Dear reader,

Like it or not some of you are probably reading this email on your newly upgraded Windows 10 PC, perhaps you’re a tech maverick and choose to upgrade straight away back in July 2015, maybe you finally bit the bullet and gave in to the constant nagging, or, as many others will testify, you went to make a cup of tea and when you came back your computer was as if by magic, churning away installing Microsoft’s latest and greatest operating system. We wanted to try and get to the bottom of this auto-updating saga and in this month’s email we will try to give you a clearer picture as to what exactly Microsoft is doing, and we’ll throw in our two cents on Microsoft Windows 10. Don’t forget Windows 10 is a free upgrade until July 29^th, 2016 after that it will cost £99.99, everyone likes a freebie don’t they?

Anyway, so Windows 10…

Oh.. and a word of advice, before upgrading, first check with your computer manufacturer that it has been tested for Windows 10!

The Big Question “Does windows 10 automatically install itself?”

In short, well… Err… maybe, sort of… there’s not really a short answer…

Most of you are probably familiar with the windows 10 pop-up box asking to upgrade, or reserve a copy. In the IT world, this type of popup or advertising is called ‘Nagware’ as it keeps nagging / reminding you to upgrade or buy something.  Up until February of this year that was the pinnacle of pushiness from Microsoft, however, the reclassification of the windows 10 update from an ‘optional update’ to a ‘recommended update’ took Microsoft’s aggressive roll-out of windows 10 up a gear.

Windows 7 and 8.1 PC’s have settings panel where users can choose how updates are installed based on the updates designated classification, i.e. automatically or not. By default, important updates are downloaded and installed automatically, and crucially there is also a checkbox that reads “Give me recommended updates the same way I receive important updates” this checkbox is by ticked by default, meaning that the reclassified windows 10 upgrade would, for most users be downloaded automatically.

Once this update has been downloaded, users of windows 7 or 8.1 would see a ‘Get Windows 10’ popup window either when they turn on their computer or at apparently random intervals. (See image below) This window would present a message to the user stating a time and date to schedule the full upgrade, now this is probably where most people get the idea that they were upgraded to 10 without consent. On the various iterations of this ‘Get Windows 10’ message window, the most aside from the message advertising Windows 10, the most prominent button is ‘OK’ which if clicked means agreeing to the scheduled time and accepting that Windows 10 will be installed. In fact, most of the various iterations, the popup, has no clear ‘NO, I do not want Windows 10’ button. There is only the smaller slightly obscure option to ‘Change the upgrade schedule or cancel the scheduled upgrade.’ otherwise, the ubiquitous red ‘X’ to simply close the window only for it to reappear later or at the next login.

I can imagine entirely that a great many people have simply clicked the ‘OK’ button, either without reading or fully understanding the content of this message box, or simply out of frustration brought on by the constant nagging. Indeed, it is completely possible that another user of the PC, sold to the idea of Windows 10 clicked ‘OK’ knowing fully well the consequences of this fateful left click. Either way, however the upgrade was scheduled, it does appear the manner in which it’s happening is messy and unclear enough that a great many people are convinced that they have been upgraded without giving consent.

In my opinion, the way Microsoft have gone about the whole thing seems a bit underhand, they are employing similar tactics we see in malware and adware, in fact only recently as this BBC News article discusses they took it a sneaky step further in yet again changing the ‘Get Windows 10’ scheduled upgrade popup so that if a user clicked the red ‘X’ to dismiss the window, it would, in fact, mean they were agreeing to the update the same as if they had clicked ‘OK.’ The lesson here is read the small print and be carful what your click on… easier said than done…!  Either way, Windows 10 is here to stay, and unless you turn to Apple side of the force or indeed go all-out and install a version Linux, you will most certainly be using a Windows 10 computer soon enough.

Opinion :

I asked the guys in the shop what they thought about windows 10, here’s what they said.

William Said: “It’s amazing! a lot more user-friendly than Windows 8 and is much better for users accustomed to older systems such as XP and Vista. I like that they removed the popup charm menu included in windows 8”

Nihat: Nihat is so impressed, he was left speechless when I asked for his opinion, although when pressed for comment he said “01101001 00100000 01101000 01100001 01110110 01100101 00100000 01101110 01101111 00100000 01101111 01110000 01101001 01101110 01101001 01101111 01101110”

And me? (Andrew), *cough… Apple OS 10.11 is where it’s at, more stable, safer and user friendly for the average non-technical user, anyway, fruit sales pitch over (I will save the rest for another email) No, seriously, though, Windows 10 is in my opinion a powerful user-friendly operating system, and shouldn’t be too much trouble to get used to. With a little persistence and playing around I think most users will get their heads around it quite quickly. It does offer a much similar experience to Windows 7 / Vista than Windows 8 did, after all, I’m guessing that most of you have used a Windows XP or Vista computer before, and I would hazard a guess that the trauma of moving from XP to 7 has been long forgotten…

I’m very much of the opinion and philosophy that keeping up with the new will give you less of a problem in the future, that doesn’t mean pitching a tent on Regents Street to be first in line for the new iPhone, but instead trying not to fall too far behind making life more difficult when your forced to upgrade or move on. We see this kind of problem often when helping customers move from Windows XP and old versions of Microsoft Outlook or Live Mail to new Windows computers.

This sort of thing is a new phenomenon and I feel the tech companies have let down consumers when by not providing easier ways to move from one system to another. Never the less I feel we must accept this sort of change and as an inescapable part of the larger consumer computing revolution. (Sorry for rambling. All that to say Windows 10 is not bad… coming from an Apple fanboy, that must mean something…!)

By Andrew Shaw