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Microsoft Will Resume Pushing Windows 10 To Machines With Win7, 8.1 (computerworld.com)

Posted by Soulskill on from the ready-or-not-here-they-come dept.

LichtSpektren writes: After previously apologizing on October 16th for forcing Windows 10 on some users of Windows 7 and 8.1 via the Windows Update mechanism, Microsoft disabled the default update option for Windows 10, so that users eligible for the new OS would have to opt in manually. Gregg Keizer at ComputerWorld reports today that Microsoft will soon switch the default option back to "on" again, possibly as early as tomorrow's "Patch Tuesday" update. Users who do not want Windows 10 are strongly advised to turn off automatic updating to avoid accidentally installing the OS.

4 of 665 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Let's be clear by LichtSpektren · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Sorry, you're mistaken. Read the comments on Ars Technica for the previous article: once the Windows 10 update was accidentally downloaded, it couldn't be stopped, only rescheduled. Some users had to go through the full update and then do the full regression back to Windows 7.

  2. To those saying it can't be installed accidentally by LichtSpektren · · Score: 4, Interesting

    My coworker left automatic updates on her computer (Windows 7 Professional). She left for the weekend Friday. Came back Monday and Windows 10 was installed.

    I have also read some comments on Ars Technica's article that some users could not find any way to interrupt the installation, only hard reboot, or wait for the full installation to finish and then regress back to 7.

  3. Re:I understand the consternation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    > It'll merely be downloaded to your machine

    Yup - it did this to me...
    On a machine that connects to the internet via a 3G dongle...
    With a 500MB/month data plan...

    Downloading both win8.1 and 10.0 (without asking) cost us in the region of 150 GBP.

  4. Re:Not acceptable. by Obfuscant · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Microsoft now has Windows 7 users shutting off auto updates to stop this.

    I've had to shut off auto-updates for a very long time. My graduate students are VERY unhappy when they start a week-long model run and a few days later the computer has rebooted to install a needless update.

    Windows 10, as I understand it, makes this problem worse.

    I don't know what is in the mind of the Microsoft people. They finally get an OS that is stable enough it can run for a week without needing to be rebooted (or rebooting on its own) and they decide you have to reboot anyway.