Microsoft’s campaign to get users to upgrade to Windows 10 has met with a lot more resistance than the company was expecting. Despite this, the company could not have expected to be sued for triggering an automatic update to the operating system; and be asked for the courts to pay some $10,000 (about RM40,000) in damages.
The case involved the owner of a California based travel agency who claims that her personal computer upgraded itself to Windows 10 without her permission. A common story with Windows users lately. The update failed; which then caused the computer to slow to a crawl and constantly crash – which lead to problems with running the business.
This quickly turned into a law suit against Microsoft for forcing the upgrade on users; which the courts granted. Microsoft, for its part, has decided to not appeal against the ruling. Not because the company is admitting to any wrongdoing. Rather, because it wants to avoid increasing the cost of litigation.
Microsoft has been becoming increasingly aggressive with its efforts to get users to upgrade to Windows 10; which it says is safer and more secure than previous versions. Dialogue boxes reminding users to take advantage of the free upgrade – which expires on 29 July – are designed to push users to upgrade. This includes the regular red “X” that would normally close the box being interpreted as agreeing to the upgrade.
[Source: Seattle Times]
