Microsoft accused of deceiving people into upgrading to Windows 10 with updated pop-up

midian182

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Microsoft is in trouble yet again for its heavy-handed approach when ‘encouraging’ people to move to Windows 10. The company has brought in changes after PC World discovered that clicking on the red X in the newly-designed pop-up’s window was being considered as consent for the upgrade to take place.

Since December, Microsoft’s Get Windows 10 (GWX) pop-up offered users the dizzying choices of “Upgrade Now” or “Start download, upgrade later,” leaving those who didn’t want the latest version of the operating system no option but to close the window using the standard X in the corner.

Microsoft also changed Windows 10’s classification to a Recommended update in February, meaning that users of older Windows versions who had automatic updates activated would have Windows 10 downloaded without requesting it. Again, the only way to avoid the installation was to click on the X to close the pop-up window.

The GWX prompt was changed last week, introducing a small and quite easily-missed link that allows users to reschedule or cancel the upgrade. But when presented with this Window, many people missed the link and simply clicked on the corner X as usual, assuming they were canceling the installation; instead, they were consenting for the update to take place at the scheduled time.

After facing heavy criticism from users, which it referred to as “customer feedback,” Microsoft has now modified the pop-up. "We've added another notification that confirms the time of the scheduled upgrade and provides the customer an additional opportunity for canceling or rescheduling the upgrade. If the customer wishes to continue with their upgrade at the designated time, they can click 'OK' or close the notifications with no further action needed," the company told the BBC.

Despite the issues people have over privacy and ads, Windows 10 is generally accepted as being Microsoft’s best OS in years. But even those who love it aren’t happy with the tactics being used to make people upgrade.

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Sneaky sneaky, who the heck thinks up this crap over at Microsoft and then passes it off as a good idea? You really have to question tactics like this, they know damn well what they're doing to people, they clearly just don't care anymore. Backlash and bad press is all that drives them to change these days, I feel bad for the people who get deceived in to upgrading without wanting to, even worse for the repair shops who now get flooded with systems that need to be reverted back to Windows 7. Hopefully the customers are not being over charged for this service, it's usually not that complicated but beyond the common users ability, I'm sure with enough patience you can talk someone through the procedure over the phone, but that's not always in the interest of the business.
 
This is absurd. It reminds me of malicious popups and ads on websites where clicking the big green button or even the 'X' in the corner does nothing, but a smaller "real" 'X' or inconspicuous link will actually close the window. You see this all the time with free antivirus installs, they have the BUY NOW in big, offering "special discounts" and the like, and then there's a small 'no thank you' link in size 3 font in the corner.

As a tech, or savvy PC user, you learn where to look and what to avoid in these situations, but unfortunately the majority of people don't. Most people don't even read the text in the upgrade box, or touch their Windows updates settings, or realize what's going on until it's already installed, but Microsoft knows this. Clicking the 'X' in the corner is a consent for Windows 10 upgrade? With this logic, let's make all red stop lights 'GO' and watch the cars pile up.

The amount of grief this whole automatic Windows update situation has caused me since February is extraordinary. I will get call almost daily from clients who either have the popup, have the download already pending an install, or turned on their PC in the morning and had it install right then and there. People don't realize that just clicking the 'X' is just putting off the 'upgrade', or at this point, the 'inevitable'. But here again, Microsoft knows this is what people will do, and is what will get the most PCs on W10.

Microsoft says the W10 upgrade has an automatic checking tool that will verify peripherals and software for compatibility to ensure users don't get stuck. Well let me tell you, that is NOT always the case. When your client suddenly can't take x-rays, view their database, see their patient schedule, book appointments, or bill their clients, you'd better believe there's a problem.

/rant

I found this tool that helps remove the icon and any pre-downloaded Windows 10 files on the PC. If you're having trouble, I'd recommend this tool. I just run the standalone version and so far it has saved me a lot of time. Check it out.

https://www.techspot.com/downloads/6756-.html
 
"We've added another notification that confirms the time of the scheduled upgrade and provides the customer an additional opportunity for canceling or rescheduling the upgrade. If the customer wishes to continue with their upgrade at the designated time, they can click 'OK' or close the notifications with no further action needed,"
Am I missing something here?
The problem was that people were hitting the X to cancel the scheduled upgrade. So MS added a second notification window with the exact same behaviour?
 
