Windows 10 - the message on the tgstation13 welcome page

LiamLime · Post by **LiamLime** » Wed Apr 27, 2016 12:57 pm #171915

Bottom post of the previous page:

You can turn it off for good in the firewall. That's 'registry edit' tier of inconvenience, though. If you really wanted to, however, you can.

mosquitoman · Post by **mosquitoman** » Wed Apr 27, 2016 1:16 pm #171918

I warned you about this almost a year ago and all you did was laugh at me:
https://tgstation13.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=4301

Can you see now how ironic this shit is? That I could see this coming from hundreds of miles away while you remained blind? Good to see that most of you woke up finally.

Do not touch Windows 10 even with a ten ft pole through a plastic bag. It's a shit, hostile system that's designed to trap you and turn your computer against you. Refuse it at all costs; avoid like the plague.

LiamLime · Post by **LiamLime** » Wed Apr 27, 2016 4:29 pm #171939

But everything you posted in that thread is wrong... I mean this stuff was tested extensively, it's known what is gathered, how the checkboxes affect it, and to what extent users can control this. Your posts in the linked thread were a kneejerk reaction back then, which is sort of excusable, but there's a limit to how long you can use that excuse.

I mean, re-read your posts. They were incorrect then and are incorrect now.

And even if they were correct, the amount of kneejerk doom and gloom conspiracy theories that get posted on the Internet, usually by the same people over and over, it's a matter of probability that some of them will be true. "I told you so" posts are dumb when made by people who take issue with everything by default and completely ignore to recognize that they were wrong the hundred other times they predicted the apocalypse. Not to say that you were even right, of course.

I mean let me help you, there's a thing you can take issue with that nobody will defend Microsoft over: Advertising Win 10 to users of older versions, forcing upgrades, sometimes even auto-upgrading computers that opted out. It's not like there aren't valid arguments to be made against Windows 10 or Microsoft, it's just that... what you wrote isn't one of them. Not then, not now.

mosquitoman · Post by **mosquitoman** » Wed Apr 27, 2016 5:01 pm #171944

LiamLime wrote: I mean, re-read your posts. They were incorrect then and are incorrect now.

What is incorrect? That Windows 10 is a piece of spyware that sends unknown data to many different servers? We know for sure it includes, among other things, what you search for on your own pc as well as files you store. What else it gathers is anyone's guess. You can take MICROS~1's word for it but it's not known for it's honesty. Facebook does the same with your mobile phone, by the way. Their application uses your microphone and listens to your conversation, so that later it can display advertisements based on the topics you discuss in private. And likely store your conversations on their servers for all kinds of possible purposes.

LiamLime wrote: And even if they were correct, the amount of kneejerk doom and gloom conspiracy theories that get posted on the Internet, usually by the same people over and over, it's a matter of probability that some of them will be true. "I told you so" posts are dumb when made by people who take issue with everything by default and completely ignore to recognize that they were wrong the hundred other times they predicted the apocalypse. Not to say that you were even right, of course.

This very same thing was repeated when Ed Snowden revealed that there is in fact a massive surveillance network intercepting almost all internet traffic and analyzing it, when it was revealed that there is a conspiracy to re-route the finances of the most powerful people in the world so that their sources of income are concealed and go untaxed, when it was revealed that a major study that proved no link between vaccines and autism was faked, when the MK ULTRA documents were de-classified, and in tens of other cases. Damn, those stupid ass conspiracy theorists, it looks like they're the only people on the planet who offer a model that results in accurate predictions for the future. It must be because they're severely mentally retarded.

ColonicAcid · Post by **ColonicAcid** » Wed Apr 27, 2016 5:06 pm #171945

mosquitoman wrote: when it was revealed that there is a conspiracy to re-route the finances of the most powerful people in the world so that their sources of income are concealed and go untaxed

But that is not what a conspiracy is lmao.

Are you implying that avoiding taxes is a fucking new world order conspiracy? No you baboon, it's just smart people using loopholes to have to pay less money.

Also vaccines dont cause autism, I can find you 20 different papers from different sources on nature spelling out the fact that yes, you are in fact retarded.

mosquitoman · Post by **mosquitoman** » Wed Apr 27, 2016 5:10 pm #171947

Conspiracy - a group of people colluding to perform some action in secret.

Those who engage in conspiracies are the ones that want you to believe that conspiracies don't exist.

