Microsoft to change notification of pending Windows 10 upgrade

Microsoft today said it would change the notification of a pending Windows 10 upgrade so that clicking the red "X" -- an action that had long been used to dismiss or ignore a dialogue box, would no longer be interpreted as authorising the process.

With only a month to go before it stopped offering a free upgrade to consumers and many businesses running Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, Microsoft said it would modify the notice that appeared when the company pitched the Windows 10 upgrade.

"If the red-x is selected on this new dialog, it will dismiss the dialog box and we will notify the device again in a few days," Terry Myerson, who heads Microsoft's Windows and devices group, said in a statement.

That was a U-turn by the company from the practice it adopted months ago, when it changed the interpretation of an X-click.

Beginning March, Microsoft started pre-scheduling the upgrade as it was delivered through Windows Update as a recommended download. In the resulting notice, spawned by the "Get Windows 10" (GWX) app, users would be notified that the upgrade had been slated, and when. Microsoft had installed the GWX app on Windows 7 and 8.1 systems for over a year to process the Windows 10 upgrade.

Meanwhile, Microsoft provided Mashable with this statement from Microsoft Windows lead Terry Myerson, ''We started our journey with Windows 10 with a clear goal to move people from needing Windows to choosing Windows to loving Windows. Towards this goal, this week we'll launch a new upgrade experience for millions of PCs around the world. The new experience has clearer options to upgrade now, choose a time, or decline the free offer. If the red-x is selected on this new dialog, it will dismiss the dialog box and we will notify the device again in a few days.''