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Windows 10 forced upgrade was ‘a mistake’- says Microsoft

‘GWX Control Panel’ tool manufacturer reports that Windows 7 and 8.1 PCs receiving upgrade as pre-selected ‘Optional’ item in Windows Update

Microsoft has started to deliver the Windows 10 upgrade to eligible Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 PCs via Windows Update, making well on an October declaration.

A company confirmed that the Windows 10 upgrade is reaching customers’ systems.

Earlier, Terry Myerson, the executive who leads the operating system and devices group, stated that the Windows 10 upgrade would be pushed to users via Windows Update, the primary maintenance service for its OSes.

During the time, Myerson stated that the upgrade would first appear under the “Optional” section in Windows Update, then later transfers to “Recommended.” The labeling difference: In Windows Update, “Optional” is considered to be just that; customers must explicitly check the comment box for an item for it to automatically download and install. “Recommended” items, besides that, will be retrieved and installed except the user has altered the default settings of Windows Update.

Previously, Microsoft has issued updates and upgrades in that two-step process under which bits first appeared under Optional, then after 30 days, Microsoft used to digest diagnostic data from affected PCs to make sure things worked as expected — the same update transferred to Recommended, and concerns the majority of users.

It’s unclear whether Microsoft is following the plan it laid out in October: At the same time, several prominent bloggers who focus on Microsoft — including Paul Thurrottand ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley — stated that the Windows 10 upgrade had been installed as Recommended in Windows Update, there was no explicit proof that that had, in fact, started.

However, the Windows 10 upgrade has visible under Windows Update’s Optional list, according to Josh Mayfield, the creator of GWX Control Panel. The free utility made Microsoft’s Get Windows 10 upgrade reservation app go away, removed the system of upgrade files, and blocked the automatic upgrade.

Mayfield keeps up a multiple-PC pool of test machines to monitor how Microsoft promotes Windows 10. Recently, he confirmed that the upgrade showed up under Optional on both Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 PCs.

“As we saw over the summer, it’s listed as an ‘Optional’ update but automatically selected to install, unlike other updates in that category,” stated by Mayfield ,according to the web sources.

Mayfield was referring to events that started in mid of September at the latest, when users noticed “Upgrade to Windows 10 Home” or “Upgrade to Windows 10 Pro,” in Windows Update. Those item displayed in the Optional section of Windows Update’s listing of accessible patches and fixes. Basically, updates fixed as Optional will not download to a PC, whether automatically or in a manual check, until the user has checked a box.

Still according to users’ experiences at the time, Windows Update itself ticked the “Upgrade to Windows 10” optional update as suitable for download and installation. Users with Windows Update set to automatically get and install updates, the norm, and the setting recommended by Microsoft, or who did not determine the optional update list, were then served with the Windows 10 upgrade, whether they wanted it or not.

Microsoft quickly announced a statement that the checking of the upgrade’s Optional item “was a mistake.”
For the number of users, the upgrade would download, if it wasn’t already exist on the PC, having been pre-loaded under a time taking campaign to place the bits on customers’ devices, and the installation process would start.

Microsoft has stated that users could decline the Windows 10 upgrade once installation began, but has failed to say whether the upgrade begins in all cases, detail how the user authorization process is to play out, and whether after a customer denies the upgrade it exists itself again later.

“We are committed to making it easy for our Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 customers to upgrade to Windows 10,” Microsoft stated as per reports. “We updated the upgrade experience today to help our customers, who previously reserved their upgrade, scheduled a time for their upgrade to take place.”

Mayfield’s GWX Control Panel will frustrate attempts to place the Windows 10 upgrade in Windows Update, as the tool was designed to do. In the past, Mayfield had informed that might not be the case if Microsoft again changed the rules, an increasingly common practice for the company, which, for example, repeatedly announced a Windows 10 reservation app to users who had managed to uninstall it.

“If GWX Control Panel reports ‘No’ for ‘Are Windows 10 Upgrades allowed?’, then the Windows 10 upgrade doesn’t even appear as an option in the Windows Update control panel,” Mayfield informed. Those who download and install GWX Control Panel can block the Windows 10 upgrade from appearing by clicking “Disable Get Windows 10 app,” and then clicking “Prevent Windows 10 Upgrades.”

Last month, Microsoft stated that it would expand Windows 10 upgrade distribution to include all systems running Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro, even domain-joined Windows 10 Pro machines in businesses that get their security patches directly from Windows Update. GWX Control Panel can be downloaded from Mayfield’s website free of charge.