Windows Media Player BLINDSIDE update!

[Uncle Grumpy]

Contact Microsoft? You must be kidding! You would have better luck
"contacting" the Pope!

buh-bye moron.

 

[Alan]

Mistoffolees

To be fair to D. W. K. -- and others who might have inadvertently installed
WMP 11 -- there is NO indication of what the "update" to WMP 10 actually
involves.

If someone opens WMP 10 -- depending upon the Player's Automatic updates
settings,
which are accessed via Tools | Options and clicking on the Player tab, the
options presented are: "Check for Updates Once a Day, Once a week or Once a
month." (There is NO checkbox to NEVER check for updates.) -- the Windows
Media Configuration Manager will appear and the user sees a dialog box that
states: "A Windows Media Update is available. Do you want to update now?"
The options presented to the user are "Yes" or "Cancel".

If a user manually checks to see if there are any updates to WMP 10 by
clicking Help | Check for Player Updates, the user will see these
statements:
o - Windows Media Player 10 requires 1 megabytes (MB). Upgrading will take
approximately 0 minutes over a 28.8 KBps connection.
o - Click Next to begin the download and update or Click Cancel to postpone
the update.

There is NO indication anywhere that "updating" means an upgrade to WMP 11.

One can argue that "update" can be assumed to mean that WMP 10 will become
WMP 11.

However, I do think that Microsoft should be much more explicit and
transparent as to what a user is agreeing to if he or she decides to
"update" an application that is working perfectly as is and which they are
happy with.

And while you think that WMP 9 was fine out of the box, there were some of
us -- including me -- who made a conscious and informed decision to upgrade
to WMP 10. There are also many people who are making a conscious and
informed decision to upgrade to WMP 11 and that's fine. It is THEY who are
making the decision, not Microsoft.

However, those people who want to stick with WMP 10 shouldn't be fooled into
thinking that when they agree to a WMP 10 "update" they are in reality going
to end up with WMP 11.

Microsoft pulled this same sort of deception when, at one time, it made IE7
a "critical update" that was automatically downloaded and installed onto the
PCs of millions of unsuspecting users.

Eventually, Microsoft got the message that this was NOT the best way to get
people to "know and love" IE7.

Alan

 

[Bill Drake]

I was bitten by exactly the same situation as you describe.

And I too was annoyed that Microsoft would label an "update" for
WMP10 that was actually an "upgrade" to WMP11.

This is one of the reasons I don't perform *any* upgrades to my
machine without having a complete Ghost Backup before starting
the upgrade.

I had to reghost my machine back to its older form once I found out
this "update" gave me something I didn't want, didn't need and had
already rejected as inappropriate for my needs.


Comment:

In my experience, Computers are designed by cretins and built by
monkeys. Mismanagement and incompetence are endemic to the
computer industry - and nobody inside the industry is taking
responsibility for the endless suffering they are causing the user
base.

Furthermore, to waste your time trying to get apologists and
rationalizers to publicly acknowledge their mistakes - and more
importantly to implement policy changes which make those mistakes
less likely in the future - seems to be impossible.

This industry is insane. They are not worthy of your trust. Protect
yourself by implementing a stable and reliable backup regimen and
assume that every update you install is suspect until proven otherwise.

All else is simply a license to get shafted.


Best I can do for now. <tm>


Bill

 

[Doug]

I caught the subterfuge when they tried it and defeated it. That
particular "update" is now HIDDEN and will be forever and
ever...amen.
-
Doug W.
-

 

[D. W. K.]

Thanks Bill! I agree 100%! You are RIGHT ON THE MONEY!

DWK)

 

[George]

Mistoffolees

To be fair to D. W. K. -- and others who might have inadvertently
installed
WMP 11 -- there is NO indication of what the "update" to WMP 10 actually
involves.

If someone opens WMP 10 -- depending upon the Player's Automatic updates
settings,
which are accessed via Tools | Options and clicking on the Player tab, the
options presented are: "Check for Updates Once a Day, Once a week or Once
a
month." (There is NO checkbox to NEVER check for updates.) -- the Windows
Media Configuration Manager will appear and the user sees a dialog box
that
states: "A Windows Media Update is available. Do you want to update now?"
The options presented to the user are "Yes" or "Cancel".

If a user manually checks to see if there are any updates to WMP 10 by
clicking Help | Check for Player Updates, the user will see these
statements:
o - Windows Media Player 10 requires 1 megabytes (MB). Upgrading will take
approximately 0 minutes over a 28.8 KBps connection.
o - Click Next to begin the download and update or Click Cancel to
postpone
the update.

There is NO indication anywhere that "updating" means an upgrade to WMP
11.

One can argue that "update" can be assumed to mean that WMP 10 will become
WMP 11.

However, I do think that Microsoft should be much more explicit and
transparent as to what a user is agreeing to if he or she decides to
"update" an application that is working perfectly as is and which they are
happy with.

And while you think that WMP 9 was fine out of the box, there were some of
us -- including me -- who made a conscious and informed decision to
upgrade to WMP 10. There are also many people who are making a conscious
and informed decision to upgrade to WMP 11 and that's fine. It is THEY who
are making the decision, not Microsoft.

However, those people who want to stick with WMP 10 shouldn't be fooled
into thinking that when they agree to a WMP 10 "update" they are in
reality going to end up with WMP 11.

Microsoft pulled this same sort of deception when, at one time, it made
IE7 a "critical update" that was automatically downloaded and installed
onto the PCs of millions of unsuspecting users.

