Ah, good ol' Windows update cycles... Wait, before anything else, check your hardware Windows 10 means a major shift in how IT operations should perceive and manage Windows and their hardware estate. The most significant is the move away from Big Bang version launches in favour of a subscription model with much more frequent updates. This has an interesting knock-on effect on hardware requirements. Many …
On mine it "upgrades" the synaptics touchpad drivers to a version which turns the touchpad on and off rapidly. The blinking notification onscreen (at around 20 on/off cycles per second) is annoying enough, it also makes it harder to click things so I can roll back to the working version.
Because nobody has ever proved that Windows 10 transmits anything more than already transmitted by all the previous modern versions of Windows.
Literally, it was a Reddit article that got over-hyped, and turned out to be the same Windows "Customer Improvement Program" as has been in there since about Vista. And turn-off-able using group policy if you're paranoid.
Data protection compliance is therefore no different to how it's been for the last 10-15 years, or have you only just read the EULA?
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Microsoft has told us about the breadth of data sent even in the "basic" telemetry mode, the most minimal setting that non-enterprise customers can select. The enterprise customers can also set "security" as their telemetry level, which still sends data home.
I've read their descriptions about what it sends in each mode. It's not hype or paranoia to think that Windows 10 is collecting the data that Microsoft has come right out and told us they're collecting. Even the "too good for home and Pro" security mode is too much telemetry. I don't want them sending anything without my approval... not even data regarding "infections" with what they claim to be "malware."
Windows 10 will do all of this when CEIP is off; meanwhile, for all the years CEIP has been in use in the pre-10 era, no reports have emerged about spying going on with CEIP off. It's only been very recently that earlier versions of Windows got the "Diagnostics Tracking Service" that has been built into 10 from the start (and has now been renamed to something in corporatespeak instead of English).
With previous versions, I don't have to wonder why Cortana is sending data to bing.com every time I do a local search. Why would Win 10 do that? What is it sending? No way to tell; the packets are encrypted and resist analysis. We know they exist, and we know Cortana does no such thing in 8.1 or 7, since there is no Cortana in 8.1 or 7 (which is one of my favorite things about the older versions).
After deleting diagtrack and some other deletions to make sure the added telemetry is now gone, I've done Wireshark runs with 8.1, and I've seen no suspicious packets sent to MS or any server that could be operated by MS. I've seen the usual things, Windows Update checks, certificate revocation list checks, stuff like that, but nothing that makes me say, "What IS that?" It's possible that it didn't try to send anything while I was looking, but I'd wager that it's just not sending anything beyond what I want it to send.
Would the same techniques I used to remove the spying from 8.1 work on 10? Quite possibly, but 10 is a moving target. It's known to repeatedly bring back things you've already removed, and I would bet this is one of them. It's also not certain that there aren't backup methods to send the spy data if the conventional (visible) ones don't work. Windows 10 was designed from the start to be this way, unlike every other version of Windows.
Of course, Windows 10 is such a piece of crap that even if they added a "no telemetry" button that did what it says on the tin, it still wouldn't be worth taking for free. The frenetic update cycle and a lack of quality assurance team alone are reason enough to avoid 10. Win 8.1 and 7 don't get properly tested patches either, but at least they're only security patches, not biannual service-pack level upgrades that change a ton of stuff to add a ton of stuff no one asked for. Stability is what people require from an OS... let the things people run on that OS take the role of making things fun and exciting, while the OS sits in the background and makes it all work. Stop trying to be the star and realize that your job is backstage, where no one can see, and if you do your job right, no one even thinks about.
Let's face it, the vast majority of people (commercial and private) only use Windows because they have no choice, think they have no choice, or they don't think at all because they just don't care.
Microsoft exploits it's 'monopoly' to extract as much financial benefit as it can, because Microsoft's business is making money. Software development is simply a means to that end. Add to that any 'arrangements' it may have to look after the needs of other 'interested' parties, and we can see what should come as no surprise to anyone: looking after the best interests of their customers/users/victims (take your pick) is only of interest to Microsoft insofar as doing so supports it's primary goal of making money, i.e. they will attempt to get away with as liitle as possible, for the least possible cost (to them).
In short: caveat emptor -- it's a very old story, but in the case of multi-national corporates you are generally treated as a host for their parasitic practices. Assume the worst, you are unlikely to be disappointed, but may very occasionally be delighted by customer care that is somewhat higher than mere irresponsible exploitation.
@Lee D: 'Literally, it was a Reddit article that got over-hyped, and turned out to be the same Windows "Customer Improvement Program" as has been in there since about Vista. And turn-off-able using group policy if you're paranoid.'
