Is this some kind of late April Fools joke that I'm too "Linux" to understand?

[RoGeorge]

Windows 10 Nazi Update: No forced update for you today!  Never!  Next!
Windows 10 users: 

 
https://www.howtogeek.com/410183/microsoft-abandons-windows-10s-forced-updates/
 

[Ranayna]

What the heck have "Nazis" to do with this?
In my opinion this is defintely a step in the right direction. Additionally, give me the option to *completely* disable telemetry, and i would update about immediately.

[ElectronicSupersonic]

Since Windows 10 appeared, I never stopped wandering why some people defend Microsoft's decision to implement telemetry implying that it can be disabled? Why it is there in the first place? It's not that it ABSOLUTELY necessary for the OS to function.

As for updates. It's probably an attempt to convince Windows 7 (such as yours truly) users to upgrade. I'm not convinced. Microsoft completely lost my confidence with W10 (which to be honest wasn't that high anyway).

Well, if that happens, I will just go 100% macOS. I'm already shifting to KiCAD from Altium, so there's no compelling reasons why I just have to stick with Windows.

For my needs, macOS can fulfill 80%, while the rest 20% by a Linux VM.

It's not that Apple is "an honest good guy with a crystal clear reputation" But your point is very much valid.

[KaneTW]

The forced updates were the only truly annoying thing about W10 for me, and those can be disabled if you know how. Apart from that, it's way better than previous iterations.

[nctnico]

Subscribe for new features, kinda like that. I would be very mad to see the latest programs needing .NET runtime x.y won't work on my outdated Windows unless I pay for subscription, and maybe back paying for the years off track.

I doubt that will happen. A lot of software is already available for Linux and Mac and there is more to follow. The only reason I use Windows is to run MS Office and Orcad. Windows may lose it's critical mass at some point.

[RoGeorge]

What the heck have "Nazis" to do with this?

Sorry, no offense intended.

It wanted to be a reference to a "Seinfeld" sitcom episode called "The Soup Nazi", where a dude was acting crazy disrespecting his customers by enforcing his own very strict rules (hence similar with Win10 forced updates that disregard Win10 users' wish).

[Ampera]

How about instead of Microsoft debating on if they should force people to update their computers, they design an updating tool that actually fucking works right, and can update just the OS within this century.

That's what I love about Linux. One command to the package manager, one restart, boom, computer and most programs updated within about 5 minutes, including restart.

[Red Squirrel]

Maybe after seeing countless public displays showing updates being forced on big bill boards etc has sparked a huge embarrassment to MS along with many complaints from companies and they realized how stupid forced updates are.  Some people actually use computers for important productivity tasks and can't be interrupted in the middle of it. some systems even require 24/7 uptime. Imagine that!

One thing I never understood is why windows update takes so bloody long in first place and why it always requires a reboot.  I can install an old Linux distro, patch it fully to current updates, and not even need to reboot, while windows is still updating.

[babysitter]

Some guy I know has a very compelling theory about Microsoft behaviour in regard to Win10:

They make it less and less pleasant to use, especially to technically-minded people relying e.g. on drivers or J-LINK debuggers that dont like standby, or doing serious work like authors (Morgan, wink wink) where a file stays open maybe for days who lose data when there is a compulsory restart. Web browsing and movie watching users will not realize much.

So the technically minded people leave the platform, going for Mac or Linux...

Leaving noobs and leisure users that fire it up, browse and shut down.

And Microsoft will make those bend. Deeper and deeper. Until they are left with those that will accept and obey everything.

[thm_w]

Some guy I know has a very compelling theory about Microsoft behaviour in regard to Win10:

They make it less and less pleasant to use, especially to technically-minded people relying e.g. on drivers or J-LINK debuggers that dont like standby, or doing serious work like authors (Morgan, wink wink) where a file stays open maybe for days who lose data when there is a compulsory restart. Web browsing and movie watching users will not realize much.

You know that Word has autosave/autorecover built in for ages right? Not backing up regularly is poor foresight, for so many reasons other than the OS. J-link could be a their own driver issue or something else, personally I've had no issues but standby does seem to bring out a lot of bugs. Either way the theory is ridiculous.

[RoGeorge]

...where a file stays open maybe for days who lose data when there is a compulsory restart.

