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Comment by vocatus_gate | Hacker News Reader

No. "Some of the blame"? Try "all of the blame." Windows Updates used to be pro-user. Now they're pro-Microsoft (pushing things Microsoft wants) and anti-user (routinely pushing 'features' no one wants or asked for).

I disabled it a long time ago and haven't looked back. Get back to me when MS starts remembering their customers are human beings again.

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"pro user" is an interesting way to put it. If I remember correctly it was heavily integrated with IE in the past to push browser share. Want to update your system? Open buggy old IE5/6. Want to get rid of IE? What antitrust? IE is part of essential Windows functionality after all, we can't get rid of it.

> Get back to me when MS starts remembering their customers are human beings again.

Oh, they know. Their whole abusive process is build around milking that fact for all it is worth.

The comment said Windows update was pro-user, not Microsoft.

Well we can argue wether a knife is pro or con user when Microsoft stabs said user in the back with it. Microsoft would say that it provides a secure (tm) resting place for the users hat and is not only very pro-user in doing so but also important for the continous operation of said hat. My point is just that, Microsoft used Windows Update to push unwanted software in the past and as such Windows Update was never entirely a pro-user software, something always undermined by Microsofts willingness to put its own goals above its users needs.

Last year my Windows 10 box decided to just restart to apply updates. Problem is, I was still using the machine and was strapped into VR gear. Suffice to say I was not pleased.

I see this as more diatribe than reality..

MS has MILLIONS of people yammering for features and they go to great lengths to shorten the release cycle for getting new features to developers and customers.

I find this as a positive thing and this concept of MS as "the enemy" is absurd..

You're essentially writing off 10s of millions of happy customers participating in a growing and flourishing community without any regard..

Empathy.. its a good thing.. even if your personal choice is that of something else.

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