Look at this shit. Fast forward a few months and everybody's treating Windows 10 like cancer to the point where there's a warning to avoid it on the main page of this server. But people are still telling me I am wrong, lmao.

mosquitoman · Post by **mosquitoman** » Wed Apr 27, 2016 5:12 pm #171948

ColonicAcid wrote: Also vaccines dont cause autism, I can find you 20 different papers from different sources on nature spelling out the fact that yes, you are in fact retarded.

Irrelevant if they do or don't, the fact remains that the study that was quoted all the time on the internet whenever this topic was discussed turned out to be a forgery and its author was paid to falsify data. End of story.

ColonicAcid · Post by **ColonicAcid** » Wed Apr 27, 2016 5:13 pm #171949

But they weren't colluding.

They just saw that there was an easy way to not pay taxes and they did so.
Some even had a legitimate excuse to put money in an offshore fund in panama.

mosquitoman · Post by **mosquitoman** » Wed Apr 27, 2016 5:16 pm #171950

There was a conspiracy to keep it secret, otherwise there would be no need to leak it if it was out in the open.

ColonicAcid · Post by **ColonicAcid** » Wed Apr 27, 2016 5:28 pm #171951

Generally companies don't really release their customers data because you know privacy and all of that.

They were leaked not because they were trying to be kept hidden at all costs (well they were but that's just customer-company confidentiality, most companies dealing with sensitive things like money do this) but because of the people involved.

Malkevin · Post by **Malkevin** » Wed Apr 27, 2016 6:08 pm #171961

To be honest I still don't know how win10 gets past the data protection act.

Saegrimr · Post by **Saegrimr** » Wed Apr 27, 2016 6:35 pm #171965

Imagine a future when vidya gaems run natively on linux distros and not through emulation or "not-emulation".

Also we skipped 9 so whats next, 11 or 14? Maybe some arbitrary new name? Windows Prime? Windows 2018? Windows ACRNYM?

mosquitoman · Post by **mosquitoman** » Wed Apr 27, 2016 6:45 pm #171967

Saegrimr wrote:Imagine a future when vidya gaems run natively on linux distros and not through emulation or "not-emulation".

Vulkan will make that possible. DX12 is utter trash.

LiamLime · Post by **LiamLime** » Wed Apr 27, 2016 6:46 pm #171968

mosquitoman wrote:Facebook does the same with your mobile phone, by the way. Their application uses your microphone and listens to your conversation, so that later it can display advertisements based on the topics you discuss in private. And likely store your conversations on their servers for all kinds of possible purposes.

Uh boy have you drank the koolaid. Okay, as someone who actually specializes in big data analysis, who knows what kind of capacity computers have for processing spoken language and speech, allow me to tell you right here, right now: Even with all the data centres in the world, all the storage space and all the funding that Facebook, the NSA or Microsoft have, there is currently no way to store, let alone process, all the spoken stuff you say. That is why every device uses a trigger word.

Additionally, if you wish to see this for yourself, look at how much data the various apps use. It's all tracked on mobile devices and available to you.

As to the rest of this section: Research into this was done by many independent sources, who had nothing to do with Microsoft. I'm going off of their findings, not Microsoft's. There's this wonderful device, which lets you keep track of internet communications and where it's going. It's called a router. And higher end routers let you inspect every single packet. And while you can't read encrypted connections in this*, you can see the destination IPs, which you can easily determine whether they are Microsoft's or not.

* - simplified

mosquitoman wrote: This very same thing was repeated when Ed Snowden revealed that there is in fact a massive surveillance network intercepting almost all internet traffic and analyzing it, when it was revealed that there is a conspiracy to re-route the finances of the most powerful people in the world so that their sources of income are concealed and go untaxed, when it was revealed that a major study that proved no link between vaccines and autism was faked, when the MK ULTRA documents were de-classified, and in tens of other cases. Damn, those stupid ass conspiracy theorists, it looks like they're the only people on the planet who offer a model that results in accurate predictions for the future. It must be because they're severely mentally retarded.

/slowclap

Ricotez · Post by **Ricotez** » Thu Apr 28, 2016 10:39 am #172106

Windows 9 was skipped because it could cause name conflicts with Windows 95 and Windows 98.

Windows 10 is supposed to be the last primary name change for Windows and also the last time Microsoft completely develops a new OS like that. From now on it's all major updates to the existing OS, which will have their own names. For example, the next major update for Windows 10 is called Redstone.

