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Windows 10 Fall Update Uninstalls Desktop Software Without Informing Users (ghacks.net) 360

ourlovecanlastforeve sends this report from Martin Brinkmann of gHacks: Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system may uninstall programs — desktop programs that is — from the computer after installation of the big Fall update that the company released earlier this month. I noticed the issue on one PC that I upgraded to Windows 10 Version 1511 but not on other machines. The affected PC had Speccy, a hardware information program, installed and Windows 10 notified me after the upgrade that the software had been removed from the system because of incompatibilities. There was no indication beforehand that something like this would happen, and what made this rather puzzling was the fact that a newly downloaded copy of Speccy would install and run fine on the upgraded system. An IT Director I know had this happen with ESET antivirus as well, on multiple computers. He says fixes have been rolled out for both TH2 and the antivirus software to prevent this from happening. Other reports mention CPU-Z, AMD's Catalyst Control Center, and CPUID as software that's being automatically uninstalled.
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Windows 10 Fall Update Uninstalls Desktop Software Without Informing Users

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  • Windows 7 (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Pentium100 ( 1240090 ) on Wednesday November 25, 2015 @02:15AM (#50999683)

    So, I guess Windows 7 will be the last Windows OS that I use. Hopefully by the time new games stop supporting it, Linux will have the support of new games.

    • Windows 7 is the next Windows OS to be used.
      • I wonder if ReactOS will ever go anywhere. Its been around for a really long time now but unfortunately still in alpha.

        • Re:Windows 7 (Score:5, Interesting)

          by iampiti ( 1059688 ) on Wednesday November 25, 2015 @11:40AM (#51001999)
          I've been following the project for a few years and yes, the progress is slow. They do have a team of passionate developers but they're few and not everyone has the will of learning enough of the Windows internals to develop a clone of it.
          I'd like them to suceed but they need many more people.
          That being said, it does go forward. For example, you can now start Steam and I've been able to make a couple of simple indie games work.
    • Re:Windows 7 (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 25, 2015 @02:54AM (#50999759)

      So, I guess Windows 7 will be the last Windows OS that I use. Hopefully by the time new games stop supporting it, Linux will have the support of new games.

      Same has been said by many a people about Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1.

      Truth is at the end of the day when MS have a small or any screwup the open-source crowd are so divided among themselves that they can never seize the opportunity.

      • Re:Windows 7 (Score:5, Insightful)

        by cfalcon ( 779563 ) on Wednesday November 25, 2015 @03:07AM (#50999785)

        Vista had bloaty problems, but it was just a good reason to hold onto XP for a bit longer. Seven is a very good OS- apparently the last one. Eight and Eight-one have some mild spyware problems, but nothing intractable- mostly it's just their anti-user UI arrogance that got them a bad reception. Up until right near the end when Microsoft added all the spyware and really baked it in hard, everyone was expecting to go to Windows 10.

        But Windows 10 is the worst thing ever, so nope.

        • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

          by Anonymous Coward

          Vista had bloaty problems, but it was just a good reason to hold onto XP for a bit longer. Seven is a very good OS- apparently the last one. Eight and Eight-one have some mild spyware problems, but nothing intractable- mostly it's just their anti-user UI arrogance that got them a bad reception. Up until right near the end when Microsoft added all the spyware and really baked it in hard, everyone was expecting to go to Windows 10.

          But Windows 10 is the worst thing ever, so nope.

          Would that be the mild spyware that MS back ported to 7 so every one can take part in the game? Vista for all its faults, looking at you douchy ass 'super prefetch' that hammers the hard drive constantly, set the scene and technological platform for Windows 7 and arguably because of Vistas poor reception Win 7 by comparison looks better.

          Either way we all know the best operating system MS made was Windows 2000. Going from 9x/ME was like riding a bike with only one wheel that was damaged to riding a bike with

          • Re:Windows 7 (Score:5, Insightful)

            by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Wednesday November 25, 2015 @06:25AM (#51000261) Homepage Journal

            Up until right near the end when Microsoft added all the spyware and really baked it in hard, everyone was expecting to go to Windows 10.

            Would that be the mild spyware that MS back ported to 7 so every one can take part in the game?

            No, that would be the mouse, keylogger, and debugger, which really constitute hardcore spyware. You're right, though; they did backport these features to Windows 7. The critical difference, however, which in fact makes you wrong, is that you can simply refuse the updates to Win7. Since Microsoft isn't doing any more SPs for Win7, that situation should persist.

