Windows 8 Apps Can be Remotely Removed by Microsoft
Windows 8 Apps Can be Remotely Removed by Microsoft
Posted 12/08/2011 at 4:13pm
| by Ryan Whitwam
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Get your tinfoil hats on, folks. In the documentation released earlier this week by Microsoft on its upcoming Windows 8 Store, the software giant said that apps purchased from the App Store will come with a “kill switch.” Redmond can use this to disable or remove the app from Windows 8 machines. Even if its intentions are good, users are likely to be suspicious of Microsoft on this one.
Microsoft claims it will use the capability in cases of security or, more troubling, if they are “required to do so for legal reasons.” This is a common capability on mobile devices running iOS and Android, though even in the case of an app being pulled from the store, it is rarely removed from devices except in the case of malware. Microsoft will be reviewing apps in the Windows Store, so hopefully this won’t even come up. Programs outside that ecosystem should work as they always have.
Microsoft’s documents also seem to indicate that data created by an app would be removed along with it. The company wouldn’t be able to compensate you for any intrinsic value lost, but purchased apps will be refunded if indeed they are removed. Do you think this is going to be an issue going forward?
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luke904
December 10, 2011 at 4:10am
I just wonder how much the government gave them in tax breaks and legislative support for them to make this feature.
flippantmage
December 12, 2011 at 12:48pm
The corporations are the government in all but name. The golden rule used to be "do onto others as you would have others do onto you", now, it is "He who has the gold makes the rules". Ask your congressman to do something and the first place he goes to is his campaign contributors for permission. You should just get used to it since "Capitalism is God's will" and no one wants to do anything about it without corportate permission by government proxy.
Carlidan
December 10, 2011 at 2:14pm
That was so off base, how can any respond to that. Goverment doesn't need Microsoft to spy on you or get your personal information. They have the CIA, Homeland, FBI, DOD, etc.... to spy on you. I think Microsoft used it to their own personal interest.
luke904
December 10, 2011 at 5:25pm
its not about personal information...
the government wants the power to get rid of apps they don't like or are not in their interest. how about a wiki leaks app?
Carlidan
December 10, 2011 at 7:28pm
Where does it say government wants the power? It sounds more like companies want the power to get rid of apps they don't want consumer to have. It's sounds more that it would benifit companies more than governement. This way companies have more control to what you or you cannot have in their products. But if you think governemnt is control of this, I cannot change your mind anyways.
Eoraptor
December 10, 2011 at 8:25pm
the poor soul is desperately confused... the american system is the exact other way around in reverse, coporations buy the government off, silly boy.
Carlidan
December 10, 2011 at 10:06pm
Hey you're forgetting. Coporations are people. You're hurting their feelings!!
dedgar
December 09, 2011 at 9:08am
You buy an app and obviously install it. MS then deletes that app from your phone.
Question. Is MS now going to refund your money?
(Personal answer: Think about the same likelyhood as a snowstorm in hell.)
AntonioGarrison
December 09, 2011 at 11:10am
I read in another magazine article that your money will be refunded to you for the product. Microsoft however is not liable for data lost. It's the users responsobility to backup their data.
wolfing
December 09, 2011 at 8:02am
Never cared about 'apps', and most people don't either according to reports that say like more than 90% of the apps bought by people are never used past the first week.
Now if somehow this moves to normal software that'll be the day I stop using Windows.
thetechchild
December 09, 2011 at 5:58am
People will definitely find ways around this, but no matter how much people don't like it, Microsoft will go through with it -- and probably, it won't hurt them in the slightest (and so they'll never remove it).
I can't see it having any practical effect. People will just find ways to install the apps as programs, or distribute programs which install the app. Practically speaking, there will just be a separation of official apps and some shadier "DL at your own risk" apps.
theplustwo
December 09, 2011 at 7:39am
Usually things like this aren't about eliminating piracy completely, but about making it difficult enough that 90% of people won't bother. Much like with Windows Genuine Activation, there will always be jailbreakers and homebrew and whatnot, but the number of people who do that stuff is pretty miniscule compared to the install base of Windows. I'm sure thier biggest software partners (*cough* Adobe *cough*) are insisting on something like this.
