14 DAY TRIAL // We’ve seen many unfortunate moments when the upgrade to Windows 10 started all of a sudden and interrupted users in the middle of their work, but nothing compares to what happened recently in the Central African bush.
A member of the Chinko Project, an effort in the Central African Republic (CAR) that’s supposed to protect wildlife in the region and offer rangers support in their fight against poachers, has revealed that the Windows 10 upgrade started on one of their computers and ate up all the bandwidth.
In a post on reddit, user zambuka42 claims that Windows 10 secretly downloaded nearly 6 GB of data to launch the installer on a very slow shared Internet connection that’s specifically implemented for coordinating anti-poaching rangers in the field. The upgrade started all of a sudden and thus disconnected the computer, exposing rangers to unnecessary risks, he says.
“Aside from the fact that we pay per MB, and already share a slow connection, if a forced upgrade happened and crashed our pc's while in the middle of coordinating rangers under fire from armed militarized poachers... blood could literally be on MS's hands,” he explains in his post that triggered donations that could support their fight against poachers.
Computer not set to use metered connection or block upgrade
And yet, it’s not entirely Microsoft’s fault here. That's because, as the aforementioned Chinko Project member explains, the system wasn’t configured to use a metered connection (which would have otherwise prevented the download of Windows 10 files), and the IT guy wasn’t using any method of blocking the upgrade to the OS.
“I just came here recently to act as their pilot… but have IT skills as well. The guy who set these pc's up didn't know how to prevent it, or set a metered connection. I am completely livid,” he adds.
A screenshot attached to the post shows GWX Control Panel being installed on Windows PCs to block further attempts to upgrade to Windows 10 without consent.
Certainly, seeing Microsoft pushing so aggressively for Windows 10 upgrades isn’t the best way to go in order to boost adoption of the new OS, so users need to be very careful especially in cases like these, where disconnecting a PC is quite critical. Microsoft itself provides ways to block the upgrade, but the safest one is clearly to resort to apps such as GWX Control Panel that does all the job for you.