Windows 10?

[Rick Danger]

Don't know if you've seen the latest Windows 10 commercial. It's two schoolteachers showing how Windows 10 helps them teach their students about insects. It's called "The Bug Chicks".

Windows 10 helps you learn about bugs. Not sure Redmond should have approved this ad campaign! You just can't make this stuff up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6SVsf0k2i0

[rlg118]

... from the same people who brought you Common Core.

[9876543210]

a435843,

Originally Posted by a435843

1. Apple vs. the FBI: first check out these links for a background summary:

Clearly, the FBI is only concerned with its problems, and not the big picture, and has looked for a testcase to present to the Supreme Court and Congress, looking to force US-based companies into providing backdoors to encryption. I have a degree in Mathematics, and I can tell you that backdoors won't be restricted to the government...they will be hacked, so you can have encryption, or you can't, there's no in-between.

Without encryption, US-based tech companies would be brought to its knees; say goodbye to e-commerce and say hello to digital hell. Get ready to shop brick-and-mortar store exclusively, and would you like to keep a spreadsheet of your bank account information on your hard drive? If you're cool with hackers having it too, great. The tech infrastructure in the US would become unusable, other than Netflix and cat pictures on Facebook.

Actually had a chance to watch the House hearings on this subject yesterday and found it absolutely fascinating. Usually just keep a TV channel or the radio on in the background but I actually wound up watching a really big portion of this hearing on CSPAN.

You are correct, the feds are cherry picking the San Bernadino case. Across the country, there are over a thousand iPhones the FBI hasn't been able to crack. So this has more to do with them than just the one phone.

There was a woman professor from someplace out east that was the expert on this type of security and she made it clear that WE MUST DECIDE which is more important; security or privacy. If security is more important in this case then EVERYONE'S PHONE WILL NOW BE ABLE TO BE HACKED. And not just here in the US. If the FBI wins then Apple is fully expecting to hear from China (and probably every other country) saying they also want that code. Can anyone really imagine Apple being forced to give China, Russia or Ukraine the backdoor to all our phones?

Say goodbye to your bank accounts.

But what really pissed me off was the NY states attorney (I think his name was Cyrus Vance Jr.) who actually had the audacity to say that all this hacking stuff was just theoretical. What planet is that idiot living on?

[rlg118]

http://windowssecrets.com/top-story/...9f39accb5f801b

"In some cases, the solution is relatively simple: during major upgrades, don’t choose the 'Use express settings' option, if it’s offered."

[Rick Danger]

Is it the dumbing down of technology, or the dumbing down of society?
So, after so many years I finally have an up-to-date Android phone. And I can now more appreciate some of the points Mister A435843 has been making on this forum.

I was sitting with my 9 year old granddaughter at a coffee house on Saturday. She was showing me some of the games she plays on her iPhone. Yeah, a 9 year old with an iPhone. That's another story.

I noticed when she would start a game, it would often prompt her that certain features were only available with the "premium" version of the game, which of course you would have to pay for. Trying to grease a 9 year old for money seems a bit SCUMMY to me. Sure, Apple or the game maker could claim that they are not actually trying to extort money from children, but on the other hand who do they think is playing the damn game, some thirty something Ivy League grad? And when she finished the game, it would play an advertisement.

Now the people at Microsoft want to infest your PC with such garbage. Ads built into the apps available from the Windows Store. Ads potentially showing on login screens, screen savers, and the like. Oh, don't want ads? Just pay for the "premium" apps or a premium version of Windows 10.

I'm old enough to remember when cable TV channels had no ads. I remember YouTube, Hulu, and Pandora without ads. I remember when hardcopy magazines actually were mostly articles, instead of endless pages of ads. Now we have ads plastered on the uniforms of professional athletes, and more on the way.