            Vista for all its faults, looking at you douchy ass 'super prefetch' that hammers the hard drive constantly, set the scene and technological platform for Windows 7 and arguably because of Vistas poor reception Win 7 by comparison looks better.

            Windows 7 flies on systems that Vista makes unusable. Win7 is provably better than Vista.

            • Windows 7 *is* provably better than Vista.

              But its like being beaten with a metal pipe and then being beaten with a leather belt. The belt sure feels better. And its provably better too!

        • Re:Windows 7 (Score:5, Interesting)

          by myrdos2 ( 989497 ) on Wednesday November 25, 2015 @11:05AM (#51001665)

          It used to be that dual-booting Windows and Linux wasn't much hassle, so I kept Windows around for the odd time I wanted to play a game. But when I upgraded to Windows 10 it wiped out the Linux bootloader. So I grumbled a bit and figured that's par for the course, formatted the hard drive, installed Windows 10 first and Linux second. And that was fine for about a week until I decided I wanted to play a Windows game... after shutting Windows down, my boot loader is toast. Again. I can't even get to the little GRUB repair prompt this time.

          It's just not worth it for me anymore, especially now that Steam is on Linux. Plus, I figure it will be good to get out before Microsoft's "subscription-based" model kicks in for Windows 10.

          Farewell Windows. You were an awesome gaming platform for 15 years.

          • http://www.supergrubdisk.org/ [supergrubdisk.org]

          • Re:Windows 7 (Score:5, Informative)

            by PRMan ( 959735 ) on Wednesday November 25, 2015 @01:18PM (#51003003)

            Windows is hibernating. Your bootloader is still there, but you won't see it until you turn off fast startup [tenforums.com] or do a restart.

            • Re:Windows 7 (Score:4, Informative)

              by KGIII ( 973947 ) <uninvolved@outlook.com> on Wednesday November 25, 2015 @04:13PM (#51004497) Journal

              This... It's being skipped because it's tied in with EUFI. Disable fast boot in system settings (it's somewhere in there, I don't know where but the question gets asked every single day on the various forums) and then, if it still isn't showing grub, boot to a live disk and run `sudo update-grub` and it will figure it out on its own. On the off-chance that it doesn't then get a copy of boot-repair and that should do it. If it *still* doesn't work then just edit the damned config file by hand, save it, and then run the update-grub command.

              This question is asked so often that I, someone who doesn't even have Windows installed on anything other than a phone, know the answer to it - or at least where to find the answer. Google "dual boot Windows 10 and Linux" and you'll get step-by-step directions on the first page. Jump in at the correct place or use the search as a jump-off point and add the words repair, uefi, and swap out Linux for your distro of choice. I'm pretty sure you can have a Linux install that doesn't even *have* a live OS variant and still use a live disk from *any* vendor and `sudo update-grub` will still work.

              • by myrdos2 ( 989497 )

                I figured that if I poked around long enough I'd find something. Mostly I searched for "Linux won't boot after Windows 10 boot", and just found descriptions of how you need to install Windows first. But once I got the idea of ditching Windows in my head, I really liked it. It just seems so much more... peaceful. No more fighting for privacy, no more updates I can't roll back, no more of Windows casually deleting my boot loader... And no annual fee either.

                Plus, I think it's the right time. It just feels like

      • Re:Windows 7 (Score:5, Informative)

        by Maxo-Texas ( 864189 ) on Wednesday November 25, 2015 @04:52AM (#51000053)

        Having been with windows since win 3.11 (and the amiga os before that), I can honestly say this time is different.

        Partially it's the stronger drive to a subscription model but mostly it's the spyware aspects of the new O/S.

        A tablet or phone can probably do the same shit and get away with it but the PC is a PC. You are supposed to own it- it's not supposed to own you, spy on you, force installation of programs, block installation of programs and generally be owned by the company even tho you paid for it.

        I could see dividing between a "serious" PC based on linux (which I've noodled with for the last six years) with a generic software stack that runs on multiple O/S. (Blender, GIMP, Libreoffice, Minecraft, etc.) and then a game machine which I don't use seriously, don't use for financial stuff, etc. But, as I play more boom beach (etc.) my motivation to have a PC for gaming has been declining. I'm more likely to use an inexpensive console for gaming.

        8.0 was merely bad. Windows 10.0 is the devil.

