http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-36376962

Microsoft has u-turned over changes it made to a pop-up encouraging users to upgrade to Windows 10.

Users were angry that clicking the cross to dismiss the box meant that they had agreed to the upgrade.
Based on "customer feedback", Microsoft said that it had added another notification that provided customers with "an additional opportunity for cancelling the upgrade".

The pop-up design had been described as a "nasty trick".

Microsoft told the BBC it had modified the pop-up two weeks ago as a result of criticism: "We've added another notification that confirms the time of the scheduled upgrade and provides the customer an additional opportunity for cancelling or rescheduling the upgrade. "If the customer wishes to continue with their upgrade at the designated time, they can click 'OK' or close the notifications with no further action needed."

Senior editor at PC World magazine Brad Chacos, who describes himself as a fan of the Windows 10 operating system, had previously described the use of the cross to mean people had agreed to the upgrade as "a nasty trick".
He said: "I don't think that adding more pestering pop-ups improves the situation. At the very least they should add a large, obvious 'No, I don't want this' button."

Mr Chacos has been a vocal critic of what he described as the "heavy-handed tactics that Microsoft's been using to force people into the upgrade".

Previously, users had to press the cross to cancel the suggested upgrade, he pointed out, so the latest move is counter-intuitive - "akin to swapping out the brake and the accelerator in your car". Users have been sharing with the BBC their own experience of unwanted upgrades, suggesting that the process is difficult to cancel once it has begun.

Havard Hughes' experience was typical of many.

"Windows 10 update ran on my PC despite all my efforts to stop it, including dismissing the update several times and frantically trying to abort the installation as it started when I was halfway through writing an important e-mail. "My attempt to roll it back to Windows 7 resulted in the blue screen of death and a dead PC. I now have to reinstall my home computer from scratch because of this so-called 'free' upgrade. As someone who paid for my software and was perfectly happy with my fully functional Windows 7 machine, this has been an absolute disaster."

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I use GWX Control Panel on all my machines.
http://ultimateoutsider.com/downloads/

But Steve Gibson's tool looks very efficient.
https://www.grc.com/never10.htm

There are a lot of others. Microsoft creates entire industries.
http://greatis.com/blog/what-is-gwx-gwx-exe
https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10

Since my automatic upgrade to Win 10 BOINC no longer works - error on starting it says 'this program has stopped working'.

Ive tried repairing it, reinstalling it and also tried installing older version but nothing has worked.

If there is a compatibility issue with Windows 10 then I would appreciate it that this is made loud and clear on a message board sticky or else on the FAQs.

I have Windows 10 on this machine, and it is running BOINC without apparent issue. I currently have work units from:

ClimatePrediction
Cosmology
Einstein
POEM
Pogs
Rosetta

... all seem to be running normally. I upgraded to Windows 10 from 8.1 a few weeks ago, I have had no BOINC problems at all. There must be more too this than has been said.

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Wave upon wave of demented avengers march cheerfully out of obscurity into the dream.

Windows 10 nagware: You can't click X. Make a date OR ELSE.
Change of plans? Mission-critical upgrade to run first? Tough!

Microsoft’s Windows 10 nagware campaign has entered a new phase, with all options to evade or escape an upgrade finally blocked.

Recently, Microsoft’s policy had been to throw up a dialogue box asking you whether you wanted to install Windows 10.
If you clicked the red “X” to close the box – the tried-and-tested way to make dialogue boxes vanish without agreeing to do anything – Microsoft began taking that as permission for the upgrade to go ahead.

Now Microsoft is changing gears.
It has eliminated the option to re-schedule a chosen upgrade time once you’ve confirmed it while also removing the red “X” close option from the screen. One Reg reader grabbed the below screenshot from a relative's PC on Windows 7.

The change means Windows 10’s nagware is now out of step with – and ahead of – Microsoft’s official Knowledge Base documentation on the topic, which says you can re-schedule your upgrade.
Microsoft has stood behind its operating system’s nagging reminders. A representative has tried to excuse the “reminders”, telling The Reg that the “your upgrade is scheduled” notification has been part of the UI motivation “for months.”

The forced march comes as the clock ticks on the next update to Windows 10, Windows 10 Anniversary, which is due in July.
Microsoft seems to be engaged in a policy of mopping up as many outlying pockets of pre-Windows 10 as possible to avoid any potential conflict between the new operating system and PCs already in the market such as those on Windows 8.1 or, worse and much older, Windows 7.

