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Windows 10 Upgrade Activates By Clicking Red X Close Button In Prompt Message (bbc.co.uk)
Reader Raging Bool writes: In a move guaranteed to annoy many people, Microsoft has "jumped the shark" on encouraging users to upgrade to Windows 10. Microsoft has faced criticism for changing the pop-up box encouraging Windows users to upgrade to Windows 10. Clicking the red cross on the right hand corner of the pop-up box now activates the upgrade instead of closing the box. And this has caused confusion as typically clicking a red cross closes a pop-up notification. The upgrade could still be cancelled, when the scheduled time for it to begin appeared, Microsoft said
The change occurred because the update is now labelled "recommended" and many people have their PCs configured to accept recommended updates for security reasons. This means dismissing the box does not dismiss the update.Brad Chacos, senior editor at the PC World wrote about this incident over the weekend, and described it as a "nasty trick".
That's it, I'm getting my Commodore 64 out of the closet and booting up GEOS.
For following years of best practice of automatically installing updates on home machines.
Got it.
Perhaps you mean the white X inside the red square?
But, yeah, this is the kind of thing that malware authors use. It's pretty shady.... if people don't want to upgrade, they don't want to upgrade. You gave them the box and you downloaded (and expanded) all of the files... you have already done everything you can to "promote" Windows 10 (intrusively) on people's computers...
Why are you stooping to this Microsoft?
You may as well just not give people a "choice" at all and just install the damn thing... why the pretense of having a user click something?
My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
It seems like all adult supervision has disappeared at Microsoft.
Amusing that Microsoft wants us to love their stuff when they employ the same tactics as all the sites trying to confuse users into installing malware use.
Cant the makers of XP Antivirus 2010 issue some sort of DMCA cease and desist against Microsoft for infringing on their intellectual property? I believe they were the first ones to invent "Pressing the [ X ] button will initiate installation of said software..."
Ha! I call "FUD!" on that. Everyone ASSUMES the devil they don't know is better than the vulnerabilities that have been teased out over time (sometimes a long time) on a previous software. It can never be proven as true since time is forward.
It's been my experience that people are way more vulnerable in other ways, and most of these OS updates are dubious at best when it comes to being more secure.
An embedded firmware guy
If you don't move to Windows 10 then you deserve all the security problems you will inevitably have. GUI and "principle" issues aside - it is a smart move.
Most people should be forced to switch. If you are too dumb to prevent the switch then you are in the camp of people who should be forced to switch. The tears mean its working.
Windows 10 fits more criteria for "malware" than the most well-known malware suites do. Forcefully installs itself? Check. Spies on you? Check. Displays ads to you? Check. Uninstalls competitors' programs? Check. Doles out your security keys to people on your contact list? Check.
It's one step away from literally being ransomware.
Even Windows fanboi Thurrott is fed up ...
https://www.thurrott.com/windo...
The X button means fucking **quit**, not "minimize", you UI retards. If you're going to hijack the last 40 years of WIMP then give users an option to enable / disable this shit. Preferably the default would be OFF.
Microsoft Windows: noun, A 64-bit compilation of 32 bit extensions and a graphical shell for a 16 bit patch to an 8 bit operating system originally coded for a 4 bit microprocessor written by a 2 bit company that can't stand 1 bit of competition with 0 bit of understanding good UI.
Microsoft, you gave us this OS and introduced the masses to the concept of windows in a UI. You were even arrogant enough to name your UI Windows.
And all this time, we have gone through several iterations of your UI, but one constant has remained; the general understanding that if you click the fucking X located in a specific area of any window in your UI, it closes.
This has been by design since the dawn of Windows.
And since you've now taken the path of malware authors with this shady bullshit, we should treat you as such. It's one thing to ask users. It's one thing to force users. It's another matter entirely to trick and deceive users.
Bottom line is it's time to start the class-action lawsuit. This should not be tolerated in any way. Put another way, if malware was introduced into the core OS and deceived users against Microsoft's wishes, you better believe they would be attacking the cause of that problem and look to put a stop to it.
My wife accidentally clicked it on her admittedly elderly machine, now it won't boot up, no way to roll it back, all her files are gone.
This is different than malware... how is that?
Make a live USB/CD with Linux and retrieve the files that way.
Just one? Seeing ads on startup and being forced to share more and more information are too high a price for a "free" upgrade.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
From what I see, it schedules the upgrade, and you have to opt out by going into some other settings to cancel.
It's not that the "X" activates the upgrade - at that point, it's too late.
Still, it's very shady not to give users an obvious choice on the popup, let alone not making it an "opt in" choice.
All of my machines are running Windows 10... shrugs... at this point, all the bitching is basically all about the point of the matter. Win 10 runs fine on the machines I've installed it on (several laptops, 9 or 10 desktops, some 10+ years old). Unless you have some particularly specific niche software or hardware (that can't run in Win7, therefore, not in Win10, since the drivers are mostly the same), people really shouldn't have too many complaints.
I'd be more concerned if Microsoft was pushing people to Win8 and the crappy fail that was the Metro Start Screen. Win10 dialed it back and makes more sense in the case of a desktop/mobile hybrid OS. Still, the exec who is pushing this sort of tactic needs to be fired ASAP.
I see someone has sneaked a peak at next years' business plan.
We are upgrading your system...resistance is futile...
You're messin' with my Zen Thing, man.....
You assume that they are truly proud of what they have now. Windows 10 (especially on mobile) has been a cluster f. It shipped too early, unpolished and only barley tested (which isn't unexpected when you fire all of your testers the year before).
Pity them. Windows for desktops/laptops/devices is dying and they are desperate to make and/or keep it relevant.
