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The world is complicated. People need to educate themselves to deal with it, and to understand that Microsoft has motives other than just their well being.
Unfortunately, this seems to be a trend on these forums now with a few users: “Stop thinking for yourself and just do what MS tells you to do like a good little sheep. What? You don’t want to? Well then, allow me to talk down to you like the morons I believe you to be as I attempt to convince you that your PC will start throwing errors and blue screens at your “unsupported configurations” any minute now. Just submit already!” They speak exactly like MS employees would speak.
Let us never forget who built these vulnerabilities into the operating system in the first place
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There are more exploits on the way as well from the infamous CIA.
Let us remember that it has always been touted to be “the most secure Windows ever”. Yet somehow systems worldwide are falling prey; people are being hurt. Microsoft houses the very same programmers we are asked to trust implicitly to deliver bug-free patches to us, no questions asked. I DO ask, as everyone should
I ask as well. This stuff really irritates me.
People should never be discouraged from asking questions and acting accordingly when their trust has been breached and the answers are not satisfactory. These things aren’t exaggerations and the concerns aren’t unwarranted nor should there be any attempt on here by anyone to shame or talk down to those people.
[Edited to reduce ad hominem attacks. I don’t believe Microsoft and NSA are in cahoots about this (or any other) security breach. If you want to debate the point, please move it to the Rants forum. Also, the CIA and NSA are two entirely different bodies. The links you have refer to Wikileaks and the CIA dump. They have nothing to do with NSA. I’m trying diligently to remove instances of people shaming and talking down to others. The intelligence level here is very high, and I want to keep it that way. -Woody]
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Exactly. Trial software acts in a similar way only it tells you how long the trial is for and when it ends every time you open the software based on the install date and the current date.
I actually have downloaded all of the updates for IE11 and the security only, but I haven’t installed any of them and this is why. How can anyone trust Microsoft not to sneak a time bomb into a seemingly benign update for “functionality” or “security” especially after they have already proven they are perfectly capable and willing to do so?
I don’t understand the blind trust in MS that some people still have, I really don’t. Considering they, you know, made this OS that I’m using, they will know exactly how to change and manipulate it so that they can make it inoperable if they so desired and like all malware infections, the end user is the weakest link. Users have to be willing to “infect” their own computers with these updates first. GWX never ended, it just changed it’s clothes.
Heck, they already do this as per the topic of this thread! They never fixed the “mis-identifications” because they were never mis-identifications to begin with! It was by design and completely intentional that these other processors and video cards have been ensnared into this new “feature” which will probably continue to expand it’s net. I don’t trust people who conduct business this way.
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The loss of privacy is troubling to me. But I find that the increase in convenience offsets the downside. Your mileage may vary – and I certainly respect the choice. It’s a question of where you draw your personal line in the sand. I’ve found that my line keeps moving.
Understood. I thank you for providing a response to your personal situation. The issue at hand is that there will be a day, if not that we are already there, that many will realize where did our freedoms and privacy go? By that time it will be too little and too late to do anything against the behemoth of the situation. I guess that we deserve what we asked for.
That Ben Franklin quote comes to mind though needs a slight modification:
“Those who would give up essential liberties and freedoms for unnecessary conveniences deserves neither liberty or freedom.”
Generally speaking, I find it extremely hypocritical that the military many Americans worship are “fighting for your freedoms” only for those same military worshipping Americans to willingly give them away because it’s too hard to get to Costco or whatever else it is. As you say, one day people will wake up and wonder what the heck happened and where all our freedoms went. Well, you gave them all away! That’s where they went! We’re already about 15 years down that road already. That won’t be a comfortable bed to sleep in when that day comes.
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Agreed. It’s not like people are hacking Windows to have this feature to hide updates. This is a standard feature with Windows that is supposed to work properly. If there is anything like this happening, it is the fault of MS.
However, this stuff is not happening or if it is, it is so extremely rare. The only time I’ve ever had problems with WU was when the updates themselves corrupted files on the computer. I had updates corrupt the MBR when doing a fresh install of XP and updating completely requiring use of the recovery console to sort out and I had the WU itself become corrupted a time or two which required that the Software Distribution folder be renamed and the computer rebooted to fix it. Windows 7 updates, when I was happily putting blind trust into MS didn’t install correctly and had to be fixed manually just to make updates install properly again. I don’t have problems when not updating. I have problems, if any, when doing the updating.
This seems to be more FUD from those who think defying Microsoft’s wishes in regards to updates will ruin your computer; it doesn’t.
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There are few issues here. One is the amount of work which those supporting the so called Group B are doing in their free time.