Eoraptor
December 08, 2011 at 8:25pm
""This is a common capability on mobile devices running iOS and Android, though even in the case of an app being pulled from the store, it is rarely removed from devices except in the case of malware.""
This right here.
Everyone else already does this to some extent, so Microsoft feels entirely justified in doing it too as they transition to a live and mobile operating system. And, in fact, they are justified. Because no one has yet raised the issue with Android or with iOS to any great extent, so they have no reason to fear real ramifications from following the pack. We have only ourselves as consumers to blame in this case, by continuing to allow companies to switch from "selling software" to "leasing applications" to us.
Do I like it? No. Is it going to happen anyway? Yes.
maxeeemum
December 08, 2011 at 8:03pm
Microsoft shoots itself in the foot once again.
But I doubt Win8 will be a hit unless they make big changes.
maxeeemum
December 09, 2011 at 5:56pm
To clarify: Another reason why Microsoft is considered "evil".
And Windows 8 will not be widely accepted by the masses unless MS makes some serious changes before they release it as their new everything OS.
Carlidan
December 09, 2011 at 6:52pm
But wouldn't that make the other company who does the same thing "evil". Just saying.
maxeeemum
December 11, 2011 at 9:03pm
Absolutely! But the article was about Microsoft and they are the most famous for being evil.
Of course Apple and Google do stuff I don't approve of. In fact Apple is the worse and I won't buy any of their products. IMO certain things Apple does should be illegal.
big_montana
December 09, 2011 at 5:41am
How do they shoot themselves in the foot? This feature is in Apple and Google products, but it has not hurt their sales any. It gives MS legal protection in the courts as well. Do I like this feature? No. Do not like it on my android phone either, and if you boycotted every product that included it, you would own nothing.
Engelsstaub
December 09, 2011 at 4:36am
I don't know...depends on how you define being a hit.
It will ship with every new PC that doesn't have a glowing fruit on it, so everyone will feel forced to use it or downgrade (like Vista.) It may be, for MS, financially advantageous if users feel they have to obtain a licensed copy of Win 7 :P (j/k)
Too many people are sadly intimidated by Linux. I think Mint and Ubuntu are pretty user friendly. Fedora's pretty good too and I use it sometimes. I've read that Microsoft "may" be trying to make it difficult for users to boot Linux...which is a bummer if true. Their marketshare is not really threatened by Linux.
winmaster
December 08, 2011 at 7:26pm
Solution: Don't use the appstore in Windows 8. Was anyone really going to use it anyway?
stradric
December 09, 2011 at 6:54am
You're kidding, right? Have you ever used Linux package management? Can you imagine having that functionality on Windows? Windows is long overdue for such a feature even if it'll be a few years before they even begin to approach the utility of Linux package management.
Michael Ellis
December 08, 2011 at 7:17pm
I wonder how long it will be until the domain boycottwindows8 is taken.......
Nimrod
December 08, 2011 at 5:46pm
Yeeeah. Altho im no moral supporter of MS, a part of me really kind of wonders how much of this was their own doing. Its been known for a long time that the fed have been pushing these kinds of measures into out daily life by influencing these kinds of companies. W8 looks like crap cosmetically so far but the allure of those 10 -15% improvements in performance had me interested. Its really to bad to hear this.
If you pay attention there are kill switchs being built into everything now. No theres really no good reason for it and yes it does your loving big brother behind it. The idea that this could be used to stop malware is great, but i get the feeling that malware designers will respond in kind. This comes at a time when the government wants to lock people up indefinitely with no trail while at the same time saying that even if you are found innocent of charges they can still keep you locked up. Their saying that any one with 5 days worth of food, a missing finger or a retuning vet is a terror suspect, and they can arrest you just for being a suspect. Things are not looking good.
