The introduction of a Microsoft developed anti-virus is a large reason why malware and adware prevalence has gone down so sharply in the last decade.
I worked in the break/fix computer industry for almost a decade, and virus cleanups are almost non-existent anymore.
You can meme all you want, but the forced inclusion of anti-virus software has had a measurably positive impact on the average user’s computer security.
It is bad advice to suggest that people turn off updates. Full stop.
Back in normal times this was common sense but you’ve really gotta understand that microsoft is just shipping malware for its own systems lately. This vibe coded garbage is pretty debatably worth it, they obviously see their userbase as stand in QA testers
I’ll be the first one to say that I’ve left Windows in the dust for Linux almost 10 years ago. After losing 24-48 hours worth of work **twice** due to automatic updates (on a Windows 7 machine, running data recovery against a deleted partition on an external hard drive. When they took away the ability to have windows download updates but let me choose when to reboot), I swapped to Linux fulltime and have never looked back.
While Microsoft isn’t exactly setting records for user privacy, the answer to “Microsoft is installing things that track what I do for corporate interests” will never be “stop installing updates”. Microsoft is at least an entity you can hold legally responsible for damaging you. Refusing to install updates will only make that problem worse, not better.
I get that the Microsoft Hate bandwagon is a fun ride, but suggesting that users disable updates is bad advice, full stop.
Look, Microsoft left windows 10 to rot. The only update they’re shipping is the nag screen for Windows 11. When you get the update, it hogs all your ressources to download the entirety of Windows 11 and keep it in ram, only to show a blue screen that says “Your pc can’t run Windows 11”.
Click OK/cancel/whatever, doesn’t matter, because nothing happens. Then it repeats the whole downloading update procedure from the beginning next time you reboot.
If for some reason you need Windows on a less than brand new machine, then your only option is to disable updates or else it just won’t work.
Like it or not, Microsoft can do what they want with their operating system.
If you want that to not be the case, swap to Linux.
I’m not trying to defend Microsoft, I’m calling a spade a spade.
This is no different than back when Windows XP was pushed to End of Life, except maybe they’re more nagging about trying to get you on a secure platform vs letting you continue to use an unsecured one. Microsoft will not support every Windows version forever, there will always come a time where the ‘good’ Windows version is no longer supported.
Running an internet-connected computer and turning off updates is bad advice. Doesn’t matter if it’s desktop, laptop, server, cellphone, etc. You should install updates.
Deferring updates until you can make sure there will be no adverse consequences is good advice, but that isn’t what people are recommending here.
You definitely made the right call from any angle. Windows 11 is a roaring dumpster and not just because of the bloatware. 10 was pushing in bad directions but until 2034 there’s a stripped down industrial version for operating hospital equipment and the like with that will continue getting security updates. But this shit show has been circling the toilet since around when you left.
The problem isn’t the bloatware. Well that’s a problem but the real more pressing issue is Microsoft is letting their unholy Copilot write the damn updates. It keeps breaking people’s drivers or basic system stability, I wasn’t exaggerating about users have been recruited to QA. Even on my stripped down IoTC version people still got served an update that caused your username to manifest on my screen. Imagine that happening on somebody’s lab equipment or surgical monitor.
Maybe a hospital can take on the court case but I’ve been voiding my warranties since I graduated, that’s just not an option for me. I’m going back to the last stable update, airgapping my machine, and waiting for the sun to burn out or for Microslop to sober up and stop letting a chatbot drive the coding department. Maybe one of those two things will happen before Gates sees any legal recourse for nights spent on Epstein Island.
Imagine that happening on somebody’s lab equipment or surgical monitor.
There’s a reason why WSUS is a thing.
Maybe a hospital can take on the court case but I’ve been voiding my warranties since I graduated, that’s just not an option for me.
I’m not implying that end users should sue Microsoft, but Microsoft is an entity that is bound by US law, however flimsy that is nowadays.
