With the rollout of the Windows 8 operating system expected later this year, millions of desktop and laptop PCs will get kill switches for the first time. Microsoft hasn’t spoken publicly about its reasons for including this capability in Windows 8 beyond a cryptic warning that it might be compelled to use it for legal or security reasons.

Microsoft declined to answer questions about the kill switch in Windows 8 other than to say it will only be able to remove or change applications downloaded through the new app store. Any software loaded from a flash drive, DVD, or directly from the Web will remain outside Microsoft’s control.

Doesn't seem that big a deal.

Have you tried 8 yet? From what I have seen so far I'm not sure that I'll be using the "app store" anyway.

It is already bad enough with the introduction in Vista's of signed driver enforcement. This removes control from the user and places it in the hands of some USA corporation where the user has no say about what is allowed or not.

Are you happy about MS being able to delete and alter things on your system without your permission?

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/the-kill-switch-comes-to-the-pc-02162012.html wrote:

With the rollout of the Windows 8 operating system expected later this year, millions of desktop and laptop PCs will get kill switches for the first time. Microsoft hasn’t spoken publicly about its reasons for including this capability in Windows 8 beyond a cryptic warning that it might be compelled to use it for legal or security reasons.

FWIW: No, I haven't tried W8. I shall be avoiding it for as long as possible. Although I do expect I will eventually be forced to use it sometime in the future. The interface looks awful; too simplistic and dumbed down. Doing anything more than content consumption or online shopping appears to be out of the sphere of the intended purpose.

I'm not convinced this the the proper way to examine it. I get a bad feeling when companies feel they have a right to meddle with end user's equipment. Apple already does it, Amazon with the Kindle, Google with the Android and now MS want to get a piece of the Big-Brother-is-in-control pie.

The article talks about restriction of that function to software loaded via the app store only.

I agree, OS's seem to be designed for your average teenager (including ubuntu's latest), can we get back to OS's for adults!

while in reality it is more likely the first step to MS controlling everything you do with it.

I get concerned that societal pressures will force so many (like myself) into either accepting it or going out of business.

Lack of choice is not a good thing IMO.

Are there any other ARM OS's that can run on ARM hardware for W8?

I think if one is clever enough to write your own hobby OS then they are probably clever enough to remove the restriction from the BIOS.

Is the ROM OTP or can you read/write it? If it were me I'd probably look at it from that side rather than messing with keys, i.e. allow non secure booting.

So if you buy an ARM based device with W8 then forget about booting another OS, ever. It's W8 for life! Long live W8. MS is definitely taking away user choice and instead pandering to big-media to offer a "secure" device that users will want so that they can watch and listen to only authorised content.

So, it looks like just another company acting like Apple.

But does it really? I mean, they now have a backdoor into my system, how much would it take for the to gain full control?

I don't think that UEFI secure boot works like Microsoft want. Okay now they make requirements for their new OS and want to be secure boot as default on motherboards. So other OS won't be able to be installed on those motherboards without changing something (what the general user not want to nor does have know how for that).

But till now there is no mainboard producer which supports Microsoft's requirements regarding secure boot. So the last word is not spoken in this film. Microsoft can want many things, if nobody supports it they can not do nothing than produce own Microsoft PC's. But this won't happen.