GWX changes denounced as PR ploy

Microsoft was anxious to put #upgradegate behind them, but apparently it's not going to be that simple.

From Computerworld:

Commenters have scoffed at Microsoft's backtracking from a widely-criticized practice to trick users into upgrading to Windows 10, arguing that it was nothing more than a public relations ploy employed when the free upgrade was just weeks from expiring.

"People have been complaining about GWX [Get Windows 10] since last October. To finally admit there's a problem 1 month before the end of the promotion (and it'll be another week before everyone has this update) is really sad," wrote someone identified as Rossco1337 on a Reddit thread Wednesday.

[...]

"[Microsoft] probably [did this] so that years from now, the vague memory will be, 'Microsoft was a bit pushy, but in the end they backed off and gave people choice,'" added illithidbane in the same discussion thread. "They want it to have been pushy for as long as possible, get as many upgrades as possible, but end on a 'high' note."

They do have a point, but I have the feeling that there's a little more to Microsoft's latest move than simple PR.

The hits keep coming: MS drops Messaging Everywhere to push Skype

Like reverse Midas, Microsoft can't stop turning gold into shit.

From PC World:

The ability to respond to text messages received on your phone with the same app on your PC. It’s a dream that’s been a reality for Mac users since 2014, and Windows 10 Mobile users were supposed to get the feature, called Messaging Everywhere, with the Anniversary Update rolling out August 2.

But that’s not happening anymore.

Instead, Microsoft thinks it has a better idea: add Messaging Everywhere to an upcoming version of Skype for Windows 10 PCs.

[...]

“We have been testing with Windows Insiders a preview of the Messaging Everywhere feature...The experience was well-received by Insiders however we believe we can deliver an even better experience through the Skype app,” Microsoft said in its blog post announcing the change.

To sum up: Microsoft is dropping an anticipated feature that the company says was working great in favor of adding it to Skype. Skype. A service that countless individuals have described as being in various states of brokenness for, well, a long time.

The funny thing is, right now you can integrate SMS messages with Skype on Windows 10 Mobile. Doing that is a terrible, terrible idea, however, because it turns your life into a nightmare of pop-up notifications and unread message counts across several apps. If Microsoft can’t get Skype-SMS integration to work properly on phones I do not have high hopes for it as a cross-device experience.

I hardly know where to start with this one.

BOGO? Microsoft is now giving XBOnes away

How badly did Microsoft's XBox One fare in this console generation? Badly enough that students can now get one free if they buy a Surface Pro 4.

From The Verge:

Microsoft is tempting students to buy a Surface Pro 4 this week with a new promotion running at its retail stores in the US. The software maker is taking $300 off when students buy a Surface Pro 4 and Xbox One. "So basically a free Xbox One with the purchase of a Surface Pro 4," says Terry Myerson, head of Windows and devices at Microsoft, in an interview with The Verge. The deal goes live today and will run until August 14th.

[...]

I asked Myerson if there were any plans for a Windows 10 October update, like there are for the Xbox One, that would typically accompany new devices. "Increasingly as we go out into the fall, it's a natural time for us to focus on new devices from our partners and from Microsoft," explains Myerson. "The Xbox One S will be shipping, but also many new devices will be available from HP, Dell, Lenovo, Acer, Asus, Microsoft, and others." That sounds like a hint that new Microsoft devices could be launching this year, but if anything it could be a refresh of Microsoft's Band wearable or the rumoured Xbox TV devices that didn't arrive at E3.

Ouch.

Microsoft to finally fix GWX alerts

Victory! Kinda.

From Silicon Beat:

Microsoft has heard the complaints about the tactics it’s using to push Windows 10 on users, and it’s finally doing something about them.

Later this week, the company plans to roll out an update for Windows 7 and 8 that that will change the alerts it has been using to promote Windows 10. Unlike before, the alerts will now offer users a clear choice to decline Windows 10. And if users click on the red “x” button to dismiss the alert, Windows will no longer consider that a confirmation that users want to upgrade to Windows 10.

[...]

In addition to changing how the Windows upgrade prompts work, Microsoft is offering free tech support to all customers who are having trouble with Windows 10, [Lisa Gurry, Microsoft’s senior director for Windows] said. If users whose PCs were upgraded to Windows 10 want to return them to their previous operating system, Microsoft’s customer support staff will walk them through the process free of charge, she said.

[...]

Many users have complained that they have been unwittingly upgraded to Windows 1o or have had to repeatedly dismiss notifications pushing them to upgrade. Last month, a Sausalito woman won a $10,000 judgment against Microsoft after she sued the company because her computer became almost inoperable after trying and failing to install the Windows 10 update, which she hadn’t authorized.

Windows users can return their computers to an earlier version of the operating system, but some have found that their files have been corrupted or drivers used to interact with printers and other accessories have been deleted.

Microsoft changes the deal... again

From Forbes:

In a new preview build (14371) of the massive Windows 10 Anniversary Update coming later this summer, Microsoft has revealed it will change how free upgrade licences are handled – and it raises serious questions.

What the company unveiled is the Windows 10 ‘Activation Troubleshooter’ and, in short, it ties Windows 10 licences (‘digital entitlements’ as Microsoft dubs them) to users’ Microsoft accounts for the first time.

[...]

On the surface this is a great idea.

Upgrading PC components has famously been a nightmare for Windows owners as past a certain threshold the operating system can think it’s a new machine and demand you pay again to register it. This shouldn’t happen now there’s the Activation Troubleshooter.

Unfortunately, however, that’s not all there is to it.

Of course it isn't. We are talking about Microsoft, after all.

Minecraft movie will release in 3D and IMAX... in 2019

From MSPowerUser:

“Yes, that might seem like a long time away, but it just so happens to be the right amount of time to make it completely awesome. And we all want an awesome Minecraft movie, right?” said Vu Bui, COO of Mojang in a blog post.