Incomptinence · Thu Apr 28, 2016 2:00 pm

No means no pop ups stop coming back I mean I made an effort to make you shut up and still with the UPGRADE NOW OR DOWNLOAD AND UPGRADE LATER pop up box I literally need to exit out of fuck offfff.

LiamLime · Post by **LiamLime** » Thu Apr 28, 2016 2:06 pm #172124

My guess is they skipped win 9 because of marketing (os x). The win 95/98 thing seemed like an incredibly weak excuse to me.

For a long time, Firefox and Chrome did the same, keeping parity in versions with each other, no matter if it was needed or not. Also you could always consider win 8.1 as win 9.

Malkevin · Post by **Malkevin** » Thu Apr 28, 2016 3:46 pm #172143

They skipped 9 because Japs think 9 is a dirty number.

LiamLime · Post by **LiamLime** » Thu Apr 28, 2016 4:56 pm #172156

If you don't want Windows 10, you can install Never 10.

Incomptinence · Fri Apr 29, 2016 5:02 am

I'd done something to fool it into thinking I had already downloaded the pile. I think they patched around it or it just didn't work.

mosquitoman · Post by **mosquitoman** » Fri Apr 29, 2016 9:13 am #172317

http://venturebeat.com/2016/04/28/micro ... edge-only/

"Unfortunately, as Windows 10 has grown in adoption and usage, we have seen some software programs circumvent the design of Windows 10 and redirect you to search providers that were not designed to work with Cortana. The result is a compromised experience that is less reliable and predictable. The continuity of these types of task completion scenarios is disrupted if Cortana can't depend on Bing as the search provider and Microsoft Edge as the browser. The only way we can confidently deliver this personalized, end-to-end search experience is through the integration of Cortana, Microsoft Edge and Bing -- all designed to do more for you."

This isn't your pc anymore, bitch! Now bend over and get ready for an extra dose of bing search results!

Ricotez · Post by **Ricotez** » Fri Apr 29, 2016 10:36 am #172322

I like Windows 10 but I agree that Microsoft should stop badgering people to upgrade to it. It's just going to backfire on them.

I'm also questioning how much of the "hidden" data collection is permitted under European law. They're not allowed to collect just any data without my informed consent, and hidden is not exactly "informed". Plus the law is about to change to also include pseudonymized data, I hope they're ready for that and it won't take another court case.

mosquitoman · Fri Apr 29, 2016 10:43 am

Installing the system requires you to accept the End-User License Agreement, in which you agree to be Microsoft's bitch and agree to collection of any and all data it wants about you. So that's how they've been able to avoid courts so far.

I like how they're bragging about huge, unprecedented adoption rates. Sort of like North Korea bragging about 100% support for Kim Jong Un among its population.

Also, I heard it's easier to get laid if you just rape the other person.

K-64 · Post by **K-64** » Fri Apr 29, 2016 2:45 pm #172345

mosquitoman wrote:Installing the system requires you to accept the End-User License Agreement, in which you agree to be Microsoft's bitch and agree to collection of any and all data it wants about you. So that's how they've been able to avoid courts so far.

Having a EULA doesn't give companies free reign of what they can do with their customers and/or their data. If a section of the EULA contradicts or otherwise conflicts with data laws and such, then it will be entirely ignored in court cases.

mosquitoman · Post by **mosquitoman** » Fri Apr 29, 2016 2:46 pm #172346

CosmicScientist wrote:Could you just piss off, sober up or both, mosquito?

did windows 10 post this automatically using your account because its datamining algorithms detected critique of micros~1 in my post?

ColonicAcid · Post by **ColonicAcid** » Fri Apr 29, 2016 3:01 pm #172350

make sure you wear ur breath mask buddy lest those chemical trails get to your head (i mean its already fucked but those chemtrails will fuck it up even more).

mosquitoman · Post by **mosquitoman** » Fri Apr 29, 2016 3:12 pm #172352

ColonicAcid wrote:make sure you wear ur breath mask buddy lest those chemical trails get to your head (i mean its already fucked but those chemtrails will fuck it up even more).

i have internals switched on so i don't have to breathe the same air as you plebs do

that's what the top chinese businessmen do

iamgoofball · Post by **iamgoofball** » Sat Apr 30, 2016 4:10 am #172499

Holy fuck take the tinfoil hats off microsoft doesnt care what porn you watch

XSI · Post by **XSI** » Sat Apr 30, 2016 9:16 am #172541

mosquitoman wrote:Installing the system requires you to accept the End-User License Agreement, in which you agree to be Microsoft's bitch and agree to collection of any and all data it wants about you. So that's how they've been able to avoid courts so far.

