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

[n2doc]

Brad Chacos

Senior Editor, PCWorld May 22, 2016 9:20 AM

This morning, the unthinkable happened: My wife, an avowed PC user who long ago swore to never touch an Apple device, started shopping around for a Mac Mini. And it’s all thanks to Windows 10. Or rather, the nasty new way that Microsoft’s tricking Windows 7 and 8 users into automatically updating to Windows 10.

I adore Windows 10, but I’ve long been a vocal critic of the heavy-handed tactics that Microsoft’s been using to force people into the upgrade, all to hit a goal of migrating 1 billion users to an operating system brimming with freemium services and ads. The annoying “Get Windows 10” pop-up began using deceiving malware-like tactics months ago, but it recently received an overhaul that seems purposefully designed to confuse users who have been wearily slogging through the nagging for half a year now.

That nasty change trick resulted in my wife’s beloved Windows 7 PC being sneakily upgraded to Windows 10 this morning. Sure, she has 30 days to roll it back to Windows 7, but she feels so betrayed—like Microsoft forcibly removed her control over her own PC—that she’s strongly considering embracing the Dark Side and buying a Mac, instead.

The change
In December, the Get Windows 10 (GWX) pop-up changed its verbiage in a way that mimicked malware: The only immediate options were to “Upgrade Now” or “Start download, upgrade later.” An offer you can’t refuse! The wording changed slightly since then, but the only way to decline the upgrade has been the same: By clicking the X button in the GWX pop-up’s right-hand corner and closing the window.

more
http://www.pcworld.com/article/3073457/windows/how-microsofts-nasty-new-windows-10-pop-up-tricks-you-into-upgrading.html

[rjsquirrel]

1. Oh come now

Apple's software update approach is hardly las intrusive or easy to ignore.

The horrors, here have some free software that is safer and more capable.

[intersectionality]

16. Apple charges for many of their upgrades.

W10 is so bad they are giving it away like a virus. On W10 launch only 30% of all windows progs could work on it. Shitty products. Please don't drag apples name through the mud - user of both windows 7 and Mac OS X.

[rjsquirrel]

17. Not OS updates

It's not an "upgrade" technically. OS updates have been free in Apple's model for years now.

[themaguffin]

49. "W10 is so bad?" Really? Tell us what is so bad about it.

[Drahthaardogs]

59. I tried it and it kept disconnecting my internet

I had to remove it and the problem resolved. I would like to try it again but I am hesitant.

[trotsky]

76. Sounds like that was more likely a driver issue.

Manufacturers have known about 10 for a long time - some just drag their feet on providing appropriate code for Win10 to use with their devices. it isn't always Microsoft's fault.

I've got two systems running Win10 at home and have had no issues.

[Nitram]

19. Squirrel, that is much less intrusive.

I upgraded to Windows 10 at work and had to return to the previous system because 10 wouldn't work with the latest version of the ARcView GIS mapping software I use at work. Nevertheless, Microsoft just WON'T STOP NAGGING me to upgrade to 10, interrupting with their intrusive pop ups. Either you upgraded to 10 and don't understand how abusive the pop ups are, or you're a paid Microsoft shill. I have apple at home and I've never ever experienced this level of badgering.

[rjsquirrel]

32. I agree !

I'm a scientist. I use all major OSes and prefer my *nix systems anyway. I own Apple stock and not Microsoft stock. So I'm certainly not an MS shill!

But I think the idea that you'd be sticking it to Microsoft by buying a Mac is 1990s nostalgia. Apple forces security updates on its customers too. They do it by stopping support for older versions.

[Nitram]

34. I believe the poster was complaining about the repeated popping up of intrusive prompts to

install Windows 10. Apple doesn't interrupt me once or twice a day to get me to upgrade.

[FLPanhandle]

29. I have both operating systems in my house

You are absolutely wrong about Apple being just as intrusive.

We have 6 computers around the house (3 Macbooks, 1 big custom built PC, 2 MS laptops). Although the MS machines are half the household, they are 90% of problems, and much more annoying around the upgrades. I finally upgraded the last one once my daughter finished the school year this weekend.

[BillZBubb]

30. All hail the big corporations and their selfless generosity!

How about if I don't want their upgrade? How about if installing it without my explicit permission is a violation of my freedom of choice? Dealing with upgrades often requires time and effort on the part of the person who is the recipient. What if I don't want to spend that time right now?

