Banner across screen

GlowingBlueMist wrote:
I had the same ransomware message come up from Microsoft as well on my
Windows 8 system. It appeared right after the system did an automatic
scan for Microsoft updates after being powered off for a day or so.

It appears to be another heavy handed approach by Microsoft to force
those who know little about computers and scare them into an update to
8.1 upgrade.

I wonder if someone at Microsoft has been taking lessons from the
CryptoLocker people since it sure sounds like their methods. "Do the
update or your computer will not respond to you!" is the way I
interpreted the banner message.

The only way I was able to kill the banner was force my computer to do a
reboot.

I can see this going over big in the corporate world as people's
computers start locking up with Microsoft's ransomware banner message
across the screen. Add to that being forced to shut down the computer
to kill the thing resulting in loosing anything they had in progress on
the computer before the ransomware banner popped up from Microsoft.

Come on Feds, is Microsoft in league with the CryptLocker people or just
plain stupid...

I tried just now, to reproduce the banner thing, by using
Windows Update manually. And I got... nothing.

I've been using tools to try to snapshot it, but it
doesn't help if the banner won't appear.

I think it's shy.

I don't have Windows Update set to automatic, and neither
do I have a Microsoft Account. Local account only. Test was
done in Windows 8, using Windows update to apply 49 outstanding
security updates since June 2013. And taking images of the
OS after each step, in case I needed to move backwards and
repeat a test.

Paul

On 11/5/2013 10:50 AM, Paul wrote:

I tried just now, to reproduce the banner thing, by using
Windows Update manually. And I got... nothing.

I've been using tools to try to snapshot it, but it
doesn't help if the banner won't appear.

I think it's shy.

I don't have Windows Update set to automatic, and neither
do I have a Microsoft Account. Local account only. Test was
done in Windows 8, using Windows update to apply 49 outstanding
security updates since June 2013. And taking images of the
OS after each step, in case I needed to move backwards and
repeat a test.

Paul

I had the banner pop up this morning when I logged into the PC but this
time the banner had two options, one to go to the Microsoft store and
the other said something to the effect of "Not now, try again later".
The second option cleared the banner and enabled the rest of the desktop.

Who knows when I will see it again on this system, hopefully not for a
long time since I presently see no benefit to degrade this system with
8.1. Possibly later but not now...

On Tue, 05 Nov 2013 11:50:24 -0500, Paul wrote:

GlowingBlueMist wrote:
I had the same ransomware message come up from Microsoft as well on my
Windows 8 system. It appeared right after the system did an automatic
scan for Microsoft updates after being powered off for a day or so.

It appears to be another heavy handed approach by Microsoft to force
those who know little about computers and scare them into an update to
8.1 upgrade.

I wonder if someone at Microsoft has been taking lessons from the
CryptoLocker people since it sure sounds like their methods. "Do the
update or your computer will not respond to you!" is the way I
interpreted the banner message.

The only way I was able to kill the banner was force my computer to do a
reboot.

I can see this going over big in the corporate world as people's
computers start locking up with Microsoft's ransomware banner message
across the screen. Add to that being forced to shut down the computer
to kill the thing resulting in loosing anything they had in progress on
the computer before the ransomware banner popped up from Microsoft.

Come on Feds, is Microsoft in league with the CryptLocker people or just
plain stupid...

I tried just now, to reproduce the banner thing, by using
Windows Update manually. And I got... nothing.

I've been using tools to try to snapshot it, but it
doesn't help if the banner won't appear.

I think it's shy.

I don't have Windows Update set to automatic, and neither
do I have a Microsoft Account. Local account only. Test was
done in Windows 8, using Windows update to apply 49 outstanding
security updates since June 2013. And taking images of the
OS after each step, in case I needed to move backwards and
repeat a test.

The banner happened to me again today and I took a picture of it. I misspoke
earlier when I described it as a blue screen. Instead, the screen simply
dims and a blue banner appears. It says


Get Windows 8.1 for free
Go to the Store to see what's new and get the update. You can keep
using your PC while it downloads.

Go to the Store Remind me later


Those last two things are buttons. I clicked the second one, so I expect to
see the banner again someday soon. Until you click a button, the PC is
essentially hijacked.

On 11/5/2013 6:34 PM, Char Jackson wrote:
On Tue, 05 Nov 2013 11:50:24 -0500, Paul wrote:

GlowingBlueMist wrote:
I had the same ransomware message come up from Microsoft as well on my
Windows 8 system. It appeared right after the system did an automatic
scan for Microsoft updates after being powered off for a day or so.

