Windows Media Player BLINDSIDE update!

Ghostrider

Alan wrote:

> 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

"Mistoffolees" <> wrote in message
news:%.gbl...

| 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.
--
mae

mae

"Mistoffolees" <> wrote in message
news:%.gbl...

| 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.
--
mae

Ghostrider

mae wrote:

> "Mistoffolees" <> wrote in message
> news:%.gbl...
>
> | 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.
> --
> mae
>

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

Ghostrider

mae wrote:

> "Mistoffolees" <> wrote in message
> news:%.gbl...
>
> | 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.
> --
> mae
>

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

BillW50

"Uncle Grumpy" <unclegrumpy@ameritech.net> wrote in message
news:klh253p6bp3ji69h7bqp0t2hfqhhg2ne6l@4ax.com
> "D. W. K." <[removethis]dwkcpbd@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> Contact Microsoft? You must be kidding! You would have better luck
>> "contacting" the Pope!
>
> buh-bye moron.

Uncle Grumpy loves showing off his IQ.

--
Bill

BillW50

"Uncle Grumpy" <unclegrumpy@ameritech.net> wrote in message
news:klh253p6bp3ji69h7bqp0t2hfqhhg2ne6l@4ax.com
> "D. W. K." <[removethis]dwkcpbd@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> Contact Microsoft? You must be kidding! You would have better luck
>> "contacting" the Pope!
>
> buh-bye moron.

Uncle Grumpy loves showing off his IQ.

--
Bill

darkflux

@George:
there is NO SUCH THING as security. anything can be gotten into with enough effort. the trick is to not trust anything you don't understand, at least until you decide to try to (this refers to PC's of course).

and now...

really? mine just said "A Windows Media update is available. Do you want to update now?".

that is exactly the point. they didn't want you to know that it was just a VISUAL "upgrade" to the otherwise fine v.10, added only so that people could BUY MUSIC through their pay service more easily, thus lining their pockets. had they said that would you have upgraded?

there, now you've got it. no trust = happy (or at least contented) computing. for Bob's sake, Micro$oft was directly involved in an ANTITRUST suit (pardon my pun).

bottom line, 11 is a direct UPGRADE, not an update (though Microshaft wouldn't want you to realize this before it was too late). an update would be like "WMP 10.9300.234.1", or something, it's considered and upgrade when the first number changes.
and since when has M$'s jargon EVER been clear? anyone here remember the good old Stop 0x0000000A Errors? or how about the on-the-screen-for-3-seconds BSOD? haven't had that one for years now, but you see my point. crypticness is one of their oldest traits, so why would they abandon it now?

and as for the rest of you, why are you all arguing semantics instead of providing assistance?! i sifted thru 6PAGES of $#!+, just to find no answers whatsoever! for shame...

so with that:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Win dowsMediaPlayer]
"DisableAutoUpdate"=dword:00000001


copy and paste the above into Notepad, (for some reason, there is a space in the phrase "WindowsMediaPlayer" above, be sure to get rid of it before saving) and save as "disable WMP update.reg" (without quotes of course), and then click on the file to add to the registry. worked for me.


-darkflux

btw, any reason why everyone's post is listed 2x?