Microsoft finally admits its malware-like Windows 10 upgrade tricks "went too far"

[midian182]

Earlier this year, Microsoft famously employed aggressive tactics when promoting its free Windows 10 upgrade offer. Now, the company’s Chief Marketing Officer, Chris Capossela, admits there was a moment when the campaign’s heavy-handed methods went too far.

As it attempted to get more users to upgrade, Microsoft started overwhelming people with popups, made Windows 10 a recommended update rather than an optional one, and automatically forced unwanted installations onto PCs without first informing users. One California travel agency operator was awarded $10,000 through a lawsuit after a forced installation caused her PC to become slow and unusable.

Despite all this, Capossela said in an interview with Windows Weekly that the company didn’t step over the line of being too aggressive in its marketing campaign. But he admitted there was one moment when it went too far.

Back in May, the company was accused of deceiving people into upgrading by deploying “malware-like” methods. Microsoft’s Get Windows 10 (GWX) pop-up had offered users the choices of “Upgrade Now” or “Start Download, Upgrade later,” meaning those who didn’t want the newest OS had to close the pop-up using the standard X in the corner of the box. But the company changed this by introducing a small and easily missed link for rescheduling or changing the upgrade. Following the alteration, anyone who clicked on the corner X was unwittingly giving consent for the upgrade to take place at the scheduled time.

“There was one particular moment ... where the red ‘x’ in the dialog box, which typically means, you know, ‘cancel,’ didn’t mean cancel,” said Capossela. “And within a couple of hours of that hitting the world, with the listening systems we have, we knew that we had gone too far."

“And then, of course, it takes us some time to roll out the update that changed that behavior,” he added. “And those two weeks were pretty painful, and clearly a lowlight for us. And we learned a lot from it, obviously.”

The free upgrade offer and its nags ended in July. As the promotion drew to a close, Microsoft started pushing out full-screen announcements reminding people that time was running out.

It’s taken Microsoft a long time to admit that it went too far in forcing Windows 10 onto people, but hopefully it will learn from the experience. The vast majority of users are fans of the latest operating system, but nobody likes deceptive and annoying marketing.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/67535-microsoft-finally-admits-malware-like-windows-10-upgrade.html

 

[MannerMauler]

Best. News. Blooper. Yet!

 

[Kunming]

What a BS statement from a BS company.

"Capossela said in an interview with Windows Weekly that the company didn’t step over the line of being too aggressive in its marketing campaign. But he admitted there was one moment when it went too far."

How do you not step over the line and somehow still go too far?

"“And within a couple of hours of that hitting the world, with the listening systems we have, we knew that we had gone too far."

LOL *listening systems*. What kind of nonsense is this. So you're saying that despite the masters degree from university you probably have, you still required "listening systems" to know that changing the behaviour of a RED X would piss people off? Damn son. . . A RED X.

This is a classic communications tactic - which perhaps american companies specialize in, I'm not sure. Whereby you "admit" something has happened, but you don't actually apologize. You simply say it was a "mistake" of some sort and a "learning experience". As if you need praise for simply taking part in reality. Such BS man. This sounds more like US foreign policy than a software company admitting it wronged millions of people.

"Chris Capossela, admits there was a moment when the campaign’s heavy-handed methods went too far."

Yeah yeah, maybe if it had ACTUALLY been "just a moment", you wouldn't have been sued for 10,000$. "Just a moment" is for stuff like "woops, our website directed users to pornhub, sorry!", not "we embarked on a months long campaign to coerce people to switch to our spy-OS, thus causing extreme inconvenience for half the world".

 

[Bigtruckseries]

I love Windows 10. On my core i7,TitanX,32GB DDR4, 4TB SSD desktop running multimonitors, it's the best OS I've ever had. The most stable OS I've ever had. The best cloud-service OS I've ever had.

The upgrade process and the overall tactics used to force users into upgrading, however, are terrible.

