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Two Soylentils wrote with a caution about a new strategy in Microsoft's playbook to get people to upgrade to Windows 10.
If you Click on the Red "X", You're Getting the Windows 10 Upgrade
That pesky Windows 10 forceware box...
This notification means your Windows 10 upgrade will occur at the time indicated, unless you select either Upgrade now or "Click here to change upgrade schedule or cancel scheduled upgrade". If you click on OK or on the red "X", you're all set for the upgrade and there is nothing further to do.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3095675
New Windows 10 Nag Screen May Trick 7, 8.x Users
Windows 7 or 8.x users that want or need to hold on to their current operating systems may be in for a very unpleasant surprise. Microsoft has essentially changed their Windows 10 update notification from a very pushy "opt-in" to an "opt-out". The new notification automatically schedules a time to receive Windows 10. Clicking the "X", as many have gotten used to, no longer prevents installation. Those that do not pay close attention to this new notification may inadvertently wind up with Windows 10 even if they did not want it. Very sneaky stuff.
Microsoft has published an offical article describing the changes.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday May 21 2016, @10:13PM
I work for a small independent PC repair place, and as of a couple of days ago we got absolutely flooded with people saying their machines had begun upgrading to Win10 without their permission. Half the time the downgrade either doesn't work right or, and this is the really bizarre part, *seems* to work and then insists that the now-restored Windows 7 isn't genuine. It almost looks like MS is doing some kind of non-reversible conversion of the Win7 license key.
This is evil as hell. We're installing Never 10 on every single Win7 and Win8.x machine that comes in here, and Shut Up 10 (https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10) on anything that's already been infected.
The worst part of this, though, is that almost everyone is as clueless about computers as, say, I am about the inner workings of a nuclear submarine. And trying to explain what MS is doing to them makes them look at me like I'm some kind of pants-wetting crazy cat lady or something. They understand almost none of what I'm telling them, and what they DO understand sounds like, in the words of one of them, "What the damn Stasi did to my family in the 80s." It's almost as if MS has completely torn out all the stops, secure in the knowledge that NO ONE will believe it when someone in the know tells them exactly what's going on under the hood.
And hey Microsoft, I hope you're fucking reading this: we're a Linux shop and whenever possible users ALSO get a KDE Plasma 5.x desktop that looks and acts more like Windows than your God-awful hellspawn spyware has in almost half a decade, and they LOVE it. Keep this shit up, Nadella and co.; you are becoming the best allies Linux could possibly have.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 22 2016, @10:24AM
I now have people who were died in the wool Windows users asking for help to move to Linux. Right now I put on antiX MX because it just works and because debian went full on systemd.
What distro/s do you use, and why?
(Score: 3, Informative) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday May 22 2016, @08:19PM
For the ones I know for sure will never ever be updating I have a custom-spun Arch image. It's a lot more stable than you'd expect, and ironically, until Plasma 5.6 hits mainline in Mint, Debian, (K)Ubuntu, etc., it's the best option. Where absolute rock-solid stability is needed we do Debian Jessis with KDE Plasma 4.14. Weaker machines (think HP Stream 11 here) again get a carefully-tuned Arch, this time with LXQt, which I have configured to essentially be "What ChromeOS wants to be when it grows up."
Some customers like Macs but can't afford it; I remember one sweet old lady on SSI whose 9 year old Macbook died, and she only had enough for a cheap Lenovo B50 and a couple of hours of labor. She got Mint Xfce edition with the TopMenu packages, Docky dockbar, and a custom Mavericks-like theme I'd made as a hobby.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...