On Thursday, The Inquirer reported that one of its users noticed a file on his computer that typically hosted the image files for the new Windows 10 operating system. That struck the user as odd since he hadn’t upgraded to Windows 10, hadn’t planned on upgrading, and hadn’t even reserved an upgrade.
THE READER’S STORY
According to the Inquirer reader, his computer had been experiencing a ton of obtuse symptoms that shouldn’t have existed.
“The symptoms are repeated failed ‘Upgrade to Windows 10’ in the WU update history and a huge 3.5GB to 6GB hidden folder labelled ‘$Windows.~BT’,” the reader said to Inquirer in an interview.
SEE ALSO: DID YOU DOWNLOAD WINDOWS 10 OR RANSOMWARE?
The reader said he never had any intentions to upgrade to Windows 10, even though Microsoft is offering Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 users a free upgrade to Windows 10 up to a year after launch.
MICROSOFT FESSES UP
Following the message, the news publication received from their reader, The Inquirer reached out to Microsoft for comment about the situation. According to them, Microsoft is automatically downloading the image files to users who have opted into receiving automatic updates through Windows Update.
“When the upgrade is ready, the customer will be prompted to install Windows 10 on the device,” said Microsoft.
WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS SCENARIO
While it is incredibly generous of Microsoft to offer Windows 10 to users for free, the company is overstepping its boundaries by making the operating system an automatic update. There are many reasons why this is wrong. First off, not all programs are compatible with Windows 10 right out of the gate. Small businesses that rely on older software might unknowingly download the Windows 10 update, which may cause some websites to not work correctly, at least without some finagling.
On-board storage is also a huge concern for consumers. What if you’re limited to flash storage? Having 6 GB stuffed on your machine “just in case” is a bit much. People with limited data caps are also at risk of reaching that ceiling without knowing it.
What do you think? Should Microsoft have snuck in the Windows 10 images into an automatic update?