We do? Really?

Don't get me wrong: Minecraft is a gaming phenomenon, with a huge fanbase of mostly very young players, and it's going to have a profound effect on the gaming industry for a long time. Extra Credits did a really good analysis of the possible downstream effects of this Minecraft generation:

So, yes, I can see why Microsoft/Mojang would want to see movie tickets to these kids. But will these kids still be playing Minecraft in 2019, especially in the same numbers as they are now? If, not, will they be old enough to feel nostalgic about a game that many of them will only have outgrown and ceased playing shortly before the movie's release?

Even if we assume that three years is a long enough production period that Minecraft: The Movie doesn't suck... will it still be relevant? I honestly don't know the answer to that one, but put me down as "skeptical."

Microsoft successfully sued over GWX tactics

Well, this certainly flew under the radar.

From the Seattle Times:

A few days after Microsoft released Windows 10 to the public last year, Teri Goldstein’s computer started trying to download and install the new operating system.

The update, which she says she didn’t authorize, failed. Instead, the computer she uses to run her Sausalito, Calif., travel-agency business slowed to a crawl. It would crash, she says, and be unusable for days at a time.

“I had never heard of Windows 10,” Goldstein said. “Nobody ever asked me if I wanted to update.”

When outreach to Microsoft’s customer support didn’t fix the issue, Goldstein took the software giant to court, seeking compensation for lost wages and the cost of a new computer.
She won. Last month, Microsoft dropped an appeal and Goldstein collected a $10,000 judgment from the company.

[...]

Goldstein’s experience is an extreme example of the consequences of Microsoft’s aggressive campaign to get people to use Windows 10, the newest version of the ubiquitous personal-computer operating system.

Holy crap, Batman! Microsoft, naturally, denies all wrongdoing, and claims to have "halted its appeal to avoid the expense of further litigation," but more important is the fact that they were sued, and lost, and clearly weren't expecting to prevail on appeal because they paid damages rather than paying more legal fees. How many other lawsuits are they losing right now, or have already lost, that haven't made headlines?

Just yesterday, I was thinking that Microsoft might have weathered the storm, avoiding expensive legal actions and the headlines that go with them. Today, I'm thinking that the worst may still be in the mail for Redmond.

One way to collect data without being totally creepy

Apparently Microsoft could still stand to learn a thing or two from Apple.

From recode.net:

Apple is looking to thread a fine needle, gaining access to the data it needs to make its servers smarter while also protecting user privacy. It’s doing so by employing a concept known as differential privacy.

However, the company was initially short on details on just what data it will be collecting and how. Here are a few things we’ve clarified over the past few days.

1. Differential data is making its debut with iOS 10 and Apple says it has not yet been collecting such data.
2. The decision to allow Apple use of data will be up to the user and require their opt-in consent.
3. Apple says it is not using iOS users’ cloud-stored photos to power the image recognition features in iOS 10, instead relying on other data sets to train its algorithms. (Apple hasn’t said what data it is using for that, other than to make clear it is not using its users photos.)

As for what data is being collected, Apple says that differential privacy will initially be limited to four specific use cases: New words that users add to their local dictionaries, emojis typed by the user (so that Apple can suggest emoji replacements), deep links used inside apps (provided they are marked for public indexing) and lookup hints within notes.

Apple will also continue to do a lot of its predictive work on the device, something it started with the proactive features in iOS 9. This work doesn’t tap the cloud for analysis, nor is the data shared using differential privacy.

Full court press

After weeks of horrible PR surrounding their strong-arm GWX tactics, Microsoft seem to have weathered the storm and are now bringing the hardest sell they can to bear on remaining non-Win10 users. Pro-Redmond outlets are flooding the 'net with articles urging users to switch, even if they only switch to Win10 so that they can switch back, reminding us over and over again that time is running out, and that it will cost us later if we don't switch now.

Don't believe the hype. If you're running Windows 7, and you're happy with it, then you don't need to switch to Windows 10, and here's why:

Well... It won't be for lack of trying...

I've said before that VR isn't going to "change everything" in gaming. It's not that the new VR head sets aren't impressive, it's just there are just too many problems that they haven't solved yet.

Por ejemplo... how will users traverse virtual spaces? HTC Vive limits you a 5½ x 6½ foot space, so you'd better not make a game that involves running or jumping; Oculus just sits you down, and puts an XBox controller in your hands, which means that you can't anything in VR that you can't already do in a normal game.

Other interactions with VR aren't much better - the Vive's controllers are better than a gamepad, but still pretty crude compared to, you know, hands, which means that manipulating virtual objects is still a pretty clumsy affair. Also, there's a lack of tactile feedback, simulation sickness that hasn't actually gone anywhere, and the simple fact that there's just nothing so far that VR is actually good for, and that anybody wants to do, or is physically capable of doing with several pounds of VR helmet on their heads for hours on end.

As a niche product for the flight sim crowd... well, they tend to build actual full-scale cockpits for a level of verisimilitude that not only looks right, but also feels right, so it's anyone's guess whether VR will actually be good enough for a serious simmer, but so far driving and space dogfighting sims are the only ones worth playing. Oh, and Space Pirate Trainer, a guns-akimbo VR update of basically Duck Hunt.

Did I mention the price yet? Only Sony is talking about putting out a VR system that approaches affordability, and even that's going to be close to $800, when you include the VR gear and the PS4 that you'll need to plug it into. With either Vive or Oculus, the display and a new PC to drive it will run you close to $2000, all to play seated driving and flight sims, and/or basically duck hunt. Oculus have had trouble making enough headsets to meet demand, but that's mainly because they aren't exactly scaled up for mass-market levels of manufacture.

