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Microsoft Windows

Windows 10 Upgrades Are Being Forced On Some Users (arstechnica.com) 374

grimmjeeper writes: According to Ars Technica the Windows 10 upgrade option is being selected by default for some users. A dialogue box is appearing that only permits them to reschedule the upgrade process, not cancel it. "For the first year of its availability, Windows 10 is available for free to most Windows 7 and 8 users, and Microsoft has been trying to coax those users to make the switch by delivering the operating system through Windows Update. Until now, the OS has been delivered as an optional update; while Windows Update gives it prominent positioning, it shouldn't be installed automatically. This system has already generated some complaints, as Windows Update will download the sizeable operating system installer even if you don't intend to upgrade any time soon, but, over the last couple of days, the situation seems to have become a little more aggressive. We've received a number of reports that people's systems are not merely downloading the installer but actually starting it up." Update: 10/16 11:35 GMT by S : Microsoft said, "In the recent Windows update, this option was checked as default; this was a mistake and we are removing the check."
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Windows 10 Upgrades Are Being Forced On Some Users

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  • Heck of a Mistake! (Score:5, Informative)

    by Charles Werbick ( 4135297 ) on Thursday October 15, 2015 @07:11PM (#50739807)

    From the article - 'In the recent Windows update, this option was checked as default; this was a mistake and we are removing the check.'

    That is one heck of a mistake!!!

    • amazing mistakes (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 15, 2015 @07:27PM (#50739913)

      From the article - 'In the recent Windows update, this option was checked as default; this was a mistake and we are removing the check.'

      That is one heck of a mistake!!!

      Remarkable how mistakes are always in their favor.

      • not in their favor.. (Score:5, Informative)

        by gl4ss ( 559668 ) on Friday October 16, 2015 @12:28AM (#50741263) Homepage Journal

        ..however it fits PERFECTLY with their recent actions, so I REALLY DON'T FUCKING BELIEVE IT TO BE A MISTAKE.

        like, first they make the fucking popup come up every 15 mins or so to get you to download the update, then they port some 'diagnosis'(presumably to diagnose why people are not installing windows 10) back to 7/8, then they move to downloading the update in background regardless.

        THEN they start popping up the installer WITH ONE BUTTON.

        would MS do such a mistake? I mean, this is the microsoft that has already for few years perverted their own UI standards to coax people into making choices they want the user to make rather than giving the user a clear choice to decline, there's ample examples of that behavior such as on new windows installation making screens that have a button element and another button that's a link element that _functionally_ both act as buttons - the one that is made to look not like a button however is the choice they don't want you to make - so it would fit perfectly with that UI shenigans to make on purpose a popup that had no cancel button on it since "hey if the user closes the dialog then that counts as a cancel, amirite???".

        it's bullshit. and it's remarkable bullshit coming from a company that had nailed the easy to use window UI down 15 years ago already and should just have stuck with that and their own guidelines that they did with real science and real user studies that just were done to benefit the user, since that it has been downhill for them(really, win2k era was the pinnacle, then they started skinning and just doing cutesy shit and now even worse they started to 'guide' the user).

    • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 15, 2015 @07:31PM (#50739949)

      Yep. Remember that other, recent, "accidental" update [slashdot.org] they were pushing too?

      This isn't an accident. Microsoft knows that the Windows 10 rollout has been a failure so far. Running a huge Windows 10 marketing campaign, giving away the upgrade, tricking people into installing it and now trying to force people to install it...and it still has a shitty adoption rate.

      • by MrNaz ( 730548 )

        http://www.theverge.com/2015/8/26/9209949/windows-10-75-million-machines [theverge.com]

        I'll take a few of those failures, thanks.

        • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

          by Anonymous Coward

          That may seem huge to you, to Microsoft its only about 7% of their user base if you go by the OS usage statistics shown on Wikipedia. Most Windows users still use Windows 7.

