In June of 2015, Microsoft launched a special update that was supposed to make upgrading to Windows 10 from Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 much easier. What has ensued is a piece of code that gets updated regularly and when updated leaves a wake of angry customer complaints about being forced to upgrade.
The update, KB3035583, has been updated again. Not much is known about this latest revision, but so far there haven’t been any additional reports of forced upgrades. However, it’s important to note that each time its updated, it re-enables the upgrade functionality. Windows users, along with a lot of administrators tasked with managing business computers, have taken to modifying the Windows registry or using 3rd party applications to block the upgrade. So, when KB3035583 is updated and resets itself, they sometimes have to go back and reapply the blocking mechanisms.
I think it’s safe to say that someday everyone will run some iteration of Windows 10, but customers like to do it on their own terms, through their own choices. It’s less empowering thinking that a vendor thinks they own what a customer paid good money for – except that Windows 10 is a free offering for now.
I think it’s important to remember that Microsoft’s “free Windows” upgrade promotion for Windows 10 ends in July of this year (a year from the moment it was originally made public). So, we should expect KB3035583 to reappear in Windows Update a few more times before then.
