Man, Seeking New Copy of Windows 7 After Forced Windows 10 Upgrade, Sues Microsoft (bleepingcomputer.com)

Catalin Cimpanu, writing for BleepingComputer: An Albuquerque man has sued Microsoft and its CEO -- Satya Nadella -- seeking a fresh copy of Windows 7 or $600 million in damages. According to a civil complaint filed last week on February 14, Frank K. Dickman Jr. of Albuquerque, New Mexico, is suing Microsoft because of a botched forced Windows 10 upgrade. "I own a ASUS 54L laptop computer which has an OEM license for Windows Version 7," Dickman's claim reads. "The computer was upgraded to Windows Version 10 and became non-functional immediately. The upgrade deleted the cached, or backup, version of Windows 7." Dickman says that the laptop's original OEM vendor is "untrustworthy," hence, he cannot obtain a legitimate copy of Windows 7 to downgrade his laptop.

Comments

$600 million

[fred6666]

about 0 chances of winning

Re:$600 million

[ColdWetDog]

But the second prize is .....

Oh, you're correct.

Re:$600 million

[alvinrod]

I think the $600 million is so Microsoft just rolls over and gives him a Windows 7 key. As easy as this would be to defend in court, I have a feeling that the lawyers would love nothing more than to drag it out long enough to bill at least a reasonable fraction of that $600 million for their own efforts.

Re:$600 million

[Anonymous Coward]

This makes no sense. He has a Windows 7 key. It came with the laptop. Download the Win7 iso and re-install. Frivolous lawsuits like this are why we can't have nice things.

Re:$600 million

[Calydor]

I may be wrong, but I think once you(r computer on its own) upgrade to Win10, your Win7 key is listed on Microsoft's activation servers as no longer valid. Thus you might install Win7, but you can't activate it.

Re:$600 million

[VanGarrett]

OEM Windows keys won't activate a Retail copy of Windows. It'd actually be a hell of a lot easier for him to just use the manufacturer's installer. The OEM version of Windows has a simplified activation procedure, and the last time I had to do an install using it, I didn't even need to type in the key.

Re:$600 million

[Calydor]

Microsoft disagrees:

https://yro.slashdot.org/story...

Re:$600 million

[Anonymous Coward]

Independent computer stores often have windows disks that will install any retail or OEM version of windows 7, to match the key you have (or found on a junk PC). I've been photographing the key stickers on machines that IT scraps for quite a while.

Re:$600 million

[karnal]

HP is even more fun with this. they'll let you back up to either a USB stick or a set of CDs ONCE. Then lock you out from ever backing up that partition again.

There are ways around this, but it's still annoying.

Re:$600 million

[Cinnamon Beige]

Here's the thing though, Microsoft gave users plenty of options to not upgrade to the free Windows 10 upgrade. I believe at least a year. PEBKAC.

Microsoft didn't give users plenty of options to not upgrade to the free Windows 10 upgrade. The options that Microsoft gave, especially towards the end of the pre-release period for Win10, were that could upgrade now or later. I had to use a 3rd party application to keep them from forcibly upgrading an old Win7 box of mine whose hardware wasn't up to running Win10. I hear that towards the end, legal threats and general bad PR got them to make a public show of backing off on the "Do you want to upgrade now or later?" push, but I don't remember hearing any reports that they actually got around to having it so you could refuse the upgrade without deliberately blocking several updates among other measures, because they did things like relabel the relevant updates and those updates had their traditional vague descriptions that gave no indication that they would attempt to forcibly upgrade you.

The general theory I remember was that M$ was doing all of this to forcibly inflate the numbers early on for Win10...

Sorry, sir

[Anonymous Coward]

We're fresh out of Windows 7 due to high demand, but we still have lots of copies of Vista hanging around. Would you like one? Two? A baker's dozen?

Buddy? Pal?

Those numbers are all the same up there

[damn_registrars]

From the article:

The angry plaintiff wants a judge to force Microsoft to comply with his request in 30 days or pay up $600 million in damagesâ" albeit the judge may interpret the damages as $6 billion due to a redaction error, as the complaint reads "$6,000,000,000.00 (six hundred million dollars)."