I know a lot of Democrats are out and out corporatists, but can't you at least understand many of us still like to make our own informed choices, "free" or not?

[nxylas]

2. Someone on Twitter compared...

...trying to stop your computer downgrading to Windoze 10 to wrestling a sweet from a robot monkey.

[hobbit709]

3. first: Set windows Update to "Notify of updates but don't download them.

Then go to Control Panel, Programs and Features, Installed Updates, and find KB3035583 and uninstall it.
Return to Windows Update and if you see the KB3035583 on the list of available updates, right click and select hide update.
Wo'n bother you any more.

[SylviaD]

14. Yup, got the same advice from my friend who is an IT guy. nt

[Nitram]

20. Thank you hobbit!

[dickthegrouch]

37. I must have missed the third step

Because KB3035583 was back on my machine within a week.

Don't forget the other thing MSFT did - they suck every single photo and document into their cloud without asking/telling you.
Intellectual property theft if ever I saw it.
I had to persuade a MSFT security person to prevent that from happening any more and even now it occasionally whines that the process is "suspended" as if I might want to restart it.

[dreamnightwind]

75. more about the cloud uploads, please

Is this real (your claim about MS sucking up all photos and docs to their cloud)? Sounds unlikely! Can you share enough info that I can find out more via the Google? What programs or OS components are involved in this? Which operating system? Relevant only to Windows Live or more broadly? Thanks for any info, not sure if I'm asking the right questions, just want to know if what you claim is really happening, and if it is, how to prevent it.

[dickthegrouch]

78. I googled "One Drive Spyware"

And came up with lots of hits.
This is from one of MSFTs own discussion boards:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows8_1-security/security-risk-microsoft-onedrive-cloud-turned-on/61b1b042-6cc6-4cbc-81f7-329a5d95db1e?auth=1

Sophos is a very well respected computer security company (Which I have no professional or personal ties to):
https://www.sophos.com/en-us/threat-center/threat-analyses/viruses-and-spyware/OneDrive%20%28SkyDrive%29%20for%20Windows.aspx

This Techworm article has some good points too:
http://www.techworm.net/2015/07/by-downloading-windows-10-you-are-allowing-microsoft-to-spy-on-you.html

[Paper Roses]

41. Don't know how to set Windows to "notify" but I just went to programs and deleted as suggested.

The KB3035583 was on both my desktop and laptop. I have been getting the update messages on both machines and thankfully I X'ed out each notification. Pain in the backside. Now that I removed the update #, will that be the end? Can MS try something else?

I am too old to play with all this junk. Almost fainted when I saw the # of updates on my laptop. The laptop came to me via my son-in-law and he had a ton of programs installed. I don't know what the heck they are. Sure wish I was more computer savvy but it is what it is. Thanks for the advice. Hope I don't see that pop-up again.

[hobbit709]

42. If you don't tell the update to hide it will keep coming back

Go to Control Panel, Windows Update, Change settings, and select Notify but do not download.

[Locrian]

4. use GWX Control (third party, free)

I have this on all my Win7 computers. Works great. I loathe the trend that MS is following on forced upgrades.


http://blog.ultimateoutsider.com/2015/08/using-gwx-stopper-to-permanently-remove.html

This is a free tool that can remove and disable the 'Get Windows 10' notification area icon on Windows 7 and Windows 8. Recent versions can also disable 'Upgrade to Windows 10' behavior in the Windows Update control panel and do much more. See the user guide at the Ultimate Outsider blog. You can still download GWX Control Panel as a standalone executable if you don't like installers. Please see the "GWX Control Panel Release Notes and Version History" post at the blog for MD5 and SHA-1 checksums of all official releases.

[scscholar]

52. Until Microsoft decides to break it...

which they've done a couple of times in the past.

[Locrian]

63. no doubt

I'd fully move to Linux Ubuntu (Mint, etc) if I didn't do a lot of digital audio (VSTs etc). As soon as some of the main players (Native Instruments hopefully) have a Linux solution I'm there.

I see the Win10 as a push to eventually "on line" type of OS with "cloud" everything crap - with push everything to consume. Vs me buying tools to do a job.