Once they solve the traversal problem, and the interface problem, and the simulation sickness problem, and figure out tactile feedback, and reduce the weight of the display to something close to what Google Glass weighed, and make it wireless, and then figure out something to do with all that tech... sure, at that point, VR can change everything. But we're still a long way away from that point. I just don't see this current generation of VR being anything that the average consumer will want to spend money on.

That said... companies like Facebook, Sony, and VALVe certainly aren't letting these virtual realities deter them.

XBox Boss says that gaming is now "beyond generations"

Phil Spencer's team is losing this console generation badly, so I can see why he'd have a vested interest in getting people to break out of their pre-set thinking about console gaming cycles, but I was still a little surprised when he came straight out with the fact that Scorpio marked the beginning of the end for console generations in gaming.

From GamingBolt:

“Project Scorpio will be the next addition to the Xbox One family and it ultimately is the next step in delivering our vision for the future of gaming beyond generations,” Spencer said.

[...]

"Project Scorpio is a serious inflection point for team Xbox and we are announcing Project Scorpio today to gives our developers and partners to take advantage of that ability now in order to realize their visions for the future and deliver even more great games for you. Today marks the beginning of gaming beyond generations. A future full of choice. All future where can all play without boundaries.”

It’s a bold and ambitious vision, and a dramatic change from how console gaming has been so far.

It's a vision in which there essentially isn't a next console generation, so I guess bold is as good as way as any to describe it. I don't know if it's ambitious, though, so much as realistic. After all, some of us have been talking about this being the last console generation for some time, now.

That's right. I called it. Booyah.

Microsoft is still desperate to avoid pissing off Steam gamers

With Windows 10 bringing a plethora of monopolistic initiatives include UWP and a merged Windows/XBox store, Microsoft is obviously angling to control all software distribution on PC. One of their biggest hurdles in the short term, though, is VALVe's Steam, which currently dominates PC gaming.

Long story short: Redmond spend a long, long time basically neglecting PC gamers in favour of XBox and XBox Live, and VALVe cleaned up while Microsoft weren't looking. Steam now has a customer base of over 125 million active users and climbing, far more than PS4 (just over 40M) and XBOne (20M) combined. Steam is PC gaming right now, and it's more in spite of Microsoft than because of them.

Microsoft would obviously like to take back control of PC gaming, and make PC gaming synonymous with Windows 10 gaming. But they can't alienate Steam gamers in the meantime, because those same gamers actually have a choice of OS to use: the service now lists nearly 5000 Linux/SteamOS titles, and customers who bought Windows versions of those same games get the SteamOS versions for free. Steam Machines aren't taking the world's living rooms by storm, or anything, but SteamOS remains as a threat to Microsoft, a reminder that they're not the only game in town anymore for PC gaming.

Which may be why, in spite of having just spent E3 talking about all the various ways in which they're trying to take control of PC gaming via Windows 10, Microsoft are now trying to reassure Steam gamers that they're not trying to freeze Steam out of PC gaming at the same time.

The anti-consumer nature of UWP

I was watching Totalbiscuit's take on Microsoft's E3 presentation, when I heard something that I found alarming.

Here's the video:

The moment comes very near the end, about 31 minutes in, when he concludes that Microsoft's presentation was pro-consumer, for announcing "the most decisions that were beneficial to us," and it literally stopped me in my tracks.

Really? Beneficial to us? GWX, UWP, and a Microsoft monopoly on software distribution on PC? Especially one that gives us worse software? Is that the definition of pro-consumer, these days? Really?!

I think that Peter Parrish at PC Invasion has a much more thoughtful, and better-informed, take on that same presentation:

Anybody watching Microsoft’s E3 2016 conference through a PC lens (high resolution, naturally) will have noticed that, for Microsoft, ‘PC’ now emphatically means ‘Windows 10’. The company are extremely keen to push the operating system, the Windows 10 store, and the ‘Universal Windows Platform’ (UWP) driving all this cross-device, cross-platform stuff. As a result, we’re getting more games that would traditionally have been reserved for Xbox exclusivity. That’s good. Great, even. But we’re also seeing more titles that would previously have had a broader PC digital release (Steam/GOG etc) restricted to Windows 10. That’s not so good.

What Peter Parrish has spotted, and what Totalbiscuit has overlooked, is that Microsoft's push to normalize a Microsoft monopoly on software distribution isn't about giving more options to consumers; it's about ensuring that we have fewer options in the future. If possible, Microsoft want us to have only one option, when we're looking to buy software for our PCs: them.

Has Windows 7 become the new Windows XP?

From Windows Report:

User complaints about Microsoft’s unfair upgrade strategies keep rising. Judging by the type of complaints and their frequency, it seems that Microsoft is choosing to deploy even fiercer methods in response.

[...]

Despite these accusations, Microsoft insists users do have a choice when it comes to upgrading their OS. Redmond does not seem to be bothered about the tension building up among its users, recently having boasted about the recent 2% Windows 10 market share growth.

But what if Microsoft’s scariest nightmare comes true? What is Windows 7 becomes the next Windows XP? What if most users refuse to upgrade and continue to use Windows 7 until 2020 when support expires, and even beyond.

We believe this is a very probable scenario for the following reasons[...]

Their list of reasons covers the spectum pretty well: loss of trust and feelings of betrayal; well-documented privacy issues, to which Microsoft have yet to respond adequately; Microsoft's long track record of new OSes being bugged as fuck; software and driver compatibility issues, especially for older software and devices; and, of course, the fact that Windows 7 is still a perfectly fine operating system:

You know what they say: if ain’t broken, don’t fix it. We have a computer running Windows 7 Professional, and we’re pretty satisfied with it. Windows 7 can run many of the programs you find on the Windows 10 version, except for a few apps such as Cortana or Edge.

