Microsoft removes Windows 10 upgrade ads from Windows 7 and 8.1

[Scorpus]

Microsoft has released an update for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 that will please users who've decided to stick with an older operating system. KB3184143, as spotted by ZDNet, removes the Get Windows 10 app and all other software related to Windows 10 upgrades.

The primary purpose of the Get Windows 10 app was to promote the Windows 10 free upgrade offer and try to convince as many users as possible to upgrade. However, the app's tactics were controversial: it not only advertised Windows 10 through pop-ups, but it would also sometimes install Windows 10 in the background, even if you clicked to dismiss the pop-up windows.

While most advertising for Windows 10 inside older versions of Windows disappeared when the free upgrade offer ended on July 29th, the Get Windows 10 app was still deployed on most Windows 7 and 8.1 systems. KB3184143 "removes the Get Windows 10 app and other software related to the Windows 10 free upgrade offer."

Despite Microsoft's occasionally annoying advertising tactics, the Windows 10 free upgrade offer and the Get Windows 10 app seem to have been a successful venture for the company. More than 350 million people are now using the operating system, which points to faster-than-usual uptake for a new version of Windows.

The free Windows 10 upgrade offer has ended, but if you want to install Windows 10 on your Windows 7 or 8.1 machine without buying a full Windows 10 license, Microsoft is still offering free upgrades for people who claim they are using assistive technologies.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/66412-microsoft-removes-windows-10-upgrade-ads-windows-7.html

 

[Evernessince]

"Despite Microsoft's occasionally annoying advertising tactics, the Windows 10 free upgrade offer and the Get Windows 10 app seem to have been a successful venture for the company. More than 350 million people are now using the operating system, which points to faster-than-usual uptake for a new version of Windows."

That depends if you take brand damage into account or not. I'm seeing people choose mac books and linux machines more and more. At this point, Microsoft is like the now fat wife you are stuck with.

 

[oldikes]

"Despite Microsoft's occasionally annoying advertising tactics, the Windows 10 free upgrade offer and the Get Windows 10 app seem to have been a successful venture for the company. More than 350 million people are now using the operating system, which points to faster-than-usual uptake for a new version of Windows."

That depends if you take brand damage into account or not. I'm seeing people choose mac books and linux machines more and more. At this point, Microsoft is like the now fat wife you are stuck with.

Im seeing alot more people switch to mac not because windows, but because PC manufacterers cant seem to build decent laptops and resist the urge to fill them with insane amounts of bloatware; most users dont really understand what bloatware is or remove it so they always have 10 tray programs slowing their PC down; then when the mac runs alot faster it creates this misconception that macs are much faster.

So non-techy users know alot of windows laptops have inferior build quality, which they do, and they also see them as slower, because bloatware isnt explained to them. Why would they not use a mac?

Its the manufacturers shooting themselves in the foot more than windows.

 

[Evernessince]

Im seeing alot more people switch to mac not because windows, but because PC manufacterers cant seem to build decent laptops and resist the urge to fill them with insane amounts of bloatware; most users dont really understand what bloatware is or remove it so they always have 10 tray programs slowing their PC down; then when the mac runs alot faster it creates this misconception that macs are much faster.

So non-techy users know alot of windows laptops have inferior build quality, which they do, and they also see them as slower, because bloatware isnt explained to them. Why would they not use a mac?

Its the manufacturers shooting themselves in the foot more than windows.

I'd say both are a factor. The problem is most people buying a PC don't know what they want. I see people purchase the 12 GB laptop model with a weaker GPU all the time. Having a bunch of choices is great for enthusiasts who know what they want. The laptop market on the other hand is like a double crap sandwich for PCs. You not only have customers who don't know what they need from the computer, you also have OEMs (as you said) loading a bunch of junk onto the computer, and on top of that Intel's Mobile CPU naming is absolutely horrid. The difference between getting an "i7" with 2 cores and 4 cores is literally only one letter. It's deceptive, period. Add on top of this their newly added ultra low M class processors and it gets even more fun. Yes, part of the blame rests on Intel and the OEMs but in my opinion most of the blame rests on Microsoft for not keeping the kids in order. This isn't the wild west of computer buying anymore, customers value their time, they want to know what they are getting without too much of a fuss.