[surrealAmerican]

5. Why would this require a new computer?

What about Linux?

[madokie]

38. I made the switch

to Ubuntu about the time that windows 7 was being rolled out. In fact it was ubuntu 10.04 that made me a true Linux lover. I've got 16.04 downloaded and burned and plan to upgrade to it any day now. That will carry me through the rest of my computer days, I'm sure. I like the Mate version.

[Bad Dog]

6. I was automatically upgraded to windows 10.

I declined to accept the terms and conditions, it asked me if I wanted Windows 7 back and I said yes. Now it's back to normal. I agree, Microsoft are using sneaky tactics. My computer was out of action for over an hour while it installed an unwanted product and then removed it.

[Mnpaul]

58. An important milling machine at work

was tied up all day with this malware. It has already cost us thousands of dollars in lost time. The customers want their product now. We waited all day and it only made it to 26%.

[Bad Dog]

62. That's awful.

I was whinging about a home computer, I was forgetting about the implications for industry.

[Bucky]

71. Shit, I should've thought of that.

I wonder if I can uninstall Windows 10 and go back to 7. Each iteration gets slower and more cumbersome.

[Bad Dog]

74. I never thought of it either.

My 24 year old son did it for me.

[davidpdx]

7. I had this almost happen to me

The damn thing tried to force me to schedule a day and time to update. I have been thinking about it, but putting it off for sometime. The aggressive tactics make me wary of making the change.

[pangaia]

18. Love your South Korean flag !!!!!

YEA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[davidpdx]

50. Thanks

I have it there to let people know although I am American my second home is Korea.

[pangaia]

53. I have many Korean friends, including several internationally acclaimed concert artists,

Finally made my first visit in April/May.. loved it!!

[davidpdx]

67. That's a great time to come here

It's cool, but not to hot yet. We had some rain today and it was cool, but oh we are in for it the rest of the week. It will be hot.

[pangaia]

68. I will come back for the GMMF- Great Mountains Music Festival in July HOT !!!

[davidpdx]

69. Actually we might be getting some rain

Depends on typhoon season. You never can tell how close one will come to Korea. Usually they only hit the bottom part of the peninsula, but we had a really intense one hit across Seoul and into North Korea about six year ago.

[bonniebgood]

8. I was never able to switch back after more than 12 hours with microsoft. took my pc to geek

they lost all my data. older people like myself cant maneuver these tricks. went to ebay bought 2 new windows 7 computers. I will use them until they or I no longer work or buy a mac. Windows 8.1-10 are not for average older person.

[Warren DeMontague]

9. Yeah, I like Windows 10, but they're a liiiiiiiiiiittle too gung-ho on the thing.

[w4rma]

10. I had a dual boot Linux/Windows 7 Ultimate computer. The Windows 10 upgrade doesn't work well with

dual boot computers. Eventually, I had to delete Linux to be able to upgrade to Windows 10 Pro. I'm glad that I was able to upgrade. From my experience, Windows 10 has the advantages of Windows 7 and some extra utilities from Windows 8 (that I don't need), without the disadvantages from Windows 8.

And, I know that Windows 10 will be supported for a long time into the future, well after they quit supporting Windows 7.

[48lowes]

11. Have you ever known microsoft to give anything away?

The very simple explanation is that Win.10 is spyware. I will avoid it any way possible

[SmittynMo]

13. Amen

End of discussion. Period!!!

[LittleGirl]

12. Thanks for posting

Friday night, I received an email from my friend (9 hr time difference away) who got stuck in this upgrade and couldn't do anything. Since I gave her the computer, I had to ask hubby what was going on and he told me that she probably accepted the request to upgrade. I'm going to send him this link and show him that maybe he wasn't quite right and cost us several hours this weekend of trying to walk her through the upgrade. I didn't know you could go back and I'm not going to spend all week organizing time to walk her through it either. I've had a love/hate relationship with Windows since '90 as I was formally in IT and it created a career for me of nothing but misery and thankless troubleshooting skills. I do not miss that job at all. Too freaking frustrating.

[Mustellus]

15. And then they begin pushing BUYING THE OFFICE SUITE...

.. and your password has to be your Microsoft Live password... unless you notice in time...

... and you can't delete the Office harassment, unless you follow Microsofts instructions to EDIT THE REGISTRY BY HAND.


