Windows fails to reach the Finnish line as Helsinki signage pleads for help

Windows is everywhere and can be found pleading for attention all over the world, including signage lurking in the Finnish capital of Helsinki. Spotted by Register reader Erkki, Windows 10 has been shoved into an advertising board overlooking the city's delightful harbour. (Quite why something the size of Windows 10 should be …

[Dan 55]

Let's cross this one off the list?

My God, make the corporate-matey bollocks speak stop.

But someone tell me how to get Windows 10 to at least wait instead of popping up the "Windows will restart" in a dialog box while you're typing, in the hope that you're going to hit a key which causes it to restart anyway.

[Francis Boyle]

Alternatively, you could try

actioning it going forward but you'd probably just end up with a nasty bruise on your forehead.

[Nolveys]

Re: Let's cross this one off the list?

My God, make the corporate-matey bollocks speak stop.

Hardly a surprise when they even lie about the name. It's not Windows 10, it's Windows NEIN!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Let's cross this one off the list?

From the movie 'They Call Me Bruce':

"You are a 10 when you should be a 32...."

[Hubert Cumberdale]

Re: Let's cross this one off the list?

It can be done – I've done it – but it seriously should not be this hard.

[BenDwire]

Sledgehammer, meet nut.

Why on earth do people insist on putting a heavyweight OS behind something that's just showing a few pictures?

[JimC]

Re: Sledgehammer, meet nut.

Because if you have limited skill sets and resources in your organisation its a lot easier and cheaper to go with a platform you already have staff trained in and understand than it is to introduce a new one. In this sort of context the cost of the processor and OS is a trivial part of the TCO.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Sledgehammer, meet nut.

Yeah, but it would be just as easy these days to drop a cheap android tablet in the cabinet, hook up the display, and run an app instead.

That said, it's really trivial to pause Windows updates indefinitely. If no-one on your staff can figure that out, maybe even the above is too much to ask.

[Pinjata]

Re: Sledgehammer, meet nut.

Really? Trivial as in something your granny can do?

[Teiwaz]

Re: Sledgehammer, meet nut.

Trivial as in something your granny can do?

Grannies running a digital signage firm??

Sounds like another Monty Python reference (but probably not edgy enough, would need to be a Granny hacking collective).

[dwall.online]

Re: Sledgehammer, meet nut.

What firm is he running?

Something like https://dwall.online/?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Sledgehammer, meet nut.

It's editing-the-registry trivial.

Find: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsUpdate\UX\Settings

Edit the two ...EndTime and the ...ExpiryTime keys to dates as far in the future as you like.

Job done.

Your Gran May Vary. ;)

[Anonymous Coward]

@Pinjata - Re: Sledgehammer, meet nut.

Compared to their staff, a trained granny can do it easily.

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: Sledgehammer, meet nut.

"That said, it's really trivial to pause Windows updates indefinitely. If no-one on your staff can figure that out, maybe even the above is too much to ask."

These are the people who use crayons and coloured pencils. They may well have highly advanced technological tools, but they may not have any "mechanics" on staff. They just "drive" the tools, have learned some of the right buttons to press and if anything "breaks", the just take it "to the garage".

[Anonymous Coward]

@JimC - Re: Sledgehammer, meet nut.

...limited skill sets instead of saying a bunch of muppets. You're too polite.

By the way, it seems it's a platform their trained staff still doesn't understand.

[Version 1.0]

Re: Sledgehammer, meet nut.

Windows 10 is not a heavyweight OS, it's just a massive sized app, far larger than any functional OS. And as for all these borking messages, remember the days of Vista? Windows 10 is worse then Vista, it's user fiendly (sic).

[Dave K]

Disruptive service

I always find it amusing how these dialogs talk about how "Windows is a service" as if that is a positive thing - at the same time telling you that this means some annoying disruption. All these dialogs do is confirm that "Windows as a service" means additional disruption, rather than anything positive.

Of course, quite why the hell they're running the normal, full-fat Windows 10 is a mystery. If they *have* to run Windows 10 (and I highly doubt this), at least bung the LTSC version on there...

[deadlockvictim]

Windows as a Service

Whom exactly does it serve?

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: Windows as a Service

MS, obviously.

[MJI]

How condescending

That message makes me want to punch something, and I am not violent.

It is such middle management speak.

Aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[heyrick]

Re: How condescending

I wish I could upvote this an integer overflow number of times.

That message just really rubs me the wrong way. It's aiming for chummy and hits patronising.

[Danny 2]

Is Finland part of Russia?

It's unpatriotic not to use Linux.

[Pinjata]

Re: Is Finland part of Russia?

Linux, like Communism fails on the fact only a small number of ideologues believe and spread it while the masses wonder what kind of stupid sheiit this is.

(PS. Consoles are for nerds hence only a fraction of all people will ever use Linux)

[Dan 55]

Re: Is Finland part of Russia?

A router in every house, an Android phone in every hand. How's that for your failing communism?

[Teiwaz]

Re: Is Finland part of Russia?

Consoles are for nerds

And yet, MS are frantically trying to up their Shell game.

[My-Handle]

Re: Is Finland part of Russia?

Should I point out the possible lack of wisdom in describing anything as "for nerds" in the forums of a tech website?

[getHandle]

Re: Is Finland part of Russia?

Please don't feed the trolls

[heyrick]

Re: Is Finland part of Russia?