The black hat hackers and script kiddies who will infect your machine if you don’t install updates aren’t. Microsoft won’t store CSAM on your computer, or add devices on your network to their DDOS botnet.
It does not matter how bad Microsoft is, turning off updates will always be the worse choice, and recommending that people do so is bad advice. Full stop.
I mean, that’s what the airgap is for. Honestly if a black hat goes to the trouble of storing whatever on my offline device or using it in their botnet they’ve pretty much earned it. I’m sure it will be very useful to them in this state
You wanna live-on-the-edge and be reckless? You go ahead. I’m not trying to convince you to stop doing whatever you want with your stuff. We all have that “I know better than everyone else” phase. I had mine, too. Hopefully, when your wax wings melt, your fall won’t be ruinous either.
But you absolutely should stop recommending that other people turn off updates. That is objectively bad advice.
Uhhggg I’ve been doing dumb stuff for way long it just kind of comes with the territory of home hobby computing. But the worst case scenario for some reason be if nothing bad comes of it and I tell people that, no? Folks got no tolerance for anyone not doing anything the way they decided was most correct back when they were in their twenties.
There’s a time approaching pretty quickly when people still using shit products from bad companies will have to decide for themselves how to go about navigating hostile brand/consumer relationships and it would be mildly cool to look at that objectively and not get moralized at for it. Which is a weird as hell thing to have to say to the Linux guy
lol if users are QA then you don’t really have QA, or users.
IOW if users are QA, then who are the users?
Like there’s some class of ethereal divine spirits you will one day present with this pristine OS after fixing bugs identified by us useless flesh bags?
Precisely. They figure they can lay off their entire workforce, let copilot write the software, and then scrape all our machines for bug reports and logs.
Beats the previous business model of constantly terrorizing their devs to invent new problems to solve so that there’s always a new product to sell. Who knows how long before humans tried to unionize or something awful like that?
Just go through regedit and group policy settings for anything that feels like it’s going to update windows and disable it.
You really should be doing regular updates.
Disabling updates is dangerous and not recommended for a reason.
You sound like someone who has Norton Antivirus AND a McAfee premium subscription. “Because it’s DANGEROUS to remove them!”
The introduction of a Microsoft developed anti-virus is a large reason why malware and adware prevalence has gone down so sharply in the last decade.
I worked in the break/fix computer industry for almost a decade, and virus cleanups are almost non-existent anymore.
You can meme all you want, but the forced inclusion of anti-virus software has had a measurably positive impact on the average user’s computer security.
It is bad advice to suggest that people turn off updates. Full stop.
Windows updates break a shit ton of stuff, it’s best to wait any news about it breaking something for a few days
Back in normal times this was common sense but you’ve really gotta understand that microsoft is just shipping malware for its own systems lately. This vibe coded garbage is pretty debatably worth it, they obviously see their userbase as stand in QA testers
I’ll be the first one to say that I’ve left Windows in the dust for Linux almost 10 years ago. After losing 24-48 hours worth of work **twice** due to automatic updates (on a Windows 7 machine, running data recovery against a deleted partition on an external hard drive. When they took away the ability to have windows download updates but let me choose when to reboot), I swapped to Linux fulltime and have never looked back.
While Microsoft isn’t exactly setting records for user privacy, the answer to “Microsoft is installing things that track what I do for corporate interests” will never be “stop installing updates”. Microsoft is at least an entity you can hold legally responsible for damaging you. Refusing to install updates will only make that problem worse, not better.
I get that the Microsoft Hate bandwagon is a fun ride, but suggesting that users disable updates is bad advice, full stop.
Look, Microsoft left windows 10 to rot. The only update they’re shipping is the nag screen for Windows 11. When you get the update, it hogs all your ressources to download the entirety of Windows 11 and keep it in ram, only to show a blue screen that says “Your pc can’t run Windows 11”.
Click OK/cancel/whatever, doesn’t matter, because nothing happens. Then it repeats the whole downloading update procedure from the beginning next time you reboot.
