It's easier to disable all the garbage than remove the garbage?
this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2026
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Automatic updates are a good thing for the average EU, though. Otherwise they'd never update and their system would probably be compromised.
yeah but they're not doing just security updates, they're re-installing bloatware that I deleted a year ago
I don't need Xbox gaming on my work computer
Then use Pro or Enterprise edition and GPO to disable those features, like every business environment should be doing.
If you can navigate Linux you can handle Group Policy, I promise.
Oh I absolutely think that our IT should be handling this, but that is a weak point at our company (just big enough to use an external company).
I've done my time as tech support for this company, I'm not doing that shit anymore.
and regardless of group policies being able to handle this, this shouldn't be reinstalled anyways if I've already uninstalled it.
Automatic, yes.
Forced without consent with no option to disable them? No.
But you can disable them on Windows. It's a bit more involved, but anyone with a legitimate need to not install updates will have enough knowledge to implement the fixes.
Can you, though?
Because when I was still using W10 a few years ago I tried every trick I could find and it still auto updated...
Yeah, the most permanent way is to mark your network connection as metered.
I like automatic updates when I explicitly turn them on myself. I do NOT like automatic updates when they happen during work hours, force me to close programs and/or restart my PC, and reinstall things that I explicitly removed from my PC.
Windows doesn't automatically update during work hours. By default it tries to figure out when you use your computer, and it won't reboot during those hours. You can manually configure it too.
how about a wait and see model that i like with all megacorp pushed updates now. that way i can decide if i want their latest batch of ai bullshit, or read the headlines about which cpus their vibecoding bricked this time before it's too late.
unfortunately automatic updates require a small amount of trust that the update will not break things or change things without permission. Microslop currently has negative trust.
maybe this is good for the average end user, but dissallowing powerusers from doing stuff like this is exactly what annoys me about apple. now microslop is even worse about it....
i just want to actualy control the things i own and not be told how to use my computer.
How about "it's entirely possible to automatically delay updates by a month and have the computer give you a one week warning before they install where you can push things back by up to a week every time it pops up indefinitely, so you have the time to set whatever settings you need to not get the suck?"
It's not ideal, but the reality of a properly configured Windows system is significantly less harrowing than everyone online would have you believe.
Come on, you know the big businesses wouldn't put up with this shit, so just look up how Windows and these things are managed in Enterprise environments.
Windows sucks. It's a corporate product made by people with incentives to make it suck. But they also have incentives to give businesses ways around the suck so they don't lose their market position. So use those tools. If you can manage Linux you absolutely can manage Group Policy and a few lines of PowerShell.
True. At my tech helpdesk, I've seen people who keep their Macs on very old versions even if their hardware supports much newer (and non-Tahoe) versions and suffer problems because of it.
For instance, the other day, a woman's Microsoft Office quit working because she was still on Ventura, which no longer gets security updates. This was on what I believe was a 2022 Macbook.
I think something is seriously wrong with Apple's update system. I mean, the Windows approach is objectively wrong, but automatic update systems need to be at least a bit aggressive.
what does it matter if the companies are doing the ‘compromising’ instead