Part 2: Microsoft silently preparing your PC for Win 10

[whs]

I wonder if a class action lawsuit in the US is viable? What can the EU do?

Just thinking out loud...

Regards,
GEWB

I am not a lawyer but I don't think there are any grounds for legal action. Essentially what they are doing is planting PUPs into our systems to advertise their new product. That is pretty harmless. And if that becomes a nuisance, we have stili the option to delete those 'updates'.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I wouldn't be surprised if they pull another "XP-MSE" event come this summer, but for Windows 7. They bugged the very last version of MSE for XP with the annoying "end of support" notification that 1. was akin to the "windows is not genuine" notification, ie. very hard to stop/close it, and 2. It literally froze my mother's system,I had to uninstall MSE just to get XP to work again!

Similarly, the "upgrade to WX" notifcation might be very hard to dismiss...

Actually, you would have been wise to have heeded that warning. XP is past its End Of Life and is no longer receiving security updates from M$. That means any new security holes that get discovered will no longer get plugged by a M$ update. XP was a great OS in its time but its past time to replace it (and probably the machine it's on, as well).

Heed what warning? I'm typing this on XP with the version of MSE before the very last one for XP installed. Just b/c something is past eol doesn't mean it's not usable for the next decade or two, or that it's suddenly become "vulnerable" if you have the right protection in place...

Anyways, it's unbelievable the kind of stuff "they" would do just to get you to move to a newer OS...

(Btw, left panel says I'm using Win7. That was when I registered for this account, not necessarily the OS I'm using to log in...)

How do you know you haven't been infected? M$ is no longer supporting MSE for XP. MSE isn't very good "protection" anyway nor is using just an AV.

 

[eatup]

Actually, you would have been wise to have heeded that warning. XP is past its End Of Life and is no longer receiving security updates from M$. That means any new security holes that get discovered will no longer get plugged by a M$ update. XP was a great OS in its time but its past time to replace it (and probably the machine it's on, as well).

Heed what warning? I'm typing this on XP with the version of MSE before the very last one for XP installed. Just b/c something is past eol doesn't mean it's not usable for the next decade or two, or that it's suddenly become "vulnerable" if you have the right protection in place...

Anyways, it's unbelievable the kind of stuff "they" would do just to get you to move to a newer OS...

(Btw, left panel says I'm using Win7. That was when I registered for this account, not necessarily the OS I'm using to log in...)

How do you know you haven't been infected? M$ is no longer supporting MSE for XP. MSE isn't very good "protection" anyway nor is using just an AV.

There isn't a virus/malware that stealthily infects a system. Somehow, every known malware creator is compelled to leave behind evidence, often very obvious, to let you know the system has been compromised. It's part of their identity and gives them an ego boost. So far, I've encountered none on my system.

Also, usually the system becomes infected via a tainted USB drive. That is how most malware spread. It's easier this way than to get a user to click on an .EXE file that has been dled from the web. If there is one thing MSE is very good at, it's to prevent malware on external drives from auto-loading the moment you connect it to your computer, no matter how old the MSE security definition is...

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Heed what warning? I'm typing this on XP with the version of MSE before the very last one for XP installed. Just b/c something is past eol doesn't mean it's not usable for the next decade or two, or that it's suddenly become "vulnerable" if you have the right protection in place...

Anyways, it's unbelievable the kind of stuff "they" would do just to get you to move to a newer OS...

(Btw, left panel says I'm using Win7. That was when I registered for this account, not necessarily the OS I'm using to log in...)

How do you know you haven't been infected? M$ is no longer supporting MSE for XP. MSE isn't very good "protection" anyway nor is using just an AV.

There isn't a virus/malware that stealthily infects a system. Somehow, every known malware creator is compelled to leave behind evidence, often very obvious, to let you know the system has been compromised. It's part of their identity and gives them an ego boost. So far, I've encountered none on my system.

Also, usually the system becomes infected via a tainted USB drive. That is how most malware spread. It's easier this way than to get a user to click on an .EXE file that has been dled from the web. If there is one thing MSE is very good at, it's to prevent malware on external drives from auto-loading the moment you connect it to your computer, no matter how old the MSE security definition is...

There wasn't a single accurate statement in your last post. It may have been true back in the 1990s but not anymore.

 

[eatup]

^ Evidence plz. Or r u just a MS shill?

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

^ Evidence plz. Or r u just a MS shill?

Me? An M$ shill? :roflmao: You just go ahead and believe what you want.

 

[whs]

Also, usually the system becomes infected via a tainted USB drive.

