Win10 computer hijacked by Microsoft!!!

Merlin66 (Ken) · #1 26-03-2023, 11:02 AM

I booted my computer this morning to find a MS message on the screen
- Your computer is ready for Win11 -Install now/ schedule -

No escape option, Ctl Atl Del came up with nothing on the screen!!
Rebooted to find the same MS screen
WTF!
Only way out seemed to be to accept the schedule option and a screen later decline the terms and conditions!
Finally got a message - You can continue with Win10.
What a way to start a day!!

leon · #2 26-03-2023, 11:23 AM

Maybe that is why I stay with Win 8 Col,

they are getting cheekier by the day and dictate what you will do it seems.

Leon

AstralTraveller (David) · #3 26-03-2023, 12:01 PM

Linux. I switched 15 years ago and never looked back.

leon · #4 26-03-2023, 12:55 PM

Opp's sorry you are not Col, my mistake.

Leon

Dennis · #5 26-03-2023, 01:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Merlin66

I booted my computer this morning to find a MS message on the screen
- Your computer is ready for Win11 -Install now/ schedule -

No escape option, Ctl Atl Del came up with nothing on the screen!!
Rebooted to find the same MS screen
WTF!
Only way out seemed to be to accept the schedule option and a screen later decline the terms and conditions!
Finally got a message - You can continue with Win10.
What a way to start a day!!

Thanks for the heads up Ken, I'll keep an eye out for that and check to make sure I haven't got some auto update box ticked.

Cheers

Dennis

alpal · #6 26-03-2023, 09:44 PM

Same happened to me with my Win10 but I managed to get out of it.

I have heaps of programs from more than 10 years ago - some that even ran on Xp but mostly Win7
and I'm sure that many will fail to work on Win11.
I don't want Win11.

RAJAH235 · #7 27-03-2023, 02:55 AM

A FWIW...
I like to peruse the "Horse's Mouth" for those types of Q's.

> https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/...dows-10-a.html

But...my 1st choice is...
grc dot com
> https://www.grc.com/incontrol.htm

AstroViking (Steve) · #8 27-03-2023, 07:34 AM

Ah. Steve Gibson. I remember his 'SpinRite' program from the late 80s. Now that was a fantastic program.

Thanks for the pointer to InControl, too. That's going on my Win10 machine.

dikman (Richard) · #9 27-03-2023, 08:49 AM

Won't happen with my desktop because Windoze keeps telling me it's not suitable for an upgrade.

The_bluester (Paul) · #10 27-03-2023, 09:27 AM

It is possible to decline the upgrade, but it will pop up again in the future and nag you some more.

JohnG (John) · #11 27-03-2023, 10:10 AM

Had this happen to my main computer, on the lower part of the notification there is a decline option in small lettering, click on that, only ever had it pop up the once, never had it happen since..

Merlin66 (Ken) · #12 27-03-2023, 03:49 PM

John,
Your eyesight must be better than mine!
White on white is not easy!!!!

rustigsmed (Russell) · #13 27-03-2023, 08:35 PM

A good reminder to start learning Linux in the lead up to win10 support from MS dropping (especially if you have 'old' unsupported win11 compliant hardware).

AdamJL · #14 27-03-2023, 09:58 PM

it'll never be the year of Linux

AstroViking (Steve) · #15 28-03-2023, 08:21 AM

Sadly, very true.

Whilst Linux has made massive inroads into the server space (and sits on every Android device every made), Linux will never get to the desktop in anything approaching large numbers.

Why? Because the vast majority of software developers code for Windows first, with MacOS a distant second.

The other big obstacles are closed-source, proprietary protocols used by business-scale applications like Active Directory / Exchange365 / Office365 / Azure. The interconnection of Microsoft's core applications and dependencies on things like .NET, C# and the Windows APIs means that writing a Linux Exchange client (for example) is pretty much doomed to failure because the underlying support libraries are not there.

Add to that the huge market for games. No developer is going to code for Windows and it's graphics capabilities and then duplicate that work for Linux. Add to that the underlying graphics drivers (Intel / NVidia / AMD) and the amount of work has skyrocketed.

Finally, the fragmented nature of the Linux world is against it. There are many different distributions with different package handling and different desktop environments.

Love it or loathe it, by controlling the desktop world, Microsoft has come to dominate the enterprise-class application / server world.

Cheers,
V

Quote:

Originally Posted by AdamJL

it'll never be the year of Linux

AstralTraveller (David) · #16 28-03-2023, 12:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AstroViking

Sadly, very true.

Whilst Linux has made massive inroads into the server space (and sits on every Android device every made), Linux will never get to the desktop in anything approaching large numbers.

Why? Because the vast majority of software developers code for Windows first, with MacOS a distant second.

The other big obstacles are closed-source, proprietary protocols used by business-scale applications like Active Directory / Exchange365 / Office365 / Azure. The interconnection of Microsoft's core applications and dependencies on things like .NET, C# and the Windows APIs means that writing a Linux Exchange client (for example) is pretty much doomed to failure because the underlying support libraries are not there.

