Could they do it? Deactivate Windows licenses, block Cloud services, access to Office 365 and whatnot?
- They can deactivate cloud services likely on a press of a button, for all EU IP addresses.
- If there’s a killswitch in Windows, yes. Otherwise they can still selectively put out an update that would lock up your PC and disable it from functioning, possibly even wiping any and all drives in the PC completely clean.
The likelihood of this scenario is small outside of either the USA invading Europe, or Trump giving the EU to Russia or other powers, while Trump promising MS no taxes and regulations for a given period.
The UD absolutely could, but Microsoft couldn’t without facing massive legal trouble. That is, if the US legal system follows through and actually enforces EU court orders.
Regardless, unless specifically being forced to do so by the US, Microsoft wouldn’t have any reason to leave a billions-dollars market
Yes, IIRC they already did this for Russia.
Can we ask them to turn off all the Xbox services and Activision-Blizzard games in russia as well? Overwatch should be illegal in there anyway because of the “gay propaganda”
Id like russians to start getting banned for the same shit english speaking people do. In english the word “ho” is censored and met with a warning, meanwhile russians can string together 20 slurs and an legitimate, non joke call for genocide and nothing happens. And if you point that out you get called a racist.
Overwatch should be illegal in there anyway because of the “gay propaganda”
Good luck with that one. As long as Overwatch is free to play, they can just make new accounts with an EU VPN. No way to tie the account owner to their country of origin unless they fork over that info voluntarily, such as by having to make an online purchase.
I think they have to register a valid phone number to play ranked, unless that restriction got removed
Maybe if we ask nicely.
Stopping Windows from running, probably not. MS could stop sending updates and could deactivate it, but it would mostly keep running. And, if any EU/Russian systems were not connected to the internet (yes, this sort of thing still happens in 2025), nothing MS did would matter. Office/Azure and other cloud based services are more vulnerable. Yes, Microsoft could geo-fence those services such that they did nor work if you were coming from an IP address in EU/Russia. Though, the simple workaround for this is to install a VPN. And given US sanctions on Russia, this is probably happening right now anyway.
As much as the tin-foil hat crowd likes to think about MS having some master control switch, it’s incredibly unlikely. The problem with backdoors is that hackers are constantly looking for ways to attack systems, especially Windows. If there was some sort of master “off switch” baked into the code, it’s likely some one would have stumbled upon it by now. Even if it’s that well hidden, it’s a “one use” item with high reputational damage attached. Stop and consider for a moment, what happens when that kill switch gets used? It’s going to be picked up on. People record internet traffic for fun. As soon as that kill command went out, security researchers, the world over, would be dissecting logs to find the command, and then it would be reversed engineered. That MS had such a kill switch in their codebase would cause massive distrust in MS software going forward. No one would want to take the risk of having that kill switch running in their environment, certainly not on anything critical. Also, given how bad people are at updating Windows, we’d probably see a lot of systems killed by hackers just doing hacker things. Since the versions with the kill code would be know, you’d get bored teenagers searching Shodan for vulnerable systems and sending the kill command for fun. And all of this would be “Microsoft’s fault” for having the backdoor. It would be a PR nightmare. And since everyone would now know what the kill command looked like, anyone who mattered would install filters to block it at the firewall. So, it got used once, caused some damage with a lot of damage to MS’s reputation but is now neutralized. Was it worth it? Probably not to Microsoft.
Without security updates it would quickly be a nightmare to use windows.
Anyone remembers installing xp from a CD? It didn’t have security updates, and accepted all kind of trash right in from the internet right away by default lol.
Absolutely
It would be the biggest self-own in history but apparently the yanks are into that these days.
That, yes, and maybe Microsoft wouldn’t be the one pulling the trigger? I mean, with prism the NSA had access to most internet traffic between the US and the rest of the world, I think. Who knows what mechanisms there are in place, and what this government might decide to do?
Time to enjoy free open source clones
Sadly I’ve found nothing as good for spellcheck
How about a dedicated third-party service like Grammarly?