"only a fraction of all people will ever use Linux"

What you mean to say is "only a fraction of all people will ever know they're using Linux".

Because more people use Linux than use Windows. They just don't know it.

[Stuart Castle]

I'm confused. As I've posted many times before, one possible reason for using Windows in a situation like this is that while it can be a massive pain in the arse, System Center Configuration manager makes it almost as easy to manage a fleet of 1,000,000 Windows devices as it is to manage 1. This certainly includes distributing updates in a timely, and usually non-obtrusive way. Any decent MDM solution should do that. As I've stated before (and seemingly got downvoted for it), I am genuinely interested to find a decent MDM solution for Linux. I have a nice little project that I could do using PIs for work, but would need to show it's under some sort of MDM solution before they'll even look at it.

I do agree that there is no reason any advertising screen couldn't just be powered by some sort of single board computer (not necessarily a Pi, but can be), probably running some flavour of Linux.

Beyond the MDM problem above, I think in some IT departments, non Windows OSes still get some prejudice. A lot of IT technicians and system admins dismiss Linux, macOS and other OSes because they aren't Windows. Certain System Admins where I work (and these are very highly qualified people) almost seem like they would back into a corner, hissing and scratch at you like an animal if you dare suggest any OS other than Windows. This is despite the fact that both Linux and MacOS have a far superior lineage to Windows, either being a clone of (in the case of Linux) or derived from (in the case of macOS) variants of Unix.

Note: I am not knocking Windows. I primarily support macOS at work (and am thus sometime dismissed as a wierdo at work), but I also support Windows (primarily 10). I have a PC that I use at home primarily for gaming, but also some remote working, and I have a Mac Laptop that I also use for remote working, but also general messing around. I have various Pis, all running Raspbian, and I'd like to see greater use of the Pis at work, particularly for digital signage, for which we are currently using (I believe) low end Windows PCs..

[Version 1.0]

Sure, Windows 10 is great when it works - until it doesn't.

Remember Vista? A great secure OS - until you tried to use it.

[MacroRodent]

Managing a fleet

Have you checked Ansible?

[Robert Helpmann??]

...one possible reason for using Windows ... System Center Configuration manager makes it almost as easy to manage a fleet of 1,000,000 Windows devices as it is to manage 1.

More likely a case of familiarity and availability. "I know this hammer and it will allow me to hit the screw on the head." It will get the job done, but is probably not the best tool for this particular job.

Also, I am stealing the phrase "blancmange-like stability" and using it often. It manages to combine my enjoyment of medieval cooking and my professional life in a pithy manner.

[quartzie]

incompetent lot

Now if only there was a way to manage a fleet of windows computers and their updates, or perhaps use a suitable edition fit for commercial deployments.

[W.S.Gosset]

Photo reflection

Good call on spotting the location from the reflection.

You can just see the first of the string of water.-side market stalls selling fresh fish + food etc, on the far right of the reflection. That is, if *I've* placed the location correctly...

[MacroRodent]

Re: Photo reflection

If you look at the far right closely, you notice part of the white smokestack of a large ferry. This is possible only if the reflected building (the Old Market Hall) is south of the display. The open-air market would not be visible in the reflection.

[Daedalus]

Hammers and walnuts

Long ago I pointed out to the intrepid pair who founded our company that having a laptop sitting in the reception area, shuffling through slides extolling our virtues, was problematic in all kinds of ways. Why not, I suggested, buy one of those photo display panels instead? Put all the slides on a thumb drive, and there you go. Cheaper and you don't care so much if it walks away.

This stewed for a while until one day the two skinflints realized they had "won" a tiny cheapo photo panel from the local business boosterism org. It duly appeared in place of the laptop. All parties satisfied, I suppose.

[Giles C]

Buy a tv with a slideshow function built in, stick images on a usb stick and leave it to get on with it.

Most TVs can play images from a usb these days and it is a lot simpler and less prone to borkage.

When I was at Thomas Cook we just had a media player console running all the screens in the shop. Completely black box solution which if it failed was swapped out.

[John Brown (no body)]

Ah, but can the Coloured Pencil Clan play their Flash-based creations on it?

Non-moving, non-interactive, non-multimedia adverts are just sooooo prehistoric!!

[Pascal Monett]

Windows "is a service"

No it is not. It is supposed to be a tool that allows me to run the programs I need, when I need to.

But now, Borkzilla has taken control. Borkzilla decides, and you can just meekly click Accept and bend over to Borkzilla's wishes.

Yes, updates are indeed important, but the day's work is no less important and, until the day Borkzilla can guarantee that an update is not going to brick the "service", Borkzilla should wait for the user to have time to start updating. Like, for example, at 5:30 P.M., just before leaving. So stop bothering us at 10 in the morning with an impending update when we don't have the time for that shit at that time of day.

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: Windows "is a service"

"So stop bothering us at 10 in the morning with an impending update"

Ah, but that is 5:30pm or thereabouts somewhere in the world so that's who they are targeting their convenience at. Timezones and timed updates? Yeah, no, don't think that's possible, it's complicated.

[G2]

wrong tool for the job

it has to be said: that's what happens when companies cheap out and use OSs that are designed for CONSUMERS to use. (or, generally, not intended for a particular mode of usage)

A company or a sign is not a consumer, there are dedicated editions of Windows out there that are designed for digital signage... but those people running that Finnish board obviously didn't bother with that.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/iot-core/windows-iot