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Microsoft Asked To Compensate After Windows 10 Update Bricked PCs (www.bgr.in)
Microsoft has been asked to pay compensation to customers who suffered malfunctions on their PCs when upgrading to Windows 10. Several customers have complained in the past one year about issues such as their computer upgrading to Windows 10 without their consent, and high-data usage due to automatic downloads of Windows 10 installation files in the background. The consumer watchdog has told Microsoft to "honor consumers' rights" and compensate those who have faced issues because of Windows 10. From a report:"Many people are having issues with Windows 10 and we believe Microsoft should be doing more to fix the problem," said Alex Neill, director of policy at Which? Of 2,500 people surveyed, who had upgraded to Windows 10, more than 12 percent said they ended up rolling back to their previous version of the operating system. More than half stated that this was because the upgrade had adversely affected their PC. "We rely heavily on our computers to carry out daily activities so, when they stop working, it is frustrating and stressful," Alex Neill, Director of Campaigns and Policy, was quoted as saying.
The problem is not unclear. It is, however, non-specific other than innumerable issues were caused by Windows 10 upgrades where drivers weren't available or worse. Our shop estimated that about ten percent of our income for the past year was Windows 10 related, most were problems. One was quite serious when a Microsoft GWX notification came up and informed a local Township treasurer than her Dell XPS Windows 7 laptop was compatible with Windows 10 and was ready to be upgraded. It was not compatible, as she painfully learned. The Windows 10 Pro installation prevented booting due to a fingerprint reader driver not being updated by Dell, and Microsoft did not design Windows 10 to automatically install the existing driver in such cases We did a clean install of Windows 7 to get her up and running again. Dell's website clearly stated that her XPS model should not be updated to Windows 10. And yet somehow Microsoft did not get the message, or simply didn't care to check with all OEM databases for compatibility. There must be many thousands of stories like this one where a properly functioning PC was rendered unusable thanks to Microsoft's lack of quality assurance with Windows 10.
I'm surprised this isn't getting more traction. A manufacturing facility not far from me is heavily reliant on Telepacific (If anyone knows, they have lousy expensive service and mostly the only choice in industrial areas), had all his PC's downloading the Windows 10 upgrade on a T1. Suffice to say, his network was dead slow for over a week until I came in and just pretty much blocked Microsoft completely on his firewall. Not a good solution, but it kept his business from going under because they couldn't reply to emails.
Worst of all, that still didn't stop some PC's finding a way around it. The whole Windows 10 upgrade was like a virus trying to find a way to download itself. Unfortunately I can't move him to Linux like I did my facility since he would need a competent IT guy there (Even though half his work is done through a putty console, yeah) and the current IT guy there is barely competent in anything Windows.
That wasn't the only woes I've seen. I've seen a multi-million dollar bottling machine grind to a halt because of the Windows 10 upgrade (To my amusement in front of me) and I've seen a CNC machine just stop working requiring a complete software overhaul because of the Windows 10 upgrade (Which wasn't so amusing because I needed the parts). Perhaps it's the manufacturers and the owners fault for using/requesting Windows in the first place (I've made my agreements force manufacturers to use Linux, or no deal, I don't know why people are afraid of doing this), but Microsoft should definitely be liable for this.
Wow you are completely unaware of the real world. Your total lack of understanding of the intricacies of this issue speak to your profound level of ignorance, coupled with your complete lack of empathy.
It's not as simple as you would like to make it. Businesses can't just simply port to Linux or Mac if the software they use are not compatible with or made for those platforms.
Microsoft used malware tactics to force Windows 10 on unsuspecting customers, who should have a legal right to refuse a different OS from the one they purchased. They didn't purchase licenses for Windows 10, they purchased licenses for Windows XP, 7, or 8. Nobody ever expected Microsoft to force an OS change, because they never have in the past. When Windows Vista rolled out, it was an offered upgrade for XP users, but they never strong-armed them into it. Same for when Windows 7 came out. They offered an upgrade to windows 7 from Vista, but it was voluntary, and was never forced upon the end-user.
This Windows 10 OS upgrade was at first a voluntary upgrade. You had the option to decline. They changed that a few months ago when they changed the GWX application to essentially force or trick unsuspecting users into upgrades they didn't want or need. They used malware tactics(i.e. remove the ability to close out of the prompts, forcing them to click the 'Upgrade' option(because there wasn't another option at the time), or if hitting the "X" to close the window still initiated the upgrade, or making people "schedule" the upgrade for later, still forcing it to happen because there wasn't an opt-out choice), and in the process they crippled business that are stuck with legacy software for one reason or another(i.e. costs), and ruined numerous PC's whose owners lost data because the Windows 10 upgrade crashed their machine, requiring a factory OS re-install. I know this first-hand because I used to do support for the MS Surface tablets and we had and endless number of customers call in who couldn't get their tablet to boot windows anymore due to corrupted/incomplete upgrades, and the only option we had was a factory OS re-install. Their data was essentially gone unless they were smart enough to back it up somewhere.