Microsoft is, it seems, at it again. No stranger to irritating ads and nags, the company has been spotted pestering Windows 10 users with a full-screen prompt to upgrade to Windows 11 for free.
If the appearance of an unwanted nag screen was not enough, the upgrade prompt is also rather deceptive, appearing to give users just two choices — install Windows 11 now, or schedule the installation. It is actually possible to back out of the upgrade, but Microsoft has made it less than obvious.
In recent weeks, Microsoft has already started the process of forcibly upgrading users of Windows 11 21H2 to Windows 11 22H2, and has also stopped selling Windows 10 ahead of the end of support in October.
A post was spotted on Reddit by Ghacks, and although the original post has now been deleted, others have popped up that appear to confirm the existence of the upgrade nag screen.
As you can see in the screengrab above, the full-screen prompt says:
Now unlocked: You’re eligible for a free upgrade to Windows 11
Don’t worry — you’ll be able to use your PC while the download runs in the background (it’s about 4 GB)
Beneath this are two buttons, one labelled Get it, the other Schedule it, strongly suggesting that there is no other option. But there is a way to avoid installing Windows 11 if you want to stick with Windows 10.
In a dramatic departure from established UI design, there is no familiar X button to close down the prompt. Instead, there is a white bar along the bottom of the screen that look rather like a search box. Within this, in a significantly smaller font than the primary message, there is — after a Learn more link — a link labelled Keep Windows 10 that places users back in control.
It’s hard not to see this as sneaky behavior, but it is something that has become increasingly common with Microsoft.
Image credit: kinggot