Windows 10: Microsoft pushes Windows 10 upgrade to PCs without user consent

I'm sure that was good news to hear for your entire family at the time knowing that someone cared enough to buy a new pc as well as providing a new activity was a motivator in a productive manner. And you will find that older people may know a bit more then most would think since before 1990 when the Cold War ended and the internet was opened up who ran computers? College professors, rocket scientists, military personal all up in their seniors at this late date!

Once commerce got started on the web everybody wanted in and it was the CB Radio type boom all over again where the competition for better hardwares saw a fast pace in advancing technologies leaving some in the dark. You went from 720mb on a 5.25" floppy to 128gb and even now 1tb on a flash drive! Suddenly it was a case where the OS got too big for it's jeans and needed to trim some Fat like Vista knocking out Fat32 support big mistake.

The WinMin kernel was then brought in with 7 and 10 is looking condensing things further as far as how to reduce the overhead with processes using less memory. Of course by then with the lessen need to replace outdated hardwares since 7 wouldn't require more then Vista to run and onto 8 the slack in desktop sales overall as all the new hand held toys were introduced and flooding the market MS had to change the focus. "We are a monopoly and still haven't monoploized the mobile market? What is this?!" would be something some MS exec would have been uttering! *chuckle

One reason I run the same particular antivirus software I tried out back in late 2010 is that it won't simply let you onto sites where there are any question marks. The web filtering gets refreshed by the updates from the company's other security data base continually being updated on the various bogey sites as well as malwares floating around on the web and even scam sites at times.

The leading problem however is not with which browser you have and what sand box you want to run things in but user interaction! If you never click on anything that looks interesting you never get stung! Browse, Look, and Do Not Touch! Now how many people do you know who won't? Not many! Here I end up "bug hunting" often enough when someone had an oops ut oh! type of day clicking on the wrong thing and getting a nice one tucked away in there some place. When contacting one support and getting screamed at for not using their special removal tool I had to let them know it was already too late since the bug was found, isolated,, and removed. I would keep the removal tool for some other event.

 

@Leopard;@Emma;
Couldn't agree more, I run circles around my kids when it comes to PCs (they run circles around me otherwise). Lord knows I have tried to teach them, but their passions aren't as great as mine, so they know basically how to turn them on use a few programs. Beyond that they are clueless to issues as updates, viruses, etc. Other than my talking about it, my kids aren't even aware of Windows 10, they are into the iPhone, iPad, Chromebooks, Fire tablets craze I guess.

 

As a rule kids tend to be a bit restless and it takes time working with them to actually get anywhere with them at all. Yet other kids will turn around in a heart beat and end up teaching you what they picked up on much faster then you think! Age doesn't mean you stop learning either! Just look at the career changes people often have to make. Late schooling better then none!

 

A sandboxing software (like Sandboxie) is the solution. I stopped browsing the web on Windows a long time ago, even with a decent av software and common sense it has become very likely that sooner or later you will get a virus, being an "expert" doesn't really protect you from accidentally clicking the wrong thing. Normally I use VMWare Workstation 11 and a Linux guest for web browsing and e-mails. But if I don't want to run the virtual machine (e.g. if I start up the pc just to look for an address...) I use Firefox sandboxed. Needs a bit of configuration work but as soon as that's done it's almost as comfortable to use as using the browser without Sandboxie.

 

I run with the 64bit variation of FF being Waterfox someone developed separately from Mozilla and not one worry despite unwanted Yahoo or Google tool bar options included with otherwise safe downloads for utility apps being flagged immediately simply when going into the folder they were downloaded to. Sites I found were safe have to be added into the exceptions just to be able to avoid the need to shut the firewall down. I don't have to sandbox or browse by way of VM here at all. *Biggrin The overprotective old school nanny ware steps in on everything! *Roflmao2 "i'm going to crack your knuckles with my ruler!" slam dunk goes the exe file for an older pc game title I had fun keeping in the exceptions! The game requires that the cd be in the drive as well with only light installation on the drive.

What gets you is that some old 2000-2002 game title will go right onto each new 64bit version of Windows that comes out while the av program's 2014 version wouldn't even install on 10! At first it was the 2016 beta on the initial upgrade followed by the soon to be replaced 2015 version showing version bound each yearly build is for the exact same av software. Yet 10 has a high degree of backward compatibility for a number of old Vista, 7 type apps.

 

No doubt MS has a very specific multiphase rollout plan for W10. The first phase is the Free Upgrade Phase (the first 12 months) which includes the 'Reserve', the Media Creation Tool (ISO) and lastly sending W10 to W7/8 licensees who have windows update set to automatically download (this is what MS considers CONSENT). MS will point to the EULA every time and argue that CONSENT was given then. The W7/8 users argue that an entire OS is not an update it is an upgrade and when the offer was made (GWX), the free upgrade, they declined it. Therefore sending it was without consent. MS will continue to send W10 to users with WU set to automatically download but they will be on thin ice if they over-ride the 'notify first - I decide when to update' setting. I would not be surprised if MS changed the options in the W7 windows update engine sooner than later to something more in line with the W10 options. The Home users get no choice, the Pro and Enterprise users can defer for a short period of time before the KB is auto installed. Seems inevitable - so 'KB Watch' had better be on high alert @Emma Shout out to Emma - you are an inspiration to us all.