      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Friday October 16, 2015 @04:37AM (#50741907) Homepage Journal

        I would upgrade if they just removed the telemetry and spying. Introduce an option to disable it, that's all that is required. Then the techies will be on board, and adoption will increase.

        • by cfalcon ( 779563 )

          You should be a little bit burnt though. What's to say it won't turn itself back on? Or that you'll need to bend over to get the service pack? The Windows 10 policies are super hostile.

    • I read the title and thought "No kidding! All updates on Windows 10 are mandatory now. This is news?"

      Read article. Seriously? Leave it to Microsoft to piss even more of their users off. I swear, sometimes I think they're intentionally running the ship aground.

    • by amiga3D ( 567632 )

      Resistance is futile.

    • That is good but I have some VM's that run long term simulations. They can't be paused or restarted and weeks worth of data would be lost. So if a forced upgrade and restart causes us to lose data then someone will be hearing from our lawyers.

      But probably not. The vms are off the network so mickysoft can't force anything on them.

      • by dbIII ( 701233 )
        I'm curious - if it's that critical why is it running on MS instead of Oracle/solaris, linux, *bsd or any of the other stuff known for stability and far less overhead? If a lawyer goes to them saying "MS whatever crashed after only a couple of weeks" the MS lawyer will just laugh and point at the bit in the fine print about fitness for use and how they don't accept responsibility for anything that critical.
        I have geophysical stuff here running for weeks, and there are two main things to consider:
        1/ Snapsho
        • The "bsod per day" craptitude is one thing. But you could make a case that intentionally forcing an unwanted update is on another level entirely. Wilful interference, misuse, sabotage etc - the terminology varies from place to place but it's the same thing.

          I don't think any EULA that tried to exclude malice would be worth the paper it's printed on.

          But IANAL.

  • by sanosuke001 ( 640243 ) on Thursday October 15, 2015 @07:12PM (#50739817)
    My only PC I haven't upgraded requires Windows Media Center to record TV; add media center to Windows 10 and I'd be happy to upgrade from Windows 8. Otherwise, they can go shove it.
    • If I could find a suitable alternative to Windows Media Center, I'd switch as well. I'm afraid I'll be one of those who switches, reluctantly, on the last day.
      • Re:Media Center (Score:5, Informative)

        by jrumney ( 197329 ) on Thursday October 15, 2015 @08:35PM (#50740319)

        If I could find a suitable alternative to Windows Media Center

        Kodi [kodi.tv]?

      • by dbIII ( 701233 )
        This is where we need someone to add those last few features to VLC as a plugin or something instead of just hoping for someone caring within the MS media player group. I'll bet the people involved with the earlier media player are long gone and the ones there no don't have the time, resources, skill or the care factor to implement to features in the old version.
        Yet another argument against closed software. The people with the source code to the old version are not going to use it or let anyone else use i
    • Here here....

      I understand that Silicon Dust is working on a product that will do the same thing as Media Center (including DVRing protected Cable Card content). Anybody know how they are doing on this effort?

      Once we have a solution, I'm going to ditch windows for media center about as fast as I can boot from the Linux install media. I am SO tired of this windows mess, it's been a total pain..

      • Hear, hear. Originally a shortened form of "Hear him, hear him!" to vocally express agreement and encourage others to listen to someone. As opposed to simply enthusiastically announcing your presence ;-)

      • I understand that Silicon Dust is working on a product that will do the same thing as Media Center (including DVRing protected Cable Card content).

        Let's hope that it isn't as much of a system pig as View is. I have two systems talking to a HDHomeRun with a three tuner CableCard. I could run three instances of QuickView to watch three things at once, but on the same systems I cannot run even one View without image breakup.

        And if it has the same unintuitive counterproductive UI that View has, it will be DOA.

    • by Megane ( 129182 )

      I have a Windows 7 laptop that I use for playing a few games that require the GameOS from Redmond. Since I don't use it for e-mail or general web browsing (and when I do, I don't use one of the major three or four browsers), so my attack surface is a lot more limited than the average user.

