Microsoft Hits a New Low - Pressing Close Will Now Install Windows 10

[LAwLz]

Another day, another report about how Microsoft are trying to shove Windows 10 down users' throat regardless of if they want it or not.

People who use Windows 7 and 8 are probably familiar with this prompt by now:

 

It's the same kind of wording you would see on malware. It's designed to trick users into clicking upgrade. The only way to get rid of it (short of not installing any of the updates that adds it) was to press the red X in the top right corner. Here are the bad news though. Last week Microsoft decided to alter the upgrade prompt. It now looks like this:

 

 

The malicious thing about this prompt is that lots of users are reporting that pressing the X in the top right corner on this new prompt will schedule your computer to install Windows 10.

 

Microsoft has confirmed that this is the intended behavior:

Quote

“As we shared in October, Microsoft has been helping customers who received the Windows 10 upgrade as an ‘Optional’ (and now ‘Recommended’) update, to schedule their upgrade. The scheduling UI that customers are seeing began on February 1st 2016, and has evolved over time based on customer feedback. Once a customer’s upgrade is scheduled, they will receive a notification that states the time their upgrade is scheduled for, with options to reschedule or cancel if they wish. If the customer wishes to continue with their upgrade at the designated time, they can click ‘OK’ or close the notification with no further action needed.”

 

What you need to do now if you want to stay on Windows 7 or 8 is to click on the text which says "click here to change upgrade schedule or cancel scheduled upgrade". After clicking on that you will see the option to stay on your current OS.

 

 

Sources:

PC World - How Microsoft's tricky new Windows 10 pop-up deceives you into upgrading.

Independent - Microsoft Windows 10 upgrade condemned as 'deceitful' and 'nasty'

BBC - Microsoft accused of Windows 10 upgrade 'nasty trick'

BGR - Microsoft just turned Windows 10 into malware

 

 

I have long been saying that Windows 10 can be classified as malware and people have argued against this. However, I don't think any rational person will be able to defend this move. This is malicious and pure evil. They are trying to trick people into installing Windows 10. It is desperate, pathetic and evil. How about a simple "do you want to install Windows 10: Yes | No" box? I thought it was bad enough with asking "upgrade now | upgrade tonight" but you seriously can't interpret pressing close as a "they agreed to it".

 

I saw someone make a great analogy so I will just copy/paste it here:

Quote

It would be no different than if i sent you a letter saying i'd like to access your bank account and ask you to sign here to agree, then take you throwing the letter away as agreeing.

 

What do you think?

 

 

Update:

Microsoft has said that they have listened to the feedback and will tweak the new notification to include "an additional opportunity for cancelling the update".

I have not seen any pictures of this "additional opportunity" yet, but judging by the wording it will be very similar to the current one which will install Windows 10 if you click the close button.

I don't think that change will help the core issue. It sounds like Microsoft are still trying to trick people into installing Windows 10. A simple yes/no/ask later question would be far better.

[Tech_Dreamer]

X gonna give it to ya..

 

#Cuethemusic #DMX

[SSL]

I think I'm glad that I uninstalled the W10 upgrade update thingy.

[PlayStation 2]

hey microsoft (° ͜ʖ͡°)╭∩╮

[Delicieuxz]

Very underhanded behaviour from Microsoft.

 

Remember that all Win 10 upgrade prompts, as well as telemetry updates can be removed, and prevented from recurring by running the script linked-to in my signature: https://voat.co/v/technology/comments/853510

[spwath]

Why not just get windows 10?
Its newer than 7 and will have better future support and is free for now...

[spwath]

Another thing, I can defend it. It says "This pc is scedualed to update at this time" so that means, the pc will update, so just xing out wont change it, that makes sence.

[theninja35]

One question: Why does Microsoft want people to update so badly that they're forcing it upon us? Have they done this before?

 

The problem I see with this, is that all our school computers and servers run on Windows 8, even the laptops they bought about a week ago that for some reason have Windows 8. WTF I know.

 

Personal computers should update in my mind, though.

[Mew]

No wonder people fall for those scam calls where they pretend to be Microsoft and claim that they detected malware on your computer and offer to "fix" it by actually installing malware......because you can't differentiate one shady company from another.

[Majestic]

4 minutes ago, spwath said:

Why not just get windows 10?
Its newer than 7 and will have better future support and is free for now...

Time for Vulkan so we can wave Windows goodbye....

 

*prays to gamedev gods*

[ThinkWithPortals]

Pretty sketchy dealings going on with MS here. Good thing I installed the GWX Upgrade Notification Blocker a while ago.