They really want that ad revenue from the startup menu. Besides dirx12 I see no reason to go with windows 10. At first I had to check off the windows update 3 times to get to get off my downloads list when it came out.
 
This MS aggression is going to be turned up to 11 before July 29, count on it. They have steadily increased the level of aggression since last summer, and it wouldn't surprise me if in July they're just installing 10 on your PC whether you want it or not.

I urge folks to download GWX Control Panel and Never10, and use those if you don't want Win 10 forced down your throat. And share them with friends and family.

MS should not be able to do this. We paid for our Win 7 & 8 licenses and we should be able to use them!
 
Ashholes, but that is what you can get away with when you essentially have a monopoly on desktop pc's
 
Just upgrade already!! There's no reason not to, and plenty of reasons to upgrade, not including new features and much more robust security..

It drives me crazy getting called into a business to fix a Windows XP system -- I just want to be able to forget that antiquated OS already! Windows 7 is also showing its age quite a bit, and I have found no enterprise-level software that doesn't run on Win 10 without a hitch -- most are just 'modern' gui's (modern, as in circa ~98) sitting on top of ancient dos software like MS Fox.

Things change -- that's a good thing. If you want a computer that never evolves new features or adds changes to the interface, get yourself a linux distrib that uses KDE or GNOME.
 
That said.. I still have yet to upgrade my gf's vaio laptop. It's mostly the matter of cleaning out her pc at this point, saving a few hundred gb of personal files strewn randomly across the file system, so that I can perform a clean install immediately after upgrading the license.

Regardless, an upgrade install would work entirely fine in 99% of cases, assuming your PC is in good shape to begin with. If you have countless broken drivers and garbage programs installed, an upgrade will only propagate the problems the user themselves created. Uninstall anything you don't use, uninstall the software you do use that you can readily re-download, uninstall all driver programs (Soundblaster/Realtek, AMD/NVidia -- the point isn't to uninstall the drivers, just the companion software which likely is outdated anyways). Upgrade -- no problem.
 
Sneaky f*ckers.... These tactics will only destroy your fan base M$. And I certainly don't feel Windows 10 is the best M$ OS yet. It is better than 8, or Vista, or ME... but not the best yet. I'd argue XP was the best, then followed up by 7. 10 still has too much metroish elements for desktop use, has too much white/grey and not enough work on a dark theme. Removing customization options we used to have and forcing everyone to have the same is not what Windows was supposed to be about. You are no longer empowering the user, but empowering yourselves.
 
I've tried W10 on a netbook which is not a good experience because of the hardware limitations.
I couldn't stop the W10 upgrade but was pretty sure I'd have to accept the license for the install to go forward. don't panic, just decline when asked.
 
I just rebuilt a computer for a business client where f****** Windows 10 had automatically started to install. The customer tried to stop the process but the damage was done. The computer was no longer booting. I had to go in and do a data recovery, and then wipe the drive and reload their Windows 7 Pro license. The GWX update from Microsoft is malware as far as I am concerned. It behaves just like ransomeware, and Microsoft should be sued the **** out of for all the damages they have caused.
 
A scheduled time for the upgrade (in Bold) followed by "Click here...to cancel upgrade" seems pretty self-explanatory...
 
Just upgrade already!! There's no reason not to
It drives me crazy getting called into a business to fix a Windows XP system -- I just want to be able to forget that antiquated OS already!
Things change -- that's a good thing. If you want a computer that never evolves new features or adds changes..
No reason not to, WTF I almost choked on my coffee when I read that. How about some people don't want to, Win 7 is still supported and there is zero reason people should not be able to use their licenced product.
No one, except you is comparing this to Win XP, I suspect almost everyone on this forum wouldn't support the use of this non-supported system unless it still meets their needs and is not connected to the internet.
Things change, that's NOT always a good thing or we'd still be singing the praises of the revolutionary Win 8
Now if they had taken Win 7, rolled the things like the better memory management, DX 12 task manager etc into it, they might have had a Win 8 that was a real winner on their hands
 
This post isn't even considering some of the other comments, I haven't read all of them. But I do agree with JayComputers when he says Win 7 is still the best. It really is. I don't need touch-screen bloating added to my desktop (Win 8.1) and as a gamer, I don't need an operating system that has proven to continuously crash half the games people play, crash to black screen on some games, create situations where the system just locks and needs a force reboot, and this does this with even Adobe Software at times, like some software is outright not supported whatsoever, won't even load (Win 10).

