Katherine Albrecht: Windows 10 Is Full Blown Electronic Tyranny

[joeecho]

Posted by mojo (here)
I hope spybot ant-beacon will stop windows 10 as well. It does a great job of stopping telemetry going to microsft.

I had not heard of this program, mojo. Downloaded it and applied as soon as I saw your post.

Thanks!

[Sierra]

Ran GWX, and Spybot. Very easy process. I'm so glad to get away from the constant Windows 10 upgrade messages!

Thank you Chancy, thank you mojo!

[Lancelot]

Thanks for this.

Installed software and deleted all windows 10 nonsense popups in about 2 minutes- here's the link-

http://ultimateoutsider.com/downloads/

I've been harassed constantly by Microsoft windows popping up asking me to upgrade for free without giving me any choice. Just 2 days ago it started installing without my authorisation and I had to quickly unplug my pc. Its tried the same trick twice since ! Hopefully this has sorted the problem

[Lancelot]

Do you pay for spybot anti beacon?
Went to their website and after entering my email address I was directed to a payments page.
A link to a free download would be much appreciated!
Thanks in advance

[markoid]

Here ya go Lancelot

https://www.safer-networking.org/spybot-anti-beacon/

[DouglasDanger]

Is this because you are all afraid of something new or did someone convince you that it is a new computer bogey man like they tried with XP and then rightfully so with Vista, which they fixed with 7 and then rebutchered with 8 and cobbled together 8.1....... Explain to me why Windows 10 is so much more evil than XP, Vista, 7, 8 , 8.1 ?

Windows 10 runs quite well, I would say better than 7 and 8, 8.1, I have done from scratch installations(new builds) as well as upgrade installations with Windows 10, this OS is far superior than its predecessors.

P.S. Windows 10 will not install on computer hardware it cannot run on, it will self abort the installation telling you why and leave your old operating system intact, I know this from experience.

[mojo]

Yeah all those people on youtube telling us about the windows 10 bogey man...They all must be wrong especially about all the telemetry collected using that system. Is that ok with you too? But hey read the title of the thread. "Don't want anything to do with windows 10?" There are other things going on, it's more about the loss of our privacy...

[norman]

That word "upgrade" makes me laugh, on a good day.

I suppose there have been political and legislative upgrades, too. The PATRIOT Act was an upgrade, right?


Wouldn't it be good if political and legislative changes were all handled by a notification window on our PC.

A. Instal automatically
B. Notify me when udates are available
C. Never ask again.

[dim]

There's always a bypass,
for whatever this corporation have come up with all those years, there's always a work around,
an entire community of people working/inventing/scripting/hacking to tame this OS
and without getting too technical here, i can assure you that the one that cares enough
and has the courage to go through it, there are ways to enjoy a snappy/fast/tight/stable windows 10 OS
like one you never had before since the days win7 came out
because yes, behind all the bloat, win 10 are actually as good as 7 were.

Enough to say that after months of working on it, balancing between bloat and crippling the OS
i can now enjoy a tiny win10 installation of 2.5G than runs entirely from ram
that misses no features and without leaking anything to anyone.

If you just concerned solely about privacy and you're not computer savy
give yourself some peace of mind (relatively):
shutup10
data-harvesting-hosts

The brave ones feeling they can put their hands on and whip 10 can ask for details.

[ThePythonicCow]

Steve Gibson has released a new utility, called "Never 10". You can download it to your Windows 7 or 8 system, to prevent Microsoft from upgrading it to Windows 10. You can find more details and the download for "Never 10" at https://www.grc.com/never10.htm.

[halcyon026]

I'm a Senior Systems Engineer, I decided to look into Windows 10 concerns. Between that & talking with the Security guys at work I setup 1 PC with Windows 10, as did one Security guy at work and logged network traffic after a plain jane install for 10 and then after using some tools to see if we could reduce what Microsoft is doing. The tools do help.


My setup of Windows 10 feels more like an updated Windows 7 and I like it just fine.

As for tools (in no certain order)

1. Spybot Anti-beacon (for windows 7-10)
2. GWX Control Panel
3. Never 10 by GRC

I also wanted to comment on concerns I've seen about Smart Devices.

1. Don't leave cameras attached to PC's.
2. Don't leave mic's attached to my PC's.
3. Don't have Wifi or Ethernet (no internet access) to your Smart devices, leaving them dump devices.

If you are really concerned with security & anonymity and must get online, consider using Linux and the Tor Network.

