No Mr. Gates, I'm Not Guilty
I don't let Windows automatically download updates. I let Bill tell me he has something for me by displaying the little yellow shield. After a few days or weeks of annoying pop up dialogue boxes telling me again that there are updates available, I go to the "Update Center" where it is recommended that I let Microsoft automatically download whatever it has cooked up for me. I decline and choose "Custom."
A couple of weeks ago, Custom told me it had two "Critical Updates" for me. I usually download these. One had a vague description that didn't give me a clue as to what it was, nothing new there. The other had to do with a "security issue in blah, blah, blah." I said OK to both downloads.
When they were ready to install, the two updates were described again and the little box told me I would have to restart Windows after installation. The vague description had changed to "Windows Genuine Advantage Notification." There was a link to get "more details." Clicking it, I learned that Bill was going to put a little "camera" in my computer that would tell him if I installed bootleg Microsoft software. Nothing was said about what would happen then. Plague of locusts on my motherboard probably.
I cancelled the download, went back to the update center and downloaded and installed the blah, blah, blah update.
Now every other day or so, Bill tells me he still wants to put the camera in my computer. Balls that man has, brass balls.
This is really a great ploy. Everyone remembers the periodic pawnshop stings that every local police department runs. Set up a shop, buy the swag from the bad guys, record the transaction and then invite everyone to a party where they are arrested.
Microsoft doesn't make people come to it, it comes to them. It gets everyone, honest or not, to put a camera in their computer and then busts the bad guys with little muss or fuss.
I don't and won't buy counterfeit or bootleg software. But I'll be damned if I'm going to download an applet to give Microsoft even more information about me.
3 comments:
I think there are some updates you can't get without downloading that one. But yeah, you'd think they would bury that in a "must download and install" update rather than making it obvious what it is. Pushy, to the extreme.
Dave..... how do you like Vista? I think your the only one that I know of that uses it. Does it require as many updates as the older OS's?
Fermi and Ryan,
I coincidentally heard on the news this morning that Bill Gates is getting an honorary degree, thirty-two years after he dropped out, from Harvard. Wonder if he bugs its computers.
Vista isn't much of a problem. If you have upgraded to IE 7, you pretty much have most of what you see in Vista without the somewhat hokey "transparent/3D" effect it has for tabs, files and folders. It seems to start, run and shut down faster; but, I think that is a function of me getting more RAM, a bigger video card and not having as much stuff yet in memory.
My biggest problem early on was compatibility with old programs and vendor programs like AVG and ZoneAlarm. I've worked those things out.
I wouldn't upgrade to get it; but, it isn't the nightmare I was worrying about with the new laptop.
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