      That being said, I use it for playing games, and some of those games have problems with Windows 10. So after Windows Update "helpfully" downloaded SIX AND A HALF FUCKING GIGABYTES of Windows 10, and it took me two hours t

  • Lawsuits? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Many employers require staff to run earlier versions of Windows to maintain compatibility with certain software. I could see how this could severely interrupt workflow if pushed too aggressively.

    • Many employers require staff to run earlier versions of Windows to maintain compatibility with certain software. I could see how this could severely interrupt workflow if pushed too aggressively.

      I don't think this happens on corporate networks that use WSUS [microsoft.com]. Doesn't happen on ours, we don't even get a chance to upgrade to 10. Which is decidedly a good thing. Microsoft may be crazy, but they're not stupid.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Microsoft better curtail this.

    Remember the last round with the Web browser, and later the media player? Small potatoes. Imagine what happens when someone running bootcamp runs this and borks their Mac. Or someone dual-booting Linux and completely obliterating the Linux partitions.

    • The Win10 "upgrade" shouldn't affect a Linux install at all.

      I don't know about on other machines, but on my laptop the upgrade didn't even touch the grub install. Grub was still installed and booting both partitions, both after I "upgraded" to Win10 and when I "downgraded" the partition back to Win8.1. And here I never thought I would say switching to Winows 8.x would be an upgrade....

    • by spauldo ( 118058 )

      You'll have a hard time making the "anti-competitive" argument, considering they're overwriting their own product. Bricking some bootcamp installs (if it happens) is more grounds for a class action suit.

      And as far as Linux goes - has Microsoft ever suggested that dual booting is supported? I know their loader is technically capable of it, but being capable of it and supporting it are different things.

      The web browser suit was completely different. Microsoft won (for a while) the browser war, and did so by

  • Thanks, Microsoft (Score:5, Insightful)

    by JustAnotherOldGuy ( 4145623 ) on Thursday October 15, 2015 @07:18PM (#50739859) Journal

    And by "thanks" I mean, "thanks for nothing, you pricks."

    I'll happily stay on Win 7 until my PC breaks and it can't be fixed or until I get hardware for which there are no Win 7 drivers. Then it'll be time to switch to Linux, perhaps an Unbuntu distro or Mint, which I've heard good things about.

    MS knows i"m not alone in feeling this way, and apparently my desires conflict with their business plan.

    So I might as well ask now, what distro would people recommend switching to for a desktop box? Or better yet, which ones should I stay away from?

    • by future assassin ( 639396 ) on Thursday October 15, 2015 @07:28PM (#50739925)

      Do it, do it do it...

    • Re:Thanks, Microsoft (Score:4, Informative)

      by bigfinger76 ( 2923613 ) on Thursday October 15, 2015 @07:39PM (#50740007)
      Mint is an Ubuntu fork. And it is wonderful.
      • Re:Thanks, Microsoft (Score:5, Informative)

        by Da Cheez ( 1069822 ) on Thursday October 15, 2015 @07:58PM (#50740135)

        Mint is an Ubuntu fork. And it is wonderful.

        +1 to this. I actually switched my wife to Mint with Cinnamon from Mac OS. All the drivers worked without any tweaking. My wife's not technical at all, but had zero issues using the system and finds it very intuitive. She particularly likes the blend of clean aesthetics and great functionality - she's an artist, so I take her approval of the aesthetics quite seriously.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by tuxgeek ( 872962 )
      Give a good look at PCBSD.
      The Linux ecosystem is currently in upheaval due to an abortion being assimilated by most distros, called systemd.
      The purpose of systemd is to make the Linux desktop more "windows like". It is necessary for the Gnome desktop to function. The Gnome desktop is a pile of garbage, so don't waste your time if you can avoid it.
      PCBSD will run on most hardware and is simple to install and use.
    • by spauldo ( 118058 )

      Mint's a good choice if you're looking for a minimum of change. The Cinnamon desktop has a very similar workflow to Windows, and most stuff just works out of the box.