        • I, too, was a Windows user since 3.11 WFW but mostly for games since I discovered and used OS/2 for my non-gaming computing (and later Linux). I liked Windows XP because my Gravis Exterminator force feedback worked but I upgraded to Windows 7 because Battlefield 3 and DX9. But now I am Windows-free! I talked about ditching Windows since way back in the day but this time is different and I said, "No thanks." Yeah!!!!!!

      • by dywolf ( 2673597 )

        Vista didn't suck, at least not as bad as Me, and was a worthwhile upgrade if buggy with drivers and such. but definitely the jump from Vista to 7 was akin to that from 95/98 to 2000/XP, as 7 refined and perfected what Vista started the same way 2000/XP perfected what 95/98 started. likewise, 8 pretty much sucks, and 10 is blah. in fact, 10 is currently more akin to Vista than anything else, so w/e comes next after 10 will likely be the next XP (jinx).

        so for now, 7 is the new XP, and will likely remain so f

      • Same has been said by many a people about Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. Truth is at the end of the day when MS have a small or any screwup the open-source crowd are so divided among themselves that they can never seize the opportunity.

        The last Windows I used was Windows 2000. They crossed the line with me with forced registration and remote disabling "features".
        Why anyone would use a OS that has this for anything mission-critical, is totally beyond me.

        In my book Windows is a Toy, an elaborate

    • Re:Windows 7 (Score:5, Interesting)

      by drolli ( 522659 ) on Wednesday November 25, 2015 @03:24AM (#50999861) Journal

      Maybe. Unless MS gets to reason and windows 11 gets the next windows for coroporations. I am 100% sure that 8 and 10 will be skipped in the upgrade cycle of big corporations. Most skipped vista, and 8 and 10 have a very short period between.

      So when the chances are that MS will produce something which works as well for word, excel and PPT and windows XP and Windows 7 did.

      • Re: Windows 7 (Score:2, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Microsoft have already stated that Windows 10 is last incarnation of the OS. There won't be another big OS launch, just minor changes over time.

        • Re: Windows 7 (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Anonymous Brave Guy ( 457657 ) on Wednesday November 25, 2015 @04:27AM (#51000009)

          So they said, but if their share price is down 40% two years after Windows 10 launched and Nadella has been replaced, they might just state something else.

    • by DrXym ( 126579 )
      Linux have the support of a handful of new games (as a side effect of SteamOS being a Linux derivative), many of which will be extremely badly tested.
    • There are HUNDREDS of good games out for Linux. Many of the games I have on Steam I can also run on my Linux laptop. It's worth investigating. And hey, if you have a Windows game that you MUST play, you can run it on a VM in many cases.

      ~D

    • Re:Windows 7 (Score:4, Interesting)

      by JoeMerchant ( 803320 ) on Wednesday November 25, 2015 @09:55AM (#51001085)

      My wife's Windows 7 laptop (purchased 4 years ago, never auto-updated) is presently offering to upgrade itself to Windows 10.

      Even if you don't "upgrade 7 to 10," they'll be "patching" 7 until it has got all the worst aspects of 10 in it. Just like they made "XP" so secure that it no longer runs on many of the platforms it was originally sold on.

  • Intended? (Score:2, Funny)

    by Darinbob ( 1142669 )

    How dare you question the infinite wisdom of Microsoft!

    New CEO, new Windows VP, and yet we're still treated like children who should not be allowed to make decisions on our own. They're not going to ask if we want the applications removed or not, because we're apparently not able to make such a complicated judgement call.

    • Re:Intended? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by hcs_$reboot ( 1536101 ) on Wednesday November 25, 2015 @02:28AM (#50999715)
      To be fair, and I'll play the devil advocate for once, not all Windows users are slashdotters. Yes, you, /. reader, belong to the cream of the cream of the IT knowledgeable people on Earth. For the remaining 99%, Windows is just a tool to run some games, play movies, open IE and watch porn, and to occasionally feed some accounting basic Excel spreadsheets. So MS takes over, sometimes, and decides for you what's good, what's bad. And acts accordingly. And maybe this is better for most users. Of course, however how deep you'd have to dig it, there must be an option - intended for the advanced user - to switch off any of those intrusive features.
      • Re:Intended? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 25, 2015 @03:00AM (#50999773)

        There are a lot of users who might be best of with the company knowing best... but ceding control of one's PC is not a good thing.

