrous reality of Microsoft software poor quality and behavior.

    There are significantly better alternatives for such task, and even the US Weather Services and NASA use Linux for it's core data processing infrastructure, including graphical representation of Live data to end users.

    Just last week several retail pharmacy operations in another country reported complete systems crashes on forced Windows 10 upgrades, since all the special pharmaceutical software APIs and drivers, as well as peripherals did not work at all. Similar incidents are reported weekly in Network operations for entities in USA and elsewhere.

    These calamities are unfortunately the only way that Microsoft users, particularly in USA will (hopefully) realize the severe consequences of their poor choice in software technology use. I have no sympathy what-so-ever for their misfortunes in this area of technology adoption.

    1. Captain Badmouth

      Re: What else to expect from Microsoft

      @ W. Anderson :

      Have you a link for those pharmacy crashes?

      Thanks.

    2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: What else to expect from Microsoft

      "the severe consequences of their poor choice in software technology use"

      They will have been sold a working system that has met their requirements for some time so whether you or I would have thought it had the best technical underpinnings it would be difficult to argue that it was a poor choice. They should be entitled to expect that the system on which they've spent money should continue to meet their requirements, assuming the requirements don't change.

      It amazes me that commentators seem to think that the customer should be blamed because a reasonable purchasing decision has been invalidated by a post-sale action of the vendor with the implied assumption that such post-sale actions are acceptable.

      1. W. Anderson

        Re: What else to expect from Microsoft

        To: Doctor Syntax

        The history of Microsoft's poor performance and poor reliability, and expecially poor security software should be enough for a "competent" tech decision maker in any firm - small or large to know that sales pitches have little value, only to gullible Microsoft worshippers.

        There is a very wise saying that judgement should be made against past actions, not present rhetoric.

  50. Don Aldduck

    Had a similar issue with Win 10 nagware ( and a friend who had it installed without her specific , which took hours of my time to upgrade back to Win7 Pro so sent the following to the Microsoft UK contact point; had a phone call back within 30 mins - and it seems that even bits of their legal don't really understand what's going on.

    FTAO Microsoft UK CEO: and Microsoft UK Legal,

    Dear Sirs,

    Over the last few weeks and days my Win7 Pro based PC  has been the subject of a number of unrequested  and increasingly insistent attempts to install Win 10,. Since I have not requested that this software even be downloaded to the PC, I regard this as attempting  to subvert the integrity of the current installation and data, which in my view classifies it as deliberate malware, and an action which  is in direct contravention of UK law under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. Arguably, such activity may also contravene UK contract law in relation to obligations associated with the previous software purchase.  Pls take this email as formal notification that should Win 10 install itself on this or any other computer system which I own or have responsibility for, without my specific and express permission,  I will report this to both the Police and other appropriate UK Governmental; Agencies as a potentially criminal act by Microsoft. I will also seek via the UK courts legal redress and compensation for all time, costs, and other incurred charges associated with restoring the said computer systems to their original state. Pls be aware that should I wish to install Win 10, I am more than happy to pay for a full licence, but it will be at a time and date of my choosing, not that of Microsoft.

    I hope that the above makes thing clear for you - I await your comments with interest.

    Yours faithfully

    etc etc

  51. GrahamK

    M5

    By coincidence I was travelling north on the M5 this evening, not too far from where it joins the M6 looked up on one of the huge advertising signs off to the left only to spot the bottom right corner of it covered by the top left quarter of the Windows 10 update window!

    Sadly I was driving so couldn't grab a photo :(

  52. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Terminator

    John Connor: The Upgrade Chronicles

    "How did you defeat Skynet, then?"

    "I clicked on 'YES' in the 'Upgrade to Windows 10' dialog that was showing"

    "Gimme 5!!! You fucking SAVED HUMANITY!!"

  53. Anonymous South African Coward Bronze badge

    Somewhere along the line M$ promised that PC's on a domain network won't be infected with Win10.

    Guess again.

  54. ciderbuddy
    Boffin

    More fuel for the Fire

    Here's one that people may not be aware of - if you want to develop on win phone 8 you need windows 8.1+.

    My uni course had a mobile dev module and one of our labs had to be upgraded from Win7 just to let us do this. Talk about a lockdown...oh, and we needed dev accounts just to test our apps out.

    Such fun getting it to work properly

  55. G7mzh

    Use XP

    No pop-ups, no nag screens, no problem. It just works.

  56. A Ghost
    Mushroom

    So this really is happening then.

    I think it's time to take stock. This is happening. And we are powerless to stop it. Microsoft threw a small minority of its users under the bus, but it's the lusers they are interested in gaming now.

    To push major proponents of your brand to the point where they have no choice but to abandon you, shows a certain calm, calculated foresight. They knew what would happen. It's just collateral damage.

    Just as the audio industry is not on the road map of OS or hardware builders, the dev community and the tech savvy among us are small potatoes. Microsoft has mechanisms in place to keep certain people 'loyal' and unable to jump ship, but really, they don't care what you think, and if you feel that strongly about it that you will go elsewhere, well that's a shame, but you know, you are in a minority. Most will moan and eat it. C++ devs, whatcha gonna do, eh? Start using another language? Good luck finding one with the speed and libraries that language has. But it is academic.

    We are not the demographic Microsoft is targeting here. They are going for the mass market end luser paradigm. And it works.

    Case in point: My folks have finally bought a new computer. After many precarious years running XP, wide open, they had to buy a new machine as the other one just ground to a halt. They got win X.

