The IT Nerd

Microsoft is up to its old tricks again. This time they are using Windows Update to force feed the Chrome based version of the Microsoft Edge browser onto your computer. And if that isn’t bad enough, you can’t uninstall it. Here’s the details from The Verge:

If I told you that my entire computer screen just got taken over by a new app that I’d never installed or asked for — it just magically appeared on my desktop, my taskbar, and preempted my next website launch — you’d probably tell me to run a virus scanner and stay away from shady websites, no?

But the insanely intrusive app I’m talking about isn’t a piece of ransomware. It’s Microsoft’s new Chromium Edge browser, which the company is now force-feeding users via an automatic update to Windows.

Seriously, when I restarted my Windows 10 desktop this week, an app I’d never asked for:

1. Immediately launched itself
2. Tried to convince me to migrate away from Chrome, giving me no discernible way to click away or say no
3. Pinned itself to my desktop and taskbar
4. Ignored my previous browser preference by asking me — the next time I launched a website — whether I was sure I wanted to use Chrome instead of Microsoft’s oh-so-humble recommendation.

This is really low. Even for a company who is known for having a habit of doing things that can be considered to be incredibly shady. And this sort of scumbaggery has gotten them into trouble in the past. Here’s the mind blowing part. They aren’t even trying to hide it as they admit to what they are doing here. Talk about ballsy.

Now Microsoft will argue that they are updating users from the old Edge browser to the new Edge browser. And if they simply left it at that, I would be cool with this. But to then auto launch and try to get you to switch browsers is not cool. After all, users should have the choice to use whatever browser they want. This is where I think that someone like the US Government or the EU needs to educate Microsoft that this sort of behavior is not acceptable, and perhaps force them to moderate their behavior.

From the “I didn’t see this coming” file comes this announcement from Microsoft titled “Microsoft Store announces new approach to retail”. Which if you read it comes down to this: All their stores are closing. Here’s the details:

The company’s retail team members will continue to serve customers from Microsoft corporate facilities and remotely providing sales, training, and support. Microsoft will continue to invest in its digital storefronts on Microsoft.com, and stores in Xbox and Windows, reaching more than 1.2 billion people every month in 190 markets. The company will also reimagine spaces that serve all customers, including operating Microsoft Experience Centers in London, NYC, Sydney, and Redmond campus locations.

If I had to take a guess, I don’t think that Microsoft stores yielded the results that Microsoft wanted them to hit. I visited the one in Toronto’s Yorkdale Mall a few years ago, which ironically was down the hall from an Apple Store. My wife and I walked away with the impression that it was a slightly improved Apple Store that didn’t sell anywhere near the volume of what an Apple Store sells. There’s also the fact that with COVID-19 being a real threat, online sales and support are likely better options for customers. This was mentioned in the announcement as well.

In any case, RIP Microsoft Stores. We hardly knew ye.

Microsoft has released an out of band patch that you should run and download to fix printing issues that they created when they released this latest round of Patch Tuesday updates. Strangely, it was announced via Twitter:

In my mind, out of band updates, meaning that they aren’t part of Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday update cycle aren’t optional. But in this case, if you don’t have problems printing to a directly attached printer, you shouldn’t install this. That brings me to what version of Windows 10 are covered by this update. Versions 1803, 1809, 1903 and 1909 are covered by this update. “Other affected versions of Windows will have updates released in the coming days,” Microsoft added. Thus if you’re on Windows 10 version 2004, and you have a dead printer, you’ll have a little longer to wait.

At the end of the day, this situation can be summed up like this:

Last week’s “Patch Tuesday” update for Windows 10 has led to a rather serious problem for people who need to print. Which would be a lot of people seeing as a lot of us are working from home these days. The issues appear connected to KB4557957 and KB4560960 for Windows 10 2004 and 1903/1909 respectively. And the bug is that when one of both of these updates are installed, printers attached directly to the computer won’t work. Networked printers however work just fine. Remove the offending updates, and things will work as normal.

