SHCC WYSIWYG Article from January 2016

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This article was written by Don VanSyckel, the club president, as a part of "The President's Pen".  This article appeared in the January 2016 WYSIWYG newsletter.

Windows 10, Upgrade or Not

by Don VanSyckel

One thing that keeps popping up and I do mean popping up is Windows 10. I use Win 7 Pro on both my desktop and laptop and as soon as I log in there's a Microsoft pop up encouraging me to sign up for Windows 10. I have a problem with this intrusion into my privacy with an advertisement that I have to repeatedly refuse. Once possibly, but not over and over again. I find this obnoxious and Microsoft is not winning any friends in my court.

Why is Microsoft trying so hard, too hard if you ask me, to push Windows 10? They're giving away Windows 10. I learned a long time ago that there's no free lunch or commercial software. So not only is Microsoft giving away Windows 10 they're expending a lot of energy (and therefore money) to push Windows 10. So you have to ask yourself, where's the pay back? I don't care how many of you can't see the pay back and therefore think there isn't one. There's got to be a pay back and since we can't see it, it just means we're going to be ambushed (surprised) with it when it happens.

Then there's the spy rumors about Microsoft using Windows 10 to harvest information about you. Granted the rumors now include that Microsoft might or have extended the spying down into Windows 7. Early reports were dismissed by many as rumor. Later reports from usually reliable sources generally agree that Microsoft 10 out of the box is doing some data harvesting but it difficult to know who to believe. There are tips available on the web for how to turn off the harvesting.

Please read the article 'Microsoft Upgrading Windows 10; May "Automatically" Upgrade Windows 7 and 8.1 to Windows 10' by Ira Wilsker which is reprinted in this issue of the WYSIWYG. This author reports how Microsoft is planning to trick people into loading Windows 10. This will be done by masquerading the Windows 10 upgrade and a standard update for the Win 7 or Win 8 system you are currently running. To call version change of windows a standard update borders on criminal. If you have automatic updates turned on and you are presented any questions, read them carefully and don't let Microsoft steal your Windows from you.

To quote Mr. Wilsker, "According to several published reports, Microsoft has expressed concerns that the rate of Windows users upgrading from the older versions of Windows to Windows 10 has slowed, and this decline in the rate of people upgrading to Windows 10 may cost Microsoft substantial potential revenues." He mentions "substantial potential revenues" that Microsoft will reap from all of us upgrading to Windows 10 but doesn't go into detail of just how this will come about. This parallels what I stated above that Microsoft was something up it's sleeve to harvest a profit from the free Windows 10 upgrade. Has the world gone mad? When something sounds too good to be true, it is.

After all this and throw in Microsoft's planned underhandedness, I won't upgrade until I understand what it's going to cost me, in the long run.

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