Sure, the apologists for Microsoft say "What's the big deal? They're just doing what is pretty much standard in the industry". WRONG. If I don't want to be bothered with ads on TV, the Internet, or in magazines I don't have to consume those products. I can (and do) use an ad blocking add-on with my browser. But forcing unsolicited crap to my computer, my private property via the OPERATING SYSTEM is entirely another matter. What next, we have to buy a new car with advertising logos painted all over the body and the interior?

Universal Apps: a Universe of crap!
My PCs are tools. As such, I configure them in a specific way and apply them to specific tasks. I rely on the power and features of that tool to meet my needs. Word processing, spreadsheeting, graphics and imaging, music editing are among the things I do with my PC.

My phone is also a tool, and again I configure it and use it in ways that to my way of thinking take best advantage of it's unique capabilities. I appreciate the portability that this platform provides me, especially when on the road.

Why, oh why would anyone think that I would want to make my PC look like my phone, and vice versa? Yes, some integration would be nice, but why would I want to limit the power of my PC by running a bunch of phone apps? Why would I want to be working on a spreadsheet or trying to compile a playlist while on a subway train using a phone without a full keyboard, mouse, or the ease of multitasking that my PC at home would provide? And would I lug a laptop around to use a GPS function, find the nearest coffee house or gas station?

Again, maybe I'm too old to grasp the advanced technology of Windows 10. But the whole concept of "Universal Apps" goes right over my head.

Your freedoms are what I SAY they are
Unfortunately, history is replete with violations of civil liberties because of concerns over crime, war, or terrorism - REAL or IMAGINED.

Ask Native Americans, the "Red Menace" of the mid-19th Century. Or newly freed slaves who suffered under the "Jim Crow" laws, partially because of the fear that they would exact revenge against their former slave masters. Or German Jews in the mid 1930's. Or the internment without trial of Japanese Americans during World War II.

You say, this is a "new" era, and such abuses cannot happen in our enlightened society? REALLY? In many American cities there has been a raging debate the last few years over the use of "Stop and Frisk" tactics by police. Think about it. An American citizen engaged in no disorderly or unlawful acts can be stopped at random by police, forced to produce identification and submit to a body search for weapons or other contraband. This reminds me of the odious Pass Laws used in apartheid era South Africa.

I recognize that government has the responsibility to protect us from threats, both foreign and domestic. But to surrender civil liberties en masse is not the answer.

Here's the question I'd like to have answered: why doesn't the FBI just turn over the iPhone used by one of the terrorists in the San Bernadino shooting to Apple and let them mine the data in this SPECIFIC instance? After all, that's what the government says they want.

Or is it?

I also find it interesting that Microsoft supports Apple's privacy concerns in this case, but of course both have absolutely no qualms about gathering information on you, whether you approve or not. As Mom used to say, "Ain't that the pot calling the kettle black!"

[Rick Danger]

Originally Posted by A435843

Quick Update on the new Windows 10 mega-update: apparently it bricks XBox One Controllers (http://www.infoworld.com/article/304...ofts-hand.html).

I found it fascinating that the "trust Microsoft to get it right" gang conveniently forgot about how Windows Update was bricking Surface tablets last year. And as I said when that happened, who can Microsoft blame when THEIR hardware, THEIR drivers, THEIR operating system gets blown up by THEIR updates?

And oh, by the way, on the Halo Maps Forum referenced by the InfoWorld article, it's the Windows 10 drivers that get broken by the update:

You weren't completely off about the driver thing, but it's a little more tricky than that.

If you are using Windows 10 default drivers for you Xbox One controller, that's what's been broken by the update KB3140743.

Nearly a year in, with all the (alleged) testing by "millions" of users, and Microsoft still can't get Windows 10 updating right. And if this is what you can expect on an ALL Microsoft platform, I shudder to think what the average HP, Lenovo, Dell, or Toshiba user can expect.........

[Rick Danger]

Our friend, Woody Leonhard writing for InfoWorld.com states the updated case on why NOT to upgrade to Windows 10........