      One thing though: changing your OS, especially if you're a power user, is a huge deal. You'll run into a lot of things that will annoy you or piss you off. That's natural. Linux users tend to feel the same when they have to work on Windows.

      So if you want to change, follow through. Do your change, and make yourself stick with it for at leas

    • I'm an MS user, and just switched to Linux for my web/email machine. I found Mint to easy to use, although not as smooth as Windows. Ubuntu was ok, but their fascination with brown themes never caught my interest. Others like Red Hat, Debian, Suse etc seem more focused towards server/nerd end of the market, so Mint it is for now.
  • by bobbied ( 2522392 ) on Thursday October 15, 2015 @07:19PM (#50739863)

    As much as I hate to do it, If they don't stop this Windows 10 push garbage I'm going to turn off the automatic updates feature. I'm running Windows Media Center on a windows 7 box and I DON'T want the upgrade, at least not until there is some option for a replacement DVR solution that can playback protected content. Please Microsoft, STOP pushing this, I don't want 10 (or 8 for that matter) so stop asking.

    I've noticed that Microsoft is getting really pushy about this upgrade thing and has pushed yet another update that has that annoying "Get Windows 10" icon even after I uninstalled and blocked the first update with it. I disabled the Icon notices, but I really would love to unload the new update. Anybody know which update this new one is?

    All this really does is convince me that as soon as somebody can come up with a Linux alternative that his fully DRM blessed to play back protected content from my Cable Card tuner, I'm switching and ditching Microsoft and their "we rule the world, do as we say" attitude.

    • I already did it, and it's a PiTA because you can't entirely trust the link that tells you what the update does. Some are obvious, like anything related to "customer experience". I hid one of those just yesterday. There are about a dozen that I need to check before I install them. My only hard tie to Windows is Visual Studio. If I set aside the time to explore a cross-platform IDE and find that I like it, this nonsense will come to an end. Sorry MS. I was with you for a long time. I don't hate you.

      • If I set aside the time to explore a cross-platform IDE and find that I like it, this nonsense will come to an end.

        How are you using visual studio currently?

    • There was something last week, under the "Important" updates, that was related to Windows 10 upgrade compatibility check. And of course, ALL important upgrades are given the same title "Important Update for 64-bit Windows Systems" or such, and if you look at the description it says some generic nonsense and you have to click on the "More info" button when then moves you over to the web browser before you can actually read it. Annoying because the browser is on the desktop and the windows update is on the

    • Fuckers ripped it right out of Media Center. Gee thanks, wasn't using that or anything.

    • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 15, 2015 @10:26PM (#50740851)

      Type the following in a text file:

      [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Gwx]
      "DisableGwx"=dword:00000001

      Save it on your desktop with the extension '.reg'. Then right-click it, 'Run as administrator', and if necessary confirm that yes, you do want to make changes to your machine.

      Tada, no more Windows 10 nagware.

    • Any way, official or unofficial, to run updates offline or after examination first? There's a hack to do this in Ubuntu and Fedora, which even comes with a rollback feature.

  • is no longer showing. Nice...

  • It worked OK on a spare laptop I tried it with way back in the semi-public beta - figured out how to disable the most egregious annoyances to just act like the Windows 7 upgrade I actually want. I'll likely add a block on an external firewall where the hosts file no longer blocks for known MS data collection (spy) servers. I expect Microsoft to act evil wherever it can - nice to see them less suicidal-evil compared to Windows 8.

    Didn't apply the update to any other systems though - found too many missing dr

  • Windows 10 (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 15, 2015 @07:42PM (#50740031)

    has caused me to disallow it on my network due to privacy concerns. My Wi-Fi router password does not need to be stored by Microsoft. This is one of those instances where I really thank God I know and use BSD and Linux to be able to avoid the likes of this junk. I told my wife she needs to either get a MacBook or Linux replaces the Windows 7 install. I removed the MS KBs that would allow Windows 10 to be installed and also removed the additional telemetry crap. No one but me needs knowledge of my passwords.