I like how they're bragging about huge, unprecedented adoption rates. Sort of like North Korea bragging about 100% support for Kim Jong Un among its population.

Also, I heard it's easier to get laid if you just rape the other person.

Those 'agreements' are not legally worth anything outside of the USA, this has been shown through court cases again and again and again

And they may not care what porn WE watch
But now imagine being a politician and watching 'Teen' porn, gore porn and other things with a questionable reputation.
Would you still feel safe knowing that a big company knows all of that?
Imagine having watched it a few times years ago, and then getting into politics just now. Those records still exists. Would this be a good thing for you?

mosquitoman · Post by **mosquitoman** » Sat Apr 30, 2016 9:36 am #172542

iamgoofball wrote:Holy fuck take the tinfoil hats off microsoft doesnt care what porn you watch

It does, and it sells this and other data to advertisers.

Malkevin · Post by **Malkevin** » Sat Apr 30, 2016 9:40 am #172543

I'm sure anti piracy jobsworths would be willing to pay a packet for information on who's torrenting what.

Funnily enough, one of my local MPs has just been forced to step down because of some comments she made about israel, on facebook, years before she entered politics.

ThanatosRa · Post by **ThanatosRa** » Sat Apr 30, 2016 11:47 am #172551

mosquitoman wrote:
iamgoofball wrote:Holy fuck take the tinfoil hats off microsoft doesnt care what porn you watch
It does, and it sells this and other data to advertisers.

Dude stop. Enough. What are you even hoping to accomplish here?

mosquitoman · Sat Apr 30, 2016 12:03 pm

Correcting misinformation.

Microsoft offers Windows 10 for "free". What do you think their source of revenue is going to be? The long game is to trap you in a system you do not control and then they are free to use you however they please.

LiamLime · Post by **LiamLime** » Sat Apr 30, 2016 1:01 pm #172561

While there are companies that do what you say, Microsoft earns enough money that it has no need to sell this sort of data. The cost of a PR backlash of something like that leaking would outweigh any profits they could have made.

As to Microsoft giving away Windows, that's simply where the market has gone. All other operating systems are free and people expect it now. The reason they are making it as painless as possible to get windows, as well as adding things like bash to it, is to make the operating system the gateway to their other services, be it One Drive, Skype and Office for consumers, or Azure and MSDN for professionals.

We are no longer in a world where you can be expected to pay for an operating system. Simple as that. Microsoft adapted to the change in the market.

I mean they made Visual Studio free, which once cost thousands of dollars per license. And now it's completely, 100% free. Much like Windows, there are more expensive versions available, which cost money, but the one that suffices for most people, is free. I don't hear anyone complain about "Dooh, where will they make their money there ;_;". They don't need to make direct revenue. Using it to promote other services, and getting money from there, is way more valuable to them, especially since Windows does not transfer to mobile platforms, whereas all their other services do.

Please, Mosquitoman, THINK. Because what you're saying just doesn't hold any water.

XSI · Post by **XSI** » Sat Apr 30, 2016 5:40 pm #172601

Are you really saying they're just going to give away the biggest earner that got them to be a big company for free

And not expect anything in return?
You sound incredibly optimistic and naive

ColonicAcid · Post by **ColonicAcid** » Sat Apr 30, 2016 7:10 pm #172624

Wrong.

The Office division brings significantly more money than the Windows division.

Source: http://www.tannerhelland.com/4993/micro ... ated-2013/

kust · Post by **kust** » Sat Apr 30, 2016 7:20 pm #172628

But won't you be forced sooner or later to get windows 10 when the support for the older os ends ?

mosquitoman · Post by **mosquitoman** » Sat Apr 30, 2016 7:21 pm #172629

They're going to switch to a subscription model eventually. In the 21st century you're not allowed to own anything, you can only rent endlessly.

Saegrimr · Post by **Saegrimr** » Sat Apr 30, 2016 7:22 pm #172630

kust wrote:But won't you be forced sooner or later to get windows 10 when the support for the older os ends ?

People still use XP.

