They f'd up 11 days since Microsoft f'd up
Decided 0.6 Vistas Walked back officially acknowledged Mar 23, 2016 their #18 worst decided on record

The free upgrade where clicking X meant "yes"

Get Windows 10 nagware scheduled forced upgrades; closing the dialog consented

↳ caused by Get Windows 10 (GWX) campaign

One of only 20 things they have ever fully walked back.

The market's verdict: +1.2% on MSFT in the week after.

Status: Walked back. Who could have seen this coming?

What actually happened

The Get Windows 10 campaign spent a year nagging Windows 7 and 8.1 users to upgrade. Then in 2016 the dialog changed so that clicking the X, the universal sign for "go away," meant "yes, schedule the upgrade." People came back to their desks to find Windows 10 installing itself. Lawsuits followed, including a $10,000 judgment in California, and the campaign ended in July 2016. The trust never fully came back either.

This one is officially acknowledged.

They did it more than once

Later, again: Your perfectly good PC is now perfectly obsolete, says Microsoft (Jun 2021)

The forcing continues; this time the escape hatch costs a new PC.

Before that: Xbox One: a console that assumed the internet never sleeps (May 2013)

The 'deal with it' school of product management, now applied to operating systems.

Before that: Windows XP assumed you were a pirate until you called home (Oct 2001)

First your copy of Windows phoned home to prove you paid; then it upgraded itself without asking.

Links

↳ caused by Get Windows 10 (GWX) campaign

Timeline

  • Mar 23, 2016 Walked back Microsoft walked it back.