        Folks, we are starting to lose the war on the desktop. Consoles are already lost, phones and tablets are becoming less modifiable, and with the push for "security" on IoT devices, this usually means security against the owner, not an intruder.

        If we lose the desktop, we are fucked, pure and simple. Look how recently PC makers and MS have been pushing boundaries:

        1: The Superfish type of items. In this day and age of anything and everything being used as a potential means of intel gathering, any type of "functionality" along these lines should be treated as malicious criminal activity, or at best, gross negligence. This should never have passed any QA department.

        2: W10 removing software. I understand the purpose of the Windows MSRT... but there is a boundary between obvious malware and Speccy.

        3: Telemetry data. Before this year, telemetry was not even used much in this context. In the past, people would be writing their senators about such privacy invasions (think the "scandal" ages ago, where Prodigy set aside temp files without clearing them, and people found their deleted stuff in them.) Unless something is done now, this trespass will continue to the point where a Windows machine is basically an endpoint belonging to advertisers, intel gatherers, and potentially malware authors.

        Want to know how to get the desktop back? It is going to be pretty tough at this rate, but we can still run older operating systems, or operating systems which don't really care about telemetry data. Virtualization also helps.

        • Except that we're not really losing any of this. Certain hardware that is sold at a loss is pretty locked down. Apple devices are locked up tight but they are so overpriced for the hardware that it doesn't matter. The vast majority of non-subsidized phones, tablets, and laptops that you buy are completely open. You can also buy a wider range of general purpose equipment than ever. Raspberry Pi anybody? Cyagenomod runs great on any Nexus branded hardware. The FOSS tools are the best they've ever been.
          • Except that we're not really losing any of this. Certain hardware that is sold at a loss is pretty locked down. Apple devices are locked up tight but they are so overpriced for the hardware that it doesn't matter.

            Jeebus, when you have no idea of what you are talking about, you should at least think a little before you post.

            This "locked down" you speak of .....My Mac runs OSX, Windows, and Linux. For such a locked down machine, I have a lot of options.

            Your overpriced meme isn't all that hot either. I've owned both PC's and Macs since the early 90's, and there are two constants.

            I replace my PC's at about 1.5 times the rate of replacing my Macs.

            I find that once I price out comparable PCs, they tend much closer

            • I was actually thinking of iPhone / iPad when I made this comment, but good point that Apple also does still sell Macs. That being said, the rest of your comment proves my point. We aren't living in a locked down world. We are in a world where you can either have complete control or you can use locked devices. I don't see anything wrong with having a choice.
        • Unless something is done now, this trespass will continue to the point where a Windows machine is basically an endpoint belonging to advertisers, intel gatherers, and potentially malware authors.

          So it'll be just like it Android?

      • Microsoft could just ask. Most users would probably say "ya, delete it, that Catalyst Control Center sounds scary".

        • Re:Intended? (Score:5, Insightful)

          by mwvdlee ( 775178 ) on Wednesday November 25, 2015 @04:00AM (#50999955) Homepage

          And they should.
          You bought an MSI or ASUS or whatever brand graphics card with an AMD-branded Radeon chip... which of these words hint at "Catalyst"?
          I know it sounds less "k3wl", but what's wrong with naming it "AMD graphics driver".
          Marketeers should keep their dirty mittens off anything that affects actual users.

          • I know it sounds less "k3wl", but what's wrong with naming it "AMD graphics driver".

            I haven't installed AMDshit in a while, but last I checked, in uninstall it said "AMD Catalyst control center". That still doesn't tell you much but at least it gives you a hint.

      • To be more fair, if a non-tech-savy relative suddenly lose an app overnight, he's gonna call me to fix it.
      • Re:Intended? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 25, 2015 @06:01AM (#51000193)

        Microsoft told the world they would be doing this. They clearly stated that win10 would remove software they considered harmful or illegal. The outrage came from PC gamers for months. It was very vociferous, mainly due to the fear of losing their pirated games; or Microsoft deciding they were pirated versions regardless of whether they were or not.

        The fact you feel the need to defend a global corporation having the power to remove what it wants at will from devices all over the planet, says more about your feeble compliant mindset. The reality is someone hiding behind a monitor thousands of miles away can say "don't like that, delete it en-masse," or automated it. Which is even scarier.

        With a bit of luck, you'll lose some of your applications, settings and associated data from this bullshit. How we'll all laugh. Microsoft know best, though!