The only money making that happens wrt Windows today and likely in the future is as the backend of Azure... which does sort of make you wonder given their push to CoreCLR (ie not Windows centric), at what point they fire most of the devs behind Windows, put the business into sustained engineering mode and ride the wave until it finally ends (ala Radio Shack).
Help Brendan pay off his student loans
Look, there are a zillion things that MS did which are sneaky and downright reprehensible with regards to pushing Windows 10, but this is NOT one of them. Has anybody seen the actual dialog? It is NOT a question asking whether you want to upgrade. It is only a notification informing you that your PC is scheduled to upgrade since you have recommended updates turned on. Your PC would have updated to 10 in any case even if that dialog were not to popup, because 10 is a recommended upgrade. This notification is in reality offering you a chance to opt of it - I remember "click here if you want to change your update setting or cancel the upgrade" or something of that sort. Then an OK button. Clicking on "X" is not somehow "activating" an upgrade. It actually does nothing, as required of a notification dialog - it is just letting the already scheduled upgrade proceed, which is what one should expect.
If anything is sneaky, it is TFA which portrays the dialog box in a false light. The entire media just repeats without once stopping to think - it has become fashionable in tech media to hit on MS pushing Win 10, but this kind of reporting only detracts from the credibility of reporting on all the real sneaky things that MS is doing.
Disclaimer, I do use Windows 10 on my machines at home and especially my gaming rig.
The laptops, because that was what came installed, but the gaming rig, obviously since it is actually pretty good for gaming.
I do not really mind the OS itself, but I am growing tired of this constant crap they are pulling. Like forcing my to use Bing! I fucking hate Bing. If I accidentally search with Bing, I will go to google and search again even if the Bing answer may have been correct. I HATE Bing!
I really hope that this year, with Vulcan coming online, my biggest reason for not switching to Linux will be gone. I can imagine that Steam can really help to push Linux on gaming with the HTC vive. I have ordered it myself.
I'll need to update my graphics card, but I need to see what's on tap from AMD first.
It could finally be time for the Linux desktop.
This is exactly why free software (in the vein of what Richard Stallman calls for) needs to be supported. *YOU*, the user, must own complete control over your computer and the software it runs, not developers (much of the more liberal open source licenses are about developer rights, not user rights -- big difference!) or corporations.
I know many of you would object, "But I bought this computer, it's not Microsoft's!". Well I wholeheartedly agree, but the thing is, Windows being proprietary closed source means that Microsoft has a claim to intellectual property rights. Microsoft believes that you license Windows, not own it. Essentially, they still own the software on your computer. Again, I know that *you* disagree, but it kinda doesn't matter what you think -- Microsoft has money and lawyers and they push for the outcome they want. Which is to own your computer. And if they own it, they're technically allowed to do whatever they want with it, including force upgrades. That is the nature of licensing agreements -- you agree to their licensing rules, which means they can do whatever they want.
If this bothers you, switch to a free software OS. Some flavor of Linux or even BSD. Get involved in the free software community, both the technical community (making more/better free software) and the political community (that lobbies for changes to copyright law, tries to get government to adopt open standards, etc.). We have to fight back, or you can expect more behavior like this from Microsoft, Apple, etc., in the future.
It's people like him that have caused this. Their uncritical fandom of Microsoft has encouraged Microsoft to abuse its customers ever more, resulting in the (almost) forced upgrades (downgrades?) to Windows 10.
Paul: don't start complaining now. You should have been complaining over the last 10 years.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
Yes the upgrade tactics have been heavy handed. But so has the push back, the FUD from sites like Slashdot and other supposed "tech" blogs. If you have an Android phone and are bitching about Windows 10 you're a fucking hypocrite, full stop.
Saying "Company X is doing this bad thing, but if given the chance, Company Y would do the exact same thing" does not prove that the thing is fine to do.
So no, not hypocrisy. If Google were in this situation I'd be criticizing them exactly the same.
Honestly, I can't 100% blame them. We witnessed how hard people hung onto XP. I still see companies with Windows Server 2003 in play (some of them still DEPLOY 2003). We know there are large swathes of people that simply do not accept change, no matter how good it might be (there are legitimate debates about win10 being better).
Their marketshare is not my concern. My ability to use my own computer is.
Unity? Screw that: XFCE. Slashdot Beta? Screw that: SoylentNews. Australis? Screw that: Pale Moon. UX developers DIAF
I have a headless windows 7 fileserver in my 5 person office (so, no, I'm not going to shell out bullshit money for enterprise windows, thanks). Had, actually. We got in the office this Monday and right away the accountant noticed that quickbooks was down, and thus we noticed the fileserver was offline. Hooked up a monitor and sometime over the weekend it decided to upgrade to windows 10.
No idea why shills like you keep insisting that people must be pushing the wrong button. Is the "X" button the wrong button now? Are you going to tell us we're holding the mouse wrong (cf holding the iPhone wrong)?
And people tell me that fucking with random system shit means that Linux isn't ready for the desktop
Until literally this week, there were no hardware drivers available for our receipt printers. Without GWX Control Panel, an automatic Windows 10 upgrade would literally put us out of business. Is that a good enough reason for you? Probably not.
It's one step away from literally being ransomware.
That comes in July, when it stops being free, but doesn't stop being an automatic install.
"You're copy of windows is unlicensed. Pay us $100+ or you will never see your own data again."
I wish I thought this was an exaggeration, but frankly, I expect exactly that.
Microsoft should be prosecuted for racketeering for how they've handled Windows 10.
Enjoy winning your lawsuit in a decade and getting a coupon for $10 off Office 2026.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
Their market share is not my concern. My ability to own my own computer is.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.