Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft is Maliciously Trying to Install Spyware (Vista 10) on Many PCs in Its Windows Botnet

Leading the charge against general-purpose computing with DRM (since Vista), UEFI 'secure' boot (remote control for vendors), zero-day flaws that are discreetly shared with espionage agencies, and now the botnet known as Windows Update

Spying



Summary: Microsoft has completely lost its mind (and gone chronically/clinically insane) when it comes to respecting people's sovereignty over their own PCs

Microsoft is currently commandeering a botnet known as Windows Update, the world's biggest botnet. Vista 10 takes this botnet even further because people's machines not only have binary files silently altered (without consent) but an entire operating system (with a different EULA) is being silently downloaded without consent (and it angers even loyal customers). It becomes rather evident that people who install Windows on their PC (or buy a PC with Windows on it) have totally lost control of their computing.



According to this new article, Microsoft's shameful behaviour is indeed no accident. Vista 10 is being force-fed as a matter of intent, and this problem is very widespread (increasingly so over time). As the author puts it: "The symptoms follow two paths. For some they were using their computer as normal, were prompted for a restart due for standard updates and on reboot found the Window 10 installation was under way. For others they checked their Windows update history and found Windows 10 had tried but failed to install itself without permission over and over again.

"The most extreme example I have found of the latter came from one Forbes reader (who wishes to remain anonymous) who found his computer attempted to install Windows 10 on 31 separate occasions. A screengrab showing some of these attempts can be seen below."

"It doesn't matter how many bugs one patches in Vista 10 because Vista 10 itself is a bug. It turns PCs into universally-accessible bugging devices."Thankfully, some people are liberating themselves due to Vista 10, then writing about it in online forums [1]. They move to GNU/Linux. It would be nice if some people also prepared a class action lawsuit against Microsoft, for doing the unacceptable and arrogantly assuming that nobody will take legal action.

Vista 10 security is a joke. There are zero-day flaws in every version of Windows (the NSA keeps many of these secret, based on a new report from Reuters), but Vista 10 makes the spying permanent and universal. Microsoft wants the public to think that known security bugs are being tackled, but the NSA and Microsoft sit on them silently, sometimes for many months. According to this new report:

Most Microsoft updates are for Windows but also Office and Skype (for Business). One (MS15-113) covers the new Edge browser on Windows 10. This will need to be applied after the "fall refresh" for Windows 10, which is expected this Thursday.


It doesn't matter how many bugs one patches in Vista 10 because Vista 10 itself is a bug. It turns PCs into universally-accessible bugging devices. We sure hope that more people will see the writing on the wall and abandon Windows.

Related/contextual items from the news:


  1. My thoughts on moving from Windows to Linux Mint


Recent Techrights' Posts

IBM Has Taken Control of GNOME
Don't expect a successor to be found any time soon
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, August 30, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, August 30, 2025
 
Links 31/08/2025: Baggage Claim Scams, an Insurrectionist’s War on Culture, and a Sudden Robotics Hype
Links for the day
Gemini Links 31/08/2025: Reviewing Netsurf and Slightly Less Historic Ada Design
Links for the day
Links 31/08/2025: Google Gmail Data Breach and LF Puff Pieces for Pay
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
This is What Google News Has Become
Moments ago
The Slopfarm WebProNews Has Turned Google News Into a Laughing Stock Full of Plagiarism by Slop
If Google News dies of neglect, that's one thing. It's starting to seem like active neglect by Google is a form of participation.
Do What is Moral, as What's Legal Isn't Always Moral
Do what's objectively moral, no matter the costs and the risks
Slopwatch: Google News Assisting Plagiarism and Anti-Linux FUD, Serial Slopper Rips Off Linux-Centric Journalists
This makes the Web a much worse place and lessens the incentive to do journalism
Links 30/08/2025: NVIDIA Fakes Results to Hide a Bubble Already in Implosion Phase, Data Breaches Galore, Important Win for Workers' Union in Canada
Links for the day
Representing and Speaking for Animals
If I ever choose to take this matter to tribunal with animals-centric NGOs on my side, it'll get some press coverage for sure
The UEFI 9/11 - Part II - Campaign of Censorship and Defamation Against Critics
In dictatorships, humour serves an important role. It's tragic.
In Kazakhstan, Yandex Estimated to be 20 Times Bigger Than Microsoft
Bing is measured as down this month
Shutterstock Not Enough? The Register MS Uses Slop Images in Articles (Seemingly More and More Over Time)
Cost-saving trajectory amid office shutdown?
Gemini Links 30/08/2025: Games, PostmarketOS, and Slop
Links for the day
Links 30/08/2025: Imgur Uproar and Many Ukraine Updates (Mediazona Reports Over 200,000 Russians Died for Putin)
Links for the day
How Not to Build Software
code forges that need a Web browser perhaps fill some 'niche' demand
GAFAM and "MATA"
The use of dark humour there hopefully helps illuminate what a lot of "modern" technology became like and how it interacts with human civilisation (to what ends and whose gain)
Birds Are Not "Pests and Vermin", Privacy is Not a Crime, and GNU/Linux is Not 'Hacking Platform'
I could not help but think of Free software analogies
The Sites Should Be Very Fast Again
That issue is now resolved
Flying in 2025
worse than ever before
Activists, Including Technical Activists, Need Not Pursue Affirmation
Techrights doesn't play or participate in a "popularity contest"
The UEFI 9/11 - Part III - Chaos is Scheduled to Happen Second Thursday of September (No Matter What the Microsofters Tell You)
The clock is ticking
Downplaying the Impact of "UEFI 9/11" is a Losing Strategy
we won't publish much whilst on holiday
Government Sites Should Run Free Software
Not proprietary bloatware with buzzwords
LLM Slopfarms Take No Breaks
When people run sites by bots they don't need to worry about "breaks"
GNOME Having a Meltdown Again
Thanks and farewell to Steven Deobald
Gemini Links 30/08/2025: Low Tech and Hunchbin 1.0.6
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, August 29, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, August 29, 2025
Financiers and Sponsors of the Slop Hype (Pyramid Scheme Waiting to End, Bubble That Will Inevitably Implode)
It's also burning the planet
Slopwatch: Fake Articles About "Linux", Google Helps Ponzi Schemes and Slopfarms in Google News
Slopfarms are a real pain
Gemini Links 29/08/2025: Retiring at 62 and URL Filtering HTTP(S) Proxy on Qubes OS
Links for the day
Links 29/08/2025: Lisa Cook Sues Convicted Felon and Backdoor Mandate in UK Resisted
Links for the day
Links 29/08/2025: Arti 1.5.0, War on Public Health (CDC), and Slop 'Bros' Made to Pay for Their Mass Plagiarism
Links for the day
No, 4Chan is Not Fighting for You by Lawyering Up Against Ofcom (UK)
Don't mistake proto-fascists for people who "fight for you". They don't.
In Many Places in the World Vista 11 "Market Share" is Going Down, Not Up
In some countries Windows is already down to third place or lower
More Microsoft-Connected Layoffs, at Least Third Time This Month! (Also Another Death on Campus)
Microsoft as a "gaming" company is where studios, projects, games, and even developers come to die
Slopwatch: Fake Articles About "Linux", Slop Images in VentureBeat, Linux Foundation Spam Made With LLM Slop and Slop Images
The only relief or upside - if any exists - is that the pace of slop was down a bit this week
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, August 28, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, August 28, 2025
Gemini Links 29/08/2025: Poems, Games, and Java 25 Performance
Links for the day