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Microsoft Removes the 'X' From Windows 10 Update Leaving No Way Out (theregister.co.uk)

simpz writes: The Register reports that Microsoft has changed the Windows 10 update dialog and no longer shows the "X" close button. They say once agreed to there is no obvious back-out method and it is now out of step with Microsoft's own documentation on this. They have a screenshot of this. As noted above, the latest move is out of step with Microsoft's Knowledge Base documentation, which says you can re-schedule your upgrade.

14 of 664 comments (clear)

  1. Unbelievable. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The power of inertia is incredible. I can't imagine putting up with a vendor that treats their customers this way.

  2. Hahahahaha FANTASTIC by cfalcon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Technically this is an improvement- it is no longer a dark pattern, there's no more trick. Obviously the sane thing to do is to simply stop forcing this OS change on the users, but each Windows 10 user must generate so much ad revenue that it is worth trying to stomp out each and every one.

    Anyway, whatever. Install Linux, that's your only long term fix. You can turn off updates in Windows 7 or 8, or you can get some binary that tries to fight Microsoft on this, or you can do some doodlefuck in the registry. The point is, you're fighting the OS distributor, who is no longer trustworthy. Install Linux, or you must like this shit.

    Shill prediction: At some point in the near future, the "free upgrade" goes away. At this point, however, they'll still offer it for free for users of assistive technology: ( https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.c... ). That's nice of them, but that *probably* means that pretty much anyone will still be able to get it for free, by turning this on. So the shill prediction is: that this becomes a "cool trick" that gets posted on forums and stuff, at some people looking to "pull one over" on Microsoft.

    Windows 10 uses you. You're the revenue source, because they sell ads. Of course they are willing to let you be a revenue source at no cost to them!

    1. Re:Hahahahaha FANTASTIC by Gadget_Guy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Installing Windows 10 is not a fix for having Microsoft forcibly update your system. Once you have Windows 10, every update acts like this and cannot be rejected.

  3. What is there to say that has not been said? by QuietLagoon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Microsoft is just digging itself deeper and deeper into a hole, from which it may never be able to extract itself. Enjoy your sprint to the bottom, Microsoft.

  4. This fixes a UI failure by imidan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The close button (red X) didn't work as users expected. It was a user interface failure, and Microsoft solved the problem. Now the dialog box correctly tells users, as MS intends, that their options are to upgrade now or schedule a time for upgrade. No more users getting surprised and outraged when closing the dialog box results in an unexpected Windows 10 upgrade.

    Whether or not you are a fan of MS's upgrade approach, this is a solution to the UI problem. We can still be outraged about forced upgrades, but this isn't a terrible fix.

    1. Re:This fixes a UI failure by KlomDark · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Whatever dude, I'm a long term .NET developer, and run Win10 on most of my machines. But two I do not want to upgrade. I'm getting fucked with constantly with this shit and for the first time wondering if I really want to bet my future on Microsoft. Currently without them, I can't pay my bills, but wondering if I need to make the big jump.

      I'm extremely fluent with Linux, having supported it in professional environments for big companies in my previous career. But a bit worried about all the new systemd shit as well, that's gonna make my experience a bit degraded. And no way in hell I'm going back to Systems Architecture/Engineering. But there's really not much from a programmer's point of view in Linux. It's either fucking java or some crappy interpreted language. Was looking happily at Mono, but now that Microsoft's bought Xamarin it's pretty much a dead end.

      Microsoft is really coming off as an Oracle-level asshole corp at this point. They need to stop. Really not liking the shitty direction the Satya Nadella era is bringing to them. I think he'll get ran out of town pretty soon, he demonstrates he has no respect for anyone using Microsoft products.

  5. Ransome-ware by goombah99 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It seems like a thin line between what MS is doing and what ransom wear does. Both force you to comply with some demand or lose access to your computer.

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
  6. Re:get over it by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you bought something, that doesn't give the vendor the right to later on take it away from you. And don't start with the "license" bullshit. Like any upgrade/downgrade, you should be able to accept or reject it.

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  7. Re:alt-f4 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    False. Refuse all the optional updates, accept all the critical updates. You can easily configure windows update to do this.

    I have been running windows 7 like this, and never once seen a peep about windows 10 (except on the MS website, of course).

  8. Re:Escape? by phrostie · · Score: 4, Insightful

    there is always a choice. there is always a path to escape.

    one of many.
    http://cdimage.debian.org/debi...

  9. Re:How is this legal? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you think this all stops July 29th, you're delving into some twisted fantasies far stranger than pr0n.

  10. Re:get over it by wierd_w · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "She obviously wanted it! If she didnt, why was she showing leg under that slutty red and black dress, and wearing whore makup at night like that!"

    Because that's what the "You did agree! You had had suggested updates turned on!" really amounts to.

  11. Re:Reject the EULA by CanadianMacFan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So you just waste a bunch of gigs of bandwidth (not everyone has unlimited) and time for the install and restore. Then you repeat this when it tries the update again. Plus the chance that the restore might not work properly. I'm not saying that it won't work but that it does have some negatives.

  12. Re:get over it by WheezyJoe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    disclaimer: i don't exactly have a dog in the fight, i'm a mac/unix guy.

    If you wake up one morning and find YOUR Mac has been upgraded from "El Capitan" to "Death Valley", and some of YOUR apps have completely changed appearance, other apps don't work right anymore, still others (like your favorite media app) are just plain gone and can't be recovered, and YOU have a whole new flat ugly touch-based color scheme on some but not all of your applications, YOUR menu bar has been replaced with a ribbon, some older hardware doesn't have drivers anymore, and a bunch of ads are now rolling through YOUR dock, and the EULA now says Apple reserves the right to send info about YOU back to headquarters whenever it feels like it, my guess is you won't just smile and be happy because Apple's business model is not "insane".

    it is insanity in this day and age to have to support multiple substantially different versions of an operating system for general population. its unjustifiably expensive and unsustainable.

    You got it backward. Since when does the market (i.e., consumers... us) have to bear the burden for Microsoft's "insanity"? Let's see how YOU feel about the "insanity" when it's YOUR computer that's changed overnight into a platform for promoting tablets and phones that nobody wants to buy. If YOUR dad calls YOU in the middle of the night because he can no longer figure out how to view pictures of his grandkids, are YOU gonna tell him to be silent and act like a man and accept his duty to make sacrifices wherever necessary to support our Dear Corporate Overlords? "Gee, I know it's hard, dad, but think about (Microsoft CEO) Nadella... you and mom are doing it for the good of Microsoft and Nadella."

    "Gosh, son, you're right. I guess I don't need those old picture anyhow. Hail Nadella."

    --
    Take it easy, Charlie, I've got an Angle...