If Windows 7 meets your computing needs, you don’t have to hurry up and accept the upgrade just so that you can get it for free: Windows 10 might be more trouble than it’s worth.

If you’re worried about security issues, don’t forget that Microsoft will continue to roll out security patches until 2020.

Windows XP still enjoys 10.09% market share, which is pretty good after 15 years, a span in which four newer versions of Windows have been released (Vista, 7, 8/8.1, and  10). Satya Nadella should be waking up in a cold sweat at the prospect that Windows 7 customers might just dig in their heels, and continue to make up a double-digit percentage of the OS market until 2024 and beyond. Because Windows Report may well be right; this scenario isn't just possible, it's plausible.

Turn off the ads in Windows 10

Thanks, Cybershack:

How to disable ads on the Windows 10 lock screen
Disabling ads on the Windows 10 lock screen simple requires you to disable a setting called Windows Spotlight. You can find this by following the steps below.

1. Open the start menu and open the Settings app
2. Select "Personalisation"
3. Select "lock screen" from the menu on the side
4. Under background, change "Windows Spotlight" to either "picture" or "slideshow"
5. Toggle "get fun facts, tips, tricks and more on your lock screen" to off

How to disable ads in the Windows 10 start menu
Windows 10 will occasionally show "suggested" apps in your start menu. Once again, these are fairly easy to get rid of.

1. Open the start menu and open the Settings app
2. Select "Personalisation"
3. Select "start menu" from the menu on the side
4. Toggle "occasionally show suggestions in Start" to off

How stop Windows 10 tracking you for targeted ads
This is a bit more ominous than it sounds, but Windows 10 is able to track your usage across apps you've gotten from the Windows Store. This information is then used to provide you with more personalised ads in other apps. If you want to switch this off, you can do this be following the steps below.

1. Open the start menu and open the Settings app
2. Select "Privacy"
3. Toggle "let apps use my advertising ID for experiences across apps" to off

Don't forget to install SpyBot Anti-Beacon, too, and update it frequently, and make sure you check your privacy settings after each Windows Update, since Windows 10 can (and will) add new privacy settings and reset your existing privacy settings, all without notifying you or asking your permission.

Invisible pet fence will corral your VR experience

I wonder if anyone else thought of wireless pet fences when they saw this bit of kit at E3.

From Gizmodo:

It’s fun watching people wearing an Oculus Rift or HTC Vive run into walls, trip over furniture, or smash into other obstacles while playing a VR game. But it’s not as fun when you’re the one accidentally breaking your own TV, so Nyko has come up with a solution that makes it safer to explore a VR world while you’re inside the real one.

The VR Guardian system is made up of four wireless positional sensors that you arrange around a space, in any shape as large as 20x20 feet, to define a safe area where you’re free to move and flail your arms without hitting anything. To let you know when you’re getting close to the invisible fence the sensors create, a wristband worn on each arm will start to vibrate letting you know to back off, without distracting you from your VR experience.

There are just so many problems that VR has to solve before it can really become a thing, and this is just one of them: how do you navigate a virtual space? Oculus "solved" this by giving users an XBox One gamepad, tacitly admitting that you can't actually do anything in Oculus VR that you can't do without it (although it sure will look pretty). HTC Vive went with a "room scale" solution, limiting players to a 5½ x 6½ foot space, which may be why Space Pirate Trainer is the most popular early offering for the Vive: a two-fisted, guns akimbo, VR version of what amounts to Duck Hunt (sure is pretty, though).

Windows 10 won't turn your Xbox One into a PC

Microsoft would, however, like to turn your Windows 10 PC into an XBox.

From Ben Kuchera at Polygon:

The value in launching a gaming console is the ability to control the things that are sold on that console. For a company like Microsoft, the value of the garden is directly proportional to the height of the wall around it.

Don't believe Microsoft when it says the company wants to turn your Xbox One into a PC, or even move towards that goal. The PC is at least ostensibly an open platform. You can buy your PC games anywhere.

You can buy your Xbox One games through Microsoft. That's it. The company will never put itself a situation where that changes. If they try to convince you that the Xbox One is becoming like a PC, ask them how soon you’ll be able to install Steam or buy Overwatch from Battle.net.

[...]

Microsoft’s Play Anywhere initiative exists to get you more comfortable using the Windows 10 store, and to get you used to the idea that games should only be coming from Microsoft. It's not a matter of making the Xbox One more open, it's a movement that's designed to get you used to the idea that your PC may become more closed.

"Games like the open-world, multiplayer driving simulation Forza Horizon 3 exist because gamers aren’t able to modify their games, providing level playing fields for all to enjoy," PC World reported. "Microsoft also promises that UWP apps won’t contribute to 'bit rot,"’ where the digital detritus of everyday use gradually slows your PC. The downside is that Microsoft controls everything, from selling additional character skins or additional story modes and content. And, of course, fan-made spinoffs or mods such as Counter-Strike will never happen with closed code."

Unintended consequences of #upgradegate

From makeuseof.com:

Personally, I do like Windows 10, but I also appreciate the reasons of those who oppose the upgrade. And I think what Microsoft has been doing is deeply disturbing and unethical. Microsoft acts as if its goal for 1 billion Windows 10 users supersedes the company’s responsibility for its existing Windows customers.

This reckless battle has unintended consequences, which not only hurt Microsoft’s customers, but also its business.

At this point, the article lays out the five consequences in question:

1. Lost trust in Windows

2. Users completely disabling Windows updates

3. Lost time, money, and bandwidth

4. Home users abandoning Windows entirely

5. Undermining consumers' faith in consumer protections

Change.org petition garners 5000 supporters in one week

From Softpedia:

A petition that went viral earlier this week raised nearly 5,000 signatures in just a few days, as more users consider that the Electronic Frontier Foundation should investigate Microsoft for its practices regarding the very aggressive Windows 10 push.

