Customers took a stand against Windows 10’s aggressive upgrades – and won

On Mon, 23 Jan 2017 23:14:54 +0800, "Mr. Man-wai Chang"
wrote:

|
| Full story:
| http://www.digitaltrends.com/computi...osoft-and-won/
|
| Jesse Worley threatened to sue Microsoft. He’s not the first to take on
| the Redmond company, but his move to take legal action had a purpose. He
| wanted Microsoft to acknowledge that aggressively pushing the Windows 10
| update was a problem. Customers weary of the Windows 8 disaster were
| unwilling to take the upgrade leap; Microsoft was, he reasoned, ignoring
| their fear of heights.
|
| Worley built a Windows 7 machine for his grandfather, who has
| Alzheimer’s Disease, in 2013. Because of this, Worley customized the
| machine to look like Windows XP, an operating system his grandfather
| still remembered well. Since Windows 7 will still receive patches until
| 2020, he wanted to keep the machine on Windows 7 until he got around to
| building a PC with Windows 10, using the fake Windows XP interface.
|
| But thanks to Microsoft’s persistent Windows 10 upgrade program,
| Worley’s grandfather unknowingly initiated the Win 10 upgrade by
| clicking the “X” to close an upgrade window – which gave permission by
| not explicitly refuting the update. For the last 21 years, that X has
| been used to close programs in Windows. Microsoft chose to change that
| function.
|
| It didn’t turn out well.
|
| ....
|
| Ultimately, Worley hopes people impacted by the forced Windows 10
| upgrade will write a complaint to Microsoft demanding a settlement for
| their wasted time and money in repairing the device. He wants Microsoft
| to vow it will never use an aggressive promotion again, and for the
| victims to donate their rewards to Alzheimer’s research if they don’t
| need the money “in case Microsoft doesn’t take the hint.”
|
| Microsoft admitted the upgrade pop-up window was misleading.
|
| “I want those people to fight their fight,” he said. “I know they can
| win those fights. Some of them are big fights that cost a lot of money,
| and some, like mine, are little fights worth less money.”
|
| Worley isn’t the only individual who has gone after Microsoft over its
| Windows 10 upgrade tactics. California travel agent Teri Goldstein sued
| Microsoft in small claims court in June and won $10,000. She didn’t
| authorize the update, and the install failed. After that her computer,
| which she uses to manage her business, was unusable. Microsoft couldn’t
| fix the PC, so she went to small claims court instead.
|
| Microsoft appealed the court’s decision, which compensated Goldstein for
| replacing the PC and lost wages. But the company reportedly dropped its
| appeal so it wouldn’t have the expense of continuing the litigation. The
| whole story can be read in Goldstein’s ebook “Winning Against Windows
| 10: How I Fought Microsoft and Won.”
|
| “Teri and I both believe that legislation which criminalizes software
| companies that use aggressive or misleading tactics to trick their own
| users into dangerous updates is necessary,” Worley said. “While we might
| take separate approaches toward accomplishing that shared goal in
| California and Texas, we know that this fight would be significantly
| easier with Microsoft reps at the table as opposed to sticking their
| fingers in their ears and writing checks against their ethical
| shortcomings.”
|
| Updates are a part of software, and they usually result in better, more
| stable, more secure software. But companies should be upfront with them
| rather than slipping updates in on the sly. Microsoft’s efforts to force
| upgrades to Windows 10 shows that aggressive updates can indeed go too
| far, and is a rare example of users getting relief for a PC that
| suddenly breaks – through no fault of their own.

Using Classic Shell, I made Windows 10 look like XP. No problem. The biggest
problem I see with 10 is the free upgrade was basically to the OEM version. If I
decide to build a new system now, I'll have to go back to retail 8/8.1 or pay for a
license for 10.

As for 10 as an OS, I don't see a lot wrong with it. 8.1 is about as good, but the 2
are clearly better than Windows versions that preceded them, IMO.

Larc