Microsoft: please do something against Media Player spam in Windows Store
Windows MediaPlayer 11 for $4.99? VLC* Player for $8.99? Media Player Classic Black Edition for $4.99? Those are just three examples of Windows 8 apps that try to take advantage of the popularity of popular media players even though they have nothing in common with them. When you open Windows Store right now and browse the top 100 new releases, a selection of releases that meet certain criteria, you will find ten media players listed there.
- Win-8 HD Media Player for $4.99
- Win-8 Media Player for $1.99
- Media Player Classic Black Edition (which is not black at all) for $4.99
- Windows MediaPlayer 11 for $4.99
- VLC* Player for $8.99
- Mediaplayer Pro for Windows 8 for $1.99
- Win* 8 Media Player for $4.49
- Win 8 Media-Player for $4.99
- Windows 8 Top Most Player for $3.99
- Windows 8 HD VIC Player for $2.99
A search for media player returns 486 hits currently. Not all of them are spam or use deceptive names to lure users into making a purchase. But the list does contain a large number of players that I'd categorize this way. There is VLC3 Player, VMG Player, VLX Player, IVC Player and my personal favorite VIC which not only resemble VLC Media Player name-wise, but do use a similar icon as well.
Then you have players that use names that make them look official. Windows Media Player 9, 10 and 11, Windows 8 Media Player and Window's Media Player fall into that category.
One would think that Microsoft would at least prevent Windows Media Player apps from being listed in store, especially when they are offered for money and violating the company's trademark.
Further investigation reveals that many publishers have released multiple media player apps to the store that are not really that different from each other. The main difference it seems is the name and sometimes the layout, while the functionality does not seem to change that often after all. This is likely done to release a fresh app that may find its way once again into the top 100 new apps listing in store that is prominently displayed there.
Besides issues with trademark violations and names that many would call deceptive, it is also not clear how that many players manage to land in the top new 100 apps listing in store.
While it is certainly possible that those players are popular because - at least some - users believe them to be official products from companies they trust, it can also be that they are artificially pushed to the front. That's however something that only Microsoft can analyze and prevent if this is indeed the case.
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What mental age of reader are you targeting with the first sentence? 10?
Why not write an article on how to *avoid* upgrading from W10 to W11. Analogous to those like me who avoided upgrading from 7 to 10 for as long as possible.
If your paymaster Microsoft permits it, of course.
5. Rufus
6. Ventoy
PS. I hate reading these “SEO optimized” articles.
I used Rufus to create an installer for a 6th gen intel i5 that had MBR. It upgraded using Setup. No issues except for Win 11 always prompting me to replace my local account. Still using Win 10 Pro on all my other PCs to avoid the bullying.
bit pointless to upgrade for the sake of upgrading as you never know when you’ll get locked out because ms might suddenly not provide updates to unsupported systems.
ps…. time travelling?
written. Jan 15, 2023
Updated • Jan 13, 2023
This happens when you schedule a post in WordPress and update it before setting the publication date.
Anyone willing to downgrade to this awful OS must like inflicting themselves with harm.
I have become convinced now that anybody who has no qualms with using Windows 11/10 must fit into one of the following brackets:
1) Too young to remember a time before W10 and W11 (doesn’t know better)
2) Wants to play the latest games on their PC above anything else (or deeply needs some software which already dropped W7 support)
3) Doesn’t know too much about how computers work, worried that they’d be absolutely lost and in trouble without the “”latest security””
4) Microsoft apologist that tries to justify that the latest “features” and “changes” are actually a good thing, that improve Windows
5) Uses their computer to do a bare minimum of like 3 different things, browse web, check emails, etc, so really doesn’t fuss
Obviously that doesn’t cover everyone, there’s also the category that:
6) Actually liked W7 more than 10, and held out as long as possible before switching, begrudgingly uses 10 now
Have I missed any group off this list?
You have missed in this group just about any professional user that uses business software like CAD programs or ERP Programs which are 99% of all professional users from this list.
Linux doesn’t help anyone who is not a linux kid and apple is just a fancy facebook machine.
Microsoft has removed KB5029351 update
only from windows update though
KB5029351 is still available from the ms update catalog site
1. This update is labaled as PREVIEW if it causes issues to unintelligent people, then they shouldn’t have allowed Preview updates ot install.
2. I have installed it in a 11 years old computer, and no problems at all.
3. Making a big drama over a bluescreen for an updated labeled as preview is ridiculous.
This is probably another BS internet drama where people ran programs and scripts that modified the registry until they broke Windows, just for removing stuff that they weren’t even using just for the sake of it.
Maybe people should stop playing geeks and actually either use Windows 10 or Windows 11, but don’t try to modify things just for the sake of it.
Sometimes removing or stopping things (like defender is a perfect example) only need intelligence, not scripts or 3rd party programs that might mess with windows.
Windows 11 was a pointless release, it was just created because some of the Windows team wanted to boost sales with some sort of new and improved Windows 10. Instead, Microsoft cannot support one version well let alone two.
Windows 11 is the worst ugly shame by Microsoft ever. They should release with every new W11 version a complete free version of Starallback inside just to make this sh** OS functionally again.
motherboard maker MSI has recently released a statement regarding the “unsupported processor” blue screen error for their boards using Intel 600/700 series chipsets & to avoid the KB5029351 Win11 update:
https://www.msi.com/news/detail/MSI-On–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–Error-Message-of-Windows-11-Update-KB5029351-Preview-142215
check out the following recent articles:
Neowin – Microsoft puts little blame on its Windows update after UNSUPPORTED PROCESSOR BSOD bug:
https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-puts-little-blame-on-its-windows-update-after-unsupported-processor-bsod-bug/
BleepingComputer – Microsoft blames ‘unsupported processor’ blue screens on OEM vendors:
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-blames-unsupported-processor-blue-screens-on-oem-vendors/
While there may be changes or updates to the Windows 10 Store for Business and Education in the future, it is premature to conclude that it will be discontinued based solely on rumors.
My advice, I left win 15 years ago. Now I’m a happy linux user (linuxmint) but there is Centos, Fedora, Ubuntu depending on your needs.
motherboard maker MSI has recently released new BIOS/firmware updates for their Intel 600 & 700 series motherboards to fix the “UNSUPPORTED_PROCESSOR” problem (Sept. 6):
https://www.msi.com/news/detail/Updated-BIOS-fixes-Error-Message–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–caused-BSOD-on-MSI-s-Intel-700-and-600-Series-Motherboards-142277