Microsoft is offering Windows 10 as a free upgrade to Windows 7 and 8 users. Although there are more than 110 million devices running Windows 10 already, a lot of users are still sticking to their current OS. Now, it looks like Microsoft has mistakenly enabled an option on Windows Update for Windows 7 and 8 users which enabled the Windows 10 update to download automatically. The company mistakenly enabled this optional features by default for Windows 7 and 8 users with a recent update, which will get fixed soon. A Microsoft spokesperson told the folks over at Ars Technica:
As part of our effort to bring Windows 10 to existing genuine Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 customers, the Windows 10 upgrade may appear as an optional update in the Windows Update (WU) control panel. This is an intuitive and trusted place people go to find Recommended and Optional updates to Windows. In the recent Windows update, this option was checked as default; this was a mistake and we are removing the check.
If you don’t want Windows 10 to automatically download on your Windows 7 or 8 device, you should probably disable this option on Windows Update.
Article has been updated to clarify that the update was downloaded only (thanks, Brad!)