[Updated] Avoiding the Windows 10 upgrade offer is now a lot harder

Update: It looks like the report may just be a false alarm. As ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley stated:

It looks like this was a false alarm, based on conversations I’m having with folks on Twitter and contacts within Microsoft engineering. It seems the only way to trigger the particular screen in The Register post is by opening Windows Update, Ok’ing the install Windows 10, accepting the EULA, and then getting this screen asking when you want to schedule that update. And once a user have accepts the EULA, the user has officially consented to the update.

Original article follows below.

Remember GWX? Microsoft’s tool to help users install Windows 10 on their PCs and tablets? If you’re on Windows 10 already, you probably recall it as some friendly tool that helped you grab Windows 10 when you wanted it.

If you’re not on Windows 10 however, your image of GWX may be a bit tainted. Reports coming in the past few weeks have painted GWX (Get Windows 10/X) as a creature not unlike the Sentinels in X-men Days of Future Past. It has one task, to make you install Windows 10, and it will evolve past any barriers placed on it by users who do not want Windows 10,

First it started to create auto intrusive pop-ups which you had to dismiss every few days, then it began to make it so those pop-ups should schedule an install of Windows 10 if you clicked to shut the pop-up, now the GWX app no longer lets you click to shut the pop-up, rather it now rather unambiguously requests you install the update now, or in a few days.

For Windows 10 users, we know there’s a lot to love about the new OS and a few things to make holding off for a bit longer advisable, which is why Microsoft’s tactics may be somewhat off-putting and even infuriating.

Windows reporters like Paul Thurott, The Register and PC World now recommend tools to prevent Microsoft’s GWX sentient AI from awakening and taking over your computer in your sleep.

While personally we would recommend all users on Windows 7 and 8 to update to Windows 10 for security reasons, access to new UWPs and because it’s free, something about this just rubs us the wrong way.

Especially as some OEMs are recommending their users to stay away from Windows 10 due to driver incompatibilities, perhaps Microsoft should have more respect for user choice going forward.

Do you think Microsoft should tone down its tactics to get users to install Windows 10? Let us know in the comments below.