        • With a bit of luck, you'll lose some of your applications, settings and associated data from this bullshit

          Thank you for your kind wishes. I mostly use Linux though, and occasionally a Mac...

      • Yes, you, /. reader, belong to the cream of the cream of the IT knowledgeable people on Earth.

        LOL, you must be new here.

        Slashdot is a up into the 4 million or so accounts created range, some subset of which are smart and knowledgeable.

        Another significant subset are a bunch of poo-flinging monkeys screeching at one another.

        You really really can't generalize about the makeup of Slashdot.

        • Slashdot is a up into the 4 million or so accounts created range, some subset of which are smart and knowledgeable.

          and most of which are bots or throwaways

      • Re:Intended? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Ol Olsoc ( 1175323 ) on Wednesday November 25, 2015 @09:44AM (#51001009)

        For the remaining 99%, Windows is just a tool to run some games, play movies, open IE and watch porn, and to occasionally feed some accounting basic Excel spreadsheets.

        My wife, who aside from the porn bit, and she spends some time on facebook, is exactly what you describe.

        She's non-technical as well. And despite what you write, she hates Windows a lot. Evver since I installed Mint on her touchscreen laptop, she's converted to Linux.

        Because it's one metric shitload easier to use.

    • How dare you question the infinite wisdom of Microsoft!

      New CEO, new Windows VP, and yet we're still treated like children who should not be allowed to make decisions on our own. They're not going to ask if we want the applications removed or not, because we're apparently not able to make such a complicated judgement call.

      Yeah, but for each application they remove you'll get a coupon for 10% off the corresponding Metro app in the Windows Store!

  • by Ilgaz ( 86384 ) on Wednesday November 25, 2015 @02:25AM (#50999705) Homepage

    Oh wait, there are no release notes except marketing talk. Believe or not, they don't publish release notes anymore. When a company CEO talks about what a "serious" company they are, show them this story.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • if it wasn't for the fact Windows 10 is slow and bug ridden

        Sorry, I don't really see this on my installation. I installed the tech preview about a month before release and at that point there was quite a few bugs. However, since I got the final version, I haven't noticed any problems as far as bugs go.

        As far as speed goes, I find it to be a very responsive OS. I've even taken to turning my desktop off when I'm not using it because it boots so fast. I haven't done that with a computer in decades. Within 1

        • Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)

          by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday November 25, 2015 @09:39AM (#51000969)
          Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • if it wasn't for the fact Windows 10 is slow and bug ridden

          Sorry, I don't really see this on my installation.

          I've found your experience. W10 actually runs pretty well.

          My objections are the surveillance and forced updates. I've had several no-choice updates on Pro already, and any OS that has a built in keylogger kinda blurs the line between white and black hat world. A lot. Sharing your wifi password is kinda nasty as well. I won't allow W10 machines or Windows phones to attach to my wifi. It's there, and a company who adds such malware and will force updates on you when you tell it not to, and will remove other

    • How can you have release notes when you have a piecemeal release which now deliberately hides what a specific update is for? Or when they pull a release and say "no, bad release, use the previous one"?

      Microsoft has abdicated release engineering in favor of what is essentially rolling releases.

      My guess is MS themselves haven't the slightest frigging idea of what any release actually contains, and they really don't give a damn if your PC works after the update or not ... as long as a statistically "good enou

  • by penguinoid ( 724646 ) on Wednesday November 25, 2015 @02:27AM (#50999709) Homepage Journal

    Anyone know when Microsoft will release a new version of Windows to replace Windows 7?

  • Color me surprised (Score:5, Interesting)

    by rastos1 ( 601318 ) on Wednesday November 25, 2015 @02:47AM (#50999747)
    Windows 10 is an unfolding disaster in slow motion. I make a living writing code that is used mostly on Windows and I had a bad feeling since the first Technical Preview. Decided to hold off the upgrade until the end of the free upgrade period hoping that the problems will be hammered out and the control will be (at least for most part) returned to the user. But instead it started bad and goes downhill from there.
  • Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday November 25, 2015 @02:58AM (#50999767)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • by cfalcon ( 779563 )

      Of course it's a bug. The problem is that it's willing to remove programs, and that it does so in a bugged way.

