Call Me Pessimistic…Windows 10 Upgrading

Back in mid October there were a series of events where the Windows 10 Upgrade appeared to present itself front and center to some users.

• Windows 10 upgrade installing automatically on some Windows 7, 8 systems - Ars Technica
• Microsoft is Pushing Windows 10 Just a Little Too Hard – HowToGeek
• Windows users report Windows 10 upgrades are enforced on their systems - gHacks Tech News
• Microsoft has forcibly upgraded some computers to Windows 10 – Betanews

Ars Technica reported in their article that Microsoft responded and provided the following quote:

As part of our effort to bring Windows 10 to existing genuine Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 customers, the Windows 10 upgrade may appear as an optional update in the Windows Update (WU) control panel. This is an intuitive and trusted place people go to find Recommended and Optional updates to Windows. In the recent Windows update, this option was checked as default; this was a mistake and we are removing the check.

Because of some incredible weekend business, I had delayed processing my own Patch Tuesday Windows updating and was hopeful that the issue was fixed on 10/16 when I brought the system online.

Bad, news, it wasn’t. Good news, I was already on high-alert for a Windows 10 Upgrade attack.

When I checked “Show all available updates” I saw this:

OK…maybe I didn’t get Microsoft’s “fix” for this issue. Let me recheck for fresh update availability from Microsoft.

Hmm, the Windows 10 Upgrade was still showing front and center. A check of “Show all available updates” showed the new Patch Tuesday updates, but Microsoft was still pushing the Win 10 upgrade on the main Windows Update landing page.

I had to de-select the Win 10 upgrade option and then select all the other Important and optional updates I DID want to carefully get through my Patch Tuesday session.

This ended up happening on both my Windows 7 systems, though Lavie’s Windows 8.1 system seemed to survive the auto-updating process without a Windows 10 appearance.

This was disconcerting and I wonder how many folks actually did get an unwanted or unintended Windows 10 upgrade if they were not paying careful attention.

So now, after Microsoft’s apology and “correction” two weeks ago I saw these new news bits regarding Windows 10 Upgrade presentation to users:

• Making it Easier to Upgrade to Windows 10 - Windows Experience Blog
• Beware, Microsoft plans to push Windows 10 on even more Windows 7 and 8 systems - gHacks Tech News
• Soon, Windows 10 Will Be Automatically Pushed Through Windows Update – HowToGeek blog
• Microsoft will push Windows 10 even harder in 2016 -- is the company being a bully? – Betanews

From the Windows Experience Blog post;

We will soon be publishing Windows 10 as an “Optional Update” in Windows Update for all Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 customers. Windows Update is the trusted, logical location for our most important updates, and adding Windows 10 here is another way we will make it easy for you to find your upgrade.

Early next year, we expect to be re-categorizing Windows 10 as a “Recommended Update”. 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. And of course, 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.

So beginning early next near, Microsoft will change Windows 10 Upgrade to present as a “Recommended Update” and if your Windows Updates settings have been set to automatically include them, then you may get a bolder push to get Windows 10 on your system.

Yes, Microsoft says you will clearly have the option to not continue with the upgrade but I again wonder how many non-technical users will end up getting confused or just blunder on and accept the upgrade process.

Maybe they will like the results.

My experience has been as follows:

Despite all of our personal laptops being “Windows 10 Compatible”, Dell says they are not supported for Windows 10 (by Dell) and that drivers and hardware features may not work. I can confirm as of last month when I tried the Windows 10 upgrade on two of the laptops, serious hardware issues were encountered that resulted in me rolling them back to Windows 7/8.1.

I’m a techy and sysadmin so while it was a headache, no serious damage was done.

Considering the amount of time I’ve spent over the past few weeks helping family and friends through their own Windows 10 transitions, many non-technical users are feeling overwhelmed in Windows 10, also finding broken hardware, and frustrated.  That has required addition help getting the hardware working in Win 10 (where possible), and encouraging installation of Classic Shell and other tweaks so they can “find their cheese” again.

I continue to have really mixed feelings with Microsoft and Windows 10.

I dislike the privacy and tracking changes Microsoft has baked into Windows 10.

I’m dubious about the constant Windows 10 feature improvements being a OS release “work in progress”.

I really dislike the hard-sell push of Windows 10 upgrades on users – especially where it impacts non-technical users who don’t understand the risks and challenges, especially on older hardware and mobile (laptop) platforms.

Darn-it Microsoft, what’s going on?

Is Windows 10 Upgrade the IT equivalent of the zombie apocalypse?

Claus Valca