Microsoft has stolen every major product it sells. DOS is unix, Windows was Mac, Word triumphed over the bodies of a dozen word processors, all run out of business, Excel was Lotus, Internet Explorer was Mosaic... on and on and on.

The method is simple: offer a new product for free, run the competition out of business, and then jack the price up sky high.

[valerief]

22. And Apple stole the graphic interface from Xerox. Brilliant Steve Jobs my ass! nt

[n2doc]

25. Jobs and Gates were brilliant. Brilliant marketers

Inventing something means little if nothing is done to make that invention available. XEROX did nothing with Parc. Gates took the source code from another company to make MS-DOS, and copied the mac interface to make Windows. Everything is copied. It is the person who knows how to market that copy who wins.

[GreatGazoo]

26. "steal" is not the right word and yes Steve Jobs was brilliant.

Apple bought access to the PARC by means of a stock deal that seemed lucrative to the Xerox managers on the East Coast: They might buy 100,000 Apple stocks for one million dollars. Holding this admission ticket in the hand, Steve Jobs, Apple’s president Mike Scott, Bill Atkinson, and a number of members of the developing team marched up. “I think mostly … what we got in that hour and a half was inspiration and just sort of basically a bolstering of our convictions that a more graphical way to do things would make this business computer more accessible.”

http://www.mac-history.net/computer-history/2012-03-22/apple-and-xerox-parc/2

Xerox was satisfied with the deal. MicroSoft on the other hand stole over 60,000 lines of code from the Mac OS when they created Windows and that theft was the subject of a long lawsuit.

[Nitram]

23. That's right, Mustellus.

A rapacious business model.

[48lowes]

33. Try open office free open source software

Mustellus
I mostly agree, we used to say bill gates was the antichrist but he's moved on to common core, much more insidious.
I use open office http://www.openoffice.org/download/
I'd also recommend firefox https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/?scene=2

[AirmensMom]

21. I permanently quit Windoze over a year ago.

Had a Toshiba laptop with Vista installed. It crashed within a month and I had to reinstall from the secret partition. Worked until one day last year when it was dragging and I decided a reboot was in order. Keep in mind, that I had all the settings on to prevent automatic upgrades. But something in it or me got into auto-pilot while it was shutting down and it went into upgrade mode. Oops! It did its thing and never came up again. Couldn't reinstall from the secret partition because it was gone. Couldn't recover using recovery discs because it couldn't read them. The hard drive was/is crashed.

I've done my share of computer magic, even had husband give it a try. Nothing. We bought a new hard drive but haven't installed anything on it. Thinking of installing Ubuntu.

I have had a MacBook since 2006 that is still working fine, but it won't run newer software. I bought a new MacBook Pro to replace everything the old one and the Toshiba were being used for. I LOVE it. Only problem is that I get a panic attack every time it wants me to upgrade...which is nowhere near as often as Windoze. If I call support because a progress bar didn't move for 2 seconds, they'll stay with me until everything is back up and normal.

[Equinox Moon]

24. Windows 10 is essentinally SpyWare

They want everyone on it so they can spy on your computer usage.
You can turn some of it off, but not all. They are getting around the resistant upgraders by putting their SpyWare into the windows 7 and windows 8 updates.

Remember when we all learned that Microsoft loves working with the government to share our information. They get paid to share the information they collect on us. It is always about $$$$

[earthshine]

40. A simple way to stop MS from spying on you. Works for Win 7/8/10.

1) Set all available privacy settings as appropriate.

2) Set the use of personal advertising ID to "NO."

3) Install this free program. It blocks all telemetry uploads.
Spybot Anti-beacon - stop telemetry uploads from W7, W8.1, and W10.
https://www.safer-networking.org/spybot-anti-beacon

[Equinox Moon]

43. Thank you. I will look this over.

[earthshine]

44. The only thing it does is rewrite the Windows hosts file to block access to MS servers.

Simple solution. It blocks the MS telemetry at the network level.

[Gman]

27. WX is the biggest piece of spyware I've ever seen

And make no mistake. It is spyware.

[artyteacher]

28. my friend and i have disabled all...

Windows updates on our win7 and 8 machines.

She says she's going,to teach me Linux next.

[Roy Rolling]

31. And...

You kids get off my lawn!

