Windows 10 upgrade shenanigans
Microsoft has recently been rather devious with the behaviour of its Windows 10 upgrade popup, according to reports. However today it has taken a u-turn and the upgrade popup dialogue will present an additional opportunity for users to cancel the upgrade, if they mistakenly attempt to dismiss it by clicking on the upper right 'X' close gadget.
Microsoft's keenness for users to upgrade Windows 7 and Windows 8.X PCs for free to its latest Windows 10 OS has manifested itself before and been reported upon several times before. Earlier this week it emerged that Microsoft's infamous Windows 10 upgrade popup had been taking people's dismissal via clicking the traditional close button as confirmation of their willingness to go ahead with the upgrade… The BBC called this a "nasty trick". It certainly isn't the traditional use of the Windows close gadget. Indeed people previously had to exit the upgrade offer exactly this way, as there wasn't another way to dismiss it.
With the tricky behaviour public and reported on site like the BBC, Microsoft seems to have had a change of heart. Today Microsoft said that due to the customer feedback it had received it will add another notification after users try and get rid of the dialogue by pressing the close gadget, providing "an additional opportunity for cancelling the upgrade". The extra dialogue "confirms the time of the scheduled upgrade and provides the customer an additional opportunity for cancelling or rescheduling the upgrade," explained a Microsoft spokesperson.
Microsoft smartphone business retreat
Here's more bad news for those hoping for Microsoft to mount a come-back campaign with regard to its smartphone business. The FT reports that Microsoft plans to 'streamline' its smartphone business by shedding 1,850 jobs, mostly in Finland, and thus incur an impairment and restructuring charge of $950m (with $200m for redundancy payments alone).
As you might guess, many of those Finish jobs are held by ex-Nokia folk, many from the design and manufacturing teams you might need if you planned to recover from the business' death spiral.
It is thought that Microsoft's mobile plans will now focus on enterprises, and individuals, who value device security, manageability and Continuum productivity features hihgly. Terry Myerson, executive vice-president of Microsoft’s Windows and Devices Group, said that Microsoft will continue to "develop great new devices," and that the move was "scaling back, but we're not out".
