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

[SecularMotion]

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.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-customers-took-a-stand-against-microsoft-and-won/

[yallerdawg]

1. My son got caught in that upgrade...

and it hijacked his smallish laptop for a couple hours.

Now, we all have gotten Windows 10 updates periodically that hijack our 'puters again for lengthy periods of time.

I'm commenting here since Microsoft now data mines my keystrokes and will be able to receive this 'message.' Thank God it's not the government. That would be terrible.

[Afromania]

3. not yet anyway

I got a hunkering hankering that there will be some sort of cyber surveillance bill that'll offer to do just that. If not in our immediate future then someplace in the very near future. Just going to throw up a preemptive "Thanks Trump, Trump voters 3rd party and non-voters".

[bonniebgood]

2. I lost my computer due to the upgrade disaster. I wish I could

get in on this lawsuit. I spent too many hours of my life that i will never get back.
I end up buying two computer desktop with windows 7.

[sarcasmo]

17. I have been using a Chromebook the last 4 years. No updated headaches.

[FoxNewsSucks]

4. I put this on my Windows 7 computer

http://www.businessinsider.com/never-10-stops-windows-10-upgrade-2016-3

There's a download link at the article. I installed it last year, and it stopped the incessant "reminders" to update my windows 7 computer, and prevented those forced-updates.

[2naSalit]

10. I use that too

and it works. They have other free tools at that site too but I haven't used any.

[BainsBane]

5. Everyone prefers XP

So why doesn't Microsoft created a new XP instead of making Windows worse all the time? Granted, 10 is better than 8, but in general each version gets worse and worse.

[Siwsan]

6. I walked into the room to find my computer mid way in thru an unwanted upgrade to Windows 10

I still can't figure out how that happened because I THOUGHT I had declined every 'reminder'. And, I was afraid to stop it for fear I'd completely screw things up.

I don't hate it, but I certainly don't like it, either. I haven't liked any of their 'improvements' since XP, which I loved.

As much as I am not a Mac fan, I'm tempted to make the transition. I stuck my toe in that door when I was gifted with a used Ipad.

[Iggo]

9. You might have clicked the X to close the "reminder" window.

Microsoft now says X means Go.

[Siwsan]

15. That is a possibility

To be honest, my 'no thanks' key strokes were getting pretty aggressive so I may have overshot the 'no thanks', after about a thousand "reminders'. But when I was actually using the laptop, it wasn't 'upgrading'. That about an hour later.

I won an old lap top in a raffle, at work, that still has XP on it. It is getting less and less useful for anything on line but I keep it for other things. I loved XP.

[awoke_in_2003]

16. I switched in 02 and haven't looked back

Prior to that I had given up on Windows and was using Linux and FreeBSD. Should Apple ever go out of business, I will go back to Linux.

[Siwsan]

19. There was a time it wouldn't have worked for me, because I brought work home

and we used Microsoft Windows at work. Now it wouldn't be a problem, although I find Mac products to be pretty expensive, in comparison.

[Puzzler]

7. I have Windows 7 on my PC, but ...

... the constant updates are pretty ridiculous, and frequency obtrusive. The former MS CEO Balmer was an ass, and effectively did huge damage to MS over the last decade, by pitting one company department against another.

-Puzzler

[blaze]

8. My Mom (90) accidentally initiated the Win10 download

A quick google discovered a relatively east way to undo it... so long as you do it within 30 days.

http://www.howtogeek.com/220723/how-to-uninstall-windows-10-and-downgrade-to-windows-7-or-8.1/

[Snarkoleptic]

11. I like Win10, now that it does what I want, rather than what Microsoft wants.

The fix for this is at the linked article.
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/08/windows-10-doesnt-offer-much-privacy-by-default-heres-how-to-fix-it/

Windows 10, by default, has permission to report a huge amount of data back to Microsoft. By clicking through "Express Settings" during installation, you allow Windows 10 to gather up your contacts, calendar details, text and touch input, location data, and a whole lot more. The OS then sends it all back to Microsoft so that it can be used for personalisation and targeted ads.

This isn't entirely unusual: recent versions of Windows, unless you explicitly say otherwise, have reported some kind of data back to Microsoft. Windows 10 definitely goes one step (well, a few steps) further though, primarily thanks to Cortana (which ideally needs to be personalised/optimised based on your voice inputs, calendar, contacts, etc.) and other "cloudy" features that somewhat necessitate the collection and squirting of personal data back to Microsoft.

In addition to the spying, I'm not a big fan of my system/wifi bandwidth being used by a giant corporation to help share their updates!