I'd love to know how he came up with either of those numbers as being somehow reasonable. I'm not inclined to defend Microsoft in any situation, but that's a lot of money for a laptop that was bricked by an OS upgrade. There is no mention in there of him losing any data either (or having even checked to see if any data was lost). Yeah it's a massive inconvenience but I have never met anyone who uses an ASUS laptop who will do $600,000,000 worth of work in their lifetimes.

Re:Those numbers are all the same up there

[PhrostyMcByte]

I'd love to know how he came up with either of those numbers as being somehow reasonable.

An RIAA lawyer commented to say the math checks out.

Re:Those numbers are all the same up there

[nctritech]

The other thing is that some niche software is very expensive and very tightly controlled, requiring the company to remote into the machine to acquire and install it. It may not be a simple matter of backing up, restoring a system image, and installing the software again, and even if it was it's not likely that a normal user can do all of that themselves. If an unwanted forced Win10 installation had a serious process defect that killed a really important laptop in a crucial period leading up to a multi-million-dollar contract, for example, it's not at all unusual to demand damages of this size. People sometimes forget that computers can be used for actual work and that work can have dollar amounts attached that they'll never see in their entire lives.

Re:Those numbers are all the same up there

[Cederic]

So.. Lets say some bloke called Bob starts a company.

He puts $100k of his own money into it, and uses that money to employ people for 10% higher than market rate to create something his new company sells.

Bob takes no salary, just works 80 hour weeks to assure the success of the company. All the time he's making sure suppliers are paid, customers are happy and the staff are receiving 10% above market rate for their time. 100% of the spare cash is reinvested in the company, so it never makes a profit.

Eight years later Big Corporation offer to buy Bob's company from him for $610m. Bob is the sole shareholder and decides this is a fair offer.

You're saying that Bob didn't do enough to warrant $600m? How much was Bob's work worth, and who does the rest of that cash go to?

Re: Those numbers are all the same up there

[nctritech]

That's fine, but Microsoft's forced and/or deceptive auto-"yes" Windows 10 upgrades didn't give people a choice to accept the EULA and install only if they agree. If they didn't want to be liable, they shouldn't have been so hugely aggressive in forcing the upgrade on people.

Multiple issues here that you see all the time

[oldgraybeard]

All mute now since the system is hosed and he has a dysfunctional Windows 10 install. But for the future.

1. Make a set of Recovery CD's
2. Verify you have a good Windows 7 product key on the label stuck to the laptop.
3. If no label with a product key, checked the Control Panel->System to get it.
4. Note to everyone who gets a new windows computer. Make Recovery CD's, record your product key, put everything that came with the computer in a box or manila envelope and file it away. You will need it at some point ;)

You can still get OEM copies of Windows 7 Pro on ebay with product key.

Re:Multiple issues here that you see all the time

[apoc.famine]

Why in the world should have to do all of those things to ensure continuous access to something I legally purchased? If I need more than a license key, there is something majorly wrong with that product.

Re:Guy seems...

[Anonymous Coward]

And the forced Win 10 upgrade is not a dick move?

Re:Just download it, dummy

[richy freeway]

OK, so to reply to myself and completely contradict myself I just tested it with another OEM key and it didn't work... Curious...

Re:He wanted to lose. Now he doesn't like losing?

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

Well, you joke, but we haven't bought a new Windows machine since 7 was no longer available, and we're now using non-Windows platforms for our new machines instead of going anywhere near Windows 10. So for us, it literally is the year of Linux on the desktop. Turns out that for development work it's probably better anyway, and for all the online stuff a browser or email client on Linux is kinda like a browser or email client on Windows.

Re:The Three Rules of Computing

[twistedcubic]

"No company is going to support the old stuff forever, not even Microsoft, nor should anyone expect them too."

He's not asking for support. If I sell you a TV and destroy it five years later, can I legitimately say I destroyed it because "I can't support the TV forever".

Re:Guy seems...

[Mr0bvious]

I think his point is: Don't treat me like a piece of shit and force an update on me that wastes my time, causes me lost productivity and then refuse to correct the issue.

MS acted in an arrogant manner, his lawsuit is trying to address their respect of care for their users.

Asking MS to fork out for a new laptop, licence, etc is not going to cause them any grief and is pointless.

$600 million on the other hand may make them look and listen.

I don't for a second think he is claiming he suffered $600 million in damages, but he wants the amount to be enough for MS to give a shit.