Microsoft Telemetry Policy Setting
'This policy setting determines the amount of diagnostic and usage data reported to Microsoft. A value of 0 indicates that no telemetry data from OS components is sent to Microsoft. Setting a value of 0 is applicable to enterprise and server devices only. Setting a value of 0 for other devices is equivalent to choosing a value of 1.'
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Hate to 'actually' you, but ACTUALLY: Our revenue this year is neatly following 2016's record high. As in, 2016 smashed El Reg's all-time ad sales records. The unsung heroes here are our sterling ad sales team, and us news scribes are in their debt.
So yes, we sometimes run vendor-sponsored articles - clearly labelled sponsored or promos - and they make us a decent amount of money. Take 'em as you like: they are written by freelance journos we vet for quality. And the pieces are super interesting. Don't skip over them just because they are biz-sponsored. It's all part of the El Reg mix.
However, a vast chunk of our cash comes from display ads against our top news articles - which are produced well away from any vendor interference.
We strive to provide highly technical and accurate IT news and features independently and ethically.
Ultimately, this all funds the snark, sarcasm, the exclusives, the analyses, the features of The Reg that you love and we'll continue to serve.
"I'm old enough to remember a time when El Reg wasn't trying to be the Daily Mail of IT news pages. When it didn't treat the readership as cash cows"
There are direct parallels with the milk farming industry and online publications. Milk from smaller farms used to be delivered in bottles to your door by a guy you used to know the name of. Supermarkets took that away by selling milk to a wider audience. We the humble readership are the cows being milked for a lesser yield than was available many years ago. More sites for those eyeballs mean this is how it is. There would be mutiny if this site compromised its integrity and whilst the Reg has come close to the boundaries they've never crossed them. As has been raised before by commentards including me (but never gone any further) they could introduce a subscription for no ads or even a paywall. Look how that's turned out for some well known publications. We have to accept that this is how they survive and recognise that it is in The Registers' own interest to make sure it keeps us on side with this arrangement.
* Thankfully so is Linux and there are alternative platforms too (this isn't the early 00's or something)!
* Dear Hardware-Makers, you are suffering falling sales because of Win10. When will you wake up!!! Do any of you have a tongue, or are you all Microsoft's bitches in this life? Facebook like slurp is not an attractive proposition, worse so in a business context!!! Please don't say buy Enterprise Licenses either. There's a reason Google had to drop Gmail slurp, its costing them Cloud business!!!
* Sure I may have to buy Win10 gear for game dev work someday, as the UE4-Unity / Windows branch is better supported than Linux right now (no flat-pack etc). But I'll delay that decision for as long as possible (no hardware purchases), and I'm never going to connect Win-10 boxes to the internet ever, never mind using them for surfing etc!
"I'm never going to connect Win-10 boxes to the internet ever, never mind using them for surfing etc!"
No doubt part of their business plan is to have W10 phone home every few days - or stop working.
Our office's security updating package did that if you hadn't been connected to the company intranet for a few days.
No doubt. But my money is on the Chinese / Russians cracking it, so that it doesn't phone home ever. After all they've had black market industries in this type of thing for over a decade. They're all at least as talented if not more than the developers at Microsoft too. Look at all the deep-hacks / zero-days / Zeus banking Trojans!
I don't think it is here to stay.
I think this is a cynical exit strategy Microsoft is using to get out of the OS business. Their heads are up... in the clouds, and the Windows division is no longer the moneymaker it once was. Revenue drops a lot more rapidly than development costs as the number of buyers declines, and MS appears to have no faith at all in the PC platform's survival, even though there are a lot of roles to which it is suited and mobiles are not. As such, it's not hard to imagine that MS may have forecast Windows to be a net money loser at some point in the future.
It looks like Microsoft's goal is to soak the Windows community for all they're worth, squeezing all the revenue they can out of them by any means possible, abusing the customers mercilessly while claiming it's for their own benefit, and eventually destroying Windows as a brand and as a product. At that point, MS will have extracted all possible value from their former Windows empire, which they will then toss aside like a banana peel.
I don't think any of the powers that be at Microsoft are stupid enough to believe that the strategy MS is employing now has any chance of ensuring long-term health of the Windows market. The abuses are too brazen, the policies too unfriendly, the patches too shoddy. I don't think MS wants to be in the OS business anymore, and this is their way to turn it into short-term revenue while killing it off long-term, so they can be wholly a cloud services company.
Its an interesting theory.
In order to be a fully cloud company the are going to need a cloud that stays up.
A few hundred million pcs beta testing patches for them might be useful for a while.
Google which is arguably, fully cloud, recognises the need for a browser on which to develop and run apps.
Why would anyone deploy on Microsoft cloud if you have to have a chrome/linux pc to do the dev on and to run the apps.
Without Windows they don't have an edge.
Occams razor, windows 10 is shitty cos Microsoft dont have a clear strategy after recent spectacular fails in mobile.