As for the ones doing this work, wasn’t the whole issue supposedly that Group B was “too confusing” for people? I haven’t seen anyone complain about how much work it is to put together and all the work done on testing this stuff is amazing and fantastic information for everyone here. I’m sure the ones doing that work know that it is much appreciated here, but even then, they choose to do it for people. They seem willing to help people and spend their time doing so. What’s wrong with that?
Woody has created Group B for the benefit of users who are over sensitive to telemetry issues. Woody is the only high profile author who supports this method for home users, against the trend.
Mass surveillance is a reality that is getting harder and harder to avoid and people want to avoid it as much as possible. People come to this site because they want to “go against the trend” of accepting this kind of surveillance instead of falling in line. Let them!
Susan Bradley does not support it even for enterprise users to give an example.
Group B works for people and for that matter, so does Group C. Their computers are stable and run just as fast as they ever have for months and months.
Do you realise that those who provide solutions here are in favour of Group A (with one notable exception) while those who ask for solutions are in the other category? Have you ever wondered why?
Yeah, it’s because they are not interested in Group A. They prefer Group B. It’s very, very simple.
Those same Group B followers do not realise that telemetry has been built in a large number of products like MSRT, Office, antivirus products, browsers and the list goes on and this has been happening long before Microsoft started implementing telemetry in the OS.
Of course they do. There are numerous discussions on these forums of knowledgeable users sharing ALL of their security settings for browsers and their opinions on things like antivirus programs, registry cleaners and all these types of programs so people can learn things and adopt things they choose to adopt and reject the rest. Just because it’s been happening for a very long time in Windows does not mean anyone has to continue to accept it today.
In a technical sense, all those following Group B, do not know if they are fully patched, because there is only one way to know for home users and nobody except for me once or twice has mentioned that method here.
People in Group B don’t want to be fully patched! They want the security updates without everything else!
[Edited by Woody to remove ad hominem attacks. C’mon guys. Let’s focus on issues, not personalities.]
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At the moment all I have to do is install the right Group B patches and I’m done. This proposal would mean I have to install patches and then mess around disabling known telemetry patches.
..and herein lies the issue. What is the b***** point of downloading updates if you’re just going to neuter them immediately afterwards and how is not downloading the update at all somehow more confusing than that? On top of that, Windows may decide at any time to re-enable those telemetry settings without your consent or knowledge. I really don’t understand. There has been a lot of input on this matter from people in Group B and the general consensus is this:
1.) The group B instructions are not too confusing or difficult to follow and 2.) they are happy with group B and wish to continue being group B.
I don’t get all the force being applied to these people to change their updating ways. There is no real demand for that on these forums and it is in fact the opposite; there is demand for the continuation of Group B that seems to be falling on deaf ears here. There is also the fact that people no longer trust Microsoft to distribute patches that aren’t buggy and/or give them malware based on the hardware they have which breaks functionality. It is way more than telemetry at this point.
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Actually, they’d want to sue the website I linked to and while they’re at it, they can sue this site and this site for reporting on this in 1999. Microsoft has intentionally built NSA back doors into Windows since the late 90’s. While they’re at it, they can also sue this site that shows Microsoft still works with the NSA in this way by giving them back door access to Skype and Hotmail and helping them to circumvent MS’s own encryption. As a matter of fact, Microsoft were the first ones on board with the NSA Prism program in 2007. I’m not in line to be sued, but even if I was, there’s a line miles long ahead of me.
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Unfortunately, I don’t think it will stop and will instead maintain this course of action. It is the continuation of the GWX campaign. Can it be taken any other way? I also call into question the status of “mis-identification” or any other term used to imply that these blocks are in any way accidental in nature. Video cards are now being blocked as well? Did Microsoft even fix the “mis-identifications” with the Carrizo processors yet?
MS is declaring war on the user at this point. They are liars and only care about getting people on Windows 10 and will stoop to any level and it seems malware-style is their avenue of choice. Breaking people’s WU based on an ever expanding and secretive list of hardware that is now including video cards is unacceptable and intentional IMO. It didn’t end with the GWX forced upgrade. As usual and as has already begun, users will simply find a way to patch Windows so as to nullify any hardware blocks.
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Perhaps making a link at the top of the page (without taking up a lot of space) directing people to a thread with instructions for installing the last known safe batch of patches or individual patches would be sufficient. That way when people come here and see D1, there will be a link somewhere at the top directing people to said thread so they can catch themselves up.
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Really unfortunate. The GWX campaign continues. It’s stuff like this that makes it obvious why the ABC groups are still valid and necessary. If everyone on W7 went to A, many people would be left with computers no longer capable of updating at all. I understand that this must be a pain to keep going on with, but don’t take it out on the users that depend on this site and the experts on it for guidance to avoid this very thing among other things; it’s Microsoft’s fault. Doing away with the groups is the same as just telling people “We give up! Just submit to them.” To many, this is unacceptable. Keep up the fight!
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