10 hurdles to Windows 10 adoption
Here's what Microsoft needs to do before the so-called last version of Windows is truly ready for prime time

By Woody Leonhard, InfoWorld | Feb 4, 2016

10 hurdles to Windows 10 adoption

It’s been six months since Windows 10 hit the rails, and 200 million people (or so, depending on how you count) have taken the plunge and now run the “last” version of Windows.

There’s no question Windows 10 is the future for Windows users. But there’s room for doubt among those who are holding out for something a bit better than the Windows 10 we have now.

There are plenty of good reasons to stick with Windows 7, if it works for you and you aren’t enthralled with the idea of learning a new operating system. But the push to Windows 10 has taken on a new urgency from Microsoft without as much urgency in rounding out the feature set most die-hard Windows users want from Windows 10.

Here’s a look at what Microsoft should do to make Windows 10 more palatable to those who are still sitting on the fence. Consider it a checklist of sorts: Once Microsoft commits to addressing these concerns, you’ll know Windows 10 is finally legit. If Windows 10 is in your future, it’s the least you should expect from the world’s largest software company.



Tell us what changes are being made to Windows
For years we’ve been able to rely on (or at least refer to) Microsoft’s Knowledge Base for a description of the changes made to Windows. With the advent of Windows 10, the flow of information about changes to our systems has gone from full to middling to nonexistent.

This screenshot of Win10 build 1511 Cumulative Update 8, KB 3124262, says it all: A huge bunch of bug fixes, security patches, and usability changes, with more than 3,500 changed files are boiled down to exactly one line:

"This update offers improved functionality for Windows 10 Version 1511."

On the bright side, we still have minimal descriptions for Windows 10 updates that involved Security Bulletins, as they point to information primarily published for other versions of Windows. But for Windows 10 patches unrelated to Windows 7 or 8.1 security, we get nothing.

I keep hoping that admins at large sites will twist Microsoft’s arm and get this information released to the unwashed masses. So far, no luck.

Give us a fighting chance to block specific patches
So far we’ve been lucky. Although each of the Windows 10 forced updates have sporadic reports of installation failures and strange side effects (missing apps, frozen features, throwing various errors), we haven’t yet seen a forced update meltdown that’s on a par with the big Windows Automatic Update meltdowns over the years.

We have, however, seen bad patches that prove annoying, particularly when uninstalling the bad patch doesn’t get rid of the problem. Why? Every time you reboot, the patch or bad driver comes back. We saw that happen last month with a crop of Office patches that threw Visual Basic and VBA errors, and with the botched Surface 3 and Surface Pro 3 firmware patches.

Yes, Microsoft has come up with a makeshift approach to blocking patches known as KB 3073930, but the wushowhide utility, as I’ve explained, works only after you’ve already installed a bad patch, and it stops working if Microsoft re-releases a patch with the same KB number.

Windows 10 PCs connected to a corporate update server can bypass forced updates, as has always been the case. The “Windows Update for Business” approach gives admins a few new twists. But without detailed patch documentation, that flexibility is a loaded patch gun, and those without an update server have to resort to arcane kludges to trap patches.

If Microsoft wants to force patching, so be it. But please, Microsoft, give knowledgeable Windows customers a chance to delay specific patches for a week or two, so we can protect our systems from unanticipated mayhem.

Split security, non-security, and optional updates
Since the birth of Windows Update two decades ago, Windows customers have had the option to accept or decline optional updates. Microsoft used its optional updating track to release new drivers, offer features that many don’t want (such as Silverlight, .Net Framework), and distribute software in a way that’s easy to turn down.

In January 2016, Microsoft offered six optional updates for Windows 7 and 8.1. But there weren’t any optional updates for Windows 10 -- none at all. Microsoft has eliminated optional updates entirely; there’s no mechanism for handling them in Windows 10, nothing in Windows Update to check or uncheck, to show if you want a particular optional update.

It’s another example of Microsoft’s forced-updating one-size-fits-all mentality. If Microsoft wants you to install Silverlight, you’re gonna get Silverlight.

