Microsoft finally agrees to stop forcing Windows upgrade downloads
After 18 months of delays, Microsoft has responded to a cease-and-desist complaint filed by Munich’s Baden-Würtenberg consumer rights center (Verbraucherschutz) by vowing to never again forcibly download upgrade files onto customers’ computers prior to obtaining their consent. Microsoft had lost in Munich courts twice and submitted this stipulation prior to the third, presumably final, round.
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The press release quotes Cornelia Tausch, head of the consumer center, as saying the government would have wished for a quicker resolution of the problem, but the commitment from Microsoft “is a success for consumer rights in the digital world.”
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The commitment from Microsoft Germany is narrowly directed at forced downloading of upgrade files without user consent. But German blogger Günter Born raises a related question:
"Do Microsoft’s feature-upgrades, in combination with the Windows 10 auto-update mechanism, violate the cease and desist letter?"
