Microsoft Calls BS On Rogue Windows 10 Upgrades, Says Users Remain ‘Fully In Control’

Despite significant user outcry that the Windows 10 upgrade mechanism has gone rogue, installing on customers' Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 machines when their backs turned or otherwise away from the computer, Microsoft is pleading innocent. We first brought you news of the automatic Windows 10 upgrades over the weekend, and in nearly every case, Windows 10 installed without user intervention — something that is clearly not supposed to happen based on previous commentary from Windows chief Terry Myerson.

Microsoft issued the following statement regarding the “unplanned” upgrades:

We shared in late October on the Windows Blog, we are committed to making it easy for our Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 customers to upgrade to Windows 10. As stated in that post, we have updated the upgrade experience to make it easier for customers to schedule a time for their upgrade to take place. Customers continue to be fully in control of their devices, and can choose to not install the Windows 10 upgrade or remove the upgrade from Windows Update (WU) by changing the WU settings.

However, users are still reporting the Windows 10 has forcefully taken over their machines. The reddit thread that we originally cited has since grown to nearly 2,900 comments and users are still chiming in that they’ve “been had” by Microsoft.

Kotaku writer Patrick Klepek was one of many who had his Windows 7 machine upgraded to Windows 10 against his will. Klepek had avoided Windows 8 like the plague, and was still dragging his feet with regards to Windows 10. However, nobody puts Windows 10 in a corner…

I had plans to stop being an old dinosaur and upgrade to Windows 10 last week. What I didn’t expect was to wake up on Thursday morning and find out Windows had taken care of that for me. Maybe I forgot to push back the upgrade schedule, maybe I accidentally scheduled it by clicking the wrong button. Whatever the case, I definitely did not intend to install Windows 10.

To add insult to injury, Klepek’s upgrade was far from glitch free, leaving him with user profile issues.

The reddit thread is still rife with reports of users being burned by Windows 10. MalekuaMan writes, “I leave my house for 2 days with my computer on, I come back and I have Windows 10. What. The. F**k.” Another user, rtn1797, was bitten by Microsoft, explaining, “So my Win7 machine was upgraded to win10 without my permission about 2 days ago. I downgraded again but now there is a prompt that is continuously open and asking me to select a time for my windows to update to 10...wtf...how can I get rid of it/prevent it from happening?”

We hate to say that Microsoft is trying to downplay this whole situation, but why are all of these people simultaneously seeing their machines upgraded to Windows 10 under similar circumstances? Something is clearly amiss here and it would be advisable for Microsoft publish an official blog posting on the matter to clear the air. Even if Microsoft thinks that it’s fully in the right, having an army of irate customers all experiencing the same problems deserves some much-needed attention.