F*** Windows 10. Why didn't they start with Win 7 base, Keep everything that works and then add in some solid forward looking support for the next Direct X and Vulkan and call it a day? Then they could have had Win "9" and it would be miles ahead and better than Win 7, 8.1 AND Win 10?? Then I might upgrade. But not when they are sending out the OS as if they can approach the backbone software of a system as if it's a damn video game and "oh, we'll fix bugs and other bs after launch. We're approaching this software with modules and updates." And then to remove all the things that made Windows 7 the massively enjoyable beast of an OS that it is. *****s have taken over MS... Oh, wait, that's decades old news. Typical MS following tweaker policy. If it's not broke... Let's break it and never fix it right. Good Job! I'm sticking with Win 7 until EVERYTHING is fixed in Win 10, and it's playing nicely with ALL software, doesn't require half my 8GB of RAM to run, etc.

And I do NOT appreciate shady tactics in trying to get me to upgrade on either my desktop, or my laptop. If they don't clean up their crap soon, I'll just wipe my rig and go with Steam OS or Google OS. They added a second pop-up to let you cancel (let's just add another step) instead of just fixing the closing x? WTF is wrong with the people at Microsoft? I mean seriously. I'm sorry this is a rant, but this is stuff that just totally pisses me off.
 
This post isn't even considering some of the other comments, I haven't read all of them. But I do agree with JayComputers when he says Win 7 is still the best. It really is. I don't need touch-screen bloating added to my desktop (Win 8.1) and as a gamer, I don't need an operating system that has proven to continuously crash half the games people play, crash to black screen on some games, create situations where the system just locks and needs a force reboot, and this does this with even Adobe Software at times, like some software is outright not supported whatsoever, won't even load (Win 10).

F*** Windows 10. Why didn't they start with Win 7 base, Keep everything that works and then add in some solid forward looking support for the next Direct X and Vulkan and call it a day? Then they could have had Win "9" and it would be miles ahead and better than Win 7, 8.1 AND Win 10?? Then I might upgrade. But not when they are sending out the OS as if they can approach the backbone software of a system as if it's a damn video game and "oh, we'll fix bugs and other bs after launch. We're approaching this software with modules and updates." And then to remove all the things that made Windows 7 the massively enjoyable beast of an OS that it is. *****s have taken over MS... Oh, wait, that's decades old news. Typical MS following tweaker policy. If it's not broke... Let's break it and never fix it right. Good Job! I'm sticking with Win 7 until EVERYTHING is fixed in Win 10, and it's playing nicely with ALL software, doesn't require half my 8GB of RAM to run, etc.

And I do NOT appreciate shady tactics in trying to get me to upgrade on either my desktop, or my laptop. If they don't clean up their crap soon, I'll just wipe my rig and go with Steam OS or Google OS. They added a second pop-up to let you cancel (let's just add another step) instead of just fixing the closing x? WTF is wrong with the people at Microsoft? I mean seriously. I'm sorry this is a rant, but this is stuff that just totally pisses me off.

It's okay, you're just very ignorant.
 
Just upgrade already!! There's no reason not to, and plenty of reasons to upgrade, not including new features and much more robust security..
That said.. I still have yet to upgrade my gf's vaio laptop. It's mostly the matter of cleaning out her pc at this point
First you said there was no reason, then you give a reason. Make up your mind, which is it?
 
Micro$lop is into making money. Win8 was so bad since I could not use my old paid for programs that I had to get win7 on my machine. Now I use it and love win7 but I have turned off the upgrades and have an anti-virus.

In the mean while, I have put Ubuntu on another of my old laptops (former XP) and I like lit very much. Ubuntu is the way to go if you do not need to use old windows programs, just need office type docs, spreadsheets, or presentations, and some web surfing.
 
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