      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Wednesday November 25, 2015 @06:14AM (#51000219) Homepage Journal

        If you look at the list of affected programs it is obvious why they are being removed. They all install low level drivers. The hardware monitoring/inventory programs use drivers to query devices directly (normal apps can't read the EEPROM on my memory DIMMs, for example) and the anti-virus software uses them to hook in to the OS at a deep level. Those drivers might break when the kernel is updated, so they uninstall those apps.

        It's not a bug, it's a feature to ensure that upgrades on machines with tricky anti-virus and nasty DRM/copy protection drivers don't result in an unbootable system. Overzealous perhaps, but it's obvious what the intent is.

    • by dow ( 7718 )

      I don't think a bug, but I don't think removing this software is a bad thing. The software in a few cases hits the hardware for data, probably in a fairly low level way. If the behavior of windows has changed, there is the potential for damage. Using one of those apps listed, cpuz, I left my Win10 computer needing a hard reset a couple of times. I upgraded to a new version and it is fine, but would have appreciated a warning or something as if I had been doing anything important at the time I launched cpuz

    • by silviuc ( 676999 )
      They pulled the ISOs. Last time I checked, Windows Update will still download and attempt to install it.
      On my system it just refuses to install... so I guess I'm safe, for now.
    • Before you get your knickers in a bunch: this is most likely just a bug, not intentional.

      So you take the "Stay Calm and BOHICA" approach, eh?

      This is just the sort of fuckup that Microsoft updates have always done. Only made worse because forcing them on people increased the screwed up computer base.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 25, 2015 @03:16AM (#50999833)

    As far as I can tell, Windows 10 is the Microsoft play to become Google or Facebook on your desktop. In effect, you choose to run their code and in exchange they spy on you and sell all the info they get to the highest bidder. Microsoft clearly saw that investors are seeing bigger gains from non-manufacturing companies that just spy on uses and sell the info, and they've decided that as the OS itself they can do it better than anybody else.

    Once you choose to run an OS that owns you, vacuums-up your every keystroke, mouse action, and utterance within microphone range and that routinely phones-home and auto-installs/auto-removes software, the auto-disabling of various applications is just another bullet-point on the features list. You are now the submissive; Microsoft is your dominant. If you wanted to complain, you should have done so before clicking on the "Accept" button of the EULA. Microsoft does not place a "safe word" in that EULA does it? Enjoy the ride to the software version of the Folsom St parade!

    • by Anonymous Coward

      You realise you've just done the BDSM equivalent of gay shaming?

      There's nothing "wrong" with being submissive or dominant, and a healthy D/s relationship is based on continuous communication and ongoing consent. Microsoft isn't regularly checking in that users are still ok with having their data grabbed or providing any aftercare. These are the hallmarks of an abusive relationship, which are hardly exclusive to BDSM practitioners.

    • You nailed it, my friend! When you tie this level of invasiveness with Free World governments that have enshrined in law their "right" to go to Microsoft, Google, Facebook and such, and just take whatever data they want (then forbid the company from advising anybody that they've turned over literally everything), it's a good reason to just go somewhere else for an OS.

      I've been around since Win3.1. Win10 will never go on any computer I own.

      It's not that I lead any kind of an interesting life, but I place a

    • To be fair, Google does not sell your info to anyone.
  • by Thanatiel ( 445743 ) on Wednesday November 25, 2015 @03:19AM (#50999843)

    The only reason I (still) use W10 is games (more than 300, in Steam only). I have every second of using it.
    As soon as there are enough high budgets games running on Linux, I'll finally get rid of it for a systemd-free linux (Manjaro-openrc comes to mind).
    I've good hopes that SteamOS will lead us outside of the Windows era.
    Microsoft was right : Windows 10 is the last Windows version ... ever.

  • by symes ( 835608 )

    This is one post on one forum. I can't find much evidence of this elsewhere. Has it been replicated? My thoughts are that these software were recently installed and the update rolled back to the most recent system restore for some reason. Or that the software was not intentioanlly uninstalled, but the references to in the registry, etc., were inadvertantly over-written. Sure, it could be big bad Microsoft or it could have a very simple explanation.

  • by Aryeh Goretsky ( 129230 ) on Wednesday November 25, 2015 @04:38AM (#51000035) Homepage

    Hello,

    The problem with the Windows 10 Build 10586 (aka v1511, TH2) installer detecting versions of ESET's software that are compatible with Windows 10 as not being compatible has been fixed by Microsoft. Simply allow the installer to connect to the Internet for the latest updates and it will download an update that allows is to recognize all compatible versions of ESET's software.