AFAIK, in a gracious shutdown or restart, Windows will send a shutdown event notification to all running programs, so a properly written program will know to save or discard whatever data is stored in the volatile memory, flush its file buffers and so on.

I don't use Windows any more, so I don't know for sure if Win10 is sending shutdown events to running programs, but I see no reason to discard such a critical functionality, so I assume it is still in place.

That shutdown event notification has nothing to do with autosave at each x minutes, which is done in the eventuality of a system unexpected crash, not a programmed shutdown or a normal program close.

[apis]

Another "thing" with Windows 10 that I had forgotten about (until I got a new computer recently) is all the adverts. Why do I pay a lot of money for a computer only to have it show me advertisements? If we got computers for free, sure, but we don't. Maybe it's just me but I find that ridiculous. Does macOS come with ads? Anyway, I have now upgraded to Linux.

[TerraHertz]

Another "thing" with Windows 10 that I had forgotten about (until I got a new computer recently) is all the adverts. Why do I pay a lot of money for a computer only to have it show me advertisements? If we got computers for free, sure, but we don't. Maybe it's just me but I find that ridiculous. Does macOS come with ads? Anyway, I have now upgraded to Linux.

I've not used Win10 much myself, so I'd forgotten about the adverts too. I do recall reading about that. Combined with telemetry, logging of user files, auto-deletion of files they don't like for whatever reason, the forced updates, and even more of the usual MS calculated UI churn, was why I never shifted to Win10.
But man... adverts. On a PC one owns. I can barely imagine how enraged that would make me. The PC would be lucky if I didn't take it outside and pour petrol on it. (And light, of course.)

Anyway... my distrust and disgust for MS is great enough that even if they _say_ they quit forced upgrades, I'd assume they really meant 'until the next time we feel like forcing new and mysterious code on everyone.' MS lies, and the corporation is NOT your friend.

They want more market share, more control. Preferably all of it. The forced upgrades are hurting their market share, so they are backing off on that... temporarily and superficially. It will be back, as soon as they feel able to resume with that crap again.

[DimitriP]

You know that Word has autosave/autorecover built in for ages right?

Autosave yes, autorecover gets confused sometimes ...
Backups used to be hiding in:   
C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Microsoft Word\<long string>\YourDocumentNameHere.docx
 Microsoft was called, there was some arm twisting for purchasing an office 365 subscription - "It includes automatic backups" they claimed.
I got the next call and found the file.

[DimitriP]

Since Windows 10 is the last version of Windows, I bet after stopping forced update, MS will start to charge to existing users for major (non-maintenance) updates.

Who said that?
Take screen captures since at some point history will again be chanegd.
Every version of windows is the last version until the next version exists.

[bitseeker]

My computer at work is running Windows 10. Yes, it notifies running applications that it's going to restart so that files can be saved. However, that's not the annoying part.

Recently, an update was auto-installed and as I was typing, in the middle of a word (in MS Word, no less), the screen flashes a message that it's restarting. No warning at all. So, now your train of thought is blown away. You have to wait for the installation to finish, reboot, and more finishing up before you can log back in. Then, you have to go through the process of starting up the apps you were using, re-opening files you were working on, etc. A royal pain in the @$$. Whoever thought that's the way computers should operate needs a psychiatrist.

In the office, I exclaimed that the next time it happens, I'm changing operating systems. An IT guy within earshot turned and looked at me with a dumbfound expression as if what I said was somehow incomprehensible. Maybe he'd never used another OS, I don't know. Basic usability isn't a night and day difference from one desktop environment to another, unlike the old days.

I'm not Microsoft's "market", though.

[DimitriP]

Every version of windows is the last version until the next version exists.

I meant last, not latest.

Ref: https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Ignite/2015/BRK2352 (warning: extremely long video).

In case you detected sarcasm, it wasn't aimed at you but at some smart bonehead at Microsoft.

[james_s]

The forced updates are the #1 thing I hear people complain about, for many purposes it makes the OS unusable. I know of a veterinary clinic where the computers all ran Win10 including those used for processing payments, patient records, digital xrays, etc and the updates were a huge hassle, more than once taking down critical systems for an hour at a time forcing them to cancel appointments and just generally wreaking havoc. A huge number of businesses are too small for Enterprise or to have a real IT person, usually it's one or two of the more computer-savvy employs that take on that duty.

