Remember the year Microsoft was offering a free upgrade to Windows 10 and was forcing users to download GBs of data onto their PCs in anticipation of the upgrade? Now following a flurry of lawsuits over these forced downloads of data, Microsoft has promised to never force users to download files onto their Windows PCs.
No more forced Windows 10 download
This promise actually comes from Microsoft Germany following a lawsuit from a consumer-protection authority. In early 2016, regional consumer protection agency Verbraucherzentrale Baden-Württemberg filed a lawsuit against Microsoft over this forced Windows 10 download, in which up to 6GB of files were downloaded to PCs without the owners’ permission. A few days ago, the agency announced that the U.S. firm has promised to check its unlawful behavior, and thus, there will be no ruling in the case.
“We assume that Microsoft and other software developers will pay more attention to which procedures are allowed in the future and which are not. The unsolicited installation of files containing multiple gigabytes is certainly not it,” the agency said.
“We would have wished for an earlier backdown, but [Microsoft’s statement] is a success for more consumer rights in the digital world,” it said.
Is there a loophole?
Microsoft said it is pleased that the case is resolved, according to TechRepublic. It is not clear if the promise ensures rightful behavior outside Germany as well. It is also unclear whether Microsoft will use the same tactic with its twice-yearly updates. As of now, there have been no comments from the company on the matter.
Microsoft stopped offering free Windows 10 updates long ago and is now charging for then. The company appears to have no plans to replace Windows 10, rather than just sending out timely updates. Thus, these things make it easy for the company keep its promise of ending the forced Windows 10 download.
This is not the only Windows 10-related lawsuit that Microsoft has faced. In fact, Windows 10 has been surrounded by controversies ranging from issues like privacy and telemetry to ads and lost data, among others. In the U.S., the company faces a multi-million dollar class-action lawsuit in which users claim that they suffered “damage to software or hardware” or lost data after upgrading to Windows 10. Last year, a U.S. small claims court even ordered Microsoft to pay $10,000 to a user who claimed that the forced Windows 10 download made her PC unstable.
Microsoft won’t reveal known bugs
In other Microsoft news, the company pushed out Windows 10 build 16273 on Wednesday. This could be one of the last previews before the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update. In the build released yesterday, the company seems to have decided to stop informing Windows Insiders about known issues in the builds it pushes out for beta testing.
Until now, Microsoft was sending a list of the known issues with the builds. This helped the insiders be aware of specific problems, their impact, and possible temporary solutions. However, now the company will not be giving this information as it prepares to stabilize the Fall Creators Update for general users, notes ZDNet.
