The chorus of complaints from PC users over how pushy Microsoft has been with its Windows 10 upgrades reached a new level recently, after a woman won a $10,000 judgment against the company for an automatic installation gone wrong that she said seriously mucked up her computer.
A California woman tells the Seattle Times that a few days after Windows 10 launched, her computer started trying to download and install the upgrade, despite the fact that she hadn’t authorized it do so.
The result? Her computer, which she uses to run a travel-agency business, started acting up, crashing, running super slowly, and becoming unusable for days at a time.
“I had never heard of Windows 10,” she told the Seattle Times. “Nobody ever asked me if I wanted to update.”
She tried to reach out to the company, and when that failed, she took Microsoft to court in an attempt to get compensation for lost wages, and to cover the costs of a new computer.
She won an initial judgment, which Microsoft appealed. The company then decided to drop its appeal last month —without admitting any wrongdoing — and agreed to pay her $10,000.
A spokeswoman tells the Seattle Times Microsoft gave up on the appeal to avoid the expense of further litigation.
She’s far from alone in her anti-Windows 10 angst: ever since Microsoft launched Windows 10, users have complained over the company’s various tactics to get people to upgrade. Stories of computers installing the software unbidden, or confusing prompts that led users to upgrade when they thought they were saying no to the update have stacked up this year.
It’s all leading up to July 29, which marks the last day that Windows 10 will be a free upgrade for existing Windows users (it’ll be $119 to upgrade after that point), and it’s also the last time anyone will see an annoying pop-up notification to “Get Windows 10.”
Microsoft draws flak for pushing Windows 10 on PC users [Seattle Times]
(h/t Extreme Tech)
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist
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