Windows 10 forced upgrade

Discussions
#1

If you use Win 7/8 stop what your doing and do a disk image now and check your other backups are up to date.

I’ve been ignoring the Windows 10 upgrade nag for a while - why invite catastrophe if you can postpone for another day?

Stepped away from desk for lunch and Microshit have taken it to another level - it just started anway!
(Reading up about this its a new aggressive thing - they give you a 1hr timer to cancel but if you’re not there…)

Now I’ve been around the block and if this were me choosing to do an upgrade I would do a disk image first so I can rollback in 20 minutes. But it wasn’t me. I didn’t ask for this nor give permission - they just did it. ITS MY COMPUTER YOU NUMBNUTS.

And its now knackered.

Tried everything suggested and even spent 1hr 47 minutes on hold with ‘premier tech support’ before got through to someone (they are really busy at the moment apparently, wonder WHY?) to be told nothing can be done, have to re-install and loose all existing programs & files. (files backed up but of course everything needs re-installing and setting up)

Fantastic - thats 6 hours so far + at least a full day getting everything ready again.

Where can I send the bill…

3 Likes
#2

Ugh, sounds like a nightmare. Thanks for the heads up, as I’ve been purposely not upgrading too.

#3

Holy cr*p. Are you sure you didn’t accidentally click ‘ok’ somewhere?

Can I uninstall some Windows updates to ensure it can’t do a Windows 10 upgrade?

#4

Sure didn’t click upgrade - turns out that very recently they have been putting up that nag screen with a counter running down from 60 minutes. If you don’t cancel before then you’ve accepted right? Not everyone gets this and its not rolled out everywhere but I’ve seen a few comments about it and spoke to a contact who had exactly the same thing yesterday.

Serves me right for taking a few hours out to take my baby boy swimming eh? Cheers MS.

Can I uninstall some Windows updates to ensure it can’t do a Windows 10 upgrade?

They are not making that easy either - the general nag screen is GWX or something but if you delete/disable it just magically reappears. There are lots of peeps looking at doing this but its difficult and a moving target. Even companies that have disabled this (using group policy / own update servers) are still getting users complaining about a slightly different nag screen (“your administrator has stopped you getting the latest greatest thing -boo hooo, send them a stroppy email yeh!”

For what its worth I’ve got it running on a fresh install (and it is likely better) - just going through a day of faff now to get it setup again.

#5

That’s insane. Surely someone is going to sue them for that?

#6

Why is this not on the front page of Hacker news?

#8

What a disaster! You certainly seem to be handling this much better than I would have. Kudos for having the files backed up.

#9

Same thing happened to my father.

And after the upgrade, his PC is about 40-50% slower. He asked me if there was a virus on his machine, and I told him, yup, there was.

It’s called Windows 10, I said.

And yes, you have to completely reinstall everything to get rid of it. My father lives in India with really slow internet, and he doesn’t fancy spending 6-8 hours downloading Windows 8 again, so he’s stuck with it.

#10

I haven’t tried this yes, but this was in Life Hacker. Tool to prevent this:
GWX Control Panel

http://ultimateoutsider.com/downloads/

1 Like
#11

IIRC the author of GWX said his tool couldn’t prevent the issue Rhino had.

I don’t have Windows update set to automatic, I don’t know if that makes a difference.

#12

The article says that the update doesn’t happen if you don’t have Windows autoupdates turned on.
So you should be safe.

#13

If Apple can get away with agressive upgrades Microsoft follows along. If Apple can get away with App Stores that force developers to the bottom with prices so they can sell more hw, Microsoft follows along.

Btw, Windows 10 is a great OS, there is no reason not to upgrade if your hardware alows it.

#14

My Windows 7 development machine works fine, so I can’t see any real advantage to upgrading. And it takes me ages to set up a development machine how I like it. I’m not prepared to risk Microsoft messing it up.

If I want a new OS, I buy a new computer!

#15

My backups are done on the disk sector level. So if anything happens to my machine, including a sudden upgrade to W10, I can always restore the last good W8 image to the same or a different disk (did that in past, it works).

Having said that, on one of my laptops I permitted the upgrade, and I actually like W10.

…

Re: business side of the forced upgrade:

Can someone explain why MS is so insisting? I heard an opinion it is to move all Windows software sales to Windows Shop. Does that sound plausible? What stops MS to do that same for Win7 and Win8 then?

Not sure I understand the intention MS has here.

#16

Looks like this is catching some more attention elsewhere too - Here’s a thread on reddit from a couple days ago. Same situation, lots of people confirming, and a few tips on how to prevent:

#17

This happened to one of our machines that we left on overnight. Auto updates were switched off. We came in the day before we were running a two day conference last week. All user info wiped. Their support eventually said that the update was corrupted. Defies belief.

#18

I just checked Windows Update on my WIndows 7 development box and there the update was. No clue about what it might do. “Install this update to resolve issues in Windows” my arse.

I have disabled that update, but I am scared to do a Windows update now.

update.png1516×1024 227 KB

1 Like
#19

Just when us techie types were starting to get a better impression of Microsoft, they pull these shenanigans on us.

#20

Microsoft seem to be the master of patting you on the back while kneeing you in the groin.

1 Like
#21

Sure, I know what you’re talking about. I had Windows 7 setup with all my bells and whistles since it was released in 2009. I actually changed my hardware two or three times but kept my Windows 7 intact.

Forcing an upgrade on users (even a free one) is bad business but Apple does it all the time and nobody complains. Windows 10 is a worthy upgrade, unlike Windows 8.

Why did I upgrade?

  1. Sooner or later we all have to upgrade and I prefer to be an early adopter. I see this as an investment when I’m an early adopter, as opposed to a burden when I’m a late adopter.
  2. An image backup with Acronis (for example) can be your insurance. I know it was for me when I upgraded to Window 8 for one month.
  3. I saw this as an opportunity to upgrade all my tools. I chose to make a clean install and reinstall my entire development environment. It took me about a week so there is certainly a time investment.