Microsoft caught automatically updating PCs to Windows 10 without users consent

This weekend Microsoft automatically upgraded Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 computers to Windows 10 without users consent. The Redmond software giant marked an update as "important" after which computers with automatic updates enabled started the upgrade procedure to Windows 10.

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Users on Reddit complain that the upgrade was started without their permission. One user reports, "Yep, went afk and saw this message box that said something like "Your update is ready! Restarting and installing in 13 minutes". If I made myself a meal or watched tv, I would have had windows 10. Oh, and the best part is how they hid the "Decline" button in the more info button."

Another user writes, "Yep this happened to me this morning. Working and all of a sudden Windows closed all my programs, logged me out and started the upgrade. I quickly shut down my computer and was able to stop it but my son wasn't so lucky. Same thing happened to him today."

The seriousness of the issue is underlined by a comment that reports even doctor's offices have been hit. The user writes, "We've been getting calls trickling in all week from doctor's offices, dental practices, B&Bs, and roofing companies -- among others -- that have been hit by this and it's a fucking mess. In some cases the upgrade went OK and the user is just really confused. In others Windows 10 is asking for a login password the user set years ago and hasn't used since, that was fun. In still another it's screwed up access to their shared folders."

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The culprit appears to be KB3035583 again which is the infamous "Windows 10 downloader for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1". Because this update was marked as important, it's automatically installed on computers with automatic updates enabled.  Even system administrators who previously blocked KB3035583 saw systems upgraded again because Microsoft apparently reclassified the update.

Learn here how to uninstall KB3035583 to prevent automatic updates to Windows 10 if you're on Windows 7 or Windows 8.1.

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