 

[seeprime]

I love Windows 10. On my core i7,TitanX,32GB DDR4, 4TB SSD desktop running multimonitors, it's the best OS I've ever had. The most stable OS I've ever had. The best cloud-service OS I've ever had.

The upgrade process and the overall tactics used to force users into upgrading, however, are terrible.

On your system any OS would appear to be awesome. Nice setup.

 

[mattfrompa]

It's like holding a woman down, face f**king her, blowing your load and then saying, "Okay, MAYBE I should have asked first...Sorry bae ily "

 

[Kunming]

It's like holding a woman down, face f**king her, blowing your load and then saying, "Okay, MAYBE I should have asked first...Sorry bae ily "

And then doing it to millions of women around the world, simultaneously, while trying to explain to the media that it was a "mistake" that when she said "No" you thought it meant "Yes".

 

[Nobina]

If people were complaining, and they did, a lot, it means they went too far. I don't care what someone involved with the company says, his views are biased.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Nice try Microsoft, I'm not buying it. You screwed up! Go ahead and admit your public relations failure. Ohh that's right you haven't stopped and don't plan on it, so why admit anything.

 

[Paul Edquist]

Hey MICROSOFT! I hate Windows 10! 99.99% of ALL THE ATMS IN THE WORLD ARE ON WINDOWS 7! I fought your barrage of tricks for weeks! I want my machine back on Windows 7 PROFESSIONAL!

 

[Uncle Al]

I'm guessing he's out looking for a new job this afternoon .....

 

[kenc1101]

This is always the way. Do it and then slip out a vague admission. Microsoft knew there would be little to no repercussions for this.

 

[treetops]

Hey MICROSOFT! I hate Windows 10! 99.99% of ALL THE ATMS IN THE WORLD ARE ON WINDOWS 7! I fought your barrage of tricks for weeks! I want my machine back on Windows 7 PROFESSIONAL!

You can go back to 7 its really easy google it.

 

[amstech]

I love Windows 10. On my core i9, Tri-SLi TitanX's, 128GB DDR4, 8TB SSD desktop running so many 4K monitors, it's the best OS I've ever had. The most stable OS I've ever had. The best cloud-service OS I've ever had.
The upgrade process and the overall tactics used to force users into upgrading, however, are terrible.

 

[KarenG]

Exactly when and why I switched to Mac. I teach senior citizens to use computers, smartphones, tablets, etc and when I saw how often they were deceived by the unscrupulous methods being used by Microsoft, I decided to abandon my Windows-based laptop and purchased an iMac. I love its simplicity and versatility. I love the way it integrates with my iPhone and upgrades are free. I still teach folks how to use their PCs, but I appreciate my iMac more every day. Thanks Microsoft for pushing me over the "edge."

 

[wiyosaya]

Now they just need to admit that the Windows 10 Updates are as bad or worse than malware themselves. I had one a few weeks ago that after rebooting and automatic logon on my HTPC left me with a black screen and a mouse cursor.

I love Windows 10. On my core i7,TitanX,32GB DDR4, 4TB SSD desktop running multimonitors, it's the best OS I've ever had. The most stable OS I've ever had. The best cloud-service OS I've ever had.

The upgrade process and the overall tactics used to force users into upgrading, however, are terrible.

Running Pro on that beast?? gpedit.msc -> Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Update -> Configure Automatic Updates -> Disabled

No more automatic updates. However, if you want to you can run them manually.

 

[Kunming]

Now they just need to admit that the Windows 10 Updates are as bad or worse than malware themselves. I had one a few weeks ago that after rebooting and automatic logon on my HTPC left me with a black screen and a mouse cursor.


Running Pro on that beast?? gpedit.msc -> Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Update -> Configure Automatic Updates -> Disabled

No more automatic updates. However, if you want to you can run them manually.

Why stop at Windows Updates? What about Windows itself? If Windows didn't come by default on most computers and was the OS which got most support from game devs, few people would be using that junk lol.

