Windows 10 Update Woes
Are you a Windows user? Ready to upgrade to Windows 10? No? That’s too bad, because Microsoft REALLY wants you to upgrade to Windows 10. So much so, that they’ve deployed some pretty sneaky tactics to coerce and trick their user base into upgrading to the latest Microsoft operating system.
I wrote an article a few months back about unwanted updates and the focus was on Apple’s operating system, OS X 10.11, El Capitan. I mentioned the Windows 10 nag in that article, because it wasn’t too forceful back then. It was a suggestion, a nagging reminder at the bottom right of your screen that was eager to show you the way to a better Windows. But you had a choice, and many chose no. I certainly did.
Imagine my surprise one morning when I discovered that the PC at my home had suddenly upgraded to Windows 10. Without my consent, or so I thought. Luckily, I was able to reverse this process without much of a problem. I’m also running a fairly decent PC that’s a couple years old, but it has a lot of RAM and a great processor. It can handle Windows 10; I just don’t want it to yet.
There’s a fair number of people that aren’t having the same degree of success in reverting to their previous Windows, and having an older machine or one lacking the “horsepower” to run Windows 10 can find themselves without a functioning computer after getting the gift of Windows 10. What’s worse, is that a lot of people don’t have the technical skills to be able to repair this type of issue. While that might be great for my business, I hardly think it fair on Microsoft’s part to be delivering the kiss of death upon the computers of some of their users.
What is downright deceitful about this Windows 10 upgrade debacle is how they are pulling it off: The Windows 10 update is automatically scheduled. Not only that, but Microsoft also changed the interface for the little nagging window. When you click the “Close” window box, it doesn’t just close the window, you have also consented to proceed with the upgrade.
Crazy, right? They changed the rules on how the “Close” button works in Windows. That’s the kind of trickery that you find on pop-up ads on the web. Stooping to this level is despicable as a business practice, especially for such a tech leader like Microsoft. This is how they got me and a number of others that have had the same surprise when they opened their Windows PC for work one morning.
Did your computer wake up with some Windows 10? How can you undo it? For some, there is a relatively easy way, provided you are doing it within 30 days. Open the Start menu, select Settings, click on “Update & Security” and then select “Recovery”. You’ll see an option to go back to “Windows 7” or “Windows 8.1” and cross your fingers. Some unfortunate souls don’t have this option, because after 30 days Windows 10 purges those old files that help you rollback.
How do we keep it from happening again? For this, I recommend GWX Control Panel (http://goo.gl/7NaFHQ). It’s free and works wonders with wiping out Windows 10. There’s a version you can install, but I prefer the standalone version because I can just run it from a USB thumbdrive.
Keeping your computer safe from bad stuff is hard enough these days, so when Microsoft starts up with tactics like these, it’s enough to make you want to not use Windows.