Add to that the huge market for games. No developer is going to code for Windows and it's graphics capabilities and then duplicate that work for Linux. Add to that the underlying graphics drivers (Intel / NVidia / AMD) and the amount of work has skyrocketed.

Finally, the fragmented nature of the Linux world is against it. There are many different distributions with different package handling and different desktop environments.

Love it or loathe it, by controlling the desktop world, Microsoft has come to dominate the enterprise-class application / server world.

Cheers,
V

Linux is of course quite embedded in our lives (pun intended), my NAS and TV are Linux, and this segment is growing. There are also users who need the stability and ability to customise the OS who use *nix, such as the Antares particle accelerator at ANSTO and the huge SEM at Wollongong Uni. This technology trickled down to their desktop instruments which is where I saw it. So I don't think it's going the way of OS/2. [I used OS/2 on an IRMS and it was a very capable OS and in 1995 far ahead of anything MS had, but it lost the marketing battle and petered out.]

On the home desktop I don't think the situation is as difficult as many believe. There is a very competent ecosystem of applications which accomplish everything I need. I'm presently editing a docx document started on Word and everything works perfectly. Some years ago my wife found that 'track changes' didn't work properly (I don't know if that has been fixed). Similarly Excel macros I wrote at work won't run on Calc but all formulas and formatting are fine. IMHO unless you need to interact with Win users a lot and with some complexity, Libre Office (or OneOffice if you like the ribbon interface) are just fine. I also find that GIMP and Darktable have more functionality than I can use. Apparently Photoshop is better but the difference is probably lost on me. My preferred desktop planetarium is KStars, even though I have Cartes du Ciel and Stellarium. I also have Siril, VStar, APT and Astroplanner. There are many more astronomy application prepackaged on Astronomy Linux.

Games is a recognised area of weakness for Linux. I have zero interest in any games (except chess) so this is a non-issue for me. 'Flatpack' (or Snap if you are Ubuntu - grrr) was developed to make it easier to port software to Linux and supposedly this is helping. Still, I doubt Linux is going to be the games preferred platform anytime soon. Sadly flatpack will also promote bloat, something Linux has been good at avoiding.

You are probably right that Linux will not be used in large numbers. However I'm confident that there are many users for whom it is a good choice who don't recognise this fact. If you usage is web surfing, email, Zoom, prettying up photos etc and you don't have to interact in the Win world nor play games (or not many?) then it could be for you. A friend is using Linux as his imaging rig and is happy.

The up side is that old hardware is fine and IMHO the desktops are generally nicer and certainly far more customisable. (I use MATE on Mint but all major distributions support all major desktop environments.) I have Win 10 in a VM with Office, Occult and OccultWatcher installed and nothing else and that uses 36GB of disk space and 2.3GB of RAM with no apps running. My Mint install has a plethora of software installed and occupies 16GB and uses 0.9GB of RAM. I'm using an old twin core i3 and I only notice it being a bit slow when stacking images. Most of the time it's quite snappy.

cheers,
David

rustigsmed (Russell) · #17 28-03-2023, 12:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AdamJL

it'll never be the year of Linux

this has little to do with microsoft ceasing win 10 support in 2 years, and Win11 not working on 'older hardware'. for those who intend on not buying newer hardware and want their OS providing updates linux is really the only option - thanks to Microsoft there may be more linux users around.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AstroViking

Sadly, very true.

Add to that the huge market for games. No developer is going to code for Windows and it's graphics capabilities and then duplicate that work for Linux. Add to that the underlying graphics drivers (Intel / NVidia / AMD) and the amount of work has skyrocketed.

V

game devs don't need to code specifically for linux, thanks to Valve throwing resources at the problem (and the Steam Deck), proton can play most Windows games these days without issue (I think it was at ~82% of the top 1000 Steam games back in 2021 not sure where it is at now) and sometimes better than windows- the main impediment being intrusive anti-cheat on competitive fps games - which some game engines have started to address. as for drivers nvidia has even started upping their linux game https://developer.nvidia.com/blog/nv...ernel-modules/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwmNLqJL7Zo for some AAA gaming benchmarks

HDR imo is the main tangible feature currently lacking from linux for the non-business user - when that is sorted who knows (but they have started making progress after much silence).

RAJAH235 · #18 28-03-2023, 10:01 PM

AstroViking (Steve)...

Mr. Gibson has been working on a new version of spinrite.

Due for release fairly soon.
An almost complete rewrite for all the latest OS's & drives & their larger capacities etc., etc.
Will be a lot quicker as well.

Will be v6.1 & a free upgrade for those with v6.0 or .....(earlier......I think.)

Camelopardalis (Dunk) · #19 28-03-2023, 10:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AdamJL

it'll never be the year of Linux

ASI Air seem pretty popular in the Astro community, and they’re based on Linux.

And then ask the PixInsight developers what platform they develop their software on before porting it to other platforms