5 ms·

I'm just curious because I really don't know more than my own sample-of-1 experience: Don't you have to agree to "Terms and conditions" before the Windows 10 i

I'm just curious because I really don't know more than my own sample-of-1 experience: Don't you have to agree to "Terms and conditions" before the Windows 10 installation actually starts? I actually re-enabled the Windows 10 upgrade warnings on my Windows 7 desktop, because I intend to upgrade in the last week of the upgrade being free. My desktop (Dell XPS 8500 from 2012) is not supported with Windows 10 (the first time I have to say "Dell, you suck!" - I've had 5 systems from them, desktops and laptops, and a few monitors up to 32 inches), and with my XPS (9333) 13 laptop (which Dell supports with Windows 10) I had pretty much unsolvable (Realtek) sound crash issues. So anyway, just two days ago after reenabling the Windows 10 upgrade warning it started installing it on its own, as you say - but it first asked me if I agree to the "terms and conditions". I clicked "disagree" and the upgrade was canceled. So from my own experience I can't see that Microsoft installs Windows 10 without an option to stop the process? I also have not been bothered with another attempt of auto-installation in the days since, but that's probably going to happen after an actual reboot - thus far I've only used "suspend to disk" to switch the PC off.

joosters 10y ago
I honestly don't know, I didn't get to see what dialogs appeared. Bear in mind that computers often get us to accept terms and conditions, and virtually no-one reads them before clicking OK. There's no way I could blame my parents if that's what they did. Hell, most of my security advice to them is explaining what is a 'legitimate' message box is and what isn't (Quick test: try describing it yourself, the many varied OS / browser / A/V popups, v.s. the scammy fake dialogs that appear.)
- LionessLover 10y ago
  I know the feeling. My mother's approach to computing is infuriating: If she would just READ the often perfectly simple message on the screen she could solve 90% of her problems. For the same reason as your parents ending up with Windows 10 my mother managed to install the pay-version of the free anti-virus software I had installed - when it asked here if she wanted to upgrade to the non-free version she clicked on "Yes" and then didn't dare to cancel the process... It seems that in some people anything unexpected happening on the screen causes some of their inhibitory neurons to fire action potentials (only 10% of neurons in the brain, but an inhibitory signal has a much stronger effect than an excitatory one) - blocking entire brain circuits from contributing their output. It's probably an ancient fear response. So the best solution isn't to educate them - that's mostly unnecessary, since their intellectual capacity is not really the problem. One would have to get them to relax, so that unexpected things happening on their computer screen don't trigger the blocking of all reason.
  - joosters 10y ago
    One other difficult problem I find with my parents, and with others of a similar age, is trying to persuade them to experiment with using their computer. They often find some convoluted way of doing something and stick with it. For example, for a long time my Mum would return to google's homepage by quitting and restarting firefox. I had to explain how the home & back buttons worked several times. My parents were afraid to even try pressing unfamiliar icons in a program (or even realise that they were buttons that could be pressed). Again, it's not stupidity, but just uncertainty and their fear of breaking the computer if they do the wrong thing. Giving a tablet as a present for my parents was a big help here. The biggest ease of use has been that I have persuaded them that there is just about nothing that they can accidentally break on it, and if they ever reach something confusing, then pressing the only button on the front will always take them back to a recognisable place.
    - ourmandave 10y ago
      My parents were afraid to even try pressing unfamiliar icons in a program... That's because it might force upgrade to Windows 10 if they hit the wrong button.
dboreham 10y ago
It can install silently without user approval -- this happened to my wife's laptop over the weekend. Luckily it is a fairly recent Windows8 HP machine and still works (unlike the three different Windows7 machines of mine that ended up unusable post-upgrade).

joosters 10y ago

I honestly don't know, I didn't get to see what dialogs appeared. Bear in mind that computers often get us to accept terms and conditions, and virtually no-one reads them before clicking OK. There's no way I could blame my parents if that's what they did. Hell, most of my security advice to them is explaining what is a 'legitimate' message box is and what isn't (Quick test: try describing it yourself, the many varied OS / browser / A/V popups, v.s. the scammy fake dialogs that appear.)

LionessLover 10y ago
I know the feeling. My mother's approach to computing is infuriating: If she would just READ the often perfectly simple message on the screen she could solve 90% of her problems. For the same reason as your parents ending up with Windows 10 my mother managed to install the pay-version of the free anti-virus software I had installed - when it asked here if she wanted to upgrade to the non-free version she clicked on "Yes" and then didn't dare to cancel the process... It seems that in some people anything unexpected happening on the screen causes some of their inhibitory neurons to fire action potentials (only 10% of neurons in the brain, but an inhibitory signal has a much stronger effect than an excitatory one) - blocking entire brain circuits from contributing their output. It's probably an ancient fear response. So the best solution isn't to educate them - that's mostly unnecessary, since their intellectual capacity is not really the problem. One would have to get them to relax, so that unexpected things happening on their computer screen don't trigger the blocking of all reason.
- joosters 10y ago
  One other difficult problem I find with my parents, and with others of a similar age, is trying to persuade them to experiment with using their computer. They often find some convoluted way of doing something and stick with it. For example, for a long time my Mum would return to google's homepage by quitting and restarting firefox. I had to explain how the home & back buttons worked several times. My parents were afraid to even try pressing unfamiliar icons in a program (or even realise that they were buttons that could be pressed). Again, it's not stupidity, but just uncertainty and their fear of breaking the computer if they do the wrong thing. Giving a tablet as a present for my parents was a big help here. The biggest ease of use has been that I have persuaded them that there is just about nothing that they can accidentally break on it, and if they ever reach something confusing, then pressing the only button on the front will always take them back to a recognisable place.
  - ourmandave 10y ago
    My parents were afraid to even try pressing unfamiliar icons in a program... That's because it might force upgrade to Windows 10 if they hit the wrong button.

dboreham 10y ago

It can install silently without user approval -- this happened to my wife's laptop over the weekend. Luckily it is a fairly recent Windows8 HP machine and still works (unlike the three different Windows7 machines of mine that ended up unusable post-upgrade).