"Updates" Opposition

[Let'sgoflying!]

Has anyone figured a way to keep their computer alive without the constant barrage of (Windows mainly) "updates"?
My computer is running on borrowed resources as it is, so when I accept one, it slows any other function to a backwards crawl.
And I do not have that much HD space left, and don't want useless MS crapware plugging it up.
What is all this stuff anyway? Updates - ha! A euphemism, if not an outright misnomer. Its probably something to benefit them, not me.

Can I uninstall them and just shut Automatic Updates off?? That second last one (their test of MS authenticity which was sold to us as a benefit to US) is a an outright theft of bandwidth (the constant checking) and HD space!
Eula's be damned, where's my class action computer rights attorney?!

 

[SCCutler]

...waiting for smart-ass Mac comments...

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

...waiting for smart-ass Mac comments...

They can play that game all they want, when my MacFanatic b.i.l. was trying to push them on me, I bought into it for a while....til I discovered I could not buy any decent software for it......and when I could not access websites PC users could.....and I could not share files with PC users.....etc etc.
Yeah they have it all fixed now I'm sure; too late, sorry. Emulation etc. uh huh.

Ha I probably posted this, its my favorite:

Xmas day we are with 1) my old Toshiba PC laptop 2) his fancy schmancy mactop...sitting on the bed and going to use the neighbors wifi as ours was down (we had permission).
Well it was a weak signal..one, maybe two bars.
My old PC was humming along getting mail and websites, slow but functional. His mac would not lock on, nada.

His response?
"The Mac was rejecting an inferior signal"!!!!!!

I love the extremes we go to, in order to protect those we love!!!!!

 

[drafttek]

You sure can.
Start> Control Panel> System> Automatic Updates tab. Then select "Turn off automatic updates.
I've avoided this latest one as well. I know what I have that's authentic and what's not. I don't need them to know.

 

[wsuffa]

I refused to download the verification notification. You can decline to download any update, and when you do so, you can check the box labeled "don't show this update again". Or just turn off the automatic downloads (or set it to notify you when updates are available, as opposed to automatic downloading).

Revenue protection for MS is just not a "critical" update.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

They can play that game all they want, when my MacFanatic b.i.l. was trying to push them on me, I bought into it for a while....til I discovered I could not buy any decent software for it......

Such as?

I mean, I know MS Office can't be counted as "decent" but it is available on the Mac. In fact, MS Word and Excel were on the Mac way before Windows.

and when I could not access websites PC users could.....and I could not share files with PC users.....etc etc.

Web sites... Some seem to only develop for IE, though the proliferation of FireFox and the increasing popularity of the Mac (and the analagous Safari user base) have pretty well quashed that.

Macs have been very good at sharing files with PC's for a long long long time. Apple always went to great lengths to ensure that... It's a shame your fan-boy BIL didn't seem to know how.

Xmas day we are with 1) my old Toshiba PC laptop 2) his fancy schmancy mactop...sitting on the bed and going to use the neighbors wifi as ours was down (we had permission).
Well it was a weak signal..one, maybe two bars.
My old PC was humming along getting mail and websites, slow but functional. His mac would not lock on, nada.

His response?
"The Mac was rejecting an inferior signal"!!!!!!

Yeah, he was full of crap on that one.

I'm guessing that he was using one of the original "TiBooks" (Titanium PowerBooks, circa 2001 or so). They had notoriously poor WiFi signal reception because of the metal case. There have been significant improvements in that respect since.

 

[Cap'n Jack]

I refused to download the verification notification. You can decline to download any update, and when you do so, you can check the box labeled "don't show this update again". Or just turn off the automatic downloads (or set it to notify you when updates are available, as opposed to automatic downloading).

Revenue protection for MS is just not a "critical" update.

Thanks much- I was wondering how to turn verification notification off.

However, I let the "First Tuesday" updates install since these are, AFAIK, patches for Windoze.

 

[SkyHog]

correct me if I'm wrong, but by denying the verification notification, can't you no longer run windows update period?

 

[gismo]

correct me if I'm wrong, but by denying the verification notification, can't you no longer run windows update period?

I'm pretty sure that's not true. The verification patch is an "optional" "enhancement" that you can opt out of and the update service still runs. I've accepted a few updates since the verification patch came out and the only side effect I've noticed is that selecting the "don't bother me with this again" doesn't last forever.

 

[jesse]

I'm not the biggest fan of Microsoft. But I wouldn't advise making a habit out of not updating. Just do the damn verification--yeah--it's evil ..blahblahblah. But I'd rather have a little bit of "evil" versus get hit with the next Blaster virus.

Either accept all the evil or get off of Microsoft. I use Redhat ES for our work servers, Ubuntu Linux for my home and work desktop. Problem solved.

 

[EdFred]

Or schedule the updates for 3am, and leave the computer on overnight once a week.

 

[wsuffa]

correct me if I'm wrong, but by denying the verification notification, can't you no longer run windows update period?

Not true.

You must do verification when the updates are downloaded, but declining the notification won't prevent updates.

Notification "phones home" each time you start your computer and various other times. It then notifies you if the copy is invalid. If you have a valid copy, there is no reason to repeatedly check it and chew up your network bandwidth.