It appears to be another heavy handed approach by Microsoft to force
those who know little about computers and scare them into an update to
8.1 upgrade.

I wonder if someone at Microsoft has been taking lessons from the
CryptoLocker people since it sure sounds like their methods. "Do the
update or your computer will not respond to you!" is the way I
interpreted the banner message.

The only way I was able to kill the banner was force my computer to do a
reboot.

I can see this going over big in the corporate world as people's
computers start locking up with Microsoft's ransomware banner message
across the screen. Add to that being forced to shut down the computer
to kill the thing resulting in loosing anything they had in progress on
the computer before the ransomware banner popped up from Microsoft.

Come on Feds, is Microsoft in league with the CryptLocker people or just
plain stupid...

I tried just now, to reproduce the banner thing, by using
Windows Update manually. And I got... nothing.

I've been using tools to try to snapshot it, but it
doesn't help if the banner won't appear.

I think it's shy.

I don't have Windows Update set to automatic, and neither
do I have a Microsoft Account. Local account only. Test was
done in Windows 8, using Windows update to apply 49 outstanding
security updates since June 2013. And taking images of the
OS after each step, in case I needed to move backwards and
repeat a test.

The banner happened to me again today and I took a picture of it. I misspoke
earlier when I described it as a blue screen. Instead, the screen simply
dims and a blue banner appears. It says


Get Windows 8.1 for free
Go to the Store to see what's new and get the update. You can keep
using your PC while it downloads.

Go to the Store Remind me later


Those last two things are buttons. I clicked the second one, so I expect to
see the banner again someday soon. Until you click a button, the PC is
essentially hijacked.

At least they appear to have updated it to have the Remind me later
option. The first time I got the banner it only had the Go to the Store
button which is why I was calling it Ransomware...

On Tue, 05 Nov 2013 21:11:09 -0600, GlowingBlueMist
wrote:



On 11/5/2013 6:34 PM, Char Jackson wrote:

The banner happened to me again today and I took a picture of it. I misspoke
earlier when I described it as a blue screen. Instead, the screen simply
dims and a blue banner appears. It says


Get Windows 8.1 for free
Go to the Store to see what's new and get the update. You can keep
using your PC while it downloads.

Go to the Store Remind me later


Those last two things are buttons. I clicked the second one, so I expect to
see the banner again someday soon. Until you click a button, the PC is
essentially hijacked.

At least they appear to have updated it to have the Remind me later
option. The first time I got the banner it only had the Go to the Store
button which is why I was calling it Ransomware...

Agreed. I was thinking exactly the same thing.

Char Jackson wrote:
On Tue, 05 Nov 2013 21:11:09 -0600, GlowingBlueMist
wrote:


On 11/5/2013 6:34 PM, Char Jackson wrote:
The banner happened to me again today and I took a picture of it. I misspoke
earlier when I described it as a blue screen. Instead, the screen simply
dims and a blue banner appears. It says


Get Windows 8.1 for free
Go to the Store to see what's new and get the update. You can keep
using your PC while it downloads.

Go to the Store Remind me later


Those last two things are buttons. I clicked the second one, so I expect to
see the banner again someday soon. Until you click a button, the PC is
essentially hijacked.

At least they appear to have updated it to have the Remind me later
option. The first time I got the banner it only had the Go to the Store
button which is why I was calling it Ransomware...

Agreed. I was thinking exactly the same thing.


My plan, was to try to identify the executable, so it
could be thrown in the trash :-)

*******

Speaking of stupid UI behavior, while I was doing my
Windows Updates, I managed to lose control of my
Windows 8.0 PC again. The keyboard locked up, I couldn't
send control-alt-delete, while the updates were running.
Everything stopped responding, but the disk light was
still flashing as if the updates were still running.
Even my "press the caps lock and watch the keyboard LED"
test failed.

It took maybe 60 seconds, before it became responsive again.

Windows 8 is pure crap. What good is an OS that won't
respond to user input ? I run WinXP on that same machine,
and I never have crap like that happen in WinXP. Not with
the same regularity I can experience it in Windows 8.

So my summary of Windows 8 faults reads like this:

1) Task Manager is not guaranteed to be working when
you need it. GUI can lock up when it feels like it.
A flawed architecture and a bad design.
2) DirectX games do not play with the same speed. Some
CPU seems to be reserved. Making my Core2 perform like
a P4 again.

So there's no need to "curse the Metro Tiles" when
reviewing Windows 8, when basic OS functions are flawed.
Even Vista SP2 is better than this (comparatively speaking).

Paul