Microsoft Criticised for Sneaky Windows 10 Upgrade Pop-Up

[engine]

Microsoft is up to sneaky tricks to get people to upgrade to Windows 10. It changed the upgrade nag screen so that users hitting the X in the corner to close the screen would now be accepting the upgrade time, instead of closing the upgrade screen.

I've seen this happen on one of my upgrade nag screens, and i noticed that the behaviour of the pop-up had changed. I managed to change it, but not after some annoyance.

This is simply stupid, low-level tactics that are used by malware companies, and you'd have thought that Microsoft would know better, but, it seems not. Sigh!

But here’s the icky part: The redesigned GWX pop-up now treats exiting the window as consent for the Windows 10 upgrade.

So after more than half a year of teaching people that the only way to say “no thanks” to Windows 10 is to exit the GWX application—and refusing to allow users to disable the pop-up in any obvious manner, so they had to press that X over and over again during those six months to the point that most people probably just click it without reading now—Microsoft just made it so that very behavior accepts the Windows 10 upgrade instead, rather than cancelling it. Microsoft Criticised for Sneaky Windows 10 Upgrade Pop-Up [pcworld.com]

[ken_b]

I bet that's what happened to us last week.

[jinxed]

Yeah I noticed this too. I wasn't impressed at all

[robzilla]

I've already helped a few people whose computers were bricked by the upgrade. Extrapolate that and there must be tens of thousands of users truly duped by these sneaky tactics. Apparently they feel they can take the hit.

On my PC I'm sticking with Windows 7 for as long as I can, partly because I need it (i.e. a Windows computer) and partly because I think it's a good system, but I bought a MacBook to replace the laptop that slowed to a crawl after the (voluntary) upgrade to Windows 10.

This is absolutely shameful behavior, really. I'm surprised by the lack of lawsuits. Do you even have to accept a EULA when the upgrade is scheduled and executed like this?

[vordmeister]

I spotted the pop up earlier in the week. On previous pop ups the trick has been to avoid clicking any buttons but instead dismiss with the red cross. This one was reversed and I was lucky to notice.

Bill posted a mention of NEVER10 earlier which I've used to try to prevent any further bother.

[engine]

It seems Microsoft has backtracked on this sneaky trick and will give users another way to cancel.
I still don't get it, why they even thought it was a good idea in the first place. What were they thinking! Were they even thinking!

Microsoft told the BBC it had modified the pop-up as a result of criticism: "We've added another notification that confirms the time of the scheduled upgrade and provides the customer an additional opportunity for cancelling 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." Microsoft U-turn on 'nasty trick' pop-up [bbc.co.uk]

[robzilla]

"I don't think that adding more pestering pop-ups improves the situation. At the very least they should add a large, obvious 'No, I don't want this' button."

Amen to that.

[masterjoe]

I suggest looking up something called "never10" if you don't want to upgrade. I haven't really used it except on my dads computer when I fixed something for it briefly, and it aggravated me to no end. The menu and styling is obnoxious and annoying, and simply because I hate upgrades when something already works great... no thanks Microsoft. Shoving it down my throat is not the answer.

Anyway, that software will stop the update from happening and even delete the gb's of win10 files that are probably already downloaded to your computers.