Do you really trust the company who put UAE pop-ups on everything with this kind of power? Why does Bill Gates want to use smart phones to track, fingerprint and record every human birth on the planet? Its like the saying goes: The police state isnt coming, is already here.
vpitcher07
December 08, 2011 at 5:37pm
And who is going to use windows 8? I'm perfectly happy with 7.
Nimrod
December 08, 2011 at 5:47pm
if the 10-15% improvemtns in every day performance people have talked about turn out to be true, i think a lot of people would want to. Im a photographer, so to me that sound like free performance. If it translated to Lightroom actually being more responsive and exports taking less time, it would be hard to resist.
Eoraptor
December 08, 2011 at 6:04pm
while they've shaved massive time off of booting and resuming both, actual performance increases, at least in the Developer Preview, I have yet to see.
Nimrod
December 08, 2011 at 7:11pm
i tend to think the release version will be pretty much the same. i was holding out hope but i guess time will tell. The stuff with the AMD procc does look pretty promising tho. But im not using AMD right now.
how do you like W8 aside from that?
Eoraptor
December 08, 2011 at 8:17pm
It's schitzophrenic; basically a mobile OS and a windows OS shotgunned together, awkwardly (IE 10 App and IE 10 desktop don't even communicate with one another in the DP).
While i like the new on-screen keyboard and some of the features such as the improvements to boot and resume and the sleeker task manager, as well as some of the ribbons; by and in large, I am not impressed and would not make it my primary OS. The metro "app" side is awkward at best when used with a mouse. And there is, at least in the DP, no reliable way to kill an "app" when you are done with it. You have to wait for it to time out. Meanwhile, the desktop side, robbed of its start menu, feels crippled to any long-time windows user. Since the App side serves as the "start screen" in its place, but does not do the sorts of auto-sorting of most used and jump-listing, you're left digging for the options that were formerly right there with the old start menu.
The windows 7 jump lists and super task bar are present for all your pinning needs on the desktop side, but unless you are already familiar with them you won't get much guidence on using them as a functioning part of windows. I am hoping they do something about the new control panel in the beta, because right now, it is ~too~ simplified for casual users, to get to the actual controls, you have to go all the way to the bottom and click a "show more" button to control more trhan just time and date sorts of things.
all in all, it seems like they wanted to make an entirely new operating system, but also not trash-can the old one, so they did both and got an uncomfortable shotgun wedding.
Engelsstaub
December 09, 2011 at 12:56am
I think it would be better (IMO) if they gave you the option to disable Metro. It could be smoothed out to work well for touch screens and tablets, but for most it will likely just feel like an awkward obstacle to the desktop.
alexw1234
December 08, 2011 at 5:29pm
They just crossed the line, then dug up the line then nuked it in a new location.
Morete
December 08, 2011 at 5:22pm
I guess the bright side is that Windows 8 will still be cheaper than Red Hat.
0ly1r3m@1ns
December 08, 2011 at 4:56pm
ms YOU HAVE GONE TO FAR! first the "app" store was just about enough to kill win8 for me left me with a 20% chance of getting it now with this your pretty much becoming apple with the you can do any thing you want (as long as its on my list of things you can do) i do see the malware stoping potential but i also see the "sorry i dont want you using this" potential
stradric
December 09, 2011 at 6:59am
I can totally see Apple requiring all apps installed on a Mac to be gotten through their Mac AppStore. I don't see that happening with Windows. And if it ever does, it's time to switch to Linux. In other words, no one is forcing you to use the app store (yet).
Brad Chacos
December 08, 2011 at 4:30pm
It definitely sucks, but as far as legalese goes, it's nothing new. I don't expect to see a rash of personal apps/data being yanked. I would expect MS to use the ability to shut down large scale malware schemes, though. They did recently help shut down that massive Rustock botnet after all.
clutchsins
December 08, 2011 at 5:12pm
It would be hellfire if someone (IE a true nerd/geek with an online life) had this happen and called them on it. It would wreck them and push more people towards MAC....god help us all.
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