“No means ‘NO!’” that’s a phrase that means exactly what it means. If you say “No!” then the other party must respect that you’re not giving them consent to proceed any further. For Microsoft, “No” apparently means “Yes” because people attempting to tell them that they don’t want Windows 10 results in the operating system now forcing itself onto your PC, taking your emphatic “No!” as a means of a consenting “Yes!”. But you’re not completely out of luck… there is a fix.
PC World did a lengthy article describing from first-hand experience how they attempted to cancel a Windows 10 upgrade by clicking the ‘X’ on the pop-up box, only to find that pressing the ‘X’ in the attempt to gesticulate through GUI actions the position of saying “No, I don’t want Windows 10 on my system”, it has somehow translated to Microsoft that pressing the ‘X’ means “Yes”.
This is what happened to Brad Chacos, the senior editor at PC World. Chacos writes…
“That nasty change trick resulted in my wife’s beloved Windows 7 PC being sneakily upgraded to Windows 10 this morning. Sure, she has 30 days to roll it back to Windows 7, but she feels so betrayed—like Microsoft forcibly removed her control over her own PC—that she’s strongly considering embracing the Dark Side and buying a Mac, instead. “
The “nasty change” comes after a firestorm of criticism leveled at Microsoft for originally adding the Windows 10 upgrade into the queue for Windows 7 and Windows 8 users as an automatic upgrade. This has left a lot of users in a bit of a pickle, because if they leave automatic updates on then it means they may wake up one morning to find Windows 7 or Windows 8 readily replaced with Windows 10, even if they didn’t want Windows 10.
Turning off automatic updates means users have to manually go through and update their OS by picking and choosing patches, but even then they’re not safe. In the case of Chacos the pop-up window still appeared trying to get them to upgrade to Windows 10, and by pressing on the ‘X’ button to close out the window, they mistakenly gave consent to Microsoft to upgrade their OS.
Microsoft apparently forgot that No means ‘No!’.
On a Windows 8.1 PC. Mostly full screen pop-up. No clear “No thanks” button, just download Windows 10 now or later. pic.twitter.com/RRoaFMST9r
— Brad Chacos (@BradChacos) December 11, 2015
According to BBC News, Microsoft’s response to this aggressive tactic to quickly reach a billion Windows 10 users is that this was to “help” people upgrade to Windows 10 before the July 29th cut-off date approaches and the OS will become a paid product for Windows 7 and Windows 8 users…
“With the free Windows 10 upgrade offer ending on 29 July, we want to help people upgrade to the best version of Windows.
“As we shared in October, Windows 10 will be offered as a ‘recommended’ update for Windows 7 and 8.1 customers whose Windows Update settings are configured to accept ‘recommended’ updates.
“Customers can choose to accept or decline the Windows 10 upgrade.”
What the Microsoft rep fails to mention is that choosing to “decline” the upgrade forces the OS onto your system anyway.
To help stave off the forced upgrade is a tool from security researcher Steve Gibson. As recommended in the PC World article, Gibson’s utility called Never10 will allow users to keep their OS free of Windows 10, and the pop-ups away from your machine until the July 29th date rolls around.
You can download Never10 at your own risk from over on the GRC Never10 website to protect yours computer from the OS night rapist known as Windows 10.
