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Microsoft pays woman $10,000 after Windows 10 crashes her computer

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BY KEVIN SAWYER – A California travel agent, Teri Goldstein, was paid $10,000 by Microsoft to drop her lawsuit against the company. The lawsuit involved a Windows 10 update, that Goldstein didn’t want, that ended up crashing her computer and leaving it unusable. Goldstein had been running Windows 7 and couldn’t stop her computer from downloading Windows 10.

What made matters worse was that the Windows 10 started to automatically install itself but the install failed and made Goldstein’s Windows 7 system unable to operate at all. Her lawsuit was brought because the failed install was done on her business computer. Goldstein said she lost at least $17,000 in business due to her crashed computer system.

“Nobody asked me if I wanted the update,” Goldstein said.

Microsoft, of course, admits no wrong doing and doesn’t take any responsibility for the situation. The company decided to offer Goldstein the money because they knew if it went to court, it might end up costing the company much more in monetary compensation as well as in bad publicity. Social media has been on fire of late with people complaining about the Windows 10 upgrade pop ups yet no one can seem to figure out how it can be rejected.

Microsoft has been on a campaign to get one billion people using Windows 10 by the end of 2018. In May of this year, a computer analyst and expert, Paul Thurrott, pointed out that when he had clicked on the red X in the corner of the upgrade notification, it actually had the opposite affect. Clicking on the red X declares that you have accepted the download. He had furiously written about Microsoft’s deceptive practices.

A Microsoft vice president has written on the company’s blog that people do have the option of not accepting the new operating system. Despite trying to disallow the upgrade, it doesn’t seem possible. Microsoft will no longer be offering Windows 10 for free after July 29, 2016. Microsoft reports that around 300 million people have received the upgrade but many of those systems have been bricked or have outright crashed.

PHOTO CREDIT: Pixabay