Windows 10 forced upgrade

[pat]

A word of warning to anyone who's on Windows 7 or 8 and is quite happy to stay there, indeed wants to stay there.

No doubt you'll have had numerous invitations to upgrade to Windows 10 but Microsoft have now become sneaky. If you're presented with this screen (which I hope I'm going to be able to attach a photo of) DO NOT simply click on the cross in the top right corner to close it. Microsoft have now made this a default for agreeing to the upgrade. Irresponsible and sneaky.

I clicked on the cross and within minutes my computer started to shut down (without even giving me the option to save any outstanding work) and installed Windows 10. Fortunately, and quite at odds with their forcing you to upgrade, Microsoft have provided an option to revert to Windows 7 or 8 (which can be found in Settings). I chose that option and within minutes everything was restored.

If you get this screen, which I hope you can read even though it's quite small, it says 'click here to change upgrade schedule' etc. about half way down. That's what you need to do to avoid the upgrade.

[rogue_mother]

This particular screen is definitely sneaky. I get reminders from Microsoft every two or three days to upgrade to Windows 10, these reminders coming in a variety of formats. When I got this one, there didn't seem to be any way to opt out, so I clicked the arrow to the next frame. I forget how many frames I had to view before I got to the place where I could say no. Most of the screens result in "No" if you just close them, but this one doesn't, as Pat learned to her dismay. Not a good way for Microsoft to win friends and influence people in a positive way.

[mkenuk]

I agree with both RM and Pat that Microsoft have gone about this in a very sneaky and underhand way.....

but, having said that,
 
.....I did actually take advantage of the 'free upgrade" a few weeks ago and I must admit that I have no regrets at all. Windows 10 does seem, for whatever reason, to have given my very old, creaky desktop a new lease of life.

I just don't like the way they went about it.

MK

[TRex]

Not publicized: no matter what version of Windows 7 or 8/8.1 you may have (e.g. 'Ultimate', 'Professional'), the free upgrade is to Home Basic. If you want more than Home Basic: $$$/£££/€€€

The way Micro$oft has handled the 'upgrade' to Windows 10 has earned lots of brickbats in the IT community.

[cmh]

When they first offered the free upgrade some months ago we accepted but then discovered that our recently purchased protection cover would not be applicable on Windows 10 so we reverted to Windows 7 as the protection lasts for 12 months. We do intend to buy a new lap top soon and will then have Windows 10 but until then we will certainly look out for sneaky moves!!

[rogue_mother]

Not publicized: no matter what version of Windows 7 or 8/8.1 you may have (e.g. 'Ultimate', 'Professional'), the free upgrade is to Home Basic. If you want more than Home Basic: $$$/£££/€€€

TR, this is contrary to what Microsoft says. According to their website, if you have Windows 7 Pro or Ultimate or Windows 8.1 Pro or Student Pro, you will get Windows 10 Pro. Enterprise editions will not upgrade to Pro.

By the way, this FAQ page also tells you how to turn off the Windows 10 Upgrade nag-o-thon.

[TRex]

Perhaps a recent change. When I tried an 'upgrade' from Win 7 Professional, I did not get Win 10 Pro. But they've made many changes. For instance, they originally 'promised' that no version of Win7/8/8.1 which was joined to a Windows domain would have the 'upgrade' pushed, but then changed their policy. (I've got five old PCs at work I need to redo on Monday because of the lying bastards.)

Micro$oft's recent direction is completely driven by sales/marketing; IT considerations are no longer considered.

[mkenuk]

I was definitely 'upgraded' to Windows 10 pro.

MK

[Les303]

Thanks for the tip , Pat as i get upgrade offers all the time.
As a novice though i'm still trying to workout how to use windows 7 properly so i always reject them.
I notice that MK accepted the free upgrade without any problem.
So just curious as to why , as a similarly experienced user you would not also accept the offer as i have to assume that windows ten is 3 times better than windows 7 & twice as good as windows eight..or are you just maybe waiting for windows 11 ?

[pat]

Had I chosen to upgrade, Les, I would certainly have given Windows 10 a chance before deciding whether or not to keep it. There were two reasons why I rejected it:

1) I strongly object to Microsoft taking control of my PC and forcing the upgrade on me without my explicit consent and
2) I make heavy usage of a music software package called Sibelius to arrange music for my band. It no longer worked after the upgrade.

So even if I could have overcome my objection I'd have had to revert anyway. Either that or, unless I could manage to get Sibelius to work (which would probably have been possible had I been prepared to spend the time and effort looking into it), forking out a lot of money for the latest upgrade of that.

[mkenuk]

I took the Windows 10 update / upgrade more as a way of shutting them up than anything else. Every day when I turned on my computer, the little blue pop-up box would appear in the bottom-right corner.
Finally they upped the ante - 'We are going to install Windows 10 on your computer at 11.00 pm on Sunday night' (they didn't actually say "whether you like it or not", but they may as well have done.) So after weeks of rejecting their offer I just let them do it.

Now, my computer was more than 7 years old and had become extremely slow and unreliable;  But, to my amazement, with Windows 10 safely installed, it began to improve. Everything worked as well, or better than before. It seemed faster and generally more efficient

Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but I began to wonder if some of the Windows 7 updates I had downloaded hadn't had the effect of deliberately slowing down my computer? Possible?

Anyway, as I said earlier, I've no complaints about Windows 10 now that it's up and running; I just don't like the way it was done; it does seem, however, that we are daily coming more and more under the control of  IT conglomerates such as Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo and the rest of them. Or is this just normal paranoia?

Now, by the way, when I turn on the computer, instead of 'Would you like to update to Windows 10'? I get 'You are not running the most recent version of Word.' as a 'notification'

MK

[Les303]

YOUR BAND !!!

 Would like to hear a bit more about that.

[pat]

Nothing to get excited about, Les. Our numbers fluctuate slightly from time to time but at the moment there are 19 of us, plus a conductor. We're a wind band consisting of flutes, clarinets and saxes; I mainly play the alto sax, sometimes the baritone. A band with that number of players needs the discipline of playing from music, but being a non-standard line-up we can't just buy music off the shelf and play it. Well we could, but there would be holes in it where we lack, say, horns or bassoons (if you have any musical knowledge you'll know that you can't just give a horn part to a clarinettist to play because it will be in the wrong key). Enter Sibelius (the software, that is, not the composer). Sometimes I simply transcribe the parts for the suitability of our players, sometimes I'll make an arrangement from a piano score. Whatever works best really. And being the person who prepares all the music I'm in the very fortunate position of having a band to play my own compositions on the rare occasions that I write them.

[Les303]

I must admit that i was initially a little excited as i did have visions of you fronting a retro band & maybe belting out some Joan Jett or Suzy Q hits from the seventies / eighties.

However , as you are aware i am new to the internet but i've discovered quite quickly that is very easy to misinterpret or get the wrong tone from e/mails which can give give you a totally false impression of the character of the author.

Having said that ,  i can confidently state without any reservation , that i have found all of your posts to reflect on you as a being a kind , generous , patient , very intelligent & now musically gifted woman with a terrific sense of humour.

So get back into writing those compositions as one day you might just produce a masterpiece

[pat]

Very kind words, Les, for which I thank you, but I bet there are some on here who'll be wondering how much I paid you to say them!