14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft’s controversial “Get Windows 10” app responsible for upgrading so many PCs to the latest Windows version without users’ consent has recently received another update that should help eliminate these accidental launches of the Windows 10 installer.
Launched in mid-2015 as a way to make the transition from Windows 7 and 8.1 to Windows 10 smoother by checking for compatibility issues and downloading necessary files, the Get Windows 10 app has pushed the new operating system on a number of PCs without users specifically asking for it.
More recent complaints, however, revealed that Microsoft changed the behavior of the scheduled update system, so whenever users clicked on the “X” button in the Get Windows 10 app, the upgrade was no longer canceled, but simply approved.
New prompt added
Although Microsoft clearly said that this behavior was there from the very beginning, a company spokesperson has recently revealed for the BBC that an update to this app introduced a new prompt to confirm the scheduled upgrade and to give users another chance to cancel deployment.
“We've added another notification that confirms the time of the scheduled upgrade and provides the customer an additional opportunity for cancelling or rescheduling the upgrade. If the customer wishes to continue with their upgrade at the designated time, they can click ‘OK’ or close the notifications with no further action needed,” the company’s spokesperson was quoted as saying.
But it was exactly this specific behavior that led to the criticism, as clicking the “X” button in the scheduled upgrade window had many believe that the move to Windows 10 would actually be canceled. Instead, doing this was more like a way to acknowledge that a scheduled upgrade was planned.
The free Windows 10 upgrade offer ends on July 29, and Microsoft says that it won’t extend it after that, meaning that Windows 7 and 8.1 users deciding to move to the new OS beyond this date will have to pay the full price for a license.