Microsoft: We’ll stop sneaking Windows files onto PCS (in Germany at least)

Microsoft has vowed to stop downloading Windows files on computers without the user’s permission – but only in Germany.

The company caved in to pressure from German consumer-rights group Verbraucherzentrale Baden-Württemberg, which filed a lawsuit in 2016 ordering it to cease and desist the practice.

Instead of arguing its case in court, Microsoft has voluntarily said it will end the policy.

Microsoft’s decision to automatically download files angered thousands of users worldwide. It was part of the company’s massive marketing push in 2015 and 2016 to move people from Windows 7 and 8.1 on to Windows 10.

The company claimed that the files were added to computers to prepare them for upgrading to Windows 10. But they were often downloaded even if the user hadn’t shown an interest in upgrading. At 6GB, the files were large enough to dramatically slow down computers, and were hard to uninstall.

In a statement Microsoft said it was “obliged to avoid placing installation data for new operating systems on Windows users’ hard drives without their permission”.

Verbraucherzentrale’s CEO, Cornelia Tausch, said: “We would have wished for an earlier backing-down, but [Microsoft’s statement] is a success for consumer rights in the digital world”.

Microsoft has previously admitted that some of its methods to persuade people to upgrade went “too far”. In December 2016 its chief marketing officer, Chris Capossela, said he regretted “getting too aggressive” with one particular tactic, which installed Windows 10 on a PC if a user clicked the top-right ‘X’ in a ‘recommended update’ box.