Using the "cloud", doesn't matter the provider, removes you from your data, puts your data at risk of being hijacked or harvested and installs the possibility of a paywall when you really need to recover your data. Large companies and those with offices in different cities can back up their data to servers in their own offices where it can be kept secure and if a restore is needed, it can be physically accessed and transported by courier to anywhere in the world much faster than most internet connections can transfer in a day. Let's not forget the local and off-site backups that will be the goto data banks for all but a natural disaster.
I find is laughable when I see statements that the "modern workforce is highly mobile" when companies such as Yahoo are discontinuing their remote workers and forcing them back into an office where they can be watched more closely. I suspect that what They are referring to are companies that are wheedling their employees into spending their evenings and weekends working from home as well as the time they spend in the office.
Years ago I started keeping my Windows machines from accessing the internet. I use Mac and Linux for connected activities and the PC with my engineering and Dev software is air-gapped. So far, so good. Besides picking up a nasty, I don't want a forced "upgrade" to break an application or hardware driver. It would really suck to find that my plotter won't work just when I need to print and deliver prints to a client… on a Friday night when all of the shops are closed, just before I need to get on a plane to make a presentation the next day.
I believe Windows is here to stay, but that doesn't hold me back from exploring less painful alternatives. Turns out that most of my families' computing needs are nicely met with some form of Debian Linux. Not even my kids manage to mess that up beyond repair and updates occur without anyone noticing.
It sounds like no one will have any idea when a new release of Bloat 10 will make some or all your hardware obsolete. That is not going to go over well when there is a significant hardware investment to be unexpectedly trashed because Slurp and Chipzilla are run by slimes who make a Mafioso look like a saint.
Well being charitable about the article: It does make a lot of sense to consider a major OS shift as part of a hardware refresh cycle, and that applies more or less to everything (Windows, Linux, Mac, etc).
Certainly for bigger organisations on the basis that you don't want the pain of a change in OS/application behaviour, testing, and fixing any more often than around 5 year intervals and by that point your hardware is due for a change anyway just to keep the failure rate down. Said new machines probably have SSD which is a genuinely useful speed-up (if you can tolerate the cost/storage ratio).
But personally I don't really want Win10 and its spying in all but the most expensive enterprise version...
Oh that's the other thing- you can't completely turn off the telemetry, EVEN ON ENTERPRISE AND SERVER.
The best you can do is set it to 'security' and hope for the best, unless you've decided to perform surgery on the install and neuter the telemetry components, will will quite likely break stuff, or packet-sniffed the telemetry packets and blocked them at the firewall.
Oh, did I mention that (on server 2016, at least) if you are deploying the OS image per standards, the telemetry resets from 'security' to 'basic' when you sysprep the box?
It sounds like no one will have any idea when a new release of Bloat 10 will make some or all your hardware obsolete.
Agree, given the article heading, I was expecting something along the lines that Win10/Intel management would include a hardware monitoring/assessment function so that they could generate warnings that a system's hardware was reaching its end of life with respect to Win10 support.
Because the real problem with Win10 (aka "the last version of Windows") is going to be identifying hardware obsolescence, a problem that didn't exist with previous discrete versions, as people expected each new version to have differing base hardware requirements and thus it made sense to link hardware refresh to major software upgrade/refresh.
Alternatively, perhaps we'll get GWX style of advertising: you need to upgrade your system to get the full win10 experience, click here to order your new PC...
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Microsoft has done that with windows 7 already- certain updates will refuse to install on windows 7 if it's running on gen 7 intel procs.
said updates are security updates, too, which really pisses us corporate types off, because now we have to tell our box shufflers to put a specific gen 6 processor in the machine, IF THEY STILL CARRY THEM.
Microshaft's official response to that is 'buy the enterprise version of windows 10', which is far more expensive then the professional version, even if you have a SA agreement or do a crap-tonne of business with them.
And even then, I'm still not sure if the 'auto-update, auto-stage,auto-deploy' features behave once you have the system connected to an in-house server like SCCM or a WSUS cache.
The article says that 32 bit systems are less secure than 64 bit systems, and recommends throwing away all 32 bit PCs for that reason. As an embedded assembler programmer who has worked with 8 bit, 16 bit, 32 bit and 64 bit CPUs I don't understand how the security of a device is dependent upon its bus width. In fact the 8 bit CPU in my microwave oven is quite obviously more secure than the 64 bit CPU in my PC because to the best of my knowledge there has not been a single case of a virus attack on any of those devices. YMMV.
I don't understand how the security of a device is dependent upon its bus width.
More room for ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomisation), which makes buffer overflow attacks harder to exploit. Windows 10 uses so much RAM that there is not much left over for ASLR if all that you have are 32 bits of virtual address space.
My guess anyway.
And the chances are that your 8-bit Oven is not connected to the internet.