I'm very happy with 8.1 with Classic Shell, but I'm sure people will think I'm a freak of nature for this.

[Mew]

2 minutes ago, ThinkWithPortals said:

Pretty sketchy dealings going on with MS here. Good thing I installed the GWX Upgrade Notification Blocker a while ago.

I'm very happy with 8.1 with Classic Shell, but I'm sure people will think I'm a freak of nature for this.

I also prefer 8.1. However, after having few negative impressions with Windows 10 in the past, after using it for a couple days on my laptop and seeing battery life dramatically improve, I'm ok with it..... on my laptop; It's still staying away from my desktop for good.

[VagabondWraith]

11 minutes ago, Delicieuxz said:

Very underhanded behaviour from Microsoft.

 

Remember that all Win 10 upgrade prompts, as well as telemetry updates can be removed, and prevented from recurring by running the script linked-to in my signature: https://voat.co/v/technology/comments/853510

Thank you. I'm gonna check it out later on.

[Ganz]

I don't know why so many people have issues going to windows 10. The security is much higher on windows 10 as well as you are getting future updates and fixes.  As @spwath said, the UI makes perfect sense.  It clearly states your PC will upgrade at that date.  Why should closing the prompt change that?  If you don't like the data windows 10 sends to microsoft turn it off, it's no different than any other windows OS.  If you don't like the fact that Microsoft is urging it's customers to upgrade to a better platform so they can focus on one development environment, then go to linux or OS X.  Simple as that.  If you don't like a product or the company take your business somewhere else.

[TheWutofWat]

20 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

 

 

See that "click here" button it says that you can cancel the upgrade or schedule it, maybe you can get rid of it maybe.

I don't have Windows 7 or 8 I am on 10 so yeah

[Master Disaster]

That analogy is flawed. Its more like "We are going to access your account on xx day at xx time, if you don't want us to do it then please respond and tell us not to otherwise we will do it as scheduled".

[Apathetik]

All of the controversy that has been constantly surrounding Windows 10 clearly shows (imo at least) that Microsoft is clearly out of touch with consumers, and literally just doesn't care at this point. They've done a lot of stupid and or needless things with Windows 10, especially regarding the upgrade process like this post deals with. 

 

The only good thing I can think of that -may- come from all this nonsense is that the more people Microsoft pisses off. The more people might be inclined to look at alternatives like GNU/Linux. Which I'm all for. The more people that migrate to the platform. The more incentive developers will have to start supporting it with their software. 

 

I have like 10 computers running in this house for various things. And all but ONE of them, is running some form of a GNU/Linux OS. Unfortunately, I have to maintain at least one Windows box for gaming, and support with some applications that absolutely refuse to run properly under Wine. So the more Microsoft wants to alienate consumers and help GNU/Linux get a larger market share, the better.

 

3 minutes ago, Ganz said:

I don't know why so many people have issues going to windows 10. The security is much higher on windows 10 as well as you are getting future updates and fixes.  As @spwath said, the UI makes perfect sense.  It clearly states your PC will upgrade at that date.  Why should closing the prompt change that?  If you don't like the data windows 10 sends to microsoft turn it off, it's no different than any other windows OS.  If you don't like the fact that Microsoft is urging it's customers to upgrade to a better platform so they can focus on one development environment, then go to linux or OS X.  Simple as that.  If you don't like a product or the company take your business somewhere else.

As far as the update goes. I think the concern is that it's scheduling an update like that on it's own. It should be an opt-in option to upgrade. Not an opt-out option. As far as the data collection. Yeah, you can disable -some- things in the menu's. But certain people have shown (I'm far too lazy to look up the exact articles) that even doing that doesn't turn it all off. And last I checked, rumor is even some of the things you can "disable" don't actually completely stop sending data to Microsoft. 

 

As far as the "If you don't like the OS, go to another OS" comment. While it may seem that simple. The deciding factor is rarely what OS you want to run. But instead what programs you want to run. Like I said above. I'm not fond of Windows at all. But because there are things I can ONLY do with a windows machine, I'm forced to keep a copy installed. 

[Just Monika]

"No means yes" is apparently Microsoft's philosophy.

 

On a more serious note, my workplace uses shared Windows 7-based computers to run specialized software to operate specialized equipment. Windows 10 upgrade nag popups have been appearing and my co-workers generally close or ignore them whenever they appear, so this is going to create some incredibly major, apocalypse-level problems if someone X'es out of the window and inadvertently causes a Windows 10 upgrade to happen.