 

Night Hawk, it must be your youth showing since you don't look back fondly on the 180KB 5.25" floppys *Wink

 

I look back on the days that the computer mine. *really

 

@Leopard

I doubt people will be forced to upgrade to windows 10 at all. You just have to change the way you do updates. There is whole thread over at the seven forums that tells you how not to install certain updates. The latest windows update for itself that I have installed on windows 7 it seems to me there is no communication going on in the background to Microsoft.

Another reason, all windows 7 & even some 8.1 computers can not be upgrade to windows 10 at all.

 

I have reviewed the very posts that you site and they are so much appreciated. The list of GWX KBs certainly help and there are scripts that you can run that help. Now let's get real. There are millions of W7/8 users and the expectation is that the MAJORITY are aware of this is false. I would say that many do not access forums such as this. Maybe Facebook and Twitter is their primary info source but do they actually leap into action? - probably not. I also take exceptions to your assertion that the compatibility check KB that checks if you are a 'go' for W10 works. No it does not. Posts upon posts in reputable forums such as this has proven this to be incorrect.

 

The passions part is exactly the excuse i hear most often with seniors and just wanting everything to work without needing to learn something new all over again .

I actually understand that , makes sense to me . You get to a point in life where you just don't feel like making a huge effort and needing to learn something from the ground up.

No matter how much i tell my parents and others not to do something because they will likely get infected they do it over and over and over again , very frustrating .

They won't even take the time to read or understand the reasoning behind it , they just want it to work and for me to fix it lol.

The program "Sandboxie" is directly responsible for my parents not getting infected over the last few years , i knew they were going to end up clicking on questionable stuff and i was tired of spending night and day fixing the problems .

That program is a God send.

 

I started experimenting with Linux back in the 90's, and now consider myself a power user. I have been dual-booting (triple booting now - Win7, Win10, Linux) for years. That way, when I get really mad at Windows I can boot to Linux, and when I get really mad at Linux, I can boot into Windows! *Party

 

I totally agree with you on this. I have 4 Win7 machines, upgraded the two I use the most to Win10 --BOTH failed! One, thankfully, reverted to Win7 OK, so it still worked. But other got corrupted so bad that no repairs would work. Ended up having to restore it from HP Recovery Media to get it back to working condition. And BOTH had been reserved, and BOTH said that Win10 was ready, and BOTH had 100% compatibility ratings!

The OEM forums have hundreds, if not thousands, of folks whose machines suffered various degrees of corruption for their Win10 upgrades -- and, nearly all of them that I have read tried to do the GoBack, which (of course!) failed -- resulting in their going to the forums to find out how to get a working machine back.

However, very recently, I've read threads where folks tried the compatibility appraiser again, and NOW, it tells them about compatibility problems. So, maybe, MS is at last working on upgrading their Upgrade tool.

 

The one thing most miss as to why the upgrades fail is quite simple and the lesson I had to learn about the 10 installer compared to every other previous version's! If you have any extra drive be sure it's unplugged unless planning a dual boot where it already has an OS on it like a previous version. Otherwise the boot files and temp install folders can easily end up in the wrong places!

After first cloning 7 over to the second OS I put originally for dual boots and testing images restored pending the next version which 8 turned out not to be! ("to be or not to.." "stifle it buddy!") that became suspect at first for 10 kept failing to go on! Then came the nuke of the entire drive and the clean install of 7 as well as getting SP1 on. 10 still kept running into errors and blank screens if it made it to the first system restart that is until those two storage drives were unplugged! I just happen to take a look at the clean install guide's Step 2 and said "oh (censored) !!!" and went in and unplugged those drives in lightning speed to see 10 finally go on! And the first upgrade was "Buggy"!

Now imagine those who just happen to have the habit of leaving everything set to automatic and either don't want to fuss or are simply less experienced with issues and have someone else look at their machines if something breaks? I've already heard a few people here mention they woke up and found 10 was already on and you wonder why?

But having one extra drive or two can prevent that from happening as it would again if I hadn't already removed and hid the 10 app update! along with adding a new Dword32 value for DisableOSUpgrade. Yet the upgrade on the second desktop went on smooth as silk showing at times things can work out. Not for the HP laptop afterwards however! One out of three isn't bad is it? Tell that one to MS! *What*Roflmao2

 

Night Hawk
Did the HP laptop almost make it to completion? If it did, try it again plugged in and put a big fan on it. After my first attempt to upgrade my Compaq failed, I looked around and found others who had to set their laptops on freezer packs to get the upgrade to succeed. Apparently some laptops run hotter than others. The first time around my upgrade failed at 99% complete because of a "system service error". Keeping it cool did the trick for me.