A look at Reddit and Microsoft’s forums show that this isn’t isolated to just a few users. Microsoft hasn’t seen fit to admit that this is a problem with these specific updates. But Microsoft has admitted that something has gone off the rails with the way with USB printer ports from version 1903 to the new version 2004 which I told you to avoid if it isn’t being offered to you.

Microsoft really needs to step up here and fix this ASAP as this is clearly affecting a whole lot of people who are remote working at the moment. And it’s yet another black eye on Microsoft who doesn’t seem to have the ability to update their operating system without breaking anything in the process.

Rolling out to a PC near you is the latest Windows 10 Feature Update. Version 2004 which is also known as the May 2020 update brings a bunch of new features, and some new problems. Let’s start with the new features:

• Cortana has changed substantially. And you will either love it or hate it.
• Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 is now shipping as part of this version of Windows 10.
• Notepad is enhanced.
• Search has been improved.
• Windows Sandbox is improved.
• Virtual desktop support has improved.
• Task Manager is improved
• Accessibility features are improved
• Various settings functionality including BlueTooth and recovery have been improved.

You can get the full details here. That’s the good news.

The bad news that there are lots of problems. Microsoft published a long list of known issues that have not been resolved yet on the official Windows 10 release information page. A total of ten issues are listed on the page currently, and the key thing here is those issues will block the new feature update from being offered to your computer. On top of that, various Lenovo devices have issues with this feature update.

My advice is that if this update is not offered to your computer, do not install it. While there are ways to get the update if it is not offered to you on your Windows 10 computer, it is in your best interests to take advantage of them. I would also recommend updating your drivers for things like video cards and the like as at least one of the bugs that Microsoft has noted relates to out of date Nvidia video drivers. That way you stand a better chance of having a successful update. Also, make a backup so that you can roll back to a working state if things go south. But if I were you, I’d wait until Microsoft sort out their issues with this update.

Just before 4PM EST it seemed that Outlook.com went down. I tried to log in during that time and I got this:

A few minutes later, I couldn’t get this page. Instead I never got to a page. But it is clear that something was wrong. Though if you checked the Office 365 Status page, all was apparently good:

I also noted that Outlook.com email accounts on my iPhone weren’t working as well. But at 4:20PM things came back up. So all is fine now. Thus if you noticed an issue with Outlook.com on the web or on your device, you know why now.

Microsoft put out a blog post on Friday to talk about the changes that are coming to Cortana, the virtual assistant that nobody seems to care about. The first big change is this:

Through this updated Cortana experience, we will roll out new Cortana services delivered through Microsoft 365 backed by the privacy, security and compliance promises of Office 365 services as set out in the Online Services Terms. Protecting your data and privacy is our highest priority, and we give you control over your data.

In short, Microsoft is going to move Cortana to the world of Office 365. But that’s not all, there’s this:

As part of Cortana’s evolution into a personal productivity assistant in Microsoft 365, you’ll see some changes in how Cortana works in the latest version of Windows 10. We’ve tightened access to Cortana so that you must be securely logged in with your work or school account or your Microsoft account before using Cortana, and some consumer skills including music, connected home and third-party skills will no longer be available in the updated Cortana experience in Windows 10. We’re also making some changes to where Cortana helps you. As part of our standard practice, we are ending support for Cortana in older versions of Windows that have reached their end-of-service dates. We recommend that customers update their devices to the latest version of Windows 10 to continue using Cortana. We’ll also be turning off the Cortana services in the Microsoft Launcher on Android by the end of April.

So it seems that Microsoft is killing off anything that is consumer focused that relates to Cortana. To be frank, I am not sure anyone will miss that. Seeing as I am pretty sure nobody uses Cortana. But hey, it’s not all bad news. Assuming that you pay up for Office 365, you can have Cortana retrieve upcoming appointments, set reminders or change settings. The emphasis, according to Microsoft, will be on “productivity.” Though again, I don’t know if anyone would actually use it seeing as pretty much nobody uses it now. But you can’t blame Microsoft for trying to play in the sandbox with Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant.