Newsletter Archives

• Did Microsoft pay a travel agent $10,000 for upgrading her PC to Win10?

  Posted on June 27, 2016 at 12:44 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  The story’s gone viral, and I can’t confirm it independently.

  Matt Day at The Seattle Times published a report on Saturday morning saying that Teri Goldstein, in Sausalito CA, sued Microsoft for upgrading her computer to Win10 – and Microsoft settled for $10,000.

  According to Day:

  She won. Last month, Microsoft dropped an appeal and Goldstein collected a $10,000 judgment from the company.

  The company denies wrongdoing, and a spokeswoman said Microsoft halted its appeal to avoid the expense of further litigation.

  The story has a “man bites dog” quality to it that makes me skeptical, but stranger things have happened.

  The story entered the tech press echo chamber over the weekend and has bounced around, all over the world. I just saw a retelling in an Indian blog. It’s quite truly a (well deserved!) shot heard round the world.

  I sure would like to be able to confirm the rumor, or put it to rest. A search of the Marin County Superior Court records came up with nothing – but it sounds like this is from a lower court. Anybody out there have first- or second-hand knowledge?

  UPDATE: I’m very happy to report that it looks like Day was right. Further reporting from Gregg Keizer at Computerworld, The Register, and numerous additional sources confirm it to be the case.

  Lots of details here, in the comments.

  My mind boggles. Certainly tens of millions of Americans were pushed to Windows 10 without their knowledge (“consent” being in the eye of the beholder), and certainly a significant percentage of those people suffered financial loss because of Microsoft’s intransigence.

  Perhaps there’s justice after all….

  Windows News Windows 10 coerced upgrade

• Susan Bradley busts Microsoft in the chops

  Posted on May 23, 2016 at 11:56 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Y’all know Susan Bradley – Microsoft MVP, Patch Management listserv moderator, my go-to guru for patching information – right?

  Here’s what she has to say about the latest round of Get Windows 10 attacks:

  First and foremost I think Microsoft is being a bully on the Internet. A big bully. The manner in which Windows 10 has been pushed out the patching channel has me seriously questioning if I want to be associated with this Company going forward… No update should install without your explicit permission to do so. I don’t appreciate that it’s being done with the justification of “from feedback from Microsoft customers”. No, Microsoft, we asked you for an easier way to say no, thank you. No one asked you to schedule the upgrade for us.

  Read it and weep…

  Windows Patches/Security Windows 10 coerced upgrade