Eventually, Microsoft got the message that this was NOT the best way to
get people to "know and love" IE7.

Alan

That and security may be a good reason for updating. Has anyone in here
ever heard of that instead of attacking a guy for trying to keep his PC
updated for security reasons. I am astonished that the most intelligent
people in here do not get that???? At least I thought they were
intelligent, and no UNCLE GRUMPY I am not talking about your arrogant
moronic arse

George

 

[Rock]

I was bitten by exactly the same situation as you describe.

And I too was annoyed that Microsoft would label an "update" for
WMP10 that was actually an "upgrade" to WMP11.

This is one of the reasons I don't perform *any* upgrades to my
machine without having a complete Ghost Backup before starting
the upgrade.

I had to reghost my machine back to its older form once I found out
this "update" gave me something I didn't want, didn't need and had
already rejected as inappropriate for my needs.

I think that's excellent advice. I learned long ago to use a drive imaging
program. Whether it's an issue with an update having unintended
consequences or a failed install, or hardware failure, or anything else,
problems occur. Restoring a recent image is a fast and smart way to get
around these glitches.

<snip>

 

[Rock]

Contact Microsoft? You must be kidding! You would have better luck
"contacting" the Pope!

<snip>

Well, you are the one who wrote, "I would like to hear from someone at
Microsoft..." If that's really your interest, I was just pointing out this
is not the mechanism to get their attention.

 

[Ghostrider]

Mistoffolees

To be fair to D. W. K. -- and others who might have inadvertently installed
WMP 11 -- there is NO indication of what the "update" to WMP 10 actually
involves.

If someone opens WMP 10 -- depending upon the Player's Automatic updates
settings,
which are accessed via Tools | Options and clicking on the Player tab, the
options presented are: "Check for Updates Once a Day, Once a week or Once a
month." (There is NO checkbox to NEVER check for updates.) -- the Windows
Media Configuration Manager will appear and the user sees a dialog box that
states: "A Windows Media Update is available. Do you want to update now?"
The options presented to the user are "Yes" or "Cancel".

If a user manually checks to see if there are any updates to WMP 10 by
clicking Help | Check for Player Updates, the user will see these
statements:
o - Windows Media Player 10 requires 1 megabytes (MB). Upgrading will take
approximately 0 minutes over a 28.8 KBps connection.
o - Click Next to begin the download and update or Click Cancel to postpone
the update.

There is NO indication anywhere that "updating" means an upgrade to WMP 11.

One can argue that "update" can be assumed to mean that WMP 10 will become
WMP 11.

However, I do think that Microsoft should be much more explicit and
transparent as to what a user is agreeing to if he or she decides to
"update" an application that is working perfectly as is and which they are
happy with.

And while you think that WMP 9 was fine out of the box, there were some of
us -- including me -- who made a conscious and informed decision to upgrade
to WMP 10. There are also many people who are making a conscious and
informed decision to upgrade to WMP 11 and that's fine. It is THEY who are
making the decision, not Microsoft.

However, those people who want to stick with WMP 10 shouldn't be fooled into
thinking that when they agree to a WMP 10 "update" they are in reality going
to end up with WMP 11.

Microsoft pulled this same sort of deception when, at one time, it made IE7
a "critical update" that was automatically downloaded and installed onto the
PCs of millions of unsuspecting users.

Eventually, Microsoft got the message that this was NOT the best way to get
people to "know and love" IE7.

Alan

For the record, neither WMP 11 nor IE 7 got installed in any of the
computers under our control, simply for the fact that we did our
homework. And, interestingly, we became acutely aware of the game that
Microsoft was playing after WGA and WGA(N), when "critical updates" were
not really that. But we knew enough about WMP 11 and IE 7 to be able to
inform our users not to make the updates. The lesson learned is get the
most information possible, even if it means searching outside of MS. And
if one were to read up on all of the security updates that come up on
Patch Tuesday, a significant number of them do not even apply to the
utilization of the computer into which they are going to be installed.
What the Windows computing world lacks is a replacement for the defector
Mark Russinovich. We were better off before he became a Technical Fellow
at Microsoft; this effectively silenced his insight into and criticism of
the really horrible Windows updates although he did get his licks in on
WMP 11.

 

[mae]

| While your protests are noted, just what was the compelling reason
| for going to Microsoft or Windows Updates, finding an update to WMP
| 10 and then deciding to proceed to update? Was there something wrong
| with WMP 9 that came with Windows XP? Or were the enhancements to
| WMP 10.X and WMP 11 just that tempting, specifically related to DRM,
| copyright protection, piracy, etc.? IMO, WMP 9, out-of-the-box, is
| just fine.

Windows XP came with a version 8 of WMP.

 

[Ghostrider]

| While your protests are noted, just what was the compelling reason
| for going to Microsoft or Windows Updates, finding an update to WMP
| 10 and then deciding to proceed to update? Was there something wrong
| with WMP 9 that came with Windows XP? Or were the enhancements to
| WMP 10.X and WMP 11 just that tempting, specifically related to DRM,
| copyright protection, piracy, etc.? IMO, WMP 9, out-of-the-box, is
| just fine.

Windows XP came with a version 8 of WMP.

Probably referring to Windows XP-SP2, which included WMP 9.0.

 

[BillW50]

buh-bye moron.

Uncle Grumpy loves showing off his IQ.