"Support" means nothing unless you're riding that DirectX dick.

mosquitoman · Post by **mosquitoman** » Sat Apr 30, 2016 7:54 pm #172635

Exactly. And you need to disable updates anyway if you don't want to wake up to a nasty surprise one morning. So effectively "support" for Windows 7 and 8 has already ended. There are only forced installations.

TheWiznard · Post by **TheWiznard** » Sun May 01, 2016 12:07 am #172687

the longer I use 8/.1 the more I like it

LiamLime · Post by **LiamLime** » Sun May 01, 2016 2:17 am #172706

XSI wrote:Are you really saying they're just going to give away the biggest earner that got them to be a big company for free

And not expect anything in return?
You sound incredibly optimistic and naive

There are more complex monetization models than "Pay outright for software". I covered what their monetization strategy with Windows is - freemium with upsale for their other services.

Also what Colonic said is true, their biggest earner has been the Office division for a long time.

mosquitoman wrote:Exactly. And you need to disable updates anyway if you don't want to wake up to a nasty surprise one morning. So effectively "support" for Windows 7 and 8 has already ended. There are only forced installations.

If you're actually concerned about security or privacy, you'll keep Windows Update on. And if you're not, then just get Windows 10. There are few worse things you can do than disabling your OS updates.

kust wrote:But won't you be forced sooner or later to get windows 10 when the support for the older os ends ?

Yes, eventually hardware will just no longer support older versions, or software won't. I mean you are going to be buying Windows 10 when you buy a new computer. License holders of Windows 10 Enterprise have a downgrade right, meaning they can downgrade to previous versions of the OS, but this too is limited to certain computer models, it's not guaranteed on all hardware (starting some time 2017). And once the supported lifetime for windows 7 and 8 ends, there will be no new computers with support for those versions.

Also the free upgrade is just an upgrade from previous versions and is tied to a particular device. It's not transferable between devices.

Same thing as going back to XP or ME or 98 now. Hardware manufacturers simply don't provide drivers or software versions for those OS versions anymore. XP is sometimes still supported, but its support by driver and software makers is clearly diminishing. At some point it will become painful enough to maintain these legacy versions of Windows that everyone will either update or move to another OS. For me, going from 8.1 to 7, or 10 to 7, is painful. Windows 7 is showing its age.

mosquitoman · Post by **mosquitoman** » Sun May 01, 2016 2:34 am #172712

LiamLime wrote: If you're actually concerned about security or privacy, you'll keep Windows Update on. And if you're not, then just get Windows 10. There are few worse things you can do than disabling your OS updates.

Good one.

Mind elaborating why?

ColonicAcid · Post by **ColonicAcid** » Sun May 01, 2016 2:56 am #172720

Because Windows updates, contrary to your retarded beliefs, are there to patch break ins and back doors.

iamgoofball · Post by **iamgoofball** » Sun May 01, 2016 3:00 am #172723

ColonicAcid wrote:Because Windows updates, contrary to your retarded beliefs, are there to patch break ins and back doors.

LiamLime · Post by **LiamLime** » Sun May 01, 2016 3:07 am #172726

mosquitoman wrote:Mind elaborating why?

Windows related security exploits are found on a weekly basis. The Windows patch which comes out on every 2nd Tuesday of the month fixes many such exploits. The latest one, for example, is an exploit with regsvr32 and regsvr64, which handle OLE controls, DLLs, ActiveX stuff - often used by installers to do application - OS ties. Well, it turns out it's possible to get these programs to silently download scripts off the Internet and then execute them. These scripts can, for example, edit your registry and access files and applications, blocked by tools such as App Locker. Whoops. Expect a fix for this on May 10.

I'll be honest, mosquitoman, you're not helping the "Anti Windows 10" team. They have valid complaints they can raise, but you're just going full retard on this, representing their concerns as the stuff of tinfoil hat wearing nutjobs, which they definitely aren't. I really think that the best you can do to promote your opinion is to let someone else take over - someone who actually knows what they're talking about and where the limits of technology are and what Microsoft is actually likely to be doing. I mean you're incredibly easy to argue against, because the concerns you raise are unsubstantiated and easy to counter, I just worry that you're misrepresenting and trivializing the team you're on. There are valid reasons to be concerned with Microsoft and Windows 10, your dumb paranoia isn't amongst them though.

