Microsoft Loses Unauthorized Windows 10 Upgrade Court Case, And So It Begins
“I had never heard of Windows 10,” Goldstein told The Seattle Times. “Nobody ever asked me if I wanted to update.”
To make matters worse, once Windows 10 was installed, it left her computer unstable and was prone to frequent crashes. According to Goldstein, her computer became unusable, which is problematic news considering that she uses the machine to run a travel agency.
So Goldstein decided to do what the majority of other hapless Windows 10 victims were unwilling to do: sue Microsoft. She decided to battle the deep-pocketed software giant in court, citing lost wages and the need to purchase a replacement computer. Much to our surprise, and likely to the surprise of Microsoft, Goldstein actually won her case. When Microsoft decided not to bother with an appeal (in order to avoid dumping more money into the litigation), Goldstein was awarded damages in the amount of $10,000.
Microsoft’s efforts to force persuade users to upgrade to Windows 10 have been extremely fruitful. As of March 2016, over 300 million PCs worldwide are running Windows 10. But that rapid adoption has come at the expense of Microsoft’s reputation given how aggressive the company has been in pushing those upgrades. Microsoft has tried every ploy in the book, including a rather nasty trick that changed the behavior of clicking on the “X” on the nag screen pop up, prompting the system to upgrade to Windows 10 without a way to cancel.
The backlash against Windows 10 is truly worldwide, as even Chinese customers have complained profusely about Microsoft’s malware-level persistence when it comes to upgrading.
With that being said, the nag screens and forced upgrades will soon end. Microsoft’s offer to upgrade Windows 7 and Windows 8 systems to Windows 10 for free will end on July 30th. At that time, Windows 10 will shift to a retail price of $119.