[Delicieuxz]

6 minutes ago, Ganz said:

 As @spwath said, the UI makes perfect sense.  It clearly states your PC will upgrade at that date.  Why should closing the prompt change that?  If you don't like the data windows 10 sends to microsoft turn it off, it's no different than any other windows OS.  If you don't like the fact that Microsoft is urging it's customers to upgrade to a better platform so they can focus on one development environment, then go to linux or OS X.  Simple as that.  If you don't like a product or the company take your business somewhere else.

The problem is that people are taking their business elsewhere, and choosing a platform they prefer (Win 7 or 8(.1)), and MS is attempting to circumvent their efforts at every turn.

 

You point out that the UI is clearly readable... but the UI, for a prompt that Win 7 / 8(.1) users are familiar with, and familiar with closing, has been reworked, so that their now-common reaction of dismissing the prompt without installing Win 10 by closing it, via the X button, now does the opposite of what they have been doing, and produces the outcome that they desire and intent to prevent.

 

It's a snake move by Microsoft - one of many offensive ones they've done in order to push people to Win 10 against their will.

[captain cactus]

Pretty sure they can and will get sued over this. It happened when they shoved Internet Explorer down our throats back in the day, it will happen again.

[shermantanker]

24 minutes ago, Majestic said:

Time for Vulkan so we can wave Windows goodbye....

 

*prays to gamedev gods*

Why on earth would I want to downgrade to linux ? Me personally, I could never get any real work done. Plus there is old the old DirectX games you could never play on Linux.

[Majestic]

1 minute ago, shermantanker said:

Why on earth would I want to downgrade to linux ? Me personally, I could never get any real work done. Plus there is old the old DirectX games you could never play on Linux.

I think these shenanigans are only the beginning...

 

Why do you think they're so eager to get everyone onto a singular platform...

[shermantanker]

9 minutes ago, Majestic said:

I think these shenanigans are only the beginning...

 

Why do you think they're so eager to get everyone onto a singular platform...

Because it's cheaper and easier to support a single platform. It's all about money, and there is nothing wrong with Microsoft wanting to make money. That is their job, provide a service people want and sell it. Yes, some of the practices on upgrades have been all over the place, and are borderline unethical in some cases. But in the long run everyone is better off on a newer platform for the sake of compatibility.

[Majestic]

5 minutes ago, shermantanker said:

Because it's cheaper and easier to support a single platform. It's all about money, and there is nothing wrong with Microsoft wanting to make money. That is their job, provide a service people want and sell it. Yes, some of the practices on upgrades have been all over the place, and are borderline unethical in some cases. But in the long run everyone is better off on a newer platform for incompatibilities sake.

As a customer, I really don't give a flying fuck if i'm not being a big nuisance on Microsoft's update efficiency. Companies should serve the customer, not the other way around. This type of aggressive behaviour is definitely the former... 

 

I rolled onto Win10 and I think it's hugely offensive everytime I use it. Use the calculator "DID YOU LIKE THIS APP?". Just makes me want to buy a win7 licence on reddit just to spite them.

 

People seem to have this erroneous idea that companies are only there to make money. Wrong, they're there to sell a decent product for a decent price. And perhaps make a nice bit of sideprofit to improve said product. Nowhere is it stated you should make enough money to buy a small island in order to rank as succesful.

[LAwLz]

14 minutes ago, lots of unexplainable lag said:

Pretty sure they can and will get sued over this. It happened when they shoved Internet Explorer down our throats back in the day, it will happen again.

I (sadly) don't think they can be sued for this.

The Internet Explorer lawsuit was based on Microsoft breaking the law in various ways to kill of their competitors during "the browser wars". For example Microsoft threatened OEMs that if they made deals with Netscape they would no longer be allowed to sell computers with Windows installed.

 

 

1 minute ago, shermantanker said:

Because it's cheaper and easier to support a single platform. It's all about money, and there is nothing wrong with Microsoft wanting to make money. That is their job, provide a service people want and sell it. Yes, some of the practices on upgrades have been all over the place, and are borderline unethical in some cases. But in the long run everyone is better off on a newer platform for incompatibilities sake.

Their push for Windows 10 has absolutely nothing to do with "it's easier to support a single platform".

Microsoft has to support Windows 7 until 2020 regardless of how many/few people use it. Same thing with Windows 8 (except for that it's until 2023).

They will still have to develop updates for the older operating systems.