    I mentioned in passing the implications of this, but was met with a 'don't care'. To be fair, my family are gravely ill, so I can appreciate it to an extent. Computer security and being data-raped are low down on their list of priorities. There will be many more like them. Those too ill to care (though I accept these will be in a minority), those having too much of a good time to care, those that are unable to care, those that want to care, but just can't because they have been ground down so much they have lost the will to live, etc. etc. - Microsoft wins! They know this. They aren't mugs.

    It's a war of slow attrition and they have won it.

    Let's just accept that and move on. Those of us that can set up dual boot systems with Linux are few and far between. Those of us that can do it and will be tasked to do it for others will also be few and far between, because most people don't know it is a problem, or don't care. There will be no mass exodus from Windows. Microsoft is at that awkward stage in its lifecycle, you know the one, where they are about to die. They are fighting for their lives. They will show no mercy and relinquish not one inch of ground. In fact, they will just get nastier and more dangerous from now on in. Only a madman would buy into microsoft from the outset today. For the rest of us after being baited, we are now being switched. We can turn off the life-support machine, or we can carry on being abused. Only a few of us have options outside of Microsoft. I don't.

    I'm talking about those of us with software that will not run on any other OS, and won't work properly in VMs because of hardware driver support etc. - we are stuffed.

    Let's just accept, that our computer is not our own any more, even though we paid for it. Let us accept that we are going to be effectively blackmailed and have to pay protection money to Microsoft whenever they see fit. Let's just accept that they are in bed with the government and giving them all our data. Let us accept that they now have carte blanche to also sell our data to 3rd parties with impunity because the govt. will turn a blind eye coz of the spying. Accept you have no right to privacy, let alone anonymity. Accept that you now need to learn new rules about your behaviour, such as not complaining about anyone in a position of power, because they have dirt on you.

    Accept you are a digital serf. Learn to eat shit, and learn to love it, coz it's happening. And you, my mighty tech overlords (yes even you magnificent tech bastards from el Reg) can't do a single thing about it. You've been gamed and lost.

    Start getting used to this new digital dystopia. A world where your neighbour can access your medical records, and see that you attempted suicide 10 years ago, that you have been on Prozac for 20 years, that your child died in a miscarriage, that your wife never really got over because she is being treated for Diazepam addiction, for which she would have died had it not been for that liver transplant she received. And your neigbours thought you were such nice people as well.

    Those neigbours might be able to get that info because they have access to certain databases, or they might just do what most people do: Buy it! That's right, once everyone's data that has been data-raped from them is on the big bad brother database, it's just a case of monetizing it and farming you out. No one will be safe, except for a few high level politicians and movers and shakers. Be assured you will never find Suckerberg's proctological (is that even a word?) data on line, for any price. Thank god.

    We are well and truly on this road now. Let's stop shouting and screaming 'Stop'. We are being data-raped, and the data-rapists will not stop.

    Oh, so they say the data is anyonymized - weasel words. They say the aren't selling the data - weasel words. The lies, the lies...

    They always lie at the start. It's part of the game. Then when they eventually get called out, it's the limited hangout defense. Then they get probed more and say 'fuck it, you know what, yes we are data-raping you, have been for some years, what the fuck you gonna do about it, bitch? Yeah, I thought so, don't fucking have it in you do you, cunt!'. Then they data-rape you some more, just for payback for the temerity not just to question them, but thinking that questioning them would yield any other result than making them more angry. Behaviour modification at its finest. You slap your bitch when she looks at you the wrong way, you make her pay. You never let one thing slide. You slap her harder if she does it again. Pretty soon your bitch will come into line, and what's more, then she'll really start to love you. It's pimping 101.

    Because they do want us to love our servitude, our oppression. And them. Big brother just wants to be loved, because being hated is being in a precarious position. They want 100 percent compliant, obedient slaves. And they know how to get it, they know how to play it, like the true pimps they are.

    We are their bitches now. Resistance is futile. You will be Data-Raped. You will not take issue with this. You will enjoy it. You will even learn to ask for more.

    Please excuse my crass analogy. But I stand by it, for it is apt.

    Does anyone know if Orwell ever ran girls out of a brothel ? Because he sure had pimp game down, I'll give him that. With his inherent understanding of human psychology, frailty, weakness and well, humanity, he knew what made us tick, and he knew what made 'them' tick.

    Microsoft are fucking pimps. And they aren't just farming out our old beaten and weathered bottoms, they are farming out your 3 year old daughter's as well, your six year old son, hell, they are even farming out your dead wife who never quite got over the miscarriage and committed suicide. Nothing is sacred to them. Every thing is power. Not even money at this point with them.

    Certifiably, absolutely, 100 percent batshit crazy, and criminally insane.

    Welcome to the future folks. It arrived last year, but most people are still playing catch up. Hold on to your hats, it's going to get hairy. At this rate, we will be micro-chipped sex slaves before 2020.

    We are at a pivotal point in human evolution, and it just looks like the human race is not going to make it. From where I'm standing, I don't even think it deserves to make it.

    It was fun while it lasted.

    So long, and thanks for all the pish.

  57. itzman
    Linux

    to any astroturfing MS shills....

    My neighbour was so upset confused and paranoid about M$ insistence he install windows 10 (have I caught a virus?) that he asked me to install Linux instead.

    His laptop runs faster now than it ever did on Win7.

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