I really think that Intel and MS are going to make a whole slew of new PC's not update to a future release. This will force users to buy new hardware which is what Intel wants. IT is failing miserably to get new CPU's out on time so what better ruse than to obsolete currently supported CPU's?
A new System means CPU revenue for Intel and a new Windows License for MS. Gradually, over time the percentage of 'free' upgrade to W10 systems will drop towards zero and MS will be back to where they were before W10 came along.
It is all about the money folks.
This is IMHO, their cunning plan.
It has nothing to do with the bus-width, but related to features that newer CPUs have and often only work in the CPU's 64-bit mode, or were only added to the 64-bit version of the OS. As others have pointed out, some techniques such as ASLR are more effective the greater the possible virtual address space that is available (irrespective of actual usable RAM).
But even beside that, you usually get a modest speed advantage (I have seen ~30%) in 64-bit mode for numeric-heavy software just because you can do more in a single bus operation, and the 64-bit mode for the x86 series has more CPU registers that allows better code optimisation when built for it.
64-bit mode removes some old backwards compatibility, and many new features are only available in 64-bit mode.
It's slowly moving towards being two entirely different CPUs, with 32-bit mode being left as it was, and 64-bit getting all the new features.
Anyone remember typing "go64" on a Commodore 128? :-)
I hope El Reg got paid a lot to push this drivel at us. Because it sure as hell dented their reputation.
I suggest a CSS-style translucent overlay for this kind of article. Containing the words "Sponsored shite. Ignore" repeated several times on the page. Because otherwise it's easy to miss the fact that it's sponsored until you find your eyes glazing over and your soul departing your body.
"Because otherwise it's easy to miss the fact that it's sponsored "
See your own title. To me it's pretty obvious. I still read it in the hope for finding some information and actually I did. To be precise, the barely hidden paragraph that reads "Keep your users on W7 if possible till the end of support and plan to migrate them to something else when that happens."
I hope El Reg got paid a lot to push this drivel at us. Because it sure as hell dented their reputation.
I fail to see how a full-page ad, clearly marked as such, somehow dents their reputation. If they tried to sneak it in as an editorial then maybe, but it is CLEARLY labeled as sponsored content.
"Intel and Microsoft have been working together to ease the pain"
Haaa .. nice one .. that's a good one :)
Remember when people wrote the OS to run on the specific hardware and not arse-over-cart (copyright Micros©)
'Intel's answer is the 7th Gen Intel Core vPro processor family, which delivers a "platform of built-in solutions to optimize your Windows 10 investment".'
A current version of a Linux distro can run on a ten year old PC ..
More positively, when done right, Windows 10 should mean fewer headaches for the IT department.
Yes, it will do so by offloading those headaches from the IT department to the end users.
Generally speaking, IT headaches come when users have the freedom and ability to install software, causing conflicts.
Speaking as a software developer, I love being able to install software. Speaking as an IT person, I hate it when users install crap. The happy medium is users requesting, and IT reviewing, and then approving, software that can be supported.
Unfortunately, usually you either have one extreme or the other - total chaos, as users do whatever they want as IT watches helplessly as the network thrashes itself to death and virus infections are rampant, or total lockdown, where users are so restricted by IT that they can't get anything done, and people have to use their phones to do a Google search because the IT restrictions are so oppressive.
The author seems to think that the latter situation is desirable. I doubt all that many users will agree.
Our review process requires 10 business groups to test and verify against known product test suites for accuracy. Then this is repeated in 16 countries. Each review costs us about 2.7 million and takes 11 years. We are planning for Windows 10 testing to start in 2031 and be completed in 2050.
So El Reg is the motto changing from
Biting the hand that IT to
Shaking the hand that hands over the cash!
The amazing thing is that someone actually thought the readers would believe any of that marketing drivel
But then Like I always say
If you can't dazzle them with the detail. Baffle them with Bullshit
The upgrade installs with no errors. After final restart there is no networking. Microsoft 2nd level support says The specific versions of the atherosclerosis and relate key chips are not supported. So I am able to backgrade to 1613 but will receive no further feature updates. Reccomendationid to purchase a Toshiba laptop manufactured later than July 2017.
Where and when was it purchased?
If in UK, various consumer laws apply, although they are a bit lacking in clarity in the area of enforced OS downloads (lots of stuff on digital downloads though and could apply some of those) - so can get scenario where you can get refund / replacement irrespective of warranty.
With AMD's new offerings showing that there is still life in the only alternative CPU supplier then surely there is a case for yet another Anti-Trust examination of Intel and Microsoft?
If Intel are baking-in special code to support Microsoft at the exclusion of others then how is this fair on AMD?
Thankfully, the world of Linux has more transparency but, of course, Intel has lost a lot of ground to ARM so Microsoft is it's only hope.
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