Moreover, the Win10 cumulative updates that include Security Bulletins -- I’m looking at you, KB 3124263 -- may well contain patches that have nothing to do with the referenced Security Bulletins. We don’t know, and Microsoft isn’t saying.

Perhaps you trust Microsoft implicitly, but from where I sit, the inability to discern between a zero-day fault in Edge and currency support for the Azerbaijani Manat gives me the creeps. As long as all of the Windows 10 patches are lumped together in cumulative updates -- whether they’re security-related or Microsoft pushing more stuff onto our machines -- we don’t stand a chance of choosing what’s best for us.



Show us how Windows Update for Business actually works
Microsoft has written reams of documentation about Windows Update for Business and the associated Current Branch for Business. The authoritative discussion at this point is in a TechNet article released in November. That article explains, in detail, how much time WUB customers will have to defer updates and upgrades to their systems.

In Microsoft parlance, an “upgrade” is a major step, as from Win10 build 10240 to version 1511; an “update” includes, per the TechNet article: “General OS updates, typically released the second Tuesday of each month. These include Security, Critical, and Driver updates.”

It's all well and good in theory, but in practice it’s another story altogether.

So far, in Windows 10’s six months of existence, we’ve seen one “upgrade” -- from build 10240 to version 1511 -- a whole bunch of Cumulative Updates (eight of them in the past 2.5 months for version 1511 ), loads of “dynamic updates” such as KB 3124261 (which is billed as a “Compatibility update for upgrading to Windows 10 Version 1511”), and an occasional plain-old “update” such as KB 3122962 (described as an “OOBE update”).

To date, we haven’t seen how WUB handles an “upgrade” -- WUB wasn’t operational for the upgrade from build 10240 to version 1511. We’ve seen plenty of cumulative updates, but none of them are sorted out as security updates, drivers, or OS Update updates (per the screenshot). All we’ve had are jumbled-together cumulative updates and compatibility updates, which don’t count for much if you’re already running Win10.

Thus, in a very real sense, Windows Update for Business has never been used in a real-world environment. Admins can hold back on the potpourri of any given cumulative update but don’t have any options for, say, separating out and deploying critical security updates, while holding off on Azerbaijani Manat–caliber patches. Unless Microsoft starts separating the patched wheat from the chaff, we may never see if WUB can truly protect from botched minor patches, while still protecting us from bad security holes.

It’s not just admins. People who manage updates on their own Windows 10 Pro installations using the Group Policy Editor (Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update, see Hammoudi Samir’s MSDN article) don’t have any real-world experience, either.

Make a privacy on-off switch that really works
Windows users everywhere -- except, possibly, Microsoft’s biggest fanboys -- are concerned about Windows 10’s increased proclivity to snoop. I’m not saying that Microsoft’s approach to snooping is any more cavalier than, say, Google’s or Facebook’s. But I think we should hold Microsoft to a higher standard. So here’s my challenge to Microsoft:

Tell us exactly what you’re storing in your databases
Give us an easy way, in Windows, to opt out of the data collection
Give us an easy way to examine what data you have and contest any that’s objectionable

Sooner or later, I hope those three points become obligatory for every organization that stores personally identifiable information about anyone, anywhere. The United States has already instituted similar constraints on credit reporting agencies. Europe seems to be headed in the right direction. Microsoft could take a giant step in the right direction by leading the charge.

But if we can’t get full disclosure, at least we can do better than the 100-plus snooping settings scattered throughout Windows 10 and related Microsoft sites.

Windows 10 already has a 13-page collection of Privacy settings in the Windows Settings app, but they don’t cover all of the stuff that’s being snooped. Chris Hoffman has an excellent overview of the readily accessible settings in a How to Geek post. But even Chris gave up on “a variety of Microsoft services: Cortana, Bing, Outlook.com, OneDrive, Groove Music, MSN, and Xbox.” The settings for Cortana, in particular, are changing all the time -- and many of those privacy settings aren’t in the Windows Settings Privacy applet.

