An unspecified number of updates to Microsoft’s new operating system started without the authorization of the computer owner, in what is normally defined as an invasive procedure.
The information, reported by Forbes, Ars Technica and InfoWorld, indicates that Microsoft would have altered the status of “optional” in an upgrade checkbox to Windows 10. The box was marked as the default selection in Windows 7 and Windows 8. With this, upgrade to Windows 10 would be carried out automatically the next time the user installed updates or patches via Windows Update.
However, it should be noted it would still be required that the user clicked an extra button that definitely started the process. “An inattentive user would install the operating system upgrade without noticing, while a more attentive one would simply be amazed by what was happening,” Forbes writes. Meanwhile, Ars Technica, which even published pictures of the process, considers that the situation is serious: “When Microsoft unilaterally activated the box, even those users uninterested in upgrading would see -over and over again- an invitation to start the installation process”.
In a statement sent to Ars Technica, Microsoft confirmed the situation, which it calls accidental: “As part of our efforts to bring Windows 10 to users of genuine versions of Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, the upgrade to Windows 10 may appear as a optional upgrade in the Windows Control Panel. This is an intuitive and reliable place where people find the recommended and optional updates for Windows. In the latest OS update, this option was selected by default; this was a mistake, and we have removed the selection.”
The above explanation is not accepted by InfoWorld journalist Woody Leonhard, who in a lengthy article concludes that Microsoft’s argument lacks credibility. The expert claims to have a screenshot made on October 9, where the button “update to Windows 10” was already selected, “This means that Microsoft had already enabled this selection on October 9 or earlier, well before the ‘recent Windows Update’ the company mentions in its statement.” Leonhard’s conclusion is that “someone in Microsoft, with a position of authority, started this forced update on or before October 9, without solving the situation until Ars Technica mentioned the issue on 15 October.