  • Hubris Recipe #7 (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Tablizer ( 95088 ) on Thursday October 15, 2015 @07:53PM (#50740089) Journal

    over the last couple of days, the situation seems to have become a little more aggressive

    I bet in a management meeting, the top boss screams out: "I want X new installs by Y, or you are outta here! I don't care how you do it, just get it done!"

    The operative phrase is "I don't care how to do it".

  • by William Hilsum ( 4296239 ) on Thursday October 15, 2015 @07:54PM (#50740099)
    I support quite a few companies and Microsoft have created so much hassle for me recently with this, we now try to block these updates from happening, but, like most people, the first wave caught us off guard. Windows 10 is not compatible with 2nd gen i3/i5/i7 processors with internal graphics - it causes many BSOD and various system problems after about 30-90 minutes usage. Intel have not to date released a driver upgrade. Microsoft does not block these systems from upgrading to Windows 10.
    • I updated a freaking bunch of CoreDuo laptops (please notice the absence of the number 2 in the middle of the name) with intel graphics (granted, not integrated) with no issues. (you can search my past posts for the gory details)...

      It stands to reason that if such old graphics can handle win10, so can more modern Core iX integrated graphics, with some tweaking (perhaps using the Vista/7/8 drivers instead of the out of the box 10 ones, and checking that ALL your firmware is up to the latest, no matter what t

  • We have 6 machines. 4 of them upgraded no problem. One had a legacy bios / efi upgrade problem. Windows 10 is nice, an improvement over Windows 7. Everyone here really likes it.

    The 6th machine on the other hand is a single partition machine that has gone from XP to 8.1 without a hitch. Windows 10 repartitions the disk and leaves it unusable (RAW) every time the upgrade runs. Auto upgrade there would wipe out the machine :-(
  • Couldn't be any worse.

  • I certainly have no interest in upgrading. My only Windows PC is used for gaming, and some light work when I want to use a larger screen. I'm happy with the setup, and don't want anyone except myself to mess around with it. Thus far, this has proven to be the case even though some people are reporting very different experiences.

    Which leaves me wondering: are these reports over dramatized or do they reflect actions on Microsoft's end? I certainly wouldn't put it past Microsoft. They certainly have a mul

    • Reality. Just ran intothis. It lets me select updates, but the install is replaced with a "Download Windows 10" button, and it keeps checking the box for windows 10 for installation no matter how many times I uncheck it. Awful behavior.

  • by Wild_dog! ( 98536 ) on Thursday October 15, 2015 @09:35PM (#50740619)

    Went to fire up my Windows 10 VM today. It was a technical preview which allows me to upgrade to a full Windows 10 Pro version, but I am locked out. First it said it was outdated, Then it quite updating altogether.
    Now it says a component expired and I need to hit F8 for recovery except nothing happens with F8.

    A tad frustrating.

  • Just wondering.
    If the key is listed as pirated, a good thing would be to auto download and install.

  • by Chewbacon ( 797801 ) on Thursday October 15, 2015 @10:58PM (#50740983)

    Was smooth at first, but now I'm seeing that was a mistake. These update issues are a real headache when I'm trying to get work done. Plus, I imaged to a bigger HD, windows would refuse to let me login. I ended up having to "reset" windows, which removes all apps, preserves user data, and reinstalls Windows. Now I can't activate it for some fucking reason. And when I reboot after reinstalling an app uninstalled during the reset, it tries (and fails!) to update. I'm not sure what's more frustrating: the cluster fuck that it is or Microsoft isn't saying shit about it.

  • Pray they don't alter it any further.
  • One thing that puts me off is the Win10 availability notification box keeps crashing!
    WGwhatever.EXE has had an unknown error.
  • by emaname ( 1014225 ) on Friday October 16, 2015 @11:40AM (#50744027)

    Once again proving the old adage that "it's easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission."

    It's hard for me to believe that was a "mistake."

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