[Ascension]

Word of warning...

If "Never 10" updates your older version of Windows 7 by installing Windows Update KB3065987, requiring a restart, you must then run "Never 10" again to disable the Windows 10 OS upgrades.

[seah]

It seems there is a fallout between the CIA and Apple with the recent concerns about hacking security of iphones and ipads.
I wasn't concerned but recently my ipad behaved in a suspicious manner while I was interacting on PA, which leads me to believe that most definitely there is some cause for concern. I've wanted to report this to a mod but didn't know whom to correspond with.

[TrumanCash]

Bill Gates is now forcing Windows 10 on Window 7 users!

I bought my computer with Windows 8 on it, but later paid to have Windows 7 installed on it.

I always got the little window on the bottom right of the screen that said Windows 10 recommended but I always clicked on the "x" to get rid of that little window.

Today, however, I got a larger window in the middle of the screen that said Windows 10 will be installed in 7+ minutes unless I click on the do-it-later button. That window had never appeared before. I would not agree to the do-it-later option because I did not want it at all--ever. So I just clicked on the "x" to get rid of the window.

Nothing else happened at that time.

However, a few minutes later I went out of the room and then came back in a few minutes only to find Windows 10 installing! Arghhhh!

So I pulled out the internet cable and shut down the computer to stop the install.

Fortunately, it worked and did not install.

In other words, if you are not always watching your computer when it is on and connected to the internet, Windows 10 may be installed without your knowledge or consent!

[3(C)+me]

I installed the GWX control panel and I run it everytime on go online. It will notify me if their are any windows 10 installs and in the control panel I can delete it.
So it's running pretty good and I like the fact that it will monitor and let me know if any thing is amiss. I guess we will see if I run into any problems later on since Bill Gates is dead set an pushing his new system. I use thor more now then ever.

[greybeard]

My son bought me a new laptop with Windows 10 installed.
I gave it a fair crack of the whip.
Dont go there its a disaster---
It has built in apologies.
like Oops try again later --thats for simple things like changing pass word.
and a lot of other admits that something is wrong--not your fault.

I installed the latest UBUNTU--I have used that for years.
That is not quite up to speed but a preferred option.

Now and again the Internet connection fails but the icon remains as though connected--I have to double click on the provider to rectify.

If another UBUNTU user has experienced this and has a fix please PM me with the info.

Chris

[KiwiElf]

Further to TrumanCash' post above:

Windows 10 Hijacking Computers - DON'T Click on the "X" to close the Upgrade Pop-Up Window!
Thursday, May 26, 2016 9:19

(Extracted from Article at Before It's News - full Article at Link)
http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative...t-3358843.html

Microsoft changed the coding on the “X” so that clicking it now instructs MS to “upgrade” your computer to Windows 10. Yes, really.

Editor’s Note: Within the last week, four news editors on WND’s small editorial staff have had their computers forcibly taken over by Microsoft and left unusable for up to 90 minutes while the software giant upgraded the computer’s operating system, without user permission, to Windows 10.

Microsoft has turned “nasty” in its campaign to coerce hundreds of millions of customers to upgrade to its Windows 10 operating system, a program critics condemn as privacy-invading, data-swiping and “brimming with freemium services and ads.”

Microsoft has been trying to lure computer users into its new operating system for months, bombarding them with unending pop-up screens. But many users are comfortable with the systems they have, have no interest in learning new operations and have simply clicked the “X” to get rid of the unwanted solicitation.

You can’t do that anymore.

Microsoft changed the coding on the “X” so that clicking it now instructs MS to “upgrade” your computer to Windows 10. Yes, really.

In fact, the two options on the page, “OK” and “Upgrade Now,” do the same thing as the “X.”

To avoid the forced “upgrade,” a user has to go into the fine print.

Inside a logo box in the ad is a scheduled date for a mandatory upgrade. The user must look in the tiny type just below that line and find where it says “here” and click on that to avoid the upgrade.

“Police State USA: How Orwell’s Nightmare is Becoming Our Reality,” marshals the terrifying evidence to show the world of Big Brother is much closer than we want to admit.

Tech world reaction has been strongly negative to what one analyst called a “deceptive” action.

But is Microsoft concerned? Not really.

Multiple requests from WND for answers to pertinent questions were met with links to company promotions for Windows 10.