    Customers who were on the latest builds of ESET's software (v9.0.318 for consumer, v6.2.2033 for enterprise) were never affected by this, but customers who had older--but still Windows 10 compatible--builds did have there versions flagged when Build 10586 of Windows 10 was installed.

    For more information, see the following E SET knowledgebase article: http://support.eset.com/kb3733... [eset.com]

    Regards,

    Aryeh Goretsky

    • Oh crikey, you're here as well?! Is there no safe place left? :-D

    • Thank you for setting us straight. But I would like to politely remind you that the beta period for Windows 10 was supposed to end last Summer, and Windows 10 is now supposed to be in general release. This kind of mess shouldn't be happening.

      Those of us with longer memories remember that this is Microsoft standard procedure with its operating systems: beta test via the general public for at least a year, including taking liberties to break people's machines in the interest of getting the OS right. This ha

  • My sister's new Acer laptop came with a slew of bloatware. I want a program that will remove it all with a couple of clicks rather than lengthy add-remove-programs-reboot etc.
    • My sister's new Acer laptop came with a slew of bloatware. I want a program that will remove it all with a couple of clicks

      Some Acer factory restore CDs come in two parts and if you skip the second one they don't install the bloatware. I have no idea if yours is one of those. But if you didn't make at least two copies of the factory restore image before doing anything else, fail fail

      Note that I have made this mistake before and paid (literally) for it

  • by ciantic ( 626550 ) on Wednesday November 25, 2015 @07:12AM (#51000401)

    For me it didn't uninstall anything, it however screwed many settings in registry, e.g. keyboard layout and user specific settings. It seems like it "upgrades" by installing the ISO on background when restarting the computer once it's downloaded it.

    I don't think Windows 10 in general is stable yet, for instance Start menu stops working sometimes, "Modern" apps stopped working (Calculator, Photo viewer etc.), Edge browser window does not appear anymore and Windows Update Settings does not open.

    I get some of the features back if I create new Windows account, but not everything. It looks like I have to do clean install sometime in near future, what a wonderful upgrade.

  • You do know they discontinued that version of their control panel. Renamed it radeon software crimson and put in a whole bunch of updates and fixes.
    Windows 10 updates drivers and thus it would install this new version while removing the old.

  • by joncombe ( 623734 ) on Wednesday November 25, 2015 @08:45AM (#51000707) Homepage
    I have big concerns with Windows 10 so have not updated to it yet. Those are primarily around the forced mandatory updates. We've all seen drivers and software stop working when you install a new version of Windows. With Windows 10 you are in effect installing a new version of Windows every time it updates. So you no longer have any certainty that the devices and software you require will keep on working. Now it seems Microsoft will automatically remove anything it thinks is incompatible without even offering the choice. Nice. If I was the 3rd party software vendor I'd pretty miffed. I think it is only a matter of time before Microsoft is taking to court for this. It is not their job to decide what software someone can or cannot run on their own PC.
  • Oh well at least it's doing some good.
  • I've been putting off my Windows 10 upgrade because, as great as it seemed like the OS was going to be, the spyware and now the uninstalling of programs has completely put me off. I have a spare laptop (Windows Vista, I believe) that I mainly use for Kodi and to share out my external hard drive. I'm now considering installing Linux on it as a test. I'm not sure which distribution to use. Which one would be the best to migrate from Windows for Kodi/network file sharing? Would it allow me to boot the lap

  • One more of many reasons I do not plan to upgrade to Windows 10. In fact I have stopped at 7 turned off automatic updates and am dual booting a couple of Linux distros for evaluation. I don't need or want the stupidity of Windows 10 and I am telling everyone that will listen to me as geek in residence to avoid it. Since many of my relatives and friends have used me as a free PC service tech for decades I first ask what version of windows they have. If it is 10 I tell them sorry they will have to get hel
  • by Brent Bordelon ( 4244153 ) on Wednesday November 25, 2015 @10:03AM (#51001169)
    It doesn't 'uninstall' programs so much as it reinstalls Windows, then attempts to re-setup previously installed programs. Sometimes it's successful, too many times it's not, making it look like it uninstalled something that in fact it just wasn't able to set back up. Even if it's 100% successful though, it leaves you with the guilty-child-sounding message, "All your files are exactly where you left them", which is funny in and of itself.

Some people manage by the book, even though they don't know who wrote the book or even what book.

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