Post by **oranges** » Sun May 01, 2016 3:24 am #172730

Microsoft saw apple making a killing with their closed app garden and then they saw the cloud companies killing it with subscription revenues.

Arguably the biggest trend setter was adobe with their cloud product.

Microsoft wants that market and if that means they have to throw away their OS for free, they'll probably do it because I assume they think it's more valuable to get those subscriptions.

LiamLime · Post by **LiamLime** » Sun May 01, 2016 3:34 am #172731

I actually don't mind that - neither as a consumer, nor as a developer. I mean the 70/30 split has become more or less expected, and getting all your products onto a unified store makes it easier to both get your stuff discovered on the developer side, and discover stuff, find reviews and ratings on the consumer side.

I don't mind if Microsoft acts as arbiter there and gets the 30% publishing cut.

This assumes that Microsoft allows for competing services. They have stated that they do and will continue to do so. Apart from iOS, all operating systems allow for this. Mac allows Steam to operate, Android allows the Galaxy Store to operate, Windows allows Steam to operate, etc. With this in mind, I don't think Windows can afford to require that all software goes through their store - not now, not any time soon. And if they ever can afford to do that, then a lot of other OSes will have done it before them, and I simply don't think that's a reasonable expectation.

Personally I actually like the idea of the Windows Store competing with services like Steam. Simply because I think Steam needs a serious competitor, and the Windows Store is the only distribution platform I can see as having a genuine shot at doing that.

Sun May 01, 2016 4:19 am

win10 is just win7 with a cuter UI and some extra features i'll never use

i genuinely don't see like any of the things people keep complaining about (except for the "Try Office!" things that popped up but that went away after like the first week or something)

Post by **oranges** » Sun May 01, 2016 6:12 am #172752

LiamLime wrote:I actually don't mind that

digusting!

mosquitoman · Post by **mosquitoman** » Sun May 01, 2016 9:28 am #172778

ColonicAcid wrote:Because Windows updates, contrary to your retarded beliefs, are there to patch break ins and back doors.

You mean create backdoors. What do you call it when a third party uploads arbitrary files to your pc and executes them without your knowledge or consent? That's malware, pure and simple. If you have windows updates enabled, your system is being directly threatened by a very aggressive piece of malware called Windows 10 that takes over your machine, creates numerous backdoors on it allowing for, among other things, remote code execution and uploading more arbitrary files to your machine without your consent, and irreparably damaging your system often leaving you with no option to restore it to previous state short of wiping it clean completely.

LiamLime wrote:
mosquitoman wrote:Mind elaborating why?
Windows related security exploits are found on a weekly basis. The Windows patch which comes out on every 2nd Tuesday of the month fixes many such exploits. The latest one, for example, is an exploit with regsvr32 and regsvr64, which handle OLE controls, DLLs, ActiveX stuff - often used by installers to do application - OS ties. Well, it turns out it's possible to get these programs to silently download scripts off the Internet and then execute them. These scripts can, for example, edit your registry and access files and applications, blocked by tools such as App Locker. Whoops. Expect a fix for this on May 10.

I'll be honest, mosquitoman, you're not helping the "Anti Windows 10" team. They have valid complaints they can raise, but you're just going full retard on this, representing their concerns as the stuff of tinfoil hat wearing nutjobs, which they definitely aren't. I really think that the best you can do to promote your opinion is to let someone else take over - someone who actually knows what they're talking about and where the limits of technology are and what Microsoft is actually likely to be doing. I mean you're incredibly easy to argue against, because the concerns you raise are unsubstantiated and easy to counter, I just worry that you're misrepresenting and trivializing the team you're on. There are valid reasons to be concerned with Microsoft and Windows 10, your dumb paranoia isn't amongst them though.

Please tell me a single thing I said that is not true. Is MICROS~1 not uploading arbitrary malicious code to unwilling users and executing it without their knowledge and consent? Are they not forcibly installing their malware on millions of computers whether you want it or not? Are they not collecting tons of data leaving users unable to disable this spyware feature completely no matter what they do short of blocking dozens of servers in the router or similar device they're connecting through? Those are all very real threats that you're exposed to if you have windows update enabled. I've had it disabled on my Windows 7 installation for 3 years now and never had a single malicious file executed on my machine. Do you know why? Because I'm not a dumbfuck and do not run any random executable off the internet. It really is that simple. No way to use 0-days on my machine if you can't get your files on it in the first place.