My family used that a lot but in trying to keep my research private I prefer to not use something proprietary. Which hurts me a little bit… :/
I think I understand. I don’t know how Grammarly compares to Microsoft Office in terms of privacy though.
What I mean is since I got into selfhosting services via my servers I try to keep as much data as I can in my own home. I know Microsoft Office calls to home so I try to stick to FOSS which I can guarantee doesn’t. I also don’t know but I bet grammarly does call home a lot since they use AI as well now.
It’s still a good recommendation, so thank you! I know it does help my family more than word typically, so it’s a good product.
I see, I misunderstood then. From your first post that I replied to, I assumed that you were using Microsoft Office. Sorry for the confusion. You’re welcome! I’ve never used it myself, but I get the impression that it works well.
Thanks! :) If I ever have a stressful paper my mother still helps me to this day and I think they go through that. So still inadvertently helping me lol
Have you tried: https://github.com/languagetool-org/languagetool
I’m very happy with it!
I’d leave the clone part out
Fingers crossed.
Technically yes, but bypasses are easily and widely available for all non-cloud stuff. MS licenses are a joke for anyone already unconcerned about following the rules. MASgrave is your friend in that regard.
Also, Microsoft fucked over the IRS to degree that they still haven’t recovered from when the IRS tried to get them to stop using tax loopholes more than a decade ago. They aren’t going to let the US government bully them. You have to remember that MS has the US government IT infrastructure by the balls, for better or worse.
Technically, yes. But it would be the end for Microsoft.
A large part of what makes Microsoft products better then the alternatives is everyone else uses them. LibreOffice is good enough, as are a few other options. However everyone you work with is using Microsoft office and the differences are just annoying enough as to make it better for you to get on the Microsoft train. Likewise KDE and GNome are both good enough desktops (on whatever kernel), as is MacOS, but since everyone else is on Windows it will be easier for you to be as well. If significant numbers of people were using something else then it would no longer be easier for you to choose Microsoft. Europe is large enough that forcing them to switch will for large parts of the rest of the world to rethink. My company as offices in Europe, if those offices are no longer on Microsoft it becomes easier for IT to say lets move everyone to something else.
I disagree. That was the situation 10 years ago.
Now what makes Microsoft products better is integration.
As a business, you could research, buy, deploy, configure and maintain an office suite, a messenging app, a collaboration tool, an SSO provider, a cloud storage solution, an intranet presence, an MDM system, and a PBX, host all of that on your own servers, which you keep patched, watch over resources, storage, etc.Or you just get an M365 license for every employee.
If you have major downtime with the first option, you risk your job.
If you have major downtime with the second one, you can blame Microsoft, knowing that half the companies in the world are having the same issue right now.
As surely as you could set $100,000 of your own money on on fire, yeah.
They could block Windows licenses going forward, but it wouldn’t impact all the activations already done. Windows is not a subscription.
Despite their best efforts.
Give it 3 years… “Your operating system license has expired, renew now for $150/year.”
Unfortunately for them, my relationship with Microsoft expired last year.
Yes and no.
For non-cloud stuff, the EU would quickly legitimize cracks that circumvent anything they would try.
For Cloud stuff, they can more easily turn that off, but then they would need to forfeit all their EU business and assets.
Would they legitimize cracks, though? I can’t see that happening. That would be a far reaching legal precedent.
Sure. But don’t worry, our bright leaders have obviously considered that tiny little potential but veeeeeeery unlikely issue the day they decided to rely on US-tech. They must have a backup plan. They did have a backup, right?
Beside Windows and Office, thinking about all the European data that US clouds have been tasked to ‘safekeep’ for us by our so very lucid leaders, the same leaders that have persistently refused to listen to the few people around here telling them that maybe that was not the fucking smartest idea ever to let go of that control on our essential data… I do wonder how many vital, key or even just nice to have European services will instantly stop working if the US was to ever pull the plug?
I also wonder if my bank would still be able to work? And what about my medical data?
Not that our US friends would ever do such a thing to their dearest European allies, obviously they love us (read the last few paragraphs).
USA + EU = BFF & <3
