Windows 10 Upgrades Allegedly Kicking Off Automatically On Windows 7 PCs
However, even if the Windows 10 install process did initiate, users were supposed to have the option to cancel and renege on Microsoft’s “generous” offer. Microsoft’s Windows Chief Terry Myerson confirmed as much in October, writing in a blog post, “Depending upon your Windows Update settings, this may cause the upgrade process to automatically initiate on your device. Before the upgrade changes the OS of your device, you will be clearly prompted to choose whether or not to continue.”
I’ve bolded that last sentence, because that’s the critical point that seems to have been missed by Microsoft in its latest Windows 10 push – that is if these new reports are indeed accurate. redditors are fuming because they say that not only has Windows Update sparked the Windows 10 installation process on their machines (which is known and expected behavior), but the software is going forward and actually installing the operating system without permission (which is clearly not supposed to happen according to Myerson).
The thread over at reddit has over 2,600 comments, most of them from users that have been upgraded to Windows 10 automatically. Needless, to say, they are not happy. In the case of user bnned, his PC would have been home to a brand new Windows 10 install if he hadn’t come back to his computer in time:
Yep, went afk and saw this message box that said something like "Your update is ready! Restarting and installing in 13 minutes". If I made myself a meal or watched tv, I would have had windows 10. Oh, and the best part is how they hid the "Decline" button in the more info button.
The fact that the he feels the Decline button was hidden is especially sneaky behavior if the claim is accurate, but some users weren’t fortunate enough to stop the installer in its tracks. TLDReddit73 writes, “I thought my ex was crazy when she said her computer just randomly rebooted and started installing Windows 10. I guess she isn't crazy, at least on this one thing.”
Dominion_Prime adds:
This actually happened to my wife. Guess what she was doing? Trying to finish a midterm project that was due and she got up to do something, came back to find her computer in the middle of the update. No warning, no confirmation, nothing. Thankfully nothing got borked but it was extremely disconcerting to happen at that time.
This seems to be the common theme among all of these users — the installer almost seems to take the opportunity when the user has stopped typing and/or using the mouse to swoop in for an install attack. Such was the case with yet another redditor, enn-srsbusiness, who explains:
Had my work PC (win 8.1) update to 10 with me actively not downloading and installing... worst part it just did it randomly just before lunch, no warning, no pop up. Just printed some notes and after coming back from the print room I was greeted with Windows 10 is installing... 10%
Thanks for that
We definitely don’t know what is going on here or why Microsoft is allegedly bypassing the customer altogether to install Windows 10. This is clearly not the procedure that Terry Myerson laid out in late October. But at this point, Microsoft is probably hoping that the upgrades went swimmingly on the affected computers and that customers will be so enamored with Windows 10 that they won’t want to go back to Windows 7 or Windows 8.1.
“If you choose to upgrade (our recommendation!), then you will have 31 days to roll back to your previous Windows version if you don’t love it,” wrote Myerson in October. However, if the reddit thread is any indication, “love” is probably the last thing that users have for Microsoft and Windows 10 at this moment.
