Red flags to Windows 10

—

### Stuff.co.nz Last updated 17:20, July 31 2015
Windows 10 uses customers’ computers to distribute updates
By Tom Pullar-Strecker
A couple of surprises have been found under the bonnet of Microsoft’s latest operating system.
█ Microsoft has confirmed that people who switch to its latest Windows 10 operating system may find their internet connection is then used to upload Microsoft updates to other Windows 10 users.
█ Another feature of Windows 10 that has raised red flags with some computer users is the inclusion of advertisements in one of its “native” apps, popular game Solitaire.

The use of “peer-to-peer” technology to help distribute software is controversial, in part because it can push computer users through their broadband data caps. Microsoft does not appear to advertise the fact that Windows 10 will harness people’s internet connections to distribute updates, at no advantage to those users whose bandwidth is being consumed.

Microsoft New Zealand marketing director Frazer Scott said he expected the amount of bandwidth used would be small, but conceded he could not quantify how large the files that might be uploaded from people’s computers would be.

United States online music service Spotify also used peer-to-peer technology in the past to distribute music tracks between customers, without making it clear it was doing so, though it stopped the practice last year.

█ Microsoft has published instructions on how to turn off the feature, which is called Windows Update Delivery Optimization, but Owen Williams, a technology writer at TheNextWeb, criticised the company in a blog for “burying the settings” behind an “advanced options menu” in Windows 10.
Read more

█ Also browse Mic Wright’s article at TheNextWeb to learn about privacy issues with Windows 10.

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: blackwallstreetmagazine.com – red flag alert [HowWomen]