Specifically, the petition claims that Microsoft is violating users’ right to choose and privacy by installing Windows 10 on their computers without them first giving their consent. Furthermore, it points to cases when the Windows 10 installer was launched all of a sudden, without users being prompted about it first.

[...]

Neither Microsoft nor the EFF has offered statements on this new petition so far, but the number of those who are supporting the idea of an investigation against the software giant is growing. And comments posted on the petition page pretty much speak for themselves.

“I own my computer. I say what software is installed. When ANYBODY willfully manipulates me into installing ANYTHING I do not want then they are acting against me; Microsoft, at this point and through their actions in this case are WORSE than the **** that writes malware with the goal of profiting from me. Microsoft are WORSE because I am their customer - not their product. They don't own my computer, they don't own me,” Simon Dainty from Bradford, United Kingdom, posted.

While the EFF may not have offered an official statement, I'm not so sure that Redmond's PR team is keeping silent; I'd guess that they're just being very selective who they talk to, and making sure that they have a few apologists out pleading their case, like WinBeta:

While the majority of user who make up the 300 million active Windows install base are content with Windows 10, some believe Microsoft’s upgrade is a nefarious undertaking executed by a barbarous company scrambling for relevance in an irrelevant industry. Others are a bit more forgiving, chalking up the mishaps to a woefully inept plan poorly enacted by a forever-bumbling enterprise.

However, there is a third, much smaller and soft-spoken group of people who see Microsoft’s supposed Windows 10 upgrade fiasco as an entirely different affair. At best, the Windows 10 upgrade is a calculated measure to bring an aging user base into a foundationally superior computing experience and at worst, a poorly timed enforcement of socially engineered practices that have coalesced as 30 years of misunderstandings.

That "third, much smaller and soft-spoken group" apparently include WinBeta themselves, who then go on to dismiss pro-consumer advocates and angry Window 7 users as "would-be social justice warriors," and compare Microsoft to "the fabled imp-like creature Rumpelstiltskin who is coming to collect its promised first born child," with Microsoft's customers cast in the role of "the daughter of the lying miller in the story" (did you know that Rumpelstiltskin was the hero of that story? 'cause I sure didn't), faced with an unexpected necessity to honour the terms of Windows' EULA, which we all signed in full knowledge that it gave Microsoft the right to do whatever the fuck they want, apparently.

Windows 10 users can now beg Android developers for apps

From Neowin:

Insiders have been able to sync Android notifications with their PCs since build 14356 was released, but today, a Reddit user discovered that when a notification syncs, you can now request the app for Windows 10.

Obviously, the idea is to promote the Windows Store to the Android developer. Perhaps if the developer knows that users of their app are also using Windows 10, they may develop for the platform.

The button will bring you over to WinStore Requests page, where you'll be able to plead your case.

Alrighty then...

Satya? Sorry, Mr. Nadella? Can we talk? Just for a sec?

I know that I've been really, really critical of pretty much everything that you've done recently, but this? This is just pathetic.

PC market sinking even faster than first thought, thanks to Windows 10

Guess what? Microsoft's desperate attempt to convert PC market share into mobile and gaming market share is undercutting the size of the PC market. Surprise!

From The Inquirer:

PC sales are declining faster than first thought and Microsoft's controversial Windows 10 free upgrade programme is to blame.

That's according to forecasts by analyst outfit IDC, which claims that PC shipments will fall by 7.3 per cent year on year, around with growth in the market now forecast at two per cent below its earlier predictions for 2016.

IDC lays the blame for this decline on challenging markets and the free rollout of upgrades to Windows 10 from earlier versions of Microsoft’s software. This clearly goes against HP’s 2015 claim that Windows 10 will ‘inspire’ users to buy a new PC.

"Although growth rates for devices such as phones and tablets continue to fall, potentially reducing the competitive pressure on PCs, we have not seen this translate into stronger PC shipments," the analyst house said.

You want to know why Microsoft are making such a big deal about the "free" Windows 10 "upgrade" period is coming to an end? It's not just a "hard sell" of Win10; it's also because giving Win10 away is hurting the companies that make and sell PCs, and undermining Microsoft's overall OS market share by retarding PC market growth. Yes, the mobile market's rate of growth is also slowing, now that everyone already owns a good-enough smartphone, but the maturity of the mobile OS market isn't helping Window 10 Phone make any gains there, either.

Did I already mention that Microsoft was desperate to have their GWX strategy succeed? Well, their situation just got significantly more desperate. Brace yourselves for even more anti-competitive and anti-consumer bullshit from Redmond.

Microsoft's Windows 10 Panic Explained

One of the bigger problems with Microsoft's overly-pushy GWX push, for Microsoft themselves, is that it makes them look desperate. If Windows 10 really is as good as Microsoft is claiming, then why are they going to such dishonest, underhanded lengths to push it on users who aren't interested? Why can't they just sell it to those users on its merits?

It doesn't help that Windows 10's merits mostly aren't that impressive. Yes, it has a slightly smaller footprint, and runs a little faster, than earlier versions of Windows, but if your system already runs just fine on Windows 7, then Win10 just isn't a big performance upgrade. And, given that Windows comes laden with a lot of "telemetry" (i.e. spyware), and its hybrid Start Menu/Metro interface, complete with "sponsored" tiles (i.e. adware), the upside of switching just isn't enough to offset all the downside.

The result: people simply aren't switching at anywhere near the rate that Microsoft had projected, or needs them to. And that's a big problem for their efforts to revive or grow the XBox Live ecosystem, or establish a foothold in PC Gaming that's comparable to Steam.

