I disable Windows Update on all testbeds after patching them up because I’ve been burned before by having an update arrive 5-10 days after I configured the system. Luckily, I didn’t lose any work today, but a friend of mine recently did: Hey’re the latest proof that Microsoft doesn’t respect your ownership of your own PC, the latest example of Microsoft installing anything it likes in a Windows update up to and including bloatware, and the latest example of Microsoft caring more about the bottom line than whether a few people might lose their work when Windows suddenly shuts down their PC. Hollister acknowledges that putting web links in the Start Menu is a fairly mild annoyance, but writes: This is, presumably, part of the effort to shove users into new paradigms of usage. Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s CEO, has made Azure a major part of Microsoft’s business going forward, to the point that the company claims Amazon and Facebook are its major gaming competitors rather than Sony and, to a lesser degree, Nintendo.
The difference is, now they’ve stuffed themselves into the Start Menu so Microsoft can advertise its cloud services to you. There’s nothing new about the apps themselves they’re the same version of Office you could previously use online. While I am not accusing Microsoft of shipping a trojan, applications that forcibly install themselves without user consent are, in fact, malware. Microsoft is once again distributing its software like malware.