 

[oldikes]

I'd say both are a factor. The problem is most people buying a PC don't know what they want. I see people purchase the 12 GB laptop model with a weaker GPU all the time. Having a bunch of choices is great for enthusiasts who know what they want. The laptop market on the other hand is like a double crap sandwich for PCs. You not only have customers who don't know what they need from the computer, you also have OEMs (as you said) loading a bunch of junk onto the computer, and on top of that Intel's Mobile CPU naming is absolutely horrid. The difference between getting an "i7" with 2 cores and 4 cores is literally only one letter. It's deceptive, period. Add on top of this their newly added ultra low M class processors and it gets even more fun. Yes, part of the blame rests on Intel and the OEMs but in my opinion most of the blame rests on Microsoft for not keeping the kids in order. This isn't the wild west of computer buying anymore, customers value their time, they want to know what they are getting without too much of a fuss.

Another HUGE thing I see at college too is people opening their laptops to take class and windows FORCING update installation that can take up to 30 minutes. I wonder who keeps thinking that is okay. I cant imagine having to do a work presentation or something and that happening.

 

[Evernessince]

Another HUGE thing I see at college too is people opening their laptops to take class and windows FORCING update installation that can take up to 30 minutes. I wonder who keeps thinking that is okay. I cant imagine having to do a work presentation or something and that happening.

Funny story about that, my buddy in grad school has a Surface 3 pro. Well, right when he was giving the oral portion of this senior thesis his computer decided it was going to upgrade to windows 10. Hard to do a long presentation without access to the files.

I've tried windows 10 during the beta phase and it's a pretty great operating system. It's just the forced updates, having to check my privacy settings after each update, it's all this small stuff that adds up to make you feel like Microsoft is telling you "No, bad!" every time you disable a feature they like on by default or try to make the system your own. What Microsoft doesn't realize is that it has never been Microsoft alone that's made the operating system great, it's been the 3rd party app support and the customization. Trying to force everyone into a continuously more mobile like operating system only serves to hurt what makes their operating system so great.

 

[Nobina]

It was only successfull because it auto-updated to Windows 10 regardless of what the user wanted. Other than that it just made people hate Windows more and not upgrade on purpose.

 

[Nobina]

Im seeing alot more people switch to mac not because windows, but because PC manufacterers cant seem to build decent laptops and resist the urge to fill them with insane amounts of bloatware; most users dont really understand what bloatware is or remove it so they always have 10 tray programs slowing their PC down; then when the mac runs alot faster it creates this misconception that macs are much faster.

So non-techy users know alot of windows laptops have inferior build quality, which they do, and they also see them as slower, because bloatware isnt explained to them. Why would they not use a mac?

Its the manufacturers shooting themselves in the foot more than windows.

I'd say both are a factor. The problem is most people buying a PC don't know what they want. I see people purchase the 12 GB laptop model with a weaker GPU all the time. Having a bunch of choices is great for enthusiasts who know what they want. The laptop market on the other hand is like a double crap sandwich for PCs. You not only have customers who don't know what they need from the computer, you also have OEMs (as you said) loading a bunch of junk onto the computer, and on top of that Intel's Mobile CPU naming is absolutely horrid. The difference between getting an "i7" with 2 cores and 4 cores is literally only one letter. It's deceptive, period. Add on top of this their newly added ultra low M class processors and it gets even more fun. Yes, part of the blame rests on Intel and the OEMs but in my opinion most of the blame rests on Microsoft for not keeping the kids in order. This isn't the wild west of computer buying anymore, customers value their time, they want to know what they are getting without too much of a fuss.

But intels horrid CPU naming applies to Macs aswell. They use the same processors. Am I right?

 

[Teko03]

Im seeing alot more people switch to mac not because windows, but because PC manufacterers cant seem to build decent laptops and resist the urge to fill them with insane amounts of bloatware; most users dont really understand what bloatware is or remove it so they always have 10 tray programs slowing their PC down; then when the mac runs alot faster it creates this misconception that macs are much faster.

So non-techy users know alot of windows laptops have inferior build quality, which they do, and they also see them as slower, because bloatware isnt explained to them. Why would they not use a mac?

Its the manufacturers shooting themselves in the foot more than windows.

I'd say both are a factor. The problem is most people buying a PC don't know what they want. I see people purchase the 12 GB laptop model with a weaker GPU all the time. Having a bunch of choices is great for enthusiasts who know what they want. The laptop market on the other hand is like a double crap sandwich for PCs. You not only have customers who don't know what they need from the computer, you also have OEMs (as you said) loading a bunch of junk onto the computer, and on top of that Intel's Mobile CPU naming is absolutely horrid. The difference between getting an "i7" with 2 cores and 4 cores is literally only one letter. It's deceptive, period. Add on top of this their newly added ultra low M class processors and it gets even more fun. Yes, part of the blame rests on Intel and the OEMs but in my opinion most of the blame rests on Microsoft for not keeping the kids in order. This isn't the wild west of computer buying anymore, customers value their time, they want to know what they are getting without too much of a fuss.