I'm just outright annoyed with MS's little verification scheme, 'cause after 2 years of passing validation for downloads on MS office, it up and decided that there were two copies on the machine, one of which it claimed 'wasn't activated', and it refused to update anything. Please note it's been passing validation correctly for 2 years, and updating without a hitch. Yet if you went to activation from ANY of the Office programs, it said it was already activated. I called the activation desk, who basically accused me of being a criminal, but after talking to a supervisor and practically threatening legal action (I have the original packaging, disk, and reciept from an authroized MS distributor), they gave me a code and instructions to enter.

Product verification is crap.

I dread to see what happens with this kind of situation under Vista, and it's one reason I'll not buy Vista until I'm forced to.

 

[SCCutler]

There is a known bug (and I learned of it the hard way), sometimes, when MS Windows Genuine Advantage (!) decides it can't verify authenticity, it simply will not allow a log-in. Very bad.

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

I wonder where this will all end.
Will they eventually get minute-to-minute control of all our computers and somehow lock us in to yearly user fees?
Or will they capitulate, and limit any revenue to newly purchased machines, and all the existing computers will become self-sustaining through 'friendly' hackers and some type of sharing.

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

I now have 104 Windows updates on this machine.

Hey I checked the Genuine Disadvantage update...it says plainly "This Update Cannot be Removed".
So you have to reformat/erase and start over if you want it off?

 

[TangoWhiskey]

Notification "phones home" each time you start your computer and various other times. It then notifies you if the copy is invalid. If you have a valid copy, there is no reason to repeatedly check it and chew up your network bandwidth.

I hadn't heard about the "phone home every day" 'feature' of WGA. This article has Microsoft's explanation of 'why'; they say it so they can disable WGA remotely if they discover a bug in it.

If they can disable WGA remotely, then there is some built-in mechanism to shut it off. Now, to find that registry key...

http://www.betanews.com/article/Microsoft_Admits_WGA_Phones_Home/1149798507

Oh, and they say that a future update will scale back 'dial home' to every 90 days or so...

 

[wsuffa]

I wonder where this will all end.
Will they eventually get minute-to-minute control of all our computers and somehow lock us in to yearly user fees?

The holy grail for a software company is "recurring revenue". That's why Quicken disables certain features after a year or two or three to force you to buy the updates. MS does the same with it's Money program.

So, yes, that's the ideal situation for them.

Microsoft has made it clear that they want to sell software as a service, meaning you get charged by the amount you use it. Just wait until they get to be like Comcast and Verizon, who advertise and sell "unlimited" use packages, but cut users off if they download 'too much'.

 

[wsuffa]

I hadn't heard about the "phone home every day" 'feature' of WGA. This article has Microsoft's explanation of 'why'; they say it so they can disable WGA remotely if they discover a bug in it.

If they can disable WGA remotely, then there is some built-in mechanism to shut it off. Now, to find that registry key...

http://www.betanews.com/article/Microsoft_Admits_WGA_Phones_Home/1149798507

Oh, and they say that a future update will scale back 'dial home' to every 90 days or so...

Or they can disable the machine remotely.

I occasionally use a dial-up link with the laptop (more often when staying at a small-town hotel while flying my plane... think how Gaston's has been in the past)... why should I have to pay extra connect charges just to offer MS 'revenue protection', when my legit copy has been verified over and over?

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

Microsoft has made it clear that they want to sell software as a service, meaning you get charged by the amount you use it.

OK we can make OpenOffice and and a whole bunch of other 'Free Clones' of the pay-software, how long til someone makes a freeware version of windows?
I am not really wanting something for nothing, but if they were reasonable, this sort of thing wouldn't happen.

So you buy/make a clean slate computer and load it full of freeware including the OS.
Wait, someone will tell me its being done. This would be a huge one, how come no competition on that even from legitimate sources?

 

[SkyHog]

Just wait until they get to be like Comcast and Verizon, who advertise and sell "unlimited" use packages, but cut users off if they download 'too much'.

You'll notice no one advertises "unlimited" anymore, for that exact reason.

 

[wsuffa]

You'll notice no one advertises "unlimited" anymore, for that exact reason.

Ah, but they're imposing it on customers that bought "all you can eat" when it was advertised. Worse, Comcast won't tell the customers what the trigger is.

That, I say, is wrong.

 

[jesse]

OK we can make OpenOffice and and a whole bunch of other 'Free Clones' of the pay-software, how long til someone makes a freeware version of windows?

Freeware operating systems have been around for quite some time..

So you buy/make a clean slate computer and load it full of freeware including the OS.
Wait, someone will tell me its being done. This would be a huge one, how come no competition on that even from legitimate sources?

I use Ubuntu's flavor of Linux for desktop use. I prefer Linux on the desktop--When I go to my computer I expect it to work. It does that very well.
http://www.ubuntu.com/

 

[tparsons]

I now have 104 Windows updates on this machine.

Hey I checked the Genuine Disadvantage update...it says plainly "This Update Cannot be Removed".
So you have to reformat/erase and start over if you want it off?

Well, that creates its own problems because the new "windows updater" must be downloaded before any updates will be allowed, and guess what? The new updater program contains WGA. I know this for a fact. I just reformatted and reloaded Windows XP Pro on my laptop a couple of weeks ago and couldn't do any updates without getting WGA. It's stated very clearly when you try to do an initial update, although you have to click on the Windows Updater Details to find it.