Microsoft has been forcing Windows 10 upgrades for months now, an aggressive tactic that’s rubbed people the wrong way. The Seattle Times reports that one woman’s computer was messed up by the update, prompting her to sue Microsoft. Not only did she win, she got $US10,000 ($13,383).
Per The Seattle Times:
A few days after Microsoft released Windows 10 to the public last year, Teri Goldstein’s computer started trying to download and install the new operating system.
The update, which she says she didn’t authorise, failed. Instead, the computer she uses to run her Sausalito, Calif., travel-agency business slowed to a crawl. It would crash, she says, and be unusable for days at a time.
“I had never heard of Windows 10,” Goldstein said. “Nobody ever asked me if I wanted to update.”
When outreach to Microsoft’s customer support didn’t fix the issue, Goldstein took the software giant to court, seeking compensation for lost wages and the cost of a new computer.
Microsoft told the publication it wouldn’t admit to any wrongdoing and merely “halted its appeal to avoid the expense of further litigation”.
Right.
My own computer spontaneously upgraded earlier this year, and while my experience with Windows 10 eventually became a pleasant one, I would have vastly preferred upgrading to a new operating system when I wanted.
Microsoft seems OK with the bad press; while some tweaks have been made to the way upgrades are presented, they’re still happening.
Comments
19 responses to “Woman Sues Microsoft Over Unwanted Windows 10 Upgrade, Wins $13,000”
That doesn’t sound like a lot. Most of it would of been lost on the lawyer’s fee , surely.
Goldstein
Heard of a few people who’ve had issues but seriously, upgrading to win10 has been utterly pleasant for me. Increased fps in games, smooth OS, it’s been a delight (add to that, free).
I agree, mostly. Honestly, the upgrade made almost every aspect of my machine run a lot smoother. Except in the case of Heroes of the Storm. I had to quit playing because it dropped to single digit FPS.
Haven’t played HotS yet, it didn’t tend to affect me in that area. But I play offensive amounts of ARK lol. My OS upgraded and I automatically found an increase of at least 5fps pushing me over 30fps at the time (now I’m hitting 50ish).
I haven’t had any issues with HOTS on Win10. Driver issue maybe? What GPU are you running?
A shit outdated one, but it still ran fine for HOTS.
Honestly, if it’s a choice between better performance for everything else but HOTS, or playing HOTS, I’ll live without HOTS.
I like the system itself. Its just these sneaky things they are putting in like the P2P Update network or whatever it is. There are also the constant Start Menu problems and if you split your system between an SSD and a HDD it can be horrid with Windows 10. I have also noticed the updates like to consume not a bit, but all of your downstream speed when it is just checking, even when Updates are turned off (I have to go into Services and disable BITS and Windows Update). Cortana gives me a few problems too.
To me its as if they developed a very appealing system and then completely screwed it over by putting in annoying and invasive services and software, I downgraded to 8.1.
Overall it has indeed been a positive experience, the only caveat being the issues with the Start menu and modern apps. At times they just cease to function and no amount of clicking or restarting Windows Explorer will restore their functionality, only a reboot helps… sometimes logging out and back in again.
But one can’t help but feel put off by reading about the kind of tactics they’ve employed to get people to upgrade. They’ve been downright suspicious about the whole thing from the beginning.
It is not Windows 10 that is the problem here, it is Microsoft’s desire to push it down your throat just so they can report glowing adoption figures to their shareholders.
I’ve had several people at work get clobbered by this and we have blocked the update in Policy. We will be migrating to Windows 10, but it has to be (user) controlled, not via some poorly worded gotcha Microsoft try to trick you up with.
She should of had a couple of zeros on the end and Microsoft might of actually given a shit..
Why would Microsoft’s shareholders care about adoption figures for something that is free?
It is only free for the time being and Microsoft are selling ad space in the OS.
Also as most commenters seem to ignore, (see selfentitledmuch for great irony) this is a business environment where it has caused problems. It is common for small businesses in particular to rely on multiple software packages supported by different companies. Have the OS change from Win7 to Win10 can cause significant compatibility issues if all of the software you are relying on isn’t fully supported. A lot of the time software providers will wash their hands of support if you don’t match their specifications exactly. Microsoft is living in some fairy tale utopia if they think that tricking users into updating is a good solution to anything.
It doesn’t matter if Windows 10 is the greatest OS ever made, Microsoft has pissed people off with their methods.
Also Windows 7 has extended support until 2020, no one is being backwards in using a supported OS and expecting that Microsoft won’t arbitrarily mess with things.
I am guessing that possibly since the idea is that most (all?) software should be purchased thru the MS store (similar to apples AppStore I guess) and MS get to take a cut from each sale, so more people on win10 = more sales on MS store = more cash? Or something. I guess also so they can turn around and say “yes we spent X amount on the OS, but look how many Y millions are using it now! We done guud!”
Overall its a decent OS, sure, I just am not a big fan of the regressing level of control I have over the OS (primarily the win updates and the telemetry)
edit; another reason, and I think one of the primary reasons for MS’s aggressive approach (beyond the MS store cut thing) is that if they can get everyone onto Win10 ASAP, then that theoretically drastically reduces the OS support costs for MS (again, good for mentioning to shareholders), namely support just Win10 would be a lot cheaper than supporting WinXP, Win7, Win 8, Win8.1, and Win 10. (Yes yes i know winxp support has now ended)
Microsoft has worked out what Facebook has known for a while, the best most consistent revenue stream at the moment is advertising and your data. Then using your data to sell to advertisers to generate more user data to target advertising. You are the gift that keeps on giving. So hey, here’s a free OS update that makes it easier to farm you.
wow, please don’t ever run a publicly listed company…stock price has little to do with what you actually sell these days. if W10 adoption figures are bad, their stock price will suffer.
paid to be ignorant? thats a new one. ppl are so backward. upgrade like the rest of us and STOP being a self entitled bigot. im glad they force the ignorant to upgrade.
Calm down shithead.
So was this from before Microsoft turned the update into a recommended update?, if so she would have had to agreed to it. (And a few days after the release it still required user input, sounds like she reserved the upgrade and then forgot about it) Hell I’ve got computers at work that still wont update to windows 10 by themselves.
“I demand my machine to be replaced by a new machine!”
“With Windows 10?”
“Yes! With Windows 10!”