The snooping isn’t all bad, of course: Cortana needs to scan your email if you want it to look for meetings, for example, and Windows Map would have a hard time navigating without your current location. The challenge to Microsoft is to come clean on what’s stored, and make it easier for us to control the massive heaps of personal data that make their way onto Microsoft’s servers.

Fix the Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book
For years, we’ve grown accustomed to the refrain that Windows stability suffers because drivers don’t work right. The problem is compounded, so the story goes, because Microsoft has to make Windows work with so many different kinds of hardware.

The recent round of problems, especially with Surface Pro 3, Surface Pro 4, and Surface Book, show exactly how questionable that argument has been. Microsoft, working with its own built-from-scratch hardware, has had no end of problems getting Windows to work with Microsoft’s own hardware.

Surface Pro 3 underwent 20 firmware patches in 16 months -- an enormous burden for people who bought Surface Pro 3s, because each new firmware patch fixed some features and broke others. The latest Surface Pro 3 firmware update, on Jan. 19, 2016, caused blue screens, broke Wi-Fi support, and failed to address a long-standing problem with battery drainage.

The Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book have now gone through six firmware updates in three months, which may be a record for a Windows machine.

Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book problems were so bad that Microsoft guru Paul Thurrott called the lot of them Surfacegate. Thurrott’s now convinced that firmware update six will make some things better, but even then “there’s something flaky going on.”

One litmus test for trusting Windows 10 may be when Microsoft can get it to work consistently on its own hardware.



Finish OneDrive
Microsoft has botched OneDrive, and it may take years for the stink to go away.

In Windows 8 and earlier, OneDrive was a moderately useful online storage system, with plenty of shortcomings, but at least it integrated nicely into Windows. OneDrive for Business was a completely different program that had exactly nothing in common with OneDrive, other than the name, but at least it worked.

Windows 8.1 introduced a feature called placeholders that, like competitor Dropbox, gave you the impression that all of your OneDrive files were stored on your machine, when in fact they had to be downloaded before you could use them. Although there were additional limitations, the Win 8.1 OneDrive gave you all the advantages of cloud storage without swallowing enormous swaths of storage on your local hard drive.

In Windows 10, we don’t have the Windows 8.1 form of OneDrive -- there are no placeholders -- and the version of OneDrive that we have is buggy, bloated, and prone to freezes and crashes. OneDrive for Business still doesn’t work with OneDrive proper. It’s a mess.

At least we have Dropbox ... and Box ... and a dozen other alternatives.

If you want to use OneDrive, stick with Windows 8.1 until Microsoft clears up its OneDrive mess.

Finish Microsoft Edge
The current state of Microsoft Edge has me wondering if anybody will be able to develop “Universal” Windows program in any reasonable amount of time.

The first leaks about Edge “Project Spartan” appeared more than a year ago. At the time, Microsoft had clearly been working on the new browser for many months.

Why has it taken so long to get a browser to work inside Microsoft’s vaunted Universal Windows Platform? Is the project team overworked, overchallenged -- or is WinRT simply not up to the job?

Right now the Edge browser clearly isn’t anywhere close to being usable. We’ve seen beta builds that actually support a multilevel Back button -- a feature that’s been

in every browser since Netscape. We’ve been promised a version of Edge that’ll run Chrome extensions. We hear that Edge is fast, sleek, and fun -- and Microsoft’s actually delivered a stunted, buggy, stubbed-out placeholder.

Fortunately, both Chrome and Firefox work well on Windows 10, so the lack of Edge isn’t a debilitating setback. However, it’s a worrying reflection of what might be in store with other Windows Store apps.



Stop pushing
Microsoft’s Get Windows 10 program -- the one that put warnings like this one on Windows 7 and 8.1 PCs -- has done more to erode confidence and trust in Microsoft than anything since the Scroogled campaign. (Yes, Microsoft is Scroogling now.)