 

[captaincranky]

I'm not a Catholic priest, so I don't give a rat's a** about listening to your confession. In fact, it only makes me want to stay with Wim 7 more than ever.

This is a cute stunt, and it's like locking the barn after the horse has escaped. Thet just figured that out by the poor adoption rate.

"Ooooo, we went to far! Please forgive us, and buy Windows 10 the first chance you get.

BTW, what are those listening stations, all that excess telemetry you stuffed in Windows 10?

"Admission absolves guilt"! Right. Just not around these parts m***** f*****!

 

[Puiu]

Now they just need to admit that the Windows 10 Updates are as bad or worse than malware themselves. I had one a few weeks ago that after rebooting and automatic logon on my HTPC left me with a black screen and a mouse cursor.


Running Pro on that beast?? gpedit.msc -> Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Update -> Configure Automatic Updates -> Disabled

No more automatic updates. However, if you want to you can run them manually.

Why stop at Windows Updates? What about Windows itself? If Windows didn't come by default on most computers and was the OS which got most support from game devs, few people would be using that junk lol.

it's not like any linux distro is doing a good job at attracting casual users.

 

[captaincranky]

it's not like any linux distro is doing a good job at attracting casual users.

There's still too much in the way of command line instructions associated with it. Doing away with almost all typed commands, made Windows what it is today.

 

[Kunming]

it's not like any linux distro is doing a good job at attracting casual users.

Ubuntu & Linux Mint disagree. A lot of it isn't necessarily to do with command-line anything or such. A lot of it is to do with ignorance. Many people don't even know they have the option to ditch Apple and Microsoft entirely.

 

[captaincranky]

Ubuntu & Linux Mint disagree. A lot of it isn't necessarily to do with command-line anything or such. A lot of it is to do with ignorance. Many people don't even know they have the option to ditch Apple and Microsoft entirely.

Well that, and Adobe doesn't support Linux in any of its hard core imaging programs. I mean, you can run 4 versions old with WINE, but current versions, not so much.

 

[Kunming]

Well that, and Adobe doesn't support Linux in any of its hard core imaging programs. I mean, you can run 4 versions old with WINE, but current versions, not so much.

Well that's Adobes fault isn't it? Adobe is a terribad company anyhow. I can't wait until they crash or something. I wish they would, so that the rest of us can finally move on from such horrible software. Of course, sites are also to blame for not providing HTML5 players and whatnot.

 

[captaincranky]

Well that's Adobes fault isn't it? Adobe is a terribad company anyhow. I can't wait until they crash or something. I wish they would, so that the rest of us can finally move on from such horrible software.

Well, that only attaches to Flash, now doesn't it?

As for Photoshop and Lightroom, they're some of, if not the best image manipulation software on the planet.

As far as it being "Adobe's fault", there's no Linux versions of its product around, perhaps. But, it's also Linux's "fault", since it doesn't have widespread enough usage for them to put their programmers to work creating compatible software.

Adobe is a horrible, money hungry company, but aren't they all?

If you think their software doesn't go past Adobe "Reader" or "Flash", you're living in a vacuum.

 

[Kunming]

Some of it is decent software. But then again, people say Windows is decent too. How much of this is borne out of ignorance of the alternatives? Industry is just too lazy to be switching suites, so they pick a couple of programs and elevate them to celeb status. Then schools follow through and use it as the choice software to teach the students, because "businesses are screaming for talented X" and thereby you have tons of people who spend their entire degree or technical course using that 1 software suite, which is years. Once they come out the other end, they're not gonna switch lol.

IMO you can't fault Linux for that. Firstly it's such a fractured entity and secondly, should they spend a ton of cash on a marketing campaign? Haha. It would be hard enough to get this simple message across "Linux is not MacOS or Windows". . . Aka, Linux is different, so expect some changes.

Adobe is still a horrible company. Like most of those american tech giants.