Microsoft Urging Customers To Disable Windows Gadgets

[okibrian]

I don't understand how you can make gadgets a selling point for your OS when it's released then pull it with a "fix" and tell people not to use it for your own good. I also think they are trying to look at it as a way to get people away from it before Win 8, since that OS will no longer support gadgets. Class action!

 

[jalek]

It's ridiculous that desktop toys are even capable of causing such problems.
Sometimes the shiny thing should just be a shiny thing, not an email/news/social media aggregator that pays your water bill and submits your shopping list for grocery delivery.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

[citation][nom]jrharbort[/nom]There's always alternatives. Gotta love rainmeter.[/citation]

Yep I love Rainmeter. It's almost infinitely customizable and not much of a resource hog.

 

[alxianthelast]

[citation][nom]leaderWON[/nom]people use these?[/citation]

The ones that do, some would say, deserve to have their security compromised

 

[aicom]

Sometimes the way things are designed, they just have fundamental vulnerabilities that were a result of a design decision early on that nobody thought about potentially being used as an exploit (think ActiveX)

 

[Pawessum16]

Umm it's called don't run programs you don't trust. I've been running the same 4 gadgets on my laptop for the past 2.5 years, and it's not like they're going to suddenly explode. Having the date, a nice large analog clock, and my outlook calendar right my desktop is pretty nice. Plus, seeing how I'm using a laptop that can occasionally overheat if I don't clean out the dust bunnies, the GPU monitor is nice so I can mitigate the issue of my laptop potentially shutting down in the middle of something important.
That said, I think anyone who has used the desktop gadgets can attest to them not being most brilliant piece of software.

 

[killerclick]

Thanks Microsoft, thanks to you being lazy, stupid and arrogant, I discovered Rainmeter which is infinitely better. Of course, who knows what else Microsoft will advise us to disable so we'll all start using Windows 8 sooner, but at this point I'd rather use a Mac... or more likely Linux.

 

[waterwasp22]

I agree with the one poster that says "are.you.freakin.kidding?"

MS touted these gadgets and as soon as a new OS starts to emerge, it gets thrown under the bus.

So what Ms is saying is 'Thank you for being a loyal Ms consumer. Now that Win 8 is coming you CAN'T count on us to support our prior OS or its functionality or its security. BUT, the big money maker server business users are cool with us so they are good to use gadgets'

IS this their ways to keep me from moving over to a MAC? OR Linux? Love the retina display on the new Mac Book Pro...... Look forward to this holiday shopping season. Oh, I think I will buy Apple stock tomorrow.

 

[belardo]

Okay, Windows7 is a CURRENT OS and this is a FEATURE of the OS that is current.

Isn't this FALSE advertising? They don't want to "fix" a problem for a product so they can say "go spend another $100~300 for our next POS OS??

This is bull... Is Microsoft making a point to piss off-people every single day this year?

They are nothing like how they acted when they were putting out Windows7... we were thinking "hey, they may be listening to their customers this time".

Someone, help Adobe produce Creative Suite for Linux please! That and quickbooks would go a long way to putting the hurt on Windows. Other than MS-Office, who the hell needs Windows?

Games = consoles, since MS is against gaming on the pc.

About 90+% of our time is spent on a browser.... any device can do that. Windows is not needed.

 

[belardo]

Windows 8 = computer rape.

 

[junixophobia]

[citation][nom]atikkur[/nom]This is so funny.. i didnt think big company like MS could look foolish too, or act like a child.[/citation]

Ha!? where have you been. Were M$ here where senior staff recommends restarting computer once a day is a good thing (during the time they have problems with windows being on for more than 1 day). hello!!!!

 

[Regor245]

I've disabled mine through Control Panel > Programs and Features > Turn Windows features on or off > Unchecked "Windows Gadget Platform"

 

[Unolocogringo]

Wow lots of bad reading comprehension going on.
The sidebar/gadgets that people install ceate the security holes/risks. Not the OS part itself.
Microsoft has no controll over what you install. They can not constantly create security fixes for all of the gadgets that stupid people keep installing.
From a security standoint is is much better to not let you install them at all.

 

[rantoc]

[citation][nom]Rick_Criswell[/nom]Most toolbars,gadgets,free add-ons etc are considered trojans. They do offer their basic function but underneath most track everything you do on the internet and reports it back to the publisher.[/citation]

And if your lucky it does only that =)

 

[techguy911]

Chances are microsoft stole the code for the gadgets and don't know how to fix it instead they disable it like autorun on cd's.
Or they decided to remove support for gadgets in all the next version of windows and decided not to fix it because that will cost money.

 

[shqtth]

F U Microsoft. get off your sorry lazy ass and fix the security issue. I paid for my windows, and deserve to use any feature I want that came with my windows. I didn't pay $300 so you can piss it all away in beer.

 

[shqtth]

by microsoft nuking the gadget gallery,they made is so users are more likely to install gadgets from unknown sources and get preyed on by spyware in users pursuit to find a suitable gadget. Thanks Microsoft !

Microsoft seems to forget they need to support current versions of the OS (VISTA/Windows 7) and its life cycle, yet they are getting so greedy thinking about windows 8 features trying to forget users even before windows 8 comes out. I am sorry microsoft but most users wont upgrade until windows 8 has been out 1-2 years, and only 40% if that. It was already a pain in the ass to get xp users to convert to Windows 7, so why do you think you can push those users to windows 8?


Please do not turn into Apple, coming out with a new version (minor release made to look like a major release) every year, and make a software nightmare (versions wont work with other minor versions). So much software fragmentation for OS X.

 

[beardguy]

Crazy ... because for no apparent reason I decided to turn off my side bar about a week and a half ago. I had been running it for years!

Maybe I have some sort of super power I am unaware of

 

[lradunovic77]

I smell scam since they removed gadgets in Windows 8. Gadgets are nothing less secured than Metro Apps which are so opened to security flaws since they are written using HTML, JavaScript heavily.

 

[freggo]

"Black Hat Convention"... This gives me an idea !

We need a "Black Mask" convention!
It is about time we have an annual convention for Bank robbers, car thieves and burglars.

Not to promote theft of course, but to bring to everyone's attention the shortcomings of home security issues as well as the latest methods that would render a bank vault open to a thief.

Naturally, attendees would include thieves, burglars, robbers and some such, but again; it would only be for educational and preventative purposes of course. So there is absolutely no reason why this should not be allowed. May I suggest Vegas as a location? What happens in Vegas after all...

 

[jacobdrj]

I liked the idea of gadgets. However, since the smartphone revolution, nobody develops any good gadgets anymore. It is to the point where I just want a nice reliable Android emulator on my computer so I can use all the associated widgets, as almost everything I wants for my PC's desktop is already on Android...

I do think that this is the one big advantage of Metro: A paradigm shift in application development to force implementation of live tiles that act like widgets once were intended to.

 

[george21546]

I can see it now Autodesk as an app.

 

[mclanejs]

MSFT is really falling apart, but I can never move to Apple because I like to actually be able to control anything. Guess the loss of application support is inevitable as all my systems move to Linux. Frack!

 

[Osmin]

Is Microsoft going to urge all Windows users to stop using Windows 7, Vista, and XP because anyone can download a rogue application from the internet that may cause malware to be secretly installed? Just as you can easily install bad gadgets, you can install bad apps. It is tragic the way Microsoft is manipulating its user base to change the ways they prefer to work on a computer. Malware programs need to check for bad gadgets too.

 

[captaincharisma]

[citation][nom]leaderWON[/nom]people use these?[/citation]

i just started using a time gadget on my second monitor. i rather use these than install yahoo gadgets