I would not subscribe to the "usually", but this is a big problem. We had 18 systems in our computer club seriously infected from USB flash drives. And that despite free AVG being installed on every one of those systems. It was a real mess.

And why do we know that it was the members USB sticks - because nobody ever downloads anything on those systems.Most of the time these systems do not even have an internet connection. They are for hands-on training.

 

[Layback Bear]

eatup you obviously you need to spend more time reading post.

No way in hell is Lady Fitzgerald a fan lady for MSE or a M/S shill.
Lady Fitzgerald has been using Avast as far back as I can remember and in many case has given her opinion of MSE. Her opinion on MSE are not favorable.

Now for me I like and use MSE but I don't agree or understand your comments in your post #103.

From post #103

Also, usually the system becomes infected via a tainted USB drive. That is how most malware spread.

I have no idea where you got this idea. Can one get infected by things being plugged into a usb port; of course you can but I doubt if that is the usually the big problem cause of infection.
If a external device is a infection problem one has to ask how did the external device get infected.

I could go on but I'm not in the mood.

 

[DavidE]

And I believe Recommended so far KB3035583 will need to be unhidden every update cycle before a successful update search list will appear
Otherwise I'll see a similar error code like this last go round 8024402c

Very weird.
Windows Update error 8024402C - Windows Help

I still get Windows Updates while keeping KB3035583 hidden.
Maybe i'm not understanding, but i don't see where i need to unhide this KB for Windows Update to work ?

 

[groze]

How can you safely plug in a foreign usb drive without getting infected? Do you need to use a linux system? Do you need to disable auto play? Do you need to do a registry hack to disable autorun.inf ? There is conflicting instructions on how to disable autorun.inf for removable drives.

I also read that usb drives can still infect by just plugging them in even with autoplay and autorun disabled. Wow.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

It's true USB drives can be used to infect a computer but that isn't the biggest, let alone the only, source of computer infections. The only reliable way to avoid infections from foreign USB drives is to simply not plug them in. At one time, a popular way to infect a company's computer system was to leave a few infected USB drives laying in the company parking lot. Some dumb sap was bound to pick one up and plug it into the company's system to either try to find out who lost the drive or just to see if it was any good. That trick received a lot of publicity a while back but it is responsible for only a tiny percentage of infections overall and is certainly not the only or even the most frequent way computers get infected.

One could scan a USB drive for infections but one runs the risk of the infection getting onto the computer before the scan is started.

 

[Borg 386]

I prefer not to take any chances whatsoever of compromising my USB drive when I'm fixing someone's infected PC. I'll burn any Malware removal tools onto a CDR & take a portable CD drive with me in case their PC/Laptop doesn't have one.

My USB drives are all immunized, but why take chances.

 

[eatup]

eatup you obviously you need to spend more time reading post.

No way in hell is Lady Fitzgerald a fan lady for MSE or a M/S shill.
Lady Fitzgerald has been using Avast as far back as I can remember and in many case has given her opinion of MSE. Her opinion on MSE are not favorable.

Now for me I like and use MSE but I don't agree or understand your comments in your post #103.

From post #103

Also, usually the system becomes infected via a tainted USB drive. That is how most malware spread.

I have no idea where you got this idea. Can one get infected by things being plugged into a usb port; of course you can but I doubt if that is the usually the big problem cause of infection.
If a external device is a infection problem one has to ask how did the external device get infected.

I could go on but I'm not in the mood.

Okay, I gotcha, Avast thinks it knows security (about a MS OS) more than MS...

Anyways, if I was a malware author, it would be difficult to get users to download an .exe (well, maybe the first few users). They then have to open the downloads folder and actually click on it. I'd be thinking of making it propagate via USB instead once the first few users have clicked the file. All the unsuspecting user has to do is plug that USB into another computer and BAM! that machine becomes infected. No need to take any other action on the users part.

MSE is The King at stopping this. They're the ones who invented programs auto-loading on USB devices...

 

[ThrashZone]

I lost track of the topic

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

eatup you obviously you need to spend more time reading post.

No way in hell is Lady Fitzgerald a fan lady for MSE or a M/S shill.
Lady Fitzgerald has been using Avast as far back as I can remember and in many case has given her opinion of MSE. Her opinion on MSE are not favorable.

Now for me I like and use MSE but I don't agree or understand your comments in your post #103.

From post #103

Also, usually the system becomes infected via a tainted USB drive. That is how most malware spread.

I have no idea where you got this idea. Can one get infected by things being plugged into a usb port; of course you can but I doubt if that is the usually the big problem cause of infection.
If a external device is a infection problem one has to ask how did the external device get infected.

