I did find it surprising however that so many systems shown on TV run Windows.
Digital signage screens, shopping registers all sorts of stuff that I assumed would be running Linux.
It is surprising to me that systems with functions like a cash register would be doing automatic updates at all.
I agree that it does not make sense to use Windows for this sort of thing.
OR the solution is a powerpoint or mp4 file running on a TV for signage.
If every office computer is already Windows, IT has management applications like GPO, SCCM/Intune, or RMMs like Datto/Ninjaone to deploy policy and manage Windows computers remotely. It then makes sense to just keep using those, rather than making a whole new system just for the digital signage computers.
Since MS has a kiosk mode officially, they probably assume either choice is good enough.
Yeah that's weird, at least do it via some on-premise "proxy". Windows has WSUS and I'd assume that Crowdstrike has something similar. I know that TrendMicro provides, or have provide an update service, allowing customers to rollout patches at their own pace.
Sadly very few things seems to run correctly without internet access these days. I get the complaint about management and updates for something like things in people homes, but if you're an airport, would it be so bad to have critical infrastructure not on the internet? I don't really care if the digital signs run Windows, there are plenty of reasons why you'd choose that, but why run Crowdstrike on those devices? Shouldn't they be read-only anyway?
I’m not saying that Windows is great. I haven’t willingly used it in 15 years. But you can’t keep your head in the sand about the sad state of Linux and anything graphical, especially on esoteric hardware.
POS systems are often effectively Internet-connected, because they need to report stock levels, connect to financial networks, process BNPL applications, etc. it’s completely warranted to treat them like ‘endpoints’, because they are.
I can say it’s not easy to configure but once done it’s very stable and simple.
Good? No, but that's the reality of things.
> Using a general-purpose desktop designed for corporate executives running Excel and PowerPoint is just the wrong technology choice for such an application.
Agree, which is why most of the time you use Windows Embedded for Point of Service or Windows IoT Enterprise. Which again, is Windows.