Do You Trust Microsoft To Auto Fix Anything?

I saw this promo piece in the BBC about the launch of Microsoft's new Fix-it service and a few things spring to mind. The first is that Microsoft have a long track record of causing more problems than they fix when applying updates. They set Windows to download and apply all critical updates without user intervention. So when a user goes to shut down their PC they have no idea if they have to hang around for 15 mins so that Windows can apply it's updates or not. Similarly they have no idea if those updates will cause a problem when they next start up their PC.

The second is that Microsoft have a history of abusing the term "critical" and slipping in programs like the Orwellian titled WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage). This was apparently a feature a large number of their customers were screaming out for and Microsoft being a listening, concerned company felt they had no choice but to provide; if you believe Microsoft's PR about it. WGA checks regularly if the copy of Windows it's running on is licensed or unlicensed. If it deems that install of Windows to be unlicensed it causes no end of hassle for the user by disabling services, rebooting, nagware messages about "please contact Microsoft to buy a Windows product key". It's no advantage to customers, only to Microsoft. Yet this has been defined by Microsoft as a "critical" update. To me "critical" means "your PC is at immediate risk without this update".

The third is Microsoft's agenda on patents, copyrights etc along with their partners in various services. Since they consider the WGA a critical update, why not slip in a similar tool to detect unlicensed installations of third party applications like Photoshop? Why not do the same for music, videos or ebooks on your system? They extended the WGA system to MS Office with OGA (Office Genuine Advantage). Since it got a bad reputation on XP, they renamed it for Windows 7. That way they can claim  in typical Microsoft style that they don't have (an application called) WGA in Windows 7.

When the Fix-It service runs, the idea is that it does everything automatically to make it as easy on the user as possible. You're not supposed to need to get into how it works, just run it and it'll fix it.

No doubt the highest priority on the check will be running WGA, or installing it if it's not already installed. If it fails the WGA (WGA decides it's an unlicensed install of Windows) then MS don't care what else is wrong with it because they feel you've stolen it.

Assuming it passes the WGA and decides that you're not in fact a thief, at least this time, it can then download and install additional modules to help "detect problems" which will include all the third party IP checks described above. Remember this is supposed to be run with very little user intervention. After it has all of it's detection software it can then run. When it detects (rightly or wrongly) than a few of your programs are unlicensed and that half your music folder has been illegally ripped or downloaded, it will "fix" those automatically and delete or uninstall them.

I rarely use Windows now for a whole variety of reasons, but when I do need to, the very first thing I do is remove Microsoft as much as possible from administration of my installation. Switch the Windows Updates to "let me know, but don't download or install anything automatically". That way I can look at what updates it's both trying to push (critical) and offering (optional) and select or deselect as required. This is not 100% but it's a good start.

As intrusive as these WGA / OGA checks are, they got a reputation for producing a lot of false positives, where people with genuine licence keys were being told through these programs that they were not genuine and had to contact Microsoft. In most cases these were fixed easy enough but they should never have occurred in the first place.

Imagine that multiplying as Fix-It turns on lots of other parts of your PC. With WGA it was ONE unnecessary phone call to prove you're genuine. What happens if the Fix-It service tells you in typical Windows fashion that you need to reboot to complete the fix, and when you log back in several applications and most of your media are gone? How much hassle is that gonna cause? How many unnecessary phone calls, visits to websites, emails etc will you have to take time out for to "fix it"?

Even if Microsoft don't start including additional stuff into the filters, it won't be long before they spot an earner there, where rights holders can pay Microsoft to include their stuff, knowing that plenty of chumps will run a service like this and hand over administration rights on their PC to both Microsoft's agenda and incompetence. Microsoft have a track record of some updates breaking systems, then having to release updates to fix the updates. That's after a while of blaming anyone else (usually the end users) for the breakage before eventually admitting it was them after all. They can't get it right with the regular Windows Updates service, do you seriously trust them to get it right with a wider reaching system? If they could, don't you think they'd build Windows WITHOUT all the exploits malware writers use to infect Windows in the first place?

Just the other day there was another story of how good Microsoft are at fixing problems.

There is a solution to all of this for most users; switch to Linux.