From GamingBolt:

We already do know that the Xbox One is performing below expectations- the fact that Microsoft won’t even share numbers for the console, which is widely estimated to be trailing its competition by as much as 20 million units, should be evidence enough. But on the other hand, we’ve generally expected the company to be doing well on other fronts- after all, Windows 10 is supposed to be the fastest adopted OS of all time, Minecraft is the most successful game in the world, and games like Halo 5 have all sold at least a million copies, right?

It turns out, though, that relative to Microsoft’s projections, everything might be underperforming. In a long and extensive feature on Kotaku about Lionhead and their closure, and the demise of Fable Legends, a former, unnamed employee discusses the fundamental problem that Microsoft is facing- that of volumes, which they are no longer meeting, thanks to all their products underperforming relative to projections.

“Let’s be honest – we make our projections based on a series of assumptions,” said a former employee who worked closely with Microsoft. “There are supposed to be 2x as many Xboxes out there as there are right now. There are supposed to be 2x as many Windows 10 installs as there currently are. So now, when we look at how much money Legends could make in the free-to-play universe, you have to halve it. Because we can only reach half the audience that was projected.”

This halving of the potential audience, or market, for Microsoft's products isn't limited to Microsoft-produced games. The situation looks even more bleak when you consider how poorly Windows Phone is performing, and what that means for Microsoft's future in the critically-important smartphone market, which spent recent years growing in exactly the way that the PC market wasn't.

It's an ill wind...

It seems that someone (other than Microsoft themselves, natch) has finally found a silver lining in the GWX fiasco:

But the Windows 10 forced upgrade has worked in favor of at least one user, who was saved from the recent TeamViewer hack [...] when the hijacker who broke into his computer couldn’t do any harm because GWX decided to upgrade to Windows 10. The hacker was kicked out by the Windows 10 upgrade process, because he was disconnected from the PC as the network connection was no longer available.

Now, hacker would have resumed his work once reconnected but guess what? Windows 10 upgrade process removed TeamViewer because of the compatibility issues, thereby removing any chances of the hacker getting connected to that target machine again.

[...]

Okay, this is not a good news because, well the upgrade process was forced, and it did impact the applications a user might have needed. But, at the end of the day, it did work in favor of the end-user, so let’s not hate on Microsoft’s nagware marketing strategies at least for today.

There is no way to verify this story, since there is only a Reddit user report as evidence. But, if it’s indeed a true story, it would be “like ransomware that eats other ransomware,” a comment said.

When even "good news" stories about GWX describe it as ransomware, and make a point of saying that they're not so much "good news" stories as less-bad news stories, it's pretty clear that the GWX has turned into a garbage fire for Microsoft. Still... even stopped clocks are right twice a day, so it was probably about time that this particular ill wind blew somebody some good.

Windows 10's spyware coming to XBox One

From The Guardian:

Microsoft has announced a new summer update for the Xbox One console, which will include support for the company’s digital personal assistant, Cortana, and will more closely align the console with Windows 10 PCs. A more unified online store will offer both PC and console titles, and Xbox One will also be able to support some Windows apps.

Microsoft is calling the Xbox One version of Cortana a “personal gaming assistant”. As on PC and smartphone, she is able to learn your current whereabouts and where your key locations are, so you’ll be able to ask it, while you’re playing a game at home, how long it’ll take you to get to work. Any information you request from Cortana will be displayed in a panel at the side of the main game screen.

To communicate, players simply have to say “hey Cortana” – a sentence that Microsoft claims is easier for the system to pick up than the old “Xbox” prompt. Players won’t need Kinect, as any Xbox One headset with a microphone will suffice. Players will also be able to ask Cortana what their friends are doing onXbox, and it’s possible to invite friends into a Party chat via Cortana voice controls.

Remember when Microsoft first announced the XBox One? It was going to come bundled with Kinect, which was going to be on all the time, would be constantly connected to the internet, and would constantly monitor the environment for any sound or motion that it could interpret as a command prompt. And people lost their shit:

Prior to Xbox One's launch, privacy concerns were raised over the new Kinect; critics showed concerns the device could be used for surveillance, stemming from the originally announced requirements that Xbox One's Kinect be plugged in at all times, plus the initial always-on DRM system that required the console to be connected to the internet to ensure continued functionality. Privacy advocates contended that the increased amount of data which could be collected with the new Kinect (such as a person's eye movements, heart rate, and mood) could be used for targeted advertising.

Reports also surfaced regarding recent Microsoft patents involving Kinect, such as a DRM system based on detecting the number of viewers in a room, and tracking viewing habits by awarding achievements for watching television programs and advertising. While Microsoft stated that its privacy policy "prohibit[s] the collection, storage, or use of Kinect data for the purpose of advertising", critics did not rule out the possibility that these policies could be changed prior to the release of the console.

Concerns were also raised that the device could also record conversations, as its microphone remains active at all times.

So, fast forward to 2016, and Microsoft are now replicating one of the most unwelcome and problematic features of its XBox One platform, using Windows 10's Cortana, which is also causing privacy concerns:

In order to work, Cortana logs your voice (to process what you’re saying), location (to give you location-specific answers), your writing (to answer questions), your contacts (so you can reference them), calendar events (so it can create, delete, or give information about your upcoming appointments), and more. That’s a lot of stuff!

[...]

This, coupled with the “Send Microsoft info about how I write” setting mentioned earlier, is the biggest privacy concern in Windows 10, primarily because the language is so vague. The “Getting to Know You” setting does not specify where or when it can collect, say, “typing history”, which is troubling.

What could possibly go wrong? It's not like Cortana is locked to Bing, and uses a web service to perform all searches, even searches of your local files... except, of course, that Cortana does exactly that.

