Whoops! Windows 10 Might Come To Your Computer Automatically

Whether you like it or not, here might be coming your computer's update to Windows 10. A recent update to genuine Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 computers has apparently included a checked box intended to be opt-in for an automatic update to Windows 10. As it were, this checkbox was checked by default instead. This means that many Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users that've updated their system (but not to Windows 10) recently might just be getting that big update anyway. Whether they intended to or not.

According to an update from Microsoft as delivered to Ars Technica this morning, Microsoft suggests that "as an effort to bring Windows 10 to existing genuine Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 customers, the Windows 10 upgrade may appear as an optional update in the Windows Update (WU) control panel." Innocuous enough, yes? Normally having that option would be great – you wouldn't normally have to worry about it if you wanted to stay with the version of Windows you already have.

See: A Week with Windows 10: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

"This is an intuitive and trusted place people go to find Recommended and Optional updates to Windows," continued Microsoft. Yes, absolutely. Normally this is an area we'd certainly want to trust.

But what is this?

"In the recent Windows update, this option was checked as default," said Microsoft, "this was a mistake and we are removing the check."

While this situation is a bit of a bummer, it's being rectified. Sort of. For those of you that are already updated to Windows 10 – don't fret. It's actually a pretty awesome update – all the best parts of the past two major updates, with a lot fixed since Windows 8. Have a try, make the best of it.