Users of Samsung PCs are struggling with the current version of Windows 10. Driver compatibility issues between Samsung PCs and Windows 10 have not been solved, leading to installation errors and conflicts with components like wireless cards.
That has led Samsung to warn users of its notebooks and PCs not to upgrade to Windows 10.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/06/01/windows_10_nagware_no_way_out/

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Microsoft this week announced a seemingly minor change to its activation rules for Windows 10, effective with the Anniversary Update coming this summer.

The announcement was buried in the release notes for build 14371 of Windows 10, released a few days ago. Those notes were published in the Feedback Hub, which is available only to registered members of the Windows Insider Program running a Windows 10 preview edition.

As with all things that are related to licensing, the details are confusing and it's easy for even longtime Windows watchers to draw the wrong conclusions or to dream up conspiracy theories.

Here's the short version: Beginning with the Anniversary Update, version 1607, you'll be able to link a Windows 10 digital license with a Microsoft account. This linkage occurs automatically if you're signed in with a Microsoft account when you upgrade to version 1607.

For anyone else, including those with local or domain accounts, this step is optional. In any case, it applies only to those who have a Windows 10 digital license. That group consists primarily of those who took advantage of the year-long free upgrade offer that ends on July 29, 2016.

This new feature doesn't change the fundamental way that Microsoft's activation servers work. The process of activating Windows relies on a unique installation ID, which is based on a hash of information taken from the hardware on which Windows is installed. That hash is reportedly not reversible and is not tied to any other Microsoft services. It identifies a specific device, not a person.

When you use a product key to activate Windows for the first time, that installation ID is recorded in the activation database alongside the product key you entered with the installation. Later, if you need to reinstall the same edition of Windows on the same hardware, with the same product key, activation happens automatically. (Conversely, if you try to use that product key on a different machine with a different hardware ID, you'll probably be denied activation.)

But those free Windows 10 upgrades don't use a product key, so they require a different way to store the details of each upgrade license on the activation servers.

During an upgrade, the Windows 10 setup program confirms that the underlying copy of Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 is properly activated. During the free upgrade period, the Windows activation servers used that confirmation to generate a Windows 10 digital license (during the upgrade period, Microsoft referred to this as a "digital entitlement"). That digital license is stored in the activation database with your hardware-based installation ID and details about the version you just activated (Home or Pro).

If you wipe that hard disk completely, boot from Windows 10 installation media, and install a clean copy, Windows tries to activate automatically, using an installation ID that it sends to the Windows activation servers. Because the underlying hardware hasn't changed, the installation ID is identical to one stored in the activation database, and the digital license is activated automatically.

For most PCs, most of the time, that process just works.

But there are two situations in which reactivation can stumble.

First, if you make major hardware changes. The algorithm that generates the installation ID is a closely guarded secret, but I can confirm from years of testing that it is extremely tolerant of minor changes. If you add a hard drive, upgrade a video card, or increase memory, you almost certainly won't trigger a change in the installation ID.

Changing the motherboard, however, generates a new installation ID. Under Microsoft's sometimes Byzantine licensing rules, your license is valid if you replace a motherboard because of hardware failure. You need a new license if you chose to upgrade the motherboard, because you're essentially building a new PC.

Under the existing rules, there's no way to prove that you have a digital license for that PC. You have to call the telephone activation line and plead your case with a support representative.

That's where linking the digital license to a Microsoft account comes in. After a motherboard replacement, you can use the new Activation Troubleshooter to view digital licenses associated with your Microsoft account and identify the device that has the replacement motherboard. That action transfers the digital license to the new installation ID.

The second situation where the link to a Microsoft account might help is on a PC that has more than one license attached to it. That situation might apply if you purchased a PC with Windows 10 Home installed by the OEM and then upgraded to Windows 10 Pro during the free upgrade period using a product key from a retail copy of Windows 7 Professional, for example.

In that situation, a clean reinstall of Windows 10 from the manufacturer's recovery media might result in the Home version being installed and activated. The procedure for upgrading to Windows 10 Pro is far from obvious, involving generic product keys that aren't officially published. Here, too, being able to link that Windows 10 Pro license to a Microsoft account makes it possible to identify the correct digital license.

Microsoft says the new feature to link a digital license to a Microsoft account is in Windows 10 build 14371 or later. I have one PC that performed this connection automatically. I have not yet been able to test the manual linking process.

One concern that some will have is that linking installation IDs to a Microsoft account fundamentally changes the anonymity of activation. That's not likely to go over well with the contingent that believes Windows 10 telemetry is actually a secret spying program.
source.)

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