It remains to be seen if this causes the same kind of crapstorm among XBOne customers that GWX is causing among Win7 PC users. Gamers, generally, appear to more accepting of Win10 and its crap, and console gamers, in particular, might not be sufficiently well-informed to know about the potential problems here. No idea if Spybot Anti-Beacon will work on XBOnes, either.

15-Year-Old Windows XP Refuses to Die Despite Windows 10 Push

From Softpedia:

One year ago, Windows XP was running on 14.60 percent of desktop computers in the world and gradually dropped until it reached 11.72 percent in July, the same month when Windows 10 officially got to see daylight.

In August, however, Windows XP recovered to 12.14 percent and then jumped to 12.21 percent the next month, before eventually starting to decline once again in September.

The drop continued until January 2016, when Windows XP once again managed to increase its share from 10.93 percent to 11.42 percent, thus going back to the same level as six months before.

In the last few months, Windows XP has continued to lose market share points, but it does it at the slowest and most painful pace possible. It dropped from 10.90 percent in March to 10.63 percent the next month before eventually going down to 10.09 percent in May.

Without a doubt, it’ll take many more months until Windows XP disappears completely, but these stats also show that Windows 10 still can’t make a difference no matter how hard Microsoft is trying.

I have a feeling that it will years for XP to disappear completely, not months; some of those dedicated users are actually charities and other institutions that don't necessarily have budget to upgrade their old hardware to something that will even run Win7, let alone Win10.

Still, the periodic upticks are surprising. I wonder if Microsoft's addition of spyware-like telemetry features to Win7 and Win8 have inspired people to roll back to XP, which lacks those features, rather than adopting Win10, which definitely includes them.

Have the EFF investigate Microsoft for malicious practices regarding Windows 10

From Change.org, via Slashdot:

Microsoft's practices with their newest operating system, named Windows 10, has been ignorantly unethical at best and malicious at worst.

The problems begin with the upgrades. Reports everywhere state that people are being tricked or forced into upgrading to Windows 10 from their current, preferred version of Windows.

• http://www.pcworld.com/article/3077857/windows/windows-10-sees-its-largest-surge-ever-as-microsofts-forced-upgrade-push-rolls-on.html

• http://betanews.com/2016/02/02/microsoft-forcing-windows-10-onto-people-is-wrong/

• http://www.pcworld.com/article/3075729/windows/fearing-forced-windows-10-upgrades-users-are-disabling-critical-updates-at-their-own-risk.html

• Video of it in action:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WwtqQ78S6E

Incidents are increasing in their frequency. One such incident was a man who works fighting poachers in the African bush had the 6GB Windows 10 update forcibly downloaded to one of their computers. This is on a per MB metered connection. It could have happened during an operation, during which the lives of people in combat with militarized poachers could have been out of communication.

• https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/4mcdon/i_live_in_the_central_african_bush_we_pay_for/

Besides this, Microsoft has put various unremovable, unblockable tracking mechanisms into their most recent version of Windows.

• http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/08/windows-10-doesnt-offer-much-privacy-by-default-heres-how-to-fix-it/

• http://www.newsweek.com/windows-10-recording-users-every-move-358952

They are also adding the same tracking technology to Windows 7 and 8.

• http://www.pcworld.com/article/2978239/windows/microsoft-slips-user-tracking-tools-into-windows-7-8-amidst-windows-10-privacy-storm.html

Users are continuing to be tracked even when they turn these features off.

• http://arstechnica.co.uk/information-technology/2015/08/even-when-told-not-to-windows-10-just-cant-stop-talking-to-microsoft/

In addition to this, Windows 10 is uninstalling software from users computers on its own, without requesting it from the user, even software that is compatible with Windows 10. More concerning, it is uninstalling antivirus software without user permission.

• http://www.ghacks.net/2015/11/24/beware-latest-windows-10-update-may-remove-programs-automatically/

All of the above (forcing installation, uninstalling software, tracking the users, preventing and obfuscating ways to disable and/or remove it) are the practices of malicious software.

• http://www.thenewamerican.com/tech/computers/item/22026-windows-10-deletes-users-programs

Besides all of this, Microsoft has stated that they intend to stop allowing software to be installed through any means other than their store. This includes one of its biggest markets- games. This would limit the innovation of such technologies and gives Microsoft a cut of every game sold for their platform, a situation unprecedented in the Windows platform and severely hindering the abilities of independent game developers.

• https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/mar/04/microsoft-monopolise-pc-games-development-epic-games-gears-of-war

Despite outcries in forums, articles, and every other venue Microsoft has not issued an apology, a retraction, or mentioned in any way that they are going to cease these practices. The only mention of them ceasing any of it is that the upgrade to Windows 10 will no longer be free after this coming July.

It is my hope that this petition reaches the eyes and ears of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization whose stated mission is, "EFF champions user privacy, free expression, and innovation through impact litigation, policy analysis, grassroots activism, and technology development. We work to ensure that rights and freedoms are enhanced and protected as our use of technology grows." (https://www.eff.org/about)

Please sign this petition to draw the EFF's attention and ask them to investigate Microsoft for unethical business practices. The investigation would be long and any legal action would be longer, but it is a worthwhile fight to keep computers and the internet free, maintain privacy, and give users more control of the devices in their homes.

Obviously, I've signed this, and so should you, partly because the EFF have a solid track record of defending the interests of consumers against corporate overreach, and also because the EFF know how to go about getting the attention of other organizations (like the U.S. Department of Justice) who can bring even more pressure to bear on Microsoft, both things which the average consumer effectively can't do.

An EFF investigation might just get Microsoft's attention, assuming that the the petition doesn't do that, just by existing. Signing this petition can't hurt, might actually help, and takes only seconds to do. Seriously, what are you waiting for?

