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Although Microsoft was heavily invested in SBS, I can’t say the same for Microsoft 365.

Indeed. The thing that baffles me the most is that all Microsoft 365 plans that have business in their name, do NOT, I repeat, do NOT support Group Policies. Like – seriously??

joep517 wrote:

If that is not acceptable to you, you must investigate an alternative OS.

There’s the problem. I don’t generate income by using an OS but by using applications. A lot of (business) applications are tied to a single OS. So are mine – they are tied to Windows. And the competitors products are also tied to Windows. So I don’t have a choice – if I want to do my business, I have to use Windows. You could argue I can run Windows applications on a Mac or Linux, by means of tweaks. But if there’s a problem with an application, I’m on my own.

What camp are you in?

I’m in the camp of being in control. I don’t like someone else decide on my behalf what’s best for me. Yet we’re all heading in that direction, by making everything as-a-service. This as-a-service thing isn’t exactly new. For example, car rentals. The rental company buys the car, pays taxes and maintenance and I pay rent and gas. New-style as-a-service means I buy the car, pay rent, maintenance and gas. And I need to pay the rental company to be able to drive. And I shouldn’t be surprised if the rental company occasionally changes something on my car. Like changing it from stick-shift to automate. Would anyone buy a car under these terms?

 

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Charlie, gwt10, Cybertooth, coastline

As for File Explorer. The limit of 256 characters for path / file names has been lifted a long time ago in Windows. Except for File Explorer. For some reason, Microsoft seems unable to fix this.

Proton is under attack by the Swiss government.

Andy Yen gegen Revisionsplan des Bundesrats: «Mit dieser aggressiven Überwachung müsste Proton die Schweiz verlassen» | Der Bund

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opti1, John18, dgc-art, Alex5723

I constantly see advertisements about cheap versions of Office.

As mentioned a couple of times before, it depends on the country you live. In the US, you cannot sell used licenses. But it’s different in Europe.

Business Software Alliance

Autodesk was also an aggressive BSA user. We used to receive a letter each year from the BSA, demanding a license overview of Autodesk products. I haven’t received their letter anymore since the GDP is in effect.

These days, we rarely hear such stories. Have we all become legitimate?

I wonder about this too. It seems license-compliance is no longer enforced and I wonder why….

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Peter Chapa, Pim

IMO, the last sentence is of most concern. The Windows monopoly (more or less) shows it’s darker side more frequently. With ‘Windows as a service’ there’s not much the user can do in the direction of Microsoft. In the days you had to pay Microsoft for Windows, users could simply decide NOT to buy a particular version of Windows if it was sub-standard. And that’s a great incentive for companies to sell quality.

This isn’t Microsoft alone – all major software companies sell their stuff ‘as a service’ or subscription. Don’t like version x? Too bad. Either stop using our product or get used to it.

The good thing is, the past repeats itself over and over again. So we might see companies evolve selling perpetual licenses again, so the choice is back with the user.

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Will Fastie

 I had this happen on one machine when N-able RMM incorrectly …

Funny you should mention. We’re about to undertake some drastic changes this year. Like migrating our on-premise Exchange 2016 server to Exchange Online; a new Windows server running Window Server 2022 / 2025 and incorporating a bunch of online services like Intune. And moving Windows 10 to 11.

The Microsoft online stuff is quite convoluted and not done in a rainy afternoon, so I decided to call in outside help. A couple of companies inventoried the whole network. And one of them used N-able stuff. And wouldn’t you know – the Windows 11-thing started the next day after they ran their N-able Agent. But they insured me the update wasn’t triggered by their software.

I doubt that. It seems too much of a coincident. And having ruled out things like a mis configured group policy, it more and more points to that N-able Agent. But I can’t prove it.

Machines involved are indeed Dell machines, but not the ones mentioned in the article. We use Precision 3630, 3640, 3650 and 3660 machines. Most of them run Windows 11 by now, but at least one of each type still runs Windows 10.

Now I must say – the migration was as smooth as a babies bottom. No problems with hardware / drivers / applications whatsoever. It’s personal things like the Explorer Shortcut menu and the ‘you can have your taskbar anywhere as long as it’s the bottom of the screen’ that annoy people. Most of those things are solvable, except the Taskbar.

So while I don’t like such uncontrolled upgrades, I’m pleasantly surprised it all went so well…

The Windows Update policy in the attachment. It hasn’t changed for years.

Mostly agree – with a but. To start with the bottom line; I like to know who I’m dealing with.

We live in extraordinary times at the moment. The behaviour of the American government rubs off on all Americans. And just about anyone around the world is affected by this government.

Most people outside the US don’t know how the political system in the US works. They see Trump as president and so a majority of Americans must have voted for him. Add to that; we don’t see much US citizens protest against their president. Ergo: all Americans have gone crazy.

In the case of Trump, there are two kinds of people; you either like or hate the guy. There’s no middle-of-the-road. As a European, I started looking at Americans with different eyes as well, even though I know it wasn’t a majority voting for him. But still – are you friend or foe?

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Andy M

Can you run the tool?

You mean RSoP? Displays the same policy settings for both Windows 10 and 11.

again, check if Microsoft Update Health Tools is installed or not on those PCs

They are not installed on the Windows 10 machines. For the machines migrated to Windows 11, I don’t see them either, but maybe they have been removed as part of the migration?

a. a WSUS server that had an approval of the next feature release done inadvertently

b. or — group policy wasn’t controlling machines as they thought.

Well that’s the thing – all machines use the same policies?

Could very well be there’s a setting incorrect; I wonder which settings I have to check?

I had / have Windows 10 22H2 installed.

Regarding my initial post – I was wrong about _all_ machines. It’s about half/half, adding to the mystery. Batches of the exact same make and model – some got Windows 11 and some stayed on Windows 10. Had a talk to a supplier and he sees the same thing with his clients. Some machines get kicked to Windows 11 and some not.

Is this Microsoft at play?

Who cares about truth in this post-truth era?

I like to think I’m a critical thinker. But how do I validate my ideas about a subject? In the old days, I had to go to the library and pick up an encyclopedia to read about a subject. Thereby assuming the encyclopedia was inerrant. I had to trust the people who wrote it.

These days, I don’t have to go out – all information about a subject is at my fingertips. And there’s the problem – information out there can underline any idea I might have. Finding proper validation these days is like seeking a needle in a hay stack.

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Fred