Microsoft Finally Ends Forced Windows 10 Upgrades

All is well that ends well? Only this one did not have that much of a happy ending. Microsoft has made the decision to finally bring forced Windows 10 upgrade to an end.

Forced, aggressive, what have you.

Redmond faced heat in Germany, where a consumer protection watchdog started an investigation and looked into how the company handled Windows 10 upgrades. Microsoft acknowledged that it went too far here, and not everything went how it had planned.

German officials have emphasized that this particular case should serve as an example to all companies, as forcing consumers to install software is not a practice that t consumer watchdogs agree with.

The software giant was heavily criticized for how it pushed its new operating system to Windows users that were eligible for the upgrade to Windows 10. Users and businesses alike were peppered with upgrade aggressive prompts for an upgrade that was, well, optional in the first place.

At the center of the controversy was the infamous Get Windows 10 app.

This little piece of software was developed to provide a smoother way for users to upgrade their Windows 7 and 8.1 PCs to Windows 10 by automatically downloading the necessary files. But it certainly proved to be quite a pain in the neck for some users.

Because in several cases, the download and installation happened without their consent.

Some users even ran out of storage space or even bandwidth, because even though they refused the upgrade, the app downloaded several gigabytes of data to prepare the PC for the new OS. Others suffered data loss, as the Get Windows 10 app upgraded their computers to the new operating system.

Sure, in recent months Microsoft has made changes to prevent automatic upgrades.

So much so that now, the company promises that files will not be downloaded without the consent of the users, whenever new versions of the OS are released.

It brings to a close a couple of whirlwind years, where everyone would agree that Microsoft took a very aggressive approach in getting users to upgrade to Windows 10. Hopefully this is the end of such adventures.

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