A California woman has successfully sued Microsoft for $10,000 after claiming an unauthorized Windows 10 update caused her work computer to slow to a crawl, crash frequently and be unusable for days at a time.
The woman, Teri Goldstein, uses that computer to run a travel agency in the California town of Sausalito.
The Seattle Times quotes her:
“I had never heard of Windows 10. Nobody ever asked me if I wanted to update.”
Goldstein had reached out to Microsoft customer support, but whatever they told her to do didn’t fix the problem, she said. So she took the company to court, seeking to recoup lost wages and the cost of a new computer. According to the Seattle Times, she won. Microsoft dropped an appeal last month, and Goldstein collected a $10,000 judgment from the company.The company denies wrongdoing. A spokeswoman told the newspaper that Microsoft threw in the towel on its appeal in order to avoid the expense of further litigation.
Things like “pre-downloading” Windows 10 onto many people’s computers to make it easier to upgrade later on, because the 3GB of needed data would already be there, ready to install with a simple click…
…or having invitations to a free update pop up in less than ideal situations – say, in the middle of a live weather broadcast or just in time to ruin a gamer’s livestream…
…or presenting an update notification that confused some users into thinking they’d cancelled it when they hadn’t.
No matter how clunky Microsoft has been when it comes to communicating about the better security Windows 10 ushers in, it really is a good idea for everyone to have auto-updates turned on by default.
Come 29 July, Microsoft will officially stop offering free upgrades to Windows 10. After that, a copy ofWindows 10 will run $119, while Windows 10 Pro will cost $199.
**Source**