If for some reason you need Windows on a less than brand new machine, then your only option is to disable updates or else it just won’t work.
Like it or not, Microsoft can do what they want with their operating system.
If you want that to not be the case, swap to Linux.
I’m not trying to defend Microsoft, I’m calling a spade a spade.
This is no different than back when Windows XP was pushed to End of Life, except maybe they’re more nagging about trying to get you on a secure platform vs letting you continue to use an unsecured one. Microsoft will not support every Windows version forever, there will always come a time where the ‘good’ Windows version is no longer supported.
Running an internet-connected computer and turning off updates is bad advice. Doesn’t matter if it’s desktop, laptop, server, cellphone, etc. You should install updates.
Deferring updates until you can make sure there will be no adverse consequences is good advice, but that isn’t what people are recommending here.
You definitely made the right call from any angle. Windows 11 is a roaring dumpster and not just because of the bloatware. 10 was pushing in bad directions but until 2034 there’s a stripped down industrial version for operating hospital equipment and the like with that will continue getting security updates. But this shit show has been circling the toilet since around when you left.
The problem isn’t the bloatware. Well that’s a problem but the real more pressing issue is Microsoft is letting their unholy Copilot write the damn updates. It keeps breaking people’s drivers or basic system stability, I wasn’t exaggerating about users have been recruited to QA. Even on my stripped down IoTC version people still got served an update that caused your username to manifest on my screen. Imagine that happening on somebody’s lab equipment or surgical monitor.
Maybe a hospital can take on the court case but I’ve been voiding my warranties since I graduated, that’s just not an option for me. I’m going back to the last stable update, airgapping my machine, and waiting for the sun to burn out or for Microslop to sober up and stop letting a chatbot drive the coding department. Maybe one of those two things will happen before Gates sees any legal recourse for nights spent on Epstein Island.
There’s a reason why WSUS is a thing.
I’m not implying that end users should sue Microsoft, but Microsoft is an entity that is bound by US law, however flimsy that is nowadays.
The black hat hackers and script kiddies who will infect your machine if you don’t install updates aren’t. Microsoft won’t store CSAM on your computer, or add devices on your network to their DDOS botnet.
It does not matter how bad Microsoft is, turning off updates will always be the worse choice, and recommending that people do so is bad advice. Full stop.
I mean, that’s what the airgap is for. Honestly if a black hat goes to the trouble of storing whatever on my offline device or using it in their botnet they’ve pretty much earned it. I’m sure it will be very useful to them in this state
Look, dude,
You wanna live-on-the-edge and be reckless? You go ahead. I’m not trying to convince you to stop doing whatever you want with your stuff. We all have that “I know better than everyone else” phase. I had mine, too. Hopefully, when your wax wings melt, your fall won’t be ruinous either.
But you absolutely should stop recommending that other people turn off updates. That is objectively bad advice.
Uhhggg I’ve been doing dumb stuff for way long it just kind of comes with the territory of home hobby computing. But the worst case scenario for some reason be if nothing bad comes of it and I tell people that, no? Folks got no tolerance for anyone not doing anything the way they decided was most correct back when they were in their twenties.
There’s a time approaching pretty quickly when people still using shit products from bad companies will have to decide for themselves how to go about navigating hostile brand/consumer relationships and it would be mildly cool to look at that objectively and not get moralized at for it. Which is a weird as hell thing to have to say to the Linux guy
lol if users are QA then you don’t really have QA, or users.
IOW if users are QA, then who are the users?
Like there’s some class of ethereal divine spirits you will one day present with this pristine OS after fixing bugs identified by us useless flesh bags?
Precisely. They figure they can lay off their entire workforce, let copilot write the software, and then scrape all our machines for bug reports and logs.
Beats the previous business model of constantly terrorizing their devs to invent new problems to solve so that there’s always a new product to sell. Who knows how long before humans tried to unionize or something awful like that?
Appropriate username