Gregg Keizer gets it exactly right: MS hasn’t backtracked on GWX updates

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When I have time (in short supply at this point), I’ll elaborate a bit with some new observations, but the bottom line is that Gregg Keizer’s article
[See the full post at: Gregg Keizer gets it exactly right: MS hasn’t backtracked on GWX updates]

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Didn’t they move the EULA from the beginning of the upgrading process to the end? I seem to recall reading somewhere that you already have Windows 10 installed when you get to sign up to it so that if you decline it you are then having to revert your system. I could well be wrong, but that’s as I recall it. Or is that you have downloaded it by the time you see the EULA?

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That’s correct. By all accounts, the Win10 EULA agreement appears at the end of the upgrade, prior to the reboot. If you Decline the EULA, your old operating system returns unharmed – you don’t have to do anything.

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Yep
went on holiday, came back to find it had used ISP bandwidth in my absence (is that not a criminal offence?) had to reject EULA then suffer inslt on injury as it wiped out WIFI settings during roll back, that cost me several charegable hours of IT suppoprt time ? how much do Microsoft pay their employees per hour ? causeI want some of that back!

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I had absolute Heqq resetting the network connections on the rollback I did Sat also. The upgrade messed up the desktop’s connections, but it must have messed with the Homegroups too and I had no previous knowledge how things were set up. The laptop (not upgraded) lost WiFi connections as well.

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@woody, what exactly does the recent re-release of KB3035583 if not softening the approach to the aggressive upgrade push experienced recently?
has anybody analysed in detail this newer version of the Gwx patch?

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I was spending some time with friends from London over the Memorial weekend and one of them suddenly started telling me how his computer was updated to W10 without his consent. He was very upset and from what he described it sounded as if he had been taken in by the Xing out of the dialog box hat trick that MS deployed. I explained to him that MS now considered that as his “consent” to install W10. Those Brits are a cantankerous lot as he did not see anything cute or humorous about the dialog box Xing out taken as consent for W10. MS is truly finding a way to build a somewhat checkered global reputation.

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I still haven’t seen any, any difference. There must be something, but I haven’t seen it, or seen mention of it.

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Got a redirect when checking live mail saying microfail is now protecting against home page hijacking/changes. (after installing may updates)
Of course tries to default me to bing

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A very useful improvement, isn’t it?

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Yup. Got that too yesterday. Forget where I was at the time–not live mail.

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Could you describe that for me, please?

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I can’t add much to @daniel’s account. It was a text box type of thing that popped up. Bing was selected as the home page, which I changed to “blank.” I believe I was in Firefox or possibly AOL. (The message was not from either one of those two.)

I did updates on May 26 (Security Updates only).

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I wonder if you saw one of the existing IE or Chrome change-block settings, or if you’re seeing something new…

Which browser were you using?
Remember any details about the message?

Thanks again!

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I had something similar and weird happen in July of last year. I was in IE, blissfully surfing the web, when suddenly a message box popped up.

I can’t remember the exact wording, but it was from Microsoft, and it said something like “we have deleted some harmful programs from your computer ( I never found out what programs they were), and we have changed your browser home page to msn.ca.

I changed it back. I also used Firefox exclusively from then on, except for certain retail sites which won’t let you purchase anything unless you use IE.

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This was on the left hand computer, which does not use IE or Chrome. I think I was in Firefox when it popped up. Can’t recall any other details.

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Sounds like you got hit by a bit of malware…

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I suspected that at first, but I never saw it again. If it was malware, it was very mild.
Perhaps the malware was in the “harmful files” that were deleted.

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Hi Woody, I investigated from the original link so I have it in my browser history (I only use IE for outlook/hotmail live mail).

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-au/windows/internet-explorer-11-settings-protection

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Ach! Now I understand. Yep, IE has had that capability since IE 9, I think – but originally you had to set it with gpedit, or a registry change.

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As an experiment I opened IE11 on the left hand computer, which is running Win7 Home Premium. I don’t use IE11 on this computer, but it remains installed because it must be (or so I understand).

The dialog box that we have been talking about came up. I have a JPEG screen shot I can send if you’ll tell me how.

The dialog box is entitled “Choose your home page and search settings” and the top line reads “From now on, Internet Explorer will stop websites from silently changing these settings. Choose the settings you’d like to keep.”

The first set of choices is checked and labeled “Microsoft settings.” The home page would be http://www.msn.com and the default search engine would be Bing.

The second set of choices if labeled “Your current settings.” In my case, the home page would be “about:blank” and default search engine Google.

The last line in the dialog box is “You can always change these settings later in the Tools menu in Internet Explorer.

I am thinking that I must have seen this dialog box the first time on the right hand computer, after I ran Windows Update May 26.

I tend to believe that these popup dialog boxes are something new that was delivered with the May updates. Note that they default to msn.con and Bing, and thus represent another little bit of Microsoft nagware, trickery, or whatever we’re calling it now.

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Unharmed if the upgrade gets you to the EULA without breaking, then gets you back to your old OS without breaking something. One hopes you quickly cancel the re-upgrade (I’ve un-upgraded a windows 8.1 machine from the EULA screen, and when 8.1 booted back up it said “Installing windows 10 in 15 minutes”.

Cancel EULA doesn’t leave you in the same state as an image restore…

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Nope, there was a check box where you change your search defaults:
“Prevent programs from suggesting changes to my default search provider”

“suggesting changes” means junkware edited the registry overruling your current settings. If this happened IE would revert them if the box was checked.

Now the “Prevent programs from suggesting…” box is gone, and regardless of if your search/homepage is hijacked or not microsoft asks you “change your homepage to msn.com, and your search to bing?”

They’ve turned it into a one time ask to change to bing. Yet another scummy move.

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If you cancel out of the EULA, you don’t get back your original image?

I could understand if the $Windows folders are full. But doesn’t everything else fall back into place?

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Heard reports of broken scheduled tasks, filesystem corruption (should have run chkdsk before the upgrade, or the new chipset and/or sata drivers are not compatible and result in filesystem corruption that messes up the return trip), corruption to permissions in the users folder (only admins can access their folder).

Some I have seen, some I have heard directly from another technician who’s skills I am familiar with.

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Hi Woody,
Can you explain again exactly why I am choosing this option.
Under Recommended update make sure that “Give me recommended updates the same way I receive important updates” is unchecked.
Thank you,
TomS

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When Microsoft releases patches, it marks them as “Important,” “Recommended,” or Optional. Microsoft describes them this way:

Important updates offer significant benefits, such as improved security, privacy, and reliability. They should be installed as they become available, and can be installed automatically with Windows Update.

Recommended updates address non-critical problems or help enhance your computing experience. While these updates do not address fundamental issues with your computer or Windows software, they can offer meaningful improvements. These can be installed automatically.

Optional updates can include updates, drivers, or new software from Microsoft to enhance your computing experience. You can only install these manually.

When you check “Give me recommended updates the same way I receive important updates,” patches that Microsoft figures aren’t security patches can still be installed when you run Windows Update. In the past few months, those patches have included KB 3035583,the patch that installs the “Get Windows 10” nagware. Also, for a time, it included the upgrade to Windows 10 itself.

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