5 ms·

Same happened to my mom just yesterday. My mom happens to be an anxious 75 year old woman who takes a long time to acclimate to anything new on her computer, an

by m_fayer 10y ago

Same happened to my mom just yesterday. My mom happens to be an anxious 75 year old woman who takes a long time to acclimate to anything new on her computer, and also relies on said computer for several critical areas of her life. She called me in a panic from 6 timezones away, and I had to drop what I was doing and spend a good half a day walking her through the various transition and setup steps. Every 30 minutes she would plaintively ask me why she had to do this - she was perfectly happy with what she had and had no interest in anything new. Every time she asked and I had no good answer, vague thoughts that included the words "class" and "action" swam through my head.

Rangi42 10y ago
One advantage to my grandmother still using Windows XP: it won’t auto-upgrade to Windows 10.
- Piskvorrr 10y ago
  Meh. The safest and easiest migration path from XP now is to LXLE (which is Ubuntu Linux) with a similar theme (and the same set of apps); I wouldn't keep anyone on XP any more: if W7 is obsolete, XP is a rotting corpse.
  - luke-stanley 10y ago
    Or maybe http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2014/04/windows-xp-theme-lubuntu http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2014/04/windows-xp-theme-lubuntu
    - Piskvorrr 10y ago
      Haha, maybe. That's a bit over the top for me personally, I never liked the Luna theme :)
pca 10y ago
How many of the hundreds of millions of people using Windows computers are affected like this that don't have someone tech-savy to ask for help? There's no possible way Microsoft didn't think of this scenario, which can only mean that they simply do not care.
- marak830 10y ago
  I am certainly in agreement. From what I can see they used social engineering for a few months, then dark patterned it so users would install. (Im referring to users being slowly trained to close the window saying upgrade, then that same click agreeing and installing). Which in my opinion is exactly that. Social engineering to get them use to it (same action over and over), and dark pattern (doing something do so they would agree to something they didn't necessarily want to). Very scummy in my opinion. I wish I could change but I am very much stuck on Windows (my only product uses windows voice recognition engine. . . .I don't have the knowledge to wrote my own). Edit: typo
- transpy 10y ago
  As long as changes and 'upgrades' correlate with net gains for investors and shareholders, it's all good. It's all that matters. We are faced with faceless super-agents, we can't realistically complain to anyone, nobody is responsible. I hope the era of user empowerment comes soon, and this kind of mammoth-sized digital stomping over humans ends.
- haddr 10y ago
  Oh... They surely care! For the upgrade rate, which historically was always very low.
cm2187 10y ago
Well, Microsoft will parade you mum as part of the great success of the adoption rate and popularity of Windows 10!
iofj 10y ago
I feel your pain, but after migration to linux or mac you'll probably be using SaaS apps to do this. And at in this case you could reinstall. In the "future" (ie. web apps and android apps), there won't be any control about software upgrades anymore. Even, or perhaps especially when they're really more downgrades than upgrades.
- Piskvorrr 10y ago
  Hahaha. Nope, your attempt at FUD fails: after migration to Linux, my first worry is "okay, the network connection sucks, so no cloud dependencies". Cloudcloudcloud may be all the rage right now, but tried-and-true, full-offline software didn't disappear.
haddr 10y ago
Rings a bell... Same happened to my mom when Google changed their Gmail UI. For us it seems like a small change but for older people this is really a tough thing. Well, we moved to an email client since then...

by m_fayer 10y ago

Rangi42 10y ago

One advantage to my grandmother still using Windows XP: it won’t auto-upgrade to Windows 10.

Piskvorrr 10y ago
Meh. The safest and easiest migration path from XP now is to LXLE (which is Ubuntu Linux) with a similar theme (and the same set of apps); I wouldn't keep anyone on XP any more: if W7 is obsolete, XP is a rotting corpse.
- luke-stanley 10y ago
  Or maybe http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2014/04/windows-xp-theme-lubuntu http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2014/04/windows-xp-theme-lubuntu
  - Piskvorrr 10y ago
    Haha, maybe. That's a bit over the top for me personally, I never liked the Luna theme :)

pca 10y ago

How many of the hundreds of millions of people using Windows computers are affected like this that don't have someone tech-savy to ask for help? There's no possible way Microsoft didn't think of this scenario, which can only mean that they simply do not care.

marak830 10y ago
I am certainly in agreement. From what I can see they used social engineering for a few months, then dark patterned it so users would install. (Im referring to users being slowly trained to close the window saying upgrade, then that same click agreeing and installing). Which in my opinion is exactly that. Social engineering to get them use to it (same action over and over), and dark pattern (doing something do so they would agree to something they didn't necessarily want to). Very scummy in my opinion. I wish I could change but I am very much stuck on Windows (my only product uses windows voice recognition engine. . . .I don't have the knowledge to wrote my own). Edit: typo
transpy 10y ago
As long as changes and 'upgrades' correlate with net gains for investors and shareholders, it's all good. It's all that matters. We are faced with faceless super-agents, we can't realistically complain to anyone, nobody is responsible. I hope the era of user empowerment comes soon, and this kind of mammoth-sized digital stomping over humans ends.
haddr 10y ago
Oh... They surely care! For the upgrade rate, which historically was always very low.

cm2187 10y ago

Well, Microsoft will parade you mum as part of the great success of the adoption rate and popularity of Windows 10!

iofj 10y ago

I feel your pain, but after migration to linux or mac you'll probably be using SaaS apps to do this. And at in this case you could reinstall. In the "future" (ie. web apps and android apps), there won't be any control about software upgrades anymore. Even, or perhaps especially when they're really more downgrades than upgrades.

Piskvorrr 10y ago
Hahaha. Nope, your attempt at FUD fails: after migration to Linux, my first worry is "okay, the network connection sucks, so no cloud dependencies". Cloudcloudcloud may be all the rage right now, but tried-and-true, full-offline software didn't disappear.

haddr 10y ago

Rings a bell... Same happened to my mom when Google changed their Gmail UI. For us it seems like a small change but for older people this is really a tough thing. Well, we moved to an email client since then...