But intels horrid CPU naming applies to Macs aswell. They use the same processors. Am I right?

He's going to pretend this isn't the case ---- an obvious Mac fan boy had been spotted, LOL. Peole don't any know what they need when they purchase a MacBook or MacBook Pro, a brand isn't going to automatically make someone understand technology.

 

[oldikes]

He's going to pretend this isn't the case ---- an obvious Mac fan boy had been spotted, LOL. Peole don't any know what they need when they purchase a MacBook or MacBook Pro, a brand isn't going to automatically make someone understand technology.

because on macs the only model laptop with a quad core i7 is literally the most expensive one; and most mac users that DONT invest in expensive ones for media production or what not dont actually ever max out the processor hardly anyway. that goes a bit back to the bloatware thing - you start noticing the differences between a U and HQ really quickly if you have alot of backround tasks and you try watching a video or something.

what a conclusion you just jumped to about him though. you seem like youre just here to start a flame war so just show yourself out please.

 

[Capaill]

I'll say it again: (it is my belief that) the main reason Win10 was given away for free was to mine data from its users to be fed towards MS's new AI development program.
A second reason was probably to let MS move on from the PR nightmare that was the Win8 release.

The article says "the Windows 10 free upgrade offer and the Get Windows 10 app seem to have been a successful venture for the company". They gave it away for FREE!! Anything less than outshipping Windows 8 would have been a disaster for Microsoft.

I'm not convinced with recent OS upgrades (basically anything higher than Win7) - I don't see the need to get the latest version. Maybe a new OS should always be free or a minimal price, say 10 dollars/euros. Or make it modular and license-based: the basic version is free, DirectX12 support is 20 dollars, Enterprise support is 100 dollars, the option to remove ads or data-mining is 20 dollars, etc.

 

[Evernessince]

But intels horrid CPU naming applies to Macs aswell. They use the same processors. Am I right?

But people buying MacBooks don't need to know the processor in their computer. When you buy a MacBook 2016 you know it's a faster computer than the 2015 model. No such thing exists for PCs, save for the Surface line-up.

He's going to pretend this isn't the case ---- an obvious Mac fan boy had been spotted, LOL. Peole don't any know what they need when they purchase a MacBook or MacBook Pro, a brand isn't going to automatically make someone understand technology.

If you think I'm ignorant to technology than I suggest you look at my post history. Just don't assume people are fanboys because they point out the strong point of Apple products. Simplicity has always been Apple's strong suit, doesn't mean it comes without it's fair share of drawbacks.

 

[Darth Shiv]

Im seeing alot more people switch to mac not because windows, but because PC manufacterers cant seem to build decent laptops and resist the urge to fill them with insane amounts of bloatware; most users dont really understand what bloatware is or remove it so they always have 10 tray programs slowing their PC down; then when the mac runs alot faster it creates this misconception that macs are much faster.

So non-techy users know alot of windows laptops have inferior build quality, which they do, and they also see them as slower, because bloatware isnt explained to them. Why would they not use a mac?

Its the manufacturers shooting themselves in the foot more than windows.

I'd say both are a factor. The problem is most people buying a PC don't know what they want. I see people purchase the 12 GB laptop model with a weaker GPU all the time. Having a bunch of choices is great for enthusiasts who know what they want. The laptop market on the other hand is like a double crap sandwich for PCs. You not only have customers who don't know what they need from the computer, you also have OEMs (as you said) loading a bunch of junk onto the computer, and on top of that Intel's Mobile CPU naming is absolutely horrid. The difference between getting an "i7" with 2 cores and 4 cores is literally only one letter. It's deceptive, period. Add on top of this their newly added ultra low M class processors and it gets even more fun. Yes, part of the blame rests on Intel and the OEMs but in my opinion most of the blame rests on Microsoft for not keeping the kids in order. This isn't the wild west of computer buying anymore, customers value their time, they want to know what they are getting without too much of a fuss.

Microsoft have never had the foot on Intel. Just look at Vista Basic. The only reason that OS variant existed was because Intel wanted to dump their half assed integrated GPU inventory on the market - the HD2000 series I believe it was. Microsoft was leaned on and buckled.

Intel is not so easy to discard but Microsoft has to remember, they don't own the tablet market, they don't own the phone market, they don't own the server market, they don't own the web market.

With open sourcing their dev tools, they are admitting they can see they need to leverage the ease of use of their IDE and frameworks because all the next gen platforms apart from Windows on desktop are looking pretty bleak.

 

[Danny101]

Finally, I can update my computer without concern. In fact, I limited my online activity due to turning off updates which in turn left my computer more vulnerable due to lack of updates.. Thanks-a-lot Microsoft!