Class Action Lawsuit Launched Over Forced Windows 10 Upgrades (courthousenews.com)

Slashdot reader AmiMoJo quotes The Register: Three people in Illinois have filed a lawsuit against Microsoft, claiming that its Windows 10 update destroyed their data and damaged their computers. The complaint, filed in Chicago's U.S. District Court on Thursday, charges that Microsoft Windows 10 [installer] is a defective product, and that its maker failed to provide adequate warning about the potential risks posed by Windows 10 installation -- specifically system stability and data loss... The attorneys representing the trio are seeking to have the case certified as a class action that includes every person in the U.S. who upgraded to Windows 10 from Windows 7 and suffered data loss or damage to software or hardware within 30 days of installation. They claim there are hundreds or thousands of affected individuals.
Microsoft responded that they'd offered free customer service and other support options for "the upgrade experience," adding "We believe the plaintiffs' claims are without merit." But the complaint argues Windows 10's installer "does not check the condition of the PC and whether or not the hard drive can withstand the stress of the Windows 10 installation," according to Courthouse News, which adds that the lead plaintiff "says her hard drive failed after Windows 10 installed without her express approval, and she had to buy a new computer."

Comments

Been waiting for something like this....

[LVSlushdat]

I used/supported/admin'ed Windows for 20 years, and when I retired in 2010, I decided I was done with anything MS, and went 100% Linux on all of my home systems.. After seeing and reading about all of the abuse that MS heaps on those who, for whatever reason, still use Windows, I couldn't be happier with my decision to quit making a contribution (however small) to MS's continued ability to screw up people's computing. Frankly I'm surprised it took this long to get a class action suit against MS going.. Good luck to the firm that is taking this case.. Hope they kick MS squarely in the 'nads... Couldn't happen to a more appropriate target...

Re:suure

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes pumpkinhead.. because Microsoft never voided good programming practice.. and was never deceitful about presenting an upgrade to Windows 10 to their users. Get back under your rock you useless troll. Obviously you are uniformed as to the lengths that MS went to increase the percentage of Windows 10 users.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/3073457/windows/how-microsofts-nasty-new-windows-10-pop-up-tricks-you-into-upgrading.html

Peace out you uniformed pisshead.

Re:suure

[mexsudo]

hard drives breaks; needs to buy whole new computer...

The kind of people that don't recognize (or stop) an operating system upgrade are the same kind of people that need to pay Geek Squad to replace their hard drive and reinstall the OS and applications -- at a price that's likely close to the price of buying a new low-end computer.

how about walking away and coming back a few hours later and the damage is already done?

Re:Wow

[thegarbz]

It is very possible that EFI went corrupt after an upgrade.

So a hardware problem unrelated but potentially shown by the upgrade process. I hope this gets thrown out of court. Really the target should be the idiot manufacturers who allow a computer to get into this state through means of software.

As for the harddrive failing that is also unrelated. Installing Windows 10 doesn't do anything magic to it or stress it in any meaningful way. If you're HDD wasn't able to cope with moving 25-35GB of data around then you have nothing to blame for your dataloss than your crappy failing hardware and lack of suitable backup processes.

Re: suure

[Opportunist]

Ah. I see you have no Thunderbolt card, no gaming mouse or keyboard, no soundcard that offers more than onboard quality, no flight stick/pedal system, no head tracking device, no VR system, ...