Whoever decided that the best way to get Win7 and 8.1 customers to “love” Windows 10 involved pushing malware onto their Win7 and 8.1 machines should be taken to task. So far, we’ve seen:

3GB to 6GB of unwanted software surreptitiously installed in hidden folders, even on machines where the owner has said they don’t want Windows 10
A hidden GWX subsystem installed and started every time Windows boots, with hooks to reinstall and update itself without any authorization from the user
Nag notifications, like the one shown, that are designed to confuse and bewilder Windows customers
A bogus campaign, starting last April, to “reserve” bits for an online upgrade, and repeated bogus notifications that “Your upgrade to Windows 10 is ready,” which lock down legitimate use of Windows Update
"Accidental" automatic launching of the upgrade program

The more Microsoft pushes, the more it’s going to alienate experienced Windows users and novices alike. As a friend of mine said, “If Windows 10 is so great, why are they pushing it so hard?”

Tell us what happens next
I’m a member of the TANSTAAFL club, too. I don’t believe for a minute that Windows 10 is a free lunch. Microsoft’s changing the way it makes money from Windows. I don’t have any problem with that, but I’d sure like to know more about what’s ahead.

A year ago, Executive Vice President of Windows and Devices Terry Myerson promised us:

"Once a Windows device is upgraded to Windows 10, we will continue to keep it current for the supported lifetime of the device -- at no cost. With Windows 10, the experience will evolve and get even better over time."

A year later and, in the absence of any definitive clarification, industry pundits have come to all sorts of conclusions. It’s clear to me, based on numerous comments, that Microsoft will not charge a monthly fee for Windows 10 after the July 29, 2016, free upgrade date passes. What’s not so clear is whether there will be other charges -- perhaps for new features -- and exactly what the “supported lifetime of the device” might be.

The debate flared after revelations that Microsoft retroactively declared Win7 and 8.1 won’t be supported on Skylake processors after July 17, 2017. If Microsoft can arbitrarily, and retroactively, set an end of life date for a particular kind of hardware, what’s to keep them from arbitrarily defining “supported lifetime”?

On the one hand, ZDNet and Microsoft Press sage Ed Bott predicts that Microsoft could start charging for Win10 fixes, it could extend the free upgrade offer indefinitely, or it could replace the old free upgrade offer with a new one, possibly with different limitations.

On the other hand, Gordon Kelly at Forbes predicts that Microsoft will start charging for Windows 10:

"The worst case scenario sees Microsoft evolve free Windows 10 into a SaaS (software as a service) model complete with monthly subscription in a few years time (Windows 10.1?). The precedent for enforcing this is also now there: users can avoid the subscription by staying on Windows 10 until support expires in 2025, but Microsoft can repeat its Windows 8 trick of removing support on new hardware so all Windows 10 computers become antiquated."

The fact that there’s any debate at all shows Microsoft hasn’t addressed the question adequately, quite possibly (as Bott suggests) because the decision hasn’t been made as yet.

All I can say is that it takes a whole lot of faith to jump on board a new operating system, without knowing how and/or if you’ll be charged six months down the road.

The bottom line
I still think it’s smartest for Windows 7 customers to stand pat, unless they see something in Windows 10 that’s absolutely irresistible. The carrots in the current version 1511 aren’t that great for most. Microsoft’s infuriating push to Get Windows 10, and its uneven handling of the new Windows-as-a-service paradigm show the need for a whole lot of maturing, both in the product and in the way it’s handled.

Will the anticipated new Redstone build be good enough to tilt the scales? It’s still much too early to tell. Remember all the promises we had for the original RTM version, and how many never appeared? Perhaps we’ll have a rerun in June or July (or August or September), whenever Redstone hits.

In the meantime, Windows 10 itself is slowly getting better. It remains to be seen if the organization supporting it can iron out these problems.

[zenkarma]

Originally Posted by 9876543210

a435843,
Sure you're not talking about ME?

I think 98 was pretty good for its time. Used it for quite a while.