[Agnosticsherbet]

35. I've used Apple and Windows, and will never use Apple again.

Opinions may vary.

[Elwood P Dowd]

46. I've used Windows and Apple, and will never use Windows again.

Doing computer work with Windows was a royal pain in the ass. Never, ever had a problem with any Apple computer or OS in 18 years.

[Agnosticsherbet]

47. I found problems with every Apple Product.

I have had very few problems with Windows.

I think that is a matter of the luck of the draw.

[CrispyQ]

36. I never thought I'd say this, but my next system will be a Mac.

I hate Win 10. Eight was even worse. Almost every time I boot I have issues. Sometimes it takes 3-4 boots to get everything to display the way it should. The most annoying thing is when I go to open a file but Explorer shows zero files in the directory. The first time this happened I flipped out. I have a Win 7 system & the update popups are a pain. I have to be super careful to avoid updating. Fuck MS.

[apnu]

56. Did you upgrade from Win8 or Win7, or is that a clean install?

[CrispyQ]

64. Win 8 to Win 10.

10 is better than 8, but only a bit.

[apnu]

72. I've had bad luck with Windows upgrades

its possible the upgrade was corrupted some how. Maybe if you can get your Win10 key off the system, and you had a good backup of your files, you could reinstall Win10 from scratch, that might fix your issue. Win10, for me, has been very stable. The data snooping and ads skeeve me, but its not been unstable like you are describing.

[eppur_se_muova]

39. Thanks, sent this to my sib.

She asked a local tech shop for help and they told her that several of their business customers had their machines involuntary upgraded over the weekend.

I also sent her a link to Lubuntu LiveCD d/l.

[Snarkoleptic]

45. If you opt to stick with Win10, here's an authoritative how-to on privacy.

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/08/windows-10-doesnt-offer-much-privacy-by-default-heres-how-to-fix-it/

[MrScorpio]

48. In my line of computer usage, using Windows...

Is tantamount to committing suicide.

I'll keep my Macs.

[kimbutgar]

51. I brought a computer last year for my son with Windows 8

I installed Windows 10 and the computer crashed and I couldn't even bring it back under Windows or factory restore. Ending up buying a new hard drive and installing Windows 7. The computer is purring like a cat and running quicker.

[Paladin]

54. I came across this chicken-shit Windows 10 ploy this morning.

Whatever thoughts I ever had of upgrading from Windows 7 have been done away with, for good. What a low-rent bit of deception.

[rgbecker]

57. https://www.grc.com/never10.htm

Put an end to the MS crap about Windows 10 right away. They were about to "Upgrade" my WIndows 7 laptop, ready or not.

[malaise]

55. They caught me as well

but I like Windows 10.

[RockaFowler]

65. I like it too

It's very easy to use

Oh well can't make everyone happy I guess

[anigbrowl]

60. LOL whatever

Must be a slow news day at PC world again, but then they've never been much good.

[lordsummerisle]

61. I don't like the Microsoft tactics either

however if you have Windows 7, it's really simple to just rollback to it from Windows 10 which is what I did on my Toshiba Satellite laptop, which probably has only a year or two of life left. I've been wondering though if there aren't some unforeseen consequences to doing this...

[backscatter712]

66. When all else fails, there's always Linux.

Lately, I've been a fan of Kubuntu and Mint.

[Bucky]

70. That happened to me last night/this morning. When I woke up Windows 10 had self-installed

I wasn't able to do any work this morning because Windows 10 runs so unbearably slow. It took 10 minutes to boot up and the internet kept freezing up, which kept me from updating some files I needed to start my students' finals at 8am. I was absolutely livid. Sooo frustrating. It's for shit like this that I don't keep a gun in the house, otherwise I'd have a laptop full of holes right now.

[hunter]

73. I'm happy to build Linux machines for family and friends.

Most people don't need Microsoft or Apple products.

In a few months $150 Chromebooks are going to be running Android apps transparently. That's going to be interesting.

Of course, Google's capacity to spy on people and deliver targeted advertising far exceeds Microsoft's or Apple's abilities.

[yallerdawg]

77. Windows 10 has proven to be a real upgrade.

Downloaded a free ad-blocker and lived happily ever after!

Don't fight the future.

Resistance is futile.