Then there was Microsoft’s offer several times to go “on background” to answer questions, an offer WND declined. It apparently would have been information a reporter is supposed to hear about Windows 10, but not the general public.

What do YOU think? Sound off on Windows 10 ‘hijacking’ U.S. computers

PC World addressed the issue under the headline, “How Microsoft’s tricky new Windows 10 pop-up deceives you into upgrading.”

Senior editor Brad Chacos explained what ticked him off.

“This morning, the unthinkable happened: My wife, an avowed PC user who long ago swore to never touch an Apple device, started shopping around for a Mac Mini. And it’s all thanks to Windows 10. Or rather, the nasty new way that Microsoft’s tricking Windows 7 and 8 users into automatically updating to Windows 10.”

He said he already was no fan of Microsoft’s “strongarm” tactics, writing several months ago when Microsoft said buyers of Intel’s Skylake processors “have to upgrade to Windows 10 in the next 18 months, or forgo all but the most critical security patches – and those will be available to Windows 7 and 8.1 users only if said patches don’t ‘risk the reliability or compatibility’ on non-Skylake systems.”

Chacos called the news a “bombshell.”

“Making sure new hardware works with old operating systems no doubt consumes valuable time and resources, and hardware and software are intertwined now more than ever before, but aggressively forcing users (including businesses) to upgrade to Windows 10 before the end of the operating system’s initial stated support cycle ends is unprecedented in the Windows world,” he said.

“That nasty trick resulted in my wife’s beloved Windows 7 PC being sneakily upgraded to Windows 10 this morning. Sure, she has 30 days to roll it back to Windows 7, but she feels so betrayed – like Microsoft forcibly removed her control over her own PC – that she’s strongly considering embracing the Dark Side and buying a Mac, instead.”

BBC technology reporter Zoe Kleinman explained how Microsoft’s decision to force users to upgrade has “caused confusion.”

Microsoft, he says, essentially changed the “X” from “close window and begone” to “I agree to your company taking over my computer for an indefinite period and installing whatever you want and then I further agree to be subjected to a bombardment of ads as well as pilfering of my private files.”

At InfoWorld, Woody Leonhard wrote: “Microsoft has ratcheted up its Win10 upgrade efforts, going from an irritating advertising campaign to ‘reserve’ an upgrade (reserving free bits – what a marketing concept) to ‘accidentally’ forced upgrades to increasingly dicey signup notices (‘Upgrade Now/Upgrade Tonight’) to hidden folders with 3GB to 6GB of unwanted downloaded data to GWX processes that automatically restart themselves. Those are the more noticeable dirty tricks.”

He posted an explanation on how users can roll back if they’ve already been upgraded, but he warned, “the rollback can take many minutes or even hours.”

“Note that rolling back may not keep new files you’ve created, depending on where they’re stored.”

While he said he uses and likes Windows 10, “this forced updating is, in my opinion, the most customer-antagonistic act Microsoft has ever undertaken.”

Chacos left no doubt about his thoughts: “So after more than half a year of teaching people that the only way to say ‘no thanks’ to Windows 10 is to exit the GWX application – and refusing to allow users to disable the pop-up in any obvious manner, so they had to press that X over and over again during those months to the point that most people proably just click it without reading now – Microsoft just made it so that very behavior accepts the Windows 10 upgrade instead, rather than canceling it.

“That’s gross.”

He went back to his wife’s issue.

“Thanks to the deceitful new update, there’s a very high chance that my wife will be a new OS X convert by the end of the day. You may have ostensibly achieved another Windows 10 upgrade to pad your adoption stats, Microsoft, but you very well may have lost a lifelong PC user who swore she’d never switch to Apple. Which means that I may have to learn how to troubleshoot Macs.

“Dammit, Microsoft.”

Microsoft did send WND some comments it thought would be “helpful.”

“As we shared in October, Microsoft has been helping customers who received the Windows 10 upgrade as an ‘Optional’ (and now ‘Recommended’) update, to schedule their upgrade. Once a customer’s upgrade is scheduled, they will receive a notification that states the time their upgrade is scheduled for, with options to reschedule or cancel if they wish. If the customer wishes to continue with their upgrade at the designated time, they can click ‘OK’ or close (‘X’ out of the notification) with no further action needed.”

That’s from the ubiquitous “Microsoft spokesperson.”

What do YOU think? Sound off on Windows 10 ‘hijacking’ U.S. computers

Wayne Williams wrote at BetaNews, “Even if you like Windows 10, you should be angry at Microsoft.”

