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Microsof

Today is Wednesday, July 20th. Microsoft'southward gratis upgrade offering for Windows ten expires in 9 days. Chances are, you already know that. Chances also are you've already decided whether or not you're going to spring for that upgrade before the window closes forever.

BUT Simply IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T: Microsoft has one more nagware update for you. As InfoWorld reports, this is an update to the previous total-screen nagware update. At present you get a countdown clock (the exclamation point is free) and a yellow exclamation indicate in the system tray, just in case you lot oasis't noticed the unusual Windows icon that's been yammering for attending and trying to stealth-upgrade your system for the past 12 months.

AgainUpdate

Other new features include a hamburger menu, as shown to a higher place. And speaking of hamburger menus…

MonolithBurger

The prototype above is from an sometime figurer game chosen Infinite Quest 3. The bespeak of the joke, of course, is that you lot can't actually opt out of the option to buy additional food. Microsoft, similarly, can't bring itself to have that a user might really accept declined to upgrade to Windows x.

Here's what really confuses me, though. Over the past 12 months, Microsoft has steadily amped upwards its Windows 10 button. It inverse the free upgrade from an optional update to a recommended update. It fabricated the upgrade notifications pushier. It fifty-fifty took a page from malware authors and upgraded people whether they actually wanted the operating arrangement or non. Twelve months after launch, I'd be willing to bet that at that place are only four groups of Windows users not using Windows ten:

  • People who disabled automatic updates long ago and have never been offered the OS.
  • People who use a tertiary-party app, like GWX Command Panel, to turn off GWX.exe.
  • People who go on refusing the upgrade manually.
  • People who can't upgrade due to enterprise restrictions or compatibility issues.

Technically, yep, there volition be a handful of people who have been planning to get around to upgrading for a year, never quite managed it, and will now lose that option. The vast majority of non-users, notwithstanding, will fall into one of the four groups higher up. This means that Microsoft's "Upgrade At present!" policy is overwhelmingly targeting people who either won't upgrade or can't upgrade. In brusque, this does aught simply piss people off.

What'due south disturbing about all this is that Microsoft tin't seem to stop. It'due south similar watching a meth-addicted rat punching levers in a Skinner box, except in this case the rat only gets its gear up if it hits some other download milestone. Someone, somewhere, only gets to swallow today if Microsoft manages to convince another v,000 people to install Windows 10. Really, that's the only matter that makes sense at this point. A year after Windows 10 launched, we're nearly at the end of this incredibly annoying journey — and Microsoft can't resist cavorting around the finish line, punching people in the caput and trying to set their pants on burn down.