I could go on but I'm not in the mood.

Okay, I gotcha, Avast thinks it knows security (about a MS OS) more than MS...

Anyways, if I was a malware author, it would be difficult to get users to download an .exe (well, maybe the first few users). They then have to open the downloads folder and actually click on it. I'd be thinking of making it propagate via USB instead once the first few users have clicked the file. All the unsuspecting user has to do is plug that USB into another computer and BAM! that machine becomes infected. No need to take any other action on the users part.

MSE is The King at stopping this. They're the ones who invented programs auto-loading on USB devices...

:roflmao:

 

[groze]

eatup you obviously you need to spend more time reading post.

No way in hell is Lady Fitzgerald a fan lady for MSE or a M/S shill.
Lady Fitzgerald has been using Avast as far back as I can remember and in many case has given her opinion of MSE. Her opinion on MSE are not favorable.

Now for me I like and use MSE but I don't agree or understand your comments in your post #103.

From post #103
I have no idea where you got this idea. Can one get infected by things being plugged into a usb port; of course you can but I doubt if that is the usually the big problem cause of infection.
If a external device is a infection problem one has to ask how did the external device get infected.

I could go on but I'm not in the mood.

Okay, I gotcha, Avast thinks it knows security (about a MS OS) more than MS...

Anyways, if I was a malware author, it would be difficult to get users to download an .exe (well, maybe the first few users). They then have to open the downloads folder and actually click on it. I'd be thinking of making it propagate via USB instead once the first few users have clicked the file. All the unsuspecting user has to do is plug that USB into another computer and BAM! that machine becomes infected. No need to take any other action on the users part.

MSE is The King at stopping this. They're the ones who invented programs auto-loading on USB devices...

eatup, just for information other operating systems can auto start or auto mount flash drive. My linux distro auto mounts when I insert the usb flash drive.

 

[lehnerus2000]

Also, usually the system becomes infected via a tainted USB drive.

I would not subscribe to the "usually", but this is a big problem. We had 18 systems in our computer club seriously infected from USB flash drives. And that despite free AVG being installed on every one of those systems. It was a real mess.

And why do we know that it was the members USB sticks - because nobody ever downloads anything on those systems.Most of the time these systems do not even have an internet connection. They are for hands-on training.

IMO, "Auto-Play" should be disabled by default (and "Hide Extensions" too).

Also, some AV programs have "auto-scan" for USB media.
AVG had it when I last used it.
It was a pain, as you had to wait for the scan to finish before you could use the USB media.

The TAFE PCs have "Auto-Play" enabled and last year (or the year before) it took the IT people weeks to track down and fix some malware problem.
They use some corporate AV (Norton or McAfee).

eatup, just for information other operating systems can auto start or auto mount flash drive. My linux distro auto mounts when I insert the usb flash drive.

Agreed.

 

[whs]

Yeah right. After those incidents we installed very strict procedures and officially nobody is allowed to put a flash drive into a club system. But with 850 members, that is difficult to control.

 

[Phone Man]

:focus:

I installed all those updates so I can see what happens next. The only updates I hide are hardware drivers as I get those from the manufactures sites.

I have backup images so I am not afraid,... not afraid, ... not afraid, help!! :banghead:

Jim

 

[tblob]

Heed what warning? I'm typing this on XP with the version of MSE before the very last one for XP installed. Just b/c something is past eol doesn't mean it's not usable for the next decade or two, or that it's suddenly become "vulnerable" if you have the right protection in place...

Your complete misunderstanding of how patches work could be very dangerous if anyone reading this decides to take you seriously. Here's whats really going on: As you know, EVERY patch tuesday, MS issues security fixes across the entire range of supported products. Some of these fixes also WOULD apply to XP if it was still supported, but since it is not, no patch for XP. BUT, nefarious people/governments/organizations can take the patches for W7, W8, Windows Server, etc, and REVERSE ENGINEER them to figure out what was being patched in W7, W8, etc, and create an exploit for XP. (since there are many similarities at the KERNAL level)

There are script kiddies all over the world who sit around and write/reverse engineer XP exploits for fun (since many enterprises/businesses are still using it, $$$$ to be had).

JUST TODAY, it was announced that a patch from 2 DAYS AGO has already been reverse engineered, and is being used to exploit servers worldwide.

Sysadmins, patch now: HTTP 'pings of death' are spewing across web to kill Windows servers â

Any XP system connected to a large network is GUARANTEED to get pwned eventually.

Also, contrary to your earlier statements, most infections DO NOT come from USB drives, and most malware creators DO NOT intentionally call attention to their infections as a way of bragging.