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Microsoft Backtracks On 'Nasty Trick' Upgrade To Windows 10 (bbc.co.uk)
Reader Raging Bool writes: Days after angering many users with its so-called "nasty trick", Microsoft has reversed its crazy decision to infuriate users by upgrading them to Windows 10 automatically. Users were angry that clicking the cross to dismiss the box meant that they had agreed to the upgrade. Based on "customer feedback", Microsoft said it would add another notification that provided customers with "an additional opportunity for cancelling the upgrade". Microsoft told the BBC it had modified the pop-up as a result of criticism: "We've added another notification that confirms the time of the scheduled upgrade and provides the customer an additional opportunity for cancelling or rescheduling the upgrade. If the customer wishes to continue with their upgrade at the designated time, they can click 'OK' or close the notifications with no further action needed."
Agreed. Fuck you, Microsoft. I had already trained my 9yo son to press the X to close the upgrade window whenever he might see it (he uses my computer more than I). Saturday morning, Windows 10 was installed. Goddamn it.
For all the people that were already tricked or forced into the upgrade. I know of several people who said no each and every time they were prompted for the upgrade, and yet, when they came back to their PC after being away a few days to find that their PC was now on Windows 10 waiting to show them "all the nice new unwanted telemetry, spying and all-around ass-hattery" that M$ had forced on them.
One thing is certain, the people at Microsoft are extremely disrespectful to their users. They just don't care. I wonder how many users were tricked with this little stunt? I wonder how many of those people had their computer broken by it? How many of them just bought new computers? A new computer is a terrible way to get people to switch to Windows 10!
This is common across the ad industry now. Either a fake "X", that takes you to some shitty app or website, or the "close" button brings up AdChoices's "is this ad bad?" menu. This started back in the days of Bonzi Buddy, and is a common trick. Ad blocking extensions have stopped that problem on the desktop, but it is a chronic thing on iOS.
Seriously, what kind of sadistic fucks come up with these idiotic schemes?
The marketing people, likely under the pressure of getting adoption rates up to the C-levels' expectations.
What happened here was they crossed a line into doing something that was directly comparable to malware, and I bet their legal department stepped in to say this was a bad idea.
People keep asking in the comments on these stories why no civil/criminal charges have been brought against Microsoft for these "forced upgrades" and here is an example of the company actually worrying about that.
Isn't that exactly what they were doing already in the criticized "nasty trick" dialog?
Let me quote from the slashdot submission on that thing:
"This means dismissing the box does not dismiss the update."
And now it reads:
"If the customer wishes to continue with their upgrade [...] they can [...] close the notifications with no further action needed"
So they are "listening to user feedback" by doing the exact same thing a second time?
Seriously two simple solutions, either A) Google Aegis Script Windows 7 or B) Format and install Linux.
I picked option B, and installed Linux Mint (dual boot) on my laptop. Works like a charm .
Windows upgraded the Win 7 on the Windows partition to Win 10 without permission, and promptly locked me out by asking for anon-existent login and password. I was able to do the "make it fail 3 times when booting" trick and revert to Win 7 on that partition, but it was too little too late. I doubt I'll ever boot into Windows on the laptop again because Mint seems to be working just fine. The best part of doing system updates on Mint is that (so far, anyway) I've never had to reboot after the updates.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Sure thing, remove the feature after all the damage has been already done. This was a calculated move, and everybody knows that. There were voices inside the company who said this was a bad idea, but execs took the Pinto route and calculated the PR damage to be less than the market share gains. Shows us just how crooked they are under all the sweet talk.
My wife was infuriated when her computer suddenly started installing Windows 10. That was the last straw for her, she decided to buy a Mac.
-SR
I think the problem is users are confusing the dialog
And that's the point! They want to defer away from that fact they are going shove Windows 10 onto your PC without your explicit acceptance. They are doing this whole notification, 'x' mark , brew haha, to detract from that very fact. They don't want to discussion to be about whether it is OK to force WIndows 10 on, they want it to be about the hoops users jump through in resisting! And it appears, they, and the media, are doing quite well to portray that message.
As others have said, this is fucking criminal.
Once again, I'd actually considered purchasing a new PC/Tablet with Windows installed. Why? Because once again, I'm always willing to give them a try, and see what their offer has in store. And just when I go to start looking, they start pulling the 'forced' Windows 10 shit, upon non-10 OS's. F you Microsoft. You will get nothing from of my pocket!
Doesn't Windows auto-generate a System Restore Point when you do an "Upgrade"/"Update"?
Two problems with this:
1) The installation and subsequent restore take a significant amount of time (we're talking 2-3 hours on a laptop hdd). My mom experienced the joys of this when her computer spontaneously decided to update in the middle of her typing a report for work. It took 2 hours to install windows 10 (no way to stop it once it starts), and then another 2 hours to restore back to windows 8.1 when I declined the windows 10 EULA.
2) If the computer can't boot to windows 10 after the "upgrade", restoring it back to the previous OS as if nothing ever happened gets complicated (if not impossible). I haven't experienced it firsthand, but other slashdot users have reported windows 10 spontaneously installing on older computers that couldn't support it and basically requiring a clean reinstall in order to work.