Microsoft pushes Windows 10 upgrade to PCs without user consent

I have been helping seniors look after their personally owned PCs for some time now. They are not very computer savvy but they do get a lot of enjoyment out of a bit of web surfing and emailing friends and family. They are very aware of what viruses, malware, adware, spyware etc. are all about. They accept responsibility for their own actions and if they screw up on the computer they feel bad about it. When W10 was announced they asked me for advise and I told them it is best to wait and that I wanted to set their windows update to notify and hide the GWX updates on their systems mostly because they all have metered bandwidth contracts with their ISPs. None of them are on shared domains. They have between 800MB and 1GB max., ( about $35/mo) because that is all they need for what they do. If Microsoft had have sent them W10 without their consent, we calculated that it would have cost each of them anywhere between $750 and $1200 for that month depending on the size of the download. They did not get dinged but they have lost a lot of trust in Microsoft. They said 'MS would have had to know this - such a bone head decision'.

alphanumeric said:

I think they had good intensions, but somebody really didn't think through how they did it. They could have done it a lot better.

I think MS knew exactly what they were doing. They knew the attention span for many is very short and the span of focus is even shorter so even though W-10 was Free they knew they were going to have to nag users and keep the upgrade info in their faces and, if necessary, slip the download in without the user knowing it, all under the guise of "Improving the user experience". Don't believe for a second that MS doesn't have plenty of PhD level psychologists and social scientists advising them on how to meet their goals. MS is arrogant YES but stupid? NO! From the comments of some, you would think Microsoft is just a big benevolent global corporation with the best interests of its users at heart and if anyone really believes that then Neil Armstrong really didn't walk on the moon and Elvis is still alive somewhere.

This is supposedly a free upgrade. The W7/8 licencee was asked if they wanted W10 - if they wanted it they were asked to reserve it within a one year period. If MS sends it to you without your consent, you could be paying 5 times the cost of a legal W10 license - in ISP fees. MS does not financially benefit from the massive overage charges imposed by ISPs, but they do get to use the bandwidth of others to distribute W10 to others. The ISPs are complicit as they too would have had to know or would have eventually figured it out. Greed has no bounds.

Emma said:

Maybe I didn't understand your comment about they would have to pay 5 times later or whatever. If they don't want the free one why in the world would they buy one. They like what they have and don't want the upgrade.

Emma

The poster meant that if someone was on a limited or metered connection, the overcharge cost could run into hundreds for an unwated 3.5GB download (though I think hundreds is excessive an estimate)

zoo

This whole fiasco ended up costing me an extra $120 last month.
I am on LTE wireless with a 10GB/month limit with overages costing me $10/GB.
the fist auto download failed at about 5GB and I had to use the Media Creation Tool to download and rerun the upgrade manually. That was the first extra 6GB.
Then on my backup Windows 7 machine even tho I hadn't reserved it, Microsoft downloaded the update files again. Goo thin I had my updates set to "manual". That was the 2nd 6GB for a total of 12 extra GB...hence the extra $120.
I hold Microsoft fully responsible for both instances, in as much as they obviously didn't plan properly for the massive download requirements on July 29th, hence the first failure.
And then, on top of this they take it upon themselves to chew up my cap and force the download on a machine they didn't have permission to download to.
I should send them a bill for $120 but that idea wouldn't have a snowball's chance.
This has really impacted on Microsoft's credibility and I would not be the least bit surprised if somebody launches a class-action suit. Probably too little, too late but it might make Microsoft sit up and take notice.

All that being said, my experience with Windows 10 Upgrade has been a mostly positive one.

One strange thing I've notice since I turned off automatic updates is that some of them now show in Optional in italics. I have no idea why.

Leopard said:

I have been helping seniors look after their personally owned PCs for some time now. They are not very computer savvy but they do get a lot of enjoyment out of a bit of web surfing and emailing friends and family. They are very aware of what viruses, malware, adware, spyware etc. are all about. They accept responsibility for their own actions and if they screw up on the computer they feel bad about it. When W10 was announced they asked me for advise and I told them it is best to wait and that I wanted to set their windows update to notify and hide the GWX updates on their systems mostly because they all have metered bandwidth contracts with their ISPs. None of them are on shared domains. They have between 800MB and 1GB max., ( about $35/mo) because that is all they need for what they do. If Microsoft had have sent them W10 without their consent, we calculated that it would have cost each of them anywhere between $750 and $1200 for that month depending on the size of the download. They did not get dinged but they have lost a lot of trust in Microsoft. They said 'MS would have had to know this - such a bone head decision'.

OMG are you serious , i wish i could say the same , all the ones i know don't have a clue about all the dangers and different types of malware .

When i tell them to be careful and try to educate them they say , "it's a brand new computer , how could it have malware " OR " how can the computer be infected , i have anti virus protection" no joke.