I absolutely grew to despise Win98. Especially Plug-n-Play or as a lot of folks called it back in the day 'Plug-n-Pray'. Hardly ever got any hardware installed in one go. Step one, frequently it wouldn't find on the .inf on the installer disk even though it was right were it was supposed to be. Step two was to botch the driver install so you'd have to try it another time or two. Step three assign the IRQ's to ones already in use by other hardware requiring you to manually set the IRQ's.

That and it just seemed to get pretty buggy over time, probably file corruption. A yearly reinstall or two was the norm for me and I remember a lot of other folks saying the same thing.

I was seriously looking at Linux and Mac until a friend slipped me a copy of Win2K Pro.

[rlg118]

I used Windows 98SE until 2009. Then I "upgraded" to XP, which was then only eight years old. Now I use 7, which is not quite seven years old - a mere pup.

[Rick Danger]

Yet another new low from Microsoft, aimed at us poor dumb consumers.

In the prior article from Woody Leonhard that I posted he stated that Microsoft needed to stop it's aggressive attempts to ram Windows 10 down our throats.

If this new article is true, it is clear that not only is Redmond not listening, they will leave no stone unturned to trick or trap you into joining The Dark Horde.

Windows 10 Uber Alles !

Woody on Windows

Windows patch KB 3139929: When a security update is not a security update
Microsoft buried a 'Get Windows 10' ad generator inside this month's Internet Explorer security patch for Windows 7 and 8.1

By Woody Leonhard
InfoWorld | Mar 9, 2016

If Microsoft's documentation is correct, installing Patch Tuesday's KB 3139929 security update for Internet Explorer also installs a new Windows 10 ad-generating routine called KB 3146449.

Many people -- present company included -- feel that putting an ad generator inside a security patch crosses way over the line. In fact, you have to ask yourself if there are any lines any more.

Microsoft lays it all out in black and white in its inimitable, most obfuscatory way.

This month's MS16-023 security patch for Internet Explorer, KB 3139929, says:

This security update resolves several reported vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer. The most severe of these vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user views a specially crafted webpage in Internet Explorer… Additionally, this security update includes several nonsecurity-related fixes for Internet Explorer.

Later in the same KB article, Microsoft lists six "nonsecurity-related fixes that are included in this security update," including this:

3146449 Updated Internet Explorer 11 capabilities to upgrade Windows 8.1 and Windows 7

If you then look at KB 3146449, you see:

This update adds functionality to Internet Explorer 11 on some computers that lets users learn about Windows 10 or start an upgrade to Windows 10.

According to one of my sources, this new user education works like this:

On non-domain joined machines this adds a blue banner when a user opens a "New Tab" saying "Microsoft recommends upgrading to Windows 10"

It's important to note that KB 3146449 is not installed separately. You can't remove it. If you look in your installed updates list, KB 3146449 doesn't appear. Instead, it's baked into the IE security patch KB 3139929. The only way to get rid of the new advertising inside Internet Explorer 11 is to remove the security patch entirely.

AskWoody.com poster Annemarie explains it like this:

On Dutch security-forum http://www.security.nl user Spiff states:

Overigens, na installatie van KB3139929 is geen individuele KB3146449 te vinden in Geschiedenis van updates en in Geïnstalleerde updates. Het na installatie van KB3139929 verwijderen van KB3146449 is dus geen optie.

Which translates as: after installing KB3139929 there is no individual KB3146449 to be found in Installed Updates nor in Update History. Installing KB3139929 and then afterwards removing KB3146449 does not seem to be an option.

I spent most of the night trying to replicate this behavior -- a blue banner on new tabs in IE11 with "Microsoft recommends upgrading to Windows 10" -- and couldn't get it to trigger. If you can, I'd appreciate your shooting an email with a screen shot to woody@askwoody.com.

If the documentation can be verified, Microsoft's intrusive "Get Windows 10" behavior has reached new lows. Rubbing salt in the wound: PCs attached to corporate domains are spared the pain -- but not the bits -- of this decidedly non-security patch. In bypassing domain-joined PCs, Microsoft has avoided the inevitable screams of "foul play" from its largest corporate customers.

For the rest of us? Meh.