Whatever goodwill Microsoft has earned in recent years by playing nice is rapidly evaporating, thanks to a particularly aggressive update.
Multiple users around the internet are reporting that Microsoft is forcing the latest Windows 10 upgrade on them. The upgrade appears to run, install and restart the computer automatically, often while people are actively using the machine.
To make matters worse, once the computer reboots, Microsoft’s Edge web browser automatically starts. The accompanying dialog boxes try to convince the user to switch to Edge, and don’t provide a clear way of saying no. The update also pins Edge to both the taskbar and desktop, and still verifies if the user wants to continue using their previous default browser the next time they launch a website.
Sean Hollister at The Verge sums it up best:
“If I told you that my entire computer screen just got taken over by a new app that I’d never installed or asked for — it just magically appeared on my desktop, my taskbar, and preempted my next website launch — you’d probably tell me to run a virus scanner and stay away from shady websites, no?
“But the insanely intrusive app I’m talking about isn’t a piece of ransomware. It’s Microsoft’s new Chromium Edge browser, which the company is now force-feeding users via an automatic update to Windows.”
For a company that once had one of the worst reputations in the industry for these kind of strong-arm tactics, it’s disappointing to see it returning to this kind of behavior.