I get the need to encourage people to stay on top of security updates but MS took the absolute worst possible approach to this all, bundling security updates and feature updates together, having all of them forced and major updates far too often. On the other hand my Linux boxes update painlessly, very rarely requiring a reboot. My work Macbook hasn't had to reboot in over 5 months. I tend to leave a lot of programs open with various things I'm working on, some things may be on the back burner for months and if I have to reboot the system it is a big pain to get everything back to the way I had it. Not everyone works this way but I do, and I demand that the technology bends to meet my needs and the way I work, not the other way around. This is the absolute first priority, always, being secure is second.

[strangersound]

I had to tell Windows 10 to piss off 3 times in a two hour period just this afternoon. It doesn't matter what you tell it. So when I finally was done doing what I was doing, I went ahead and told it to do it's stupid update and reboot. Interesting, it only took a couple seconds and was rebooted. What's really annoying is trying to figure out what you need to go back and fix because W10 definitely reverts changes you make. 

[james_s]

Yes that's another thing that irritated me to no end when I was forced to use Win10 at work. Every so often it would randomly change the default programs back to all the inferior apps that MS includes, set the pdf reader back to edge, set the default browser back to edge, nag me to use edge, Arg! If I wanted to use Edge I know where to find that pathetic excuse for a browser. Being pushy about it is just desperate and pathetic. For every single bundled app I can think of there is a 3rd party program that is superior, usually for free.

[ruffy91]

You are blaming Microsoft for the incompetence of your IT (what I see in an increasing fashion that companies hire someone for leading position in IT which has no Idea about staying up-to-date but tries to hold everything at a stop and whine at everything and telling that it was better in the old days, instead of getting their shit together and provide an up-to-date IT environment which helps the people work instead of being the department of "no!"). 

It's perfectly possible to upgrade Win 10 to a new major release without your applications getting reset and in a controlled fashion instead of leaving everything on default "auto" settings.

[KaneTW]

Even with the most restrictive settings, Windows will eventually force restart itself unless you disable the Windows Update and Windows Update Repair services.

[DimitriP]

You are blaming Microsoft for the incompetence of your IT (what I see in an increasing fashion that companies hire someone for leading position in IT which has no Idea about staying up-to-date but tries to hold everything at a stop and whine at everything and telling that it was better in the old days, instead of getting their shit together and provide an up-to-date IT environment which helps the people work instead of being the department of "no!"). 

It's perfectly possible to upgrade Win 10 to a new major release without your applications getting reset and in a controlled fashion instead of leaving everything on default "auto" settings.

 

[bd139]

TBF Microsoft are forcing updates so some dumbasses don’t get their machines owned and end up on botnets. This is an increasing problem. However the real issue is the whole NT environment is a fucking pile of crap with several half complete windows re-engineering attempts rotting on top of it which has increased the attack surface area exponentially.

However with this came extreme lack of QA which actually destroys my workflow regularly. Thus I’m using xubuntu now after I wanted to print, sign, scan a contract recently and ended up with a hosed install just trying to get the scanner working. I’ve spent ten years removing any non portable platform from my workflow.

Now a warning. Beware Microsoft. They know this is the situation and have started pouring crap all over other platforms now to try and maintain market domination. This is all bloated telemetry ridden crap.

[Zero999]

Windows 10 Nazi Update: No forced update for you today!  Never!  Next!
Windows 10 users: 

 
https://www.howtogeek.com/410183/microsoft-abandons-windows-10s-forced-updates/
 

What the heck have "Nazis" to do with this?

Sorry, no offense intended.

It wanted to be a reference to a "Seinfeld" sitcom episode called "The Soup Nazi", where a dude was acting crazy disrespecting his customers by enforcing his own very strict rules (hence similar with Win10 forced updates that disregard Win10 users' wish).

Nazi is a common expression in English for someone who unfairly pushes their own beliefs, values or rules onto others. For example someone who's continuously picking on another person's grammar, may be referred to as a grammar Nazi. It has nothing to do with gassing people, fascism or anti-Semitism.