Another feature that you might want to disable is Windows 10's BitTorrent-like update sharing: by default, your Windows 10 PC will upload Windows update files to other PCs on the Internet, peer-to-peer style. Open the Settings app and navigate to Update & Security > Windows Update > Advanced Options > Choose how updates are delivered. From here, you can disable this feature fully, or restrict it to just other PCs on the LAN.

[MiniMe]

12. Marking this for later

Thanks for the info

[Snarkoleptic]

14. As they say, if you use software provided for free, you are the product.

[earthshine]

13. Been struggling with Win 10 on several computers -- a rant

Microsoft does what it always does -- acts like a bully.

MS was once a leader. Now they follow. MS is desperately trying to catch up to Apple and Google in terms of monetizing the monitoring of user activity.

It's been a horrible year and a half for me and Win 10. I have spent so much time undoing aggressive upgrades, blocking the upgrades, and fixing the computers that already have Win 10.

When Steve Gibson created Never 10, it was a miracle, but it was too late for many of us.

Further, MS did what I knew they would do. After tricking/cajoling/forcing us into the upgrade, and locking us in, MS changed 10 to be more bloated and privacy invading, and continued forcing those upgrades.

Maybe they don't monitor everything we do right now, but that door is wide open for them with the continued and constant Win 10 updates. Do you trust them not to invade your privacy further?

The anniversary update was the worst of all. Two of my computers and one belonging to a friend just died during the long uninvited upgrade.

The comps don't like it when a surprise update (via WiFi) takes so long that the computer shuts down in the middle of it. Then when the thing is turned back on, it's in a devastated state.

Then, when the ann version would actually work, it was with absurd start up times and frequent malfunctions during startup and shut down. Damn it, I use the best SSDs. Long starts are unacceptable to me.

A long time ago, I joined the MS Technet program. Since then, basically, I've had free downloadable Windows and MS-Office licenses -- all versions, all software.

Sounds good right? In the end, the result is that my friends and I have been deeply locked into Windows, office, and other MS products. We all want to leave MS, but are too entrenched.

I am tired of fixing and reconfiguring 10. I shut off privacy settings, and they get turned back on.

I am tired of watching the computer go through two or three attempts just to start up, where it starts spontaneously repairing a drive that has no actual problems.

Wisely, I kept the Win 7/8 boot drives for most of the computers. For my main workstation, for the last three weeks, I am back on Win 8. It just runs better. Even just scrolling on the screen is smoother.

MS, I have hated you since you forced Vista on us 10 years ago. You were determined to make us go 64 bit, despite that the processors of the day were too slow to do it effectively. 10 years later, there are still problems with 64 bit. For example, 32 bit Office is more stable than 64 bit Office.

I may be forced to use MS products, but it is with great resentment. I will go on hating them and telling others about it, while using my essentially free, legal copies of Windows and Office -- and still feeling like MS ripped me off and stole my precious life energy.

For many, Apple is not seen as a viable alternative. Apple's ecosphere is too closed off for me.

[hunter]

18. Anymore, my recommendation to casual computer users is "Buy a Chromebook."

The Chrome Browser is today's standard, with 57% of the market.

If you don't use sophisticated applications such as AutoCad, Photoshop, complex office apps, or certain games, then ChromeOs and Android offer many simple alternatives. Chrome apps can be installed on any computer with the Chrome browser installed. If Chrome apps work for you on a Windows machine, they'll work on a Chromebook.

Chromebooks sell for as little as $150 new, which is important to me. I lose and break things when I travel. There's no way I'd ever want to babysit a $2000 laptop. (I feel much the same about cameras and cellphones.)

These days it seems you pick your poison. Apple, Google, and Microsoft all spy on you. If you are a Facebook user then you've already given up your privacy anyways, so what's the problem?

I've always been a fan of the underdog operating systems. I was a major Atari enthusiast, starting with an 800. At the same time I was also using Unix on University computers. My first IBM compatibles ran DRDOS, and then DRDOS with Geoworks. From there I went to heavily modified and stripped down versions of Windows 95 up through 98SE.

Linux was like coming home; so similar to the BSD Unix I'd used in college that I could navigate it without any extra thought.

Debian Linux is my favorite, but many novice Linux users swear by Mint.

https://www.linuxmint.com

Mint is an excellent way to rejuvenate or repurpose an older computer that would choke on Windows 10.

Mint's not always an easy install, however. It's best to have a second computer with internet access handy if something goes amok. Getting wifi to work is usually where it went wrong for me, but that seems to have improved lately.

I won't touch a Windows machine unless someone is paying me.