Massive Backlash Building Over Windows 10 Upgrades (fortune.com)

Some Windows users are now disabling critical updates on their systems rather than face the prospect of mistakenly upgrading to Windows 10. An anonymous reader writes: "By pushing it on users in such a heavy-handed way, Microsoft is encouraging users who have very valid reasons to stick with Windows 7/8 to perform actions that leave their machines open to attack," writes PC World's senior editor. He adds that "Over the past week, I've received more contact from readers about this issue than I have about everything else I've written over the rest of my career combined."

Now even China's official news agency is reporting that users are angry about stealthy Windows 10 upgrades, saying over 1.2 million complaints appeared on one microblogging site. It quotes a legal advisor with the Internet Society of China, who says Microsoft "has abused its dominant market position and broken the market order for fair play," saying that lawsuits would be justified over Microsoft's action. "Yang Shuo, a worker at a Beijing-based public relations company, told Xinhua that the sudden update interrupted his drafting of a business plan and led to a meeting cancellation for a deal worth 3 million yuan ($457,735). 'Just because I didn't see the pop-up reminder does not mean I agreed.'"
In a possibly-unrelated development, the Chinese military plans to send nuclear submarines into the Pacific Ocean.

Comments

And at the end of all this hoopla,

[jenningsthecat]

Win 10 will dominate the Windows market, the world will move on, and Microsoft will consider defending and possibly losing a massive class action suit as merely a cost of business.

What really needs to change across the board is the sizes of penalties in both civil and criminal suits against big companies. When the typical award is between 50 and 500 times what it is today, large corporations will tread more lightly. Until then, law suits, fines, etc. are just a business expense that the C-levels have already predicted and the bean counters have factored into their projections.

Re:And at the end of all this hoopla,

[jenningsthecat]

... Meanwhile, Microsoft's reputation and credibility are in tatters, probably more so with the geek and professional community than anyone else.

True. But Windows is losing share on the server side really fast, so they've probably already given that one up. Might that be why they're going all Linux-y - to pave the way for officially throwing their own server OS versions under the bus in favour of MS-branded Linux? As for the rest of the enterprise, can you see IT departments migrating their entire user base to something other than Windows? In most organizations the pain and expense of that would cause heads to roll, so anybody who wants to keep their job and/or have a good reference probably won't take the 'dump Microsoft' idea beyond the bitch and moan stage. Besides, they probably see the writing on the wall - with Cloud services pervasive and growing more so, we're likely gonna end up back at the old thin client model anyway - only this time, it will stick and become ubiquitous. Then nobody will care much about the desktop OS.

IMHO that's why we haven't seen 'the year of the Linux desktop'. Not because Linux isn't good enough, and not because Windows isn't bad enough, but because such a large-scale change is too risky for the people who would have to promote and implement it, and in a few years it's not going to matter anyway. Maybe that's where Linux will finally have a chance - as a kickass scalable, reliable thin client OS that natively does things the same way as all those servers out there.

I'm making money off it.

[Lumpy]

I am installing GRC's never10 at an alarming rate. I have had to make at least $1600 in the last week alone charging $25.00 for the 10 minutes it takes to install it on their personal computers..

Thank you once again Microsoft for making the IT guys job more relevant than ever, at this rate I'll be able to afford a vacation home by fall.

That only works until Microsoft...

[Anonymous Coward]

adds a workaround. I did a couple of different registry tricks, but I still ended up with 10 on my 7 desktop this week without my permission.

Re:They did it to themselves

[Hognoxious]

This is what happens when millenials and hipsters make decisions. They're incapable of understanding that someone else might see things differently to them. If they think it's a good idea, it must be a good idea, and anyone who thinks it's shit is wrong.

Why Not A Class Action Law Suit

[bigal123]

My parents were just hit with the Windows10 upgrade. I had not bothered to block it on their computer. They are older and now more confused than ever about what happened without their permissions. Many of their saved passwords were cleared out to sites. They struggle to use Windows as it is and Microsoft does not make it easy on a normal day. I truly think that a massive class action suit against Microsoft would easily win hands down.

The first law firm to step up and push it right could make some money. End users may not get a whole lot out of it, but it might make MS shut up and listen.

An no I normally don't like these types of law suits and don't like most lawyers, but this clearly shows need.

My folks were already on the verge of going to a Mac. this may push them over the edge.

Re: in other news

[vux984]

http://osxdaily.com/2016/01/04...

Option 1: Punt the iOS Update for 24 Hours

If you take this route, get used to pressing Later and Remind Me Later repeatedly, as in 24 hours you'll be asked about it again. And 24 hours later, again. And another 24 hours later, you can go through the process yet again, until you either give in or move along with another of the options below.

That was option 1. The other options are even more awesome.

Option 2: delete update and avoid wifi forever.

This deletes the available iOS update which stops the iOS update from popping up every day, however, the moment you're on a sustained wi-fi connection for a while the iOS update will download itself again automatically and start sending pop-ups to install it again.

Option 3: Accept the update.

Avoid the upgrade reminders by accepting the update. yay solution!

Option 4: Block the update domains on your firewall.

Of course this means blocking all updates for all apple devices on the LAN... and only works while you are at home; so hardly a solution at all really.

This is just as shite as Microsoft, if not worse.

Re:It's THIS EASY to stop Windows 10 Upgrades.

[Isao]

Or download and run Never10 from Steve Gibson. Makes the approved registry changes for you, and removes any pre-downloaded installation files you may have.

Re:EU should act over forced upgrades via deceptio

[Anonymous Coward]

The broken HDD is very common. Many drives, as they age, effectively become 'read only'- where the heads reliably retrieve files, but new write operations damage the surface of the aged platters.

MS just doesn't give a damn. The upgrade triggers a vast number of write operations, and as sector failures occur, Microsoft's dreadful HDD 'fix' program kick in trashing the enture drive. No yes, dribblers and creps will tediously claim this is the 'fault' of the owner for not replacing the drive when it got to this state- point the saliennt point is that the HDD faults were currently NON-CRITICAL, and the user OS settings reasonable for continued use.

Installing a new OS on an OLD machine should only be done to a new drive, SSD or memory stick. The old drive must be left alone (and yes, someone really should copy the criticla files to a new storage location- but we all know that).

Re:They did it to themselves

[Ol Olsoc]

maybe you can clarify this mystery for me.

Today's windows updates when it damn well feels like it.

Or even tricks you into it. I have one machine that pops up a blank window, always on top. nothing in it. when you try to get rid of it, it starts to install W10.

Is it just an issue of mistrust?

Is what I just described the tactics of a trustworthy company? I fear Microsoft bitching up my computer more than any malware . Though some would consider that to be redundant.