Could Microsoft/the USA technically turn off Windows and Office for Europe?
Could they do it? Deactivate Windows licenses, block Cloud services, access to Office 365 and whatnot?
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"
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.
Not really, they just made it harder to get windows and office
You can install and use windows just fine, but you can’t download it from Microsoft
The online office installer will not work in Russia (it also adds a registry key, so it won’t work even with a VPN)
The offline office installer works fine
Activation seems fine
Microsoft has the ability to do this if they really wanted to. It would completely destroy their business if they did, though, so they won't. I mean, who would keep using Microsoft products if the company was willing to just take it away from you at a moment's notice?
The US government cannot do it so easily. They'd have to order Microsoft to do so. Microsoft would resist and take it to court. The US Court system makes a LOT of really fucked up rulings, but the one thing they do reliably is side with big business. I'm inclined to think that in this hypothetical showdown, the courts would side with Microsoft.
I mean... If you take the leaks by Snowden (iirc?) seriously, there's a good possibility the CIA or other intelligence agencies have backdoors in everything.
Not like loads of militaries care.
They either use Linux (probably not BSD (or maybe they do?!) or outdated af Windows NT/XP/embedded 7/Server versions.
I'd honestly not expect them to at least use Windows 10 IoT or an embedded modern version.
I mean our banks still used Windows 7 or Server 2012 for their ATMs.
And they are network connected lol
I'm sure that if a government has information that's so sensitive they'll store it on servers that run some sort of proprietary OS, or maybe not digitally at all.
Isn't it even part of US law? And why big organization request their data to be hosted in their country?.
I thought this was far more than just Snowden
Maybe if we ask nicely.
Yes, technically they could cause massive disruptions. Not likely they will.
To expand on point 2, Europe is already home to two major competitors to Windows (one headquartered within the EU) as well as competitors in other fields, so they would also have an easier time (as a bloc) than many other places, who don't have local competitors I nearly as good a position.
Microsoft is an Eldritch hydra monstrosity. I think it has become its own civilization. I think it's so large that it just exists as a self sustaining chaos phenomena. I don't think the organization can make a decision. One department of thousands makes a decision. And they all jostle about breaking each other's shit every other day.
Of course they could. One update could render the system worthless or come with malware that infests systems in the network.
Oh, so just another Patch Tuesday then.
Yep. The idea that microsoft can "do nothing" to a system that isn't hosted on their servers is pure delusion - or ignorant. They haven't thought more deeply about being evil, which is quite cute actually.
Sure, but they like money, so not happening.
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.
I mean, yes, but there are ways around it. Windows could have a public key embebed somewhere and the private counterpart gives access, the command could depend on the time it's received, so it's never the same and without the private key it's impossible to reproduce, and the Killswitch could be non-instantaneous, combine all of that and you have a Killswitch that:
And I'm not even a cryptographer, people who come up with new encryption protocols can surely do a lot better than my naive example above which would make it almost impossible for someone to figure out.
Don't threaten me with a good time!
They can send all of their online services like Office 365 and Copilot, as well as sales or registration of Windows very quickly. I wish they would! I'd love to see Linux and Libreoffice take over, and maybe a new European player on the market. That would be a boon for consumers worldwide.
I can't imagine a better result.
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
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.
Time to enjoy free open source clones
I'd leave the clone part out
Sadly I’ve found nothing as good for spellcheck
How about a dedicated third-party service like Grammarly?
Have you tried: https://github.com/languagetool-org/languagetool
I'm very happy with it!
Yes, no problem with those rented licences.
Yes but not legally. They are also legally bound to EU laws, which would protect the clients that bpught the software. But! Just like plenty of companies pulled out of Russia, if the US does not care and decides ro enable this behavior then they could do it without too much trouble.
But I doubt this would happen, the EU is a big part of their income, and money is what they care about.
Haven't used a Microsoft product at home in years, at work though is a very different story. Everything is Microsoft and its horrible and frustrating.
Fingers crossed.
Now with 365, they can ban you from your own computer by simply flipping a variable from 0 to 1.
And it wouldn't matter if you tried to reinstall the machine, as long as the HW identifiers on the machine are the same the ban will stop the machine from be used after being connected to the internet.
Source? That would be useful for helping convince friends/family to switch to Linux and LibreOffice.
I have no explicit source for this scenario, but I am a 365 admin and extrapolated from my knowledge of Intune.
The way I see it, there is nothing actually preventing Microsoft from blocking computers from using personal 365.
Just look at the autopilot service in intune, you add a machine to it using either a machine ID or a serial number, then it is locked to that tenant and can't be used outside of that with windows.
There is no checking of actual ownership of the device, and once a device is added to autopilot, it will prompt for a tenant logon even after a complete reinstall.
This means that MS will check any computer that checks in with their servers for their ID and s/n, and against a blocklist.
I mean there's no sources cause (as far as I can tell) Microsoft isnt planning on nuking their market share.
But with 365, you get the cloud subscription. So that means OneDrive and Office files/emails being accessible in the cloud. Which, to be fair, is largely a really useful thing and besides OneDrive being a piece of shit program I don't hear any complaints about that being available.
Then when you install Windows it grabs a bunch of hardware IDs. This is things like what memory, CPU, graphics, drives, etc that you have installed and creates a "hardware key" that allows you to activate windows. When it does this, it sends that information off to Microsoft. According to Microsoft, it's to stop you from using a license key multiple times. But in my experience it doesn't really matter anymore.
But theoretically (and I really can't stress how far fetched this really is) Microsoft could mark your account as inactive which would cause you to lose access to all of your cloud files, and could theoretically (again, i can't stress how unlikely this is) brick your OS install. Then if you try to reinstall, it would already know your computer and prevent the installer from continuing.
And again, I know I've beaten this horse, but the chances of this happening are so close to zero, they may as well be.
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.
They would immediately nationalize Microsofts Europe operations and the crack would be an official patch signed and released by Microsoft Europe.
No sick ASCII art though.
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.
They could, but so could any other cloud provider. The main difference is that with a European based provider there is hopefully not a likely scenario where they would do this.
As surely as you could set $100,000 of your own money on on fire, yeah.
It hasn't, though. They just ended support for older versions of Windows. You can still use those versions. The question being asked is if they can actually stop you from using Windows, to which the answer is most likely no.
Absolutely
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
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.
Update could brick your computer intentionally, and on a regional basis. Could steel your data. Mix of love, loyalty and money for US government and its global dominance all that is needed.
Is that a promise?
I mean, technically yes, but also no, because Microsoft is a private company, so it would be up to Bill Gates, and Bill Gates wouldn't do that.
Wat.
Bill Gates will come and say "no!" and microsoft will make a sad face and say "okay." and then bill gates will call my uncle at steam and ban microsoft from playing rocket league.
Bill Gates would never lose out on $$ by banning access to use windows from Europe.
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?