UPDATE: You should also take some time to read the comments left by the petition's signers. They really do run a gamut, from IT professionals:

"As a computer consultant, I would like to thank Microsoft for the increase in business, as I have removed more copies of windoze 10 than I have installed;"

to the very personal:

"My fiance and I would have dates over skype, using netflix, youtube or whatever to watch videos together. Since the forced update, my computer has been slower and more prone to crashes, and can no longer support multiple operations such as skype and video player, putting a strain on our relationship;"

from to the principled:

"Microsoft is in blatant violation of several security, ethical, and moral practices commonly upheld by their peers. It needs to be stopped and they need to be punished for creating the data mining botnet that is windows 10;"

and the exasperated:

"Enough is enough, already;"

to the all-caps enraged:

"FUCK YOU MICROSOFT!"

and everything in between.

Which is another good reason to sign. It places all the feedback, whether well-reasoned and reasonable, or heartfelt and emotional, in one place where not only the EFF but also Microsoft can see it. Want to speak your piece, and maybe have someone hear you? This is your chance.

Microsoft's GWX Tactics Putting Lives At Risk

For some people, Microsoft's strong-arm GWX approach is far worse than an annoyance:

When you're stuck in the middle of the Central African Republic (CAR) trying to protect the wildlife from armed poachers and the Lord's Resistance Army, then life's pretty tough. And now Microsoft has made it tougher with Windows 10 upgrades.

The Chinko Project manages roughly 17,600 square kilometres (6,795 square miles) of rainforest and savannah in the east of the CAR, near the border with South Sudan. Money is tight, and so is internet bandwidth. So the staff was more than a little displeased when one of the donated laptops the team uses began upgrading to Windows 10 automatically, pulling in gigabytes of data over a radio link.

And it's not just bandwidth bills they have to worry about.

"If a forced upgrade happened and crashed our PCs while in the middle of coordinating rangers under fire from armed militarized poachers, blood could literally be on Microsoft's hands," said one member of the team.

I hadn't previously considered this, but it really is obvious when you think about it. Windows is all over the place, in all kinds of mission-critical applications, and some of those missions are dangerous. If your PC starts "upgrading" in the middle of a life-or-death moment, out in the bush somewhere, the result can be actual death, and not just the videogame variety.

The Reg has been reporting a lot on the Windows 10 upgrade fiasco, so decided to investigate – and the story checks out. A team member told us the Chinko Project uses satellite communications for internet access and gets charged quite a lot for data, so the multi-gigabyte automatic upgrade was even more frustrating than for the rest of us.

"We don't need to upgrade our internet, as the limited bandwidth we have is sufficient. But we just can't abide these forced upgrades and secret downloads," one member, who asked to remain anonymous, told El Reg. "We have donated laptops with Windows 7 and 8 all over the place that I'm trying to track down and fix."

To add insult to injury, the team had only just got their satellite system up and running again after a storm tore open the roof of the building housing the setup. After taking a battering, the hardware is operational again, but is needed for far more serious things than pumping up Windows 10 usage figures.

Every single day brings new horror stories like this one. I keep wondering if there's a point at which Microsoft stop merely managing the backlash, endangering lives in the process, and actually does the right thing. So far, there's no sign that such a point exists.

Fortunately, you don't have to wait for that, since every day also seems to bring a new article on stopping GWX in its tracks, like this one from MyGaming:

Unschedule your update

The above measures only work if you haven’t registered for and scheduled your update.

Microsoft also provides instructions for how to cancel your upgrade to Windows 10.

• Click on the “Get Windows 10” icon.

• Follow the instructions to reschedule or cancel your Windows 10 upgrade

• Confirm that you want to cancel your Windows 10 upgrade.

• A final reminder will also appear 15 minutes before the scheduled upgrade. This is a chance to cancel your Windows 10 upgrade before your system reboots automatically.

This is interesting for a couple of reasons:

1. it's the first article I've seen which gives a detailed walk-through of the upgrade cancellation process, something I've only seen brief mentions of elsewhere, and 
2. it's the first such article that I've seen on a website dedicated to gaming. 

Gaming media sites are normally very much part of the hype machine, and most of them have been pro-Win10 so far (which may be partly why gamers have adopted Win10 much more quickly than other users), so the fact that even the gaming press is turning against Microsoft on this one seems to mark something of a paradigm shift.

Also, in today's roundup of Never10 news: I've added another link to the sidebar for GWX Stopper, a third 3rd-party program which will stop GWX from "upgrading" your PC to Windows 10. You're welcome.

VR's Processing Power Problem

From HuffingtonPost:

Even as someone who has worked with VR for over a decade the requirement was initially a head scratcher for me. VR had run for years on cheap PCs. I was running my Oculus DK2 at the time on a mid-grade iMac. Regular mobile phones could drive VR using Google Cardboard or Samsung Gear VR. Surely, a cheap PC should suffice.

These steep requirements are rooted in a decades-old technical limitation that could keep virtual reality headsets from ever reaching the cutting edge of visual experience. The gap between head-mounted and standard displays will likely be a permanent obstacle for the nascent VR headset industry.

[...]

VR presents separate images to each eye, which doubles the strain on a PC’s graphical hardware. This is a factor of 2x. VR also needs to show about 90 frames per second to the viewer, as opposed to the 60 frames per second typical of a high-end computer game. This is an additional 50%. If we put these factors together, VR needs 3x as much graphical horsepower as a standard screen to display exactly the same image. [...] The intense graphical processing needs for VR make one thing clear: games played on a standard display will be richer and more detailed than anything available in VR for years to come.

This, from the founder of 3dSunshine, someone with a vested interest in seeing VR succeed. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: VR is not the future of gaming, and you don't need a VR rig.