The “relentless pushing” from the software company is “scummy behavior, totally unbefitting of a company of Microsoft’s size and reputation.”

“The latest trick … should have people brandishing pitchforks and flaming torches and marching on Redmond, but it doesn’t. Why?Because Microsoft’s s—– g tricks are now what we expect from the company which doesn’t care in the slightest about its customers.

“Microsoft wants to get Windows 10 on a billion devices, and it’s going to hit that target even if Satya Nadella has to smash his way into your home and install it on your PC while you sleep. Sure, your computer might not work afterwards, but who cares, right? Certainly not Microsoft.”

He wrote: “Type ‘Windows 10 is’ into Google and the autocomplete suggests, among other things, the operating system is ‘bad’, ‘slow, ‘spyware’, and a ‘virus’. Bing pulls even fewer punches, saying Windows 10 is ‘rubbish’, ‘crap’, ‘awful’, ‘horrible’, and ‘slow’. Neither search engine suggests anything positive about Windows 10.

“Microsoft says once the free period expires on July 29, the Get Windows 10 (GWX) app will be removed from Windows 7 and 8.1 machines which have survived the bombardment, but will that be the end of Microsoft’s dirty campaign tricks? Somehow I doubt it.”

Want to give Microsoft a piece of your mind? Post a message on Microsoft’s Facebook page and the Windows Facebook page, call Microsoft’s headquarters at (425) 882-8080 or fax (425)706-7929.

Microsoft makes it nearly impossible to email the corporate office with user feedback, so hundreds of angry customers have flooded its Facebook page in the last 24 hours with complaints about the forced Windows 10 “upgrade,” including the following:

Hey Microsoft nerds. Back in high school, when a girl said no to your advances, she meant no. Same goes here when users tell you no they do not want Windows 10. I know high school was tough on you, but learn from it. No means no. – Abraham Yang

I am writing my congressional officials. This practice has got to stop. For Microsoft to take over people’s computers is an outrage! – Judy DeTuccio

Major class-action lawsuit incoming regarding forced Window 10 upgrades. Will be in the billions. – Jake Rappoport

SLAMMED BY MICROSOFT! I have patiently declined the offer to “upgrade” to Windows 10 each day for several months. This morning Microsoft slammed all of the machines in my office without my permission. The process took more than 2 hours out of our work day to reverse, which equates to several thousand dollars of lost productivity. This is an unacceptable business practice by a company I had come to trust and respect. When telephone companies employed similar practices, they were sued and criminally prosecuted! Restitution should be made to me and other impacted businesses who have suffered from this insane action on the part of Microsoft! Shame on you, Microsoft!!!! – Rick Biers

NO, NO, NO Microsoft!!! We don’t want automatic upgrades to Windows 10, and you have NO RIGHT to alter software we have paid for, on machines we own!!!! – Al Freeman

This whole Windows 10 update thing is really shady. Shame on you, Microsoft. My next OS will be Linux. – Derek Davis

[Johnny]

A prediction: in a year +, users of windows have to pay an amount annually to continue to use it, and by that time they also embedded

everything called telemetry (spying) in the operating system so it can not be removed !

Do you know this one: http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/1...s-windows.html

Johnny

[KiwiElf]

Posted by Johnny (here)
A prediction: in a year +, users of windows have to pay an amount annually to continue to use it, and by that time they also embedded

everything called telemetry (spying) in the operating system so it can not be removed !

Do you know this one: http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/1...s-windows.html

Johnny

Not helped by the "programmed mindset" that you must have the latest and greatest. How long before the older OS's we prefer to use become obsolete and unusable by more of Microsoft's hacking (and that's what it is - ILLEGAL HACKING!)

And Microsh*t aren't alone in "devious software practices". For some time now, faithful users of Adobe Photoshop & others of their product line can no longer get the standalone programs in a box, you now have to pay a monthly "subscription" to use it/them and only available online. (Oh, of course, you get ALL the latest "upgrades").

Personally, there hasn't been a significant upgrade of Photoshop since version 7 and I'd advise users to stay with that. Screw them - download a bootleg copy!

Whatever happened to "the customer is always right?"

[Michelle Marie]

Another lifelong PC user gone. Goodbye Microsoft. Hello! Mac.

Unethical business practices are the straw that broke the camels back. My son has been trying to get me to go to Mac for years. Now, for sure, I will do it. I was just about to buy another PC. NOT NOW!

MM