Hands-On with the New Get Windows 10 Experience

As promised, Microsoft this week updated the Get Windows 10 advertisement in Windows 7 and 8.1, providing customers with a way to decline the upgrade for the first time. Here’s a quick look at the new experience.

As you may recall, Microsoft announced its decision to scale back the insanity a few days ago.

“We started our journey with Windows 10 with a clear goal to move people from needing Windows to choosing Windows to loving Windows,” Microsoft executive vice president Terry Myerson explains in a prepared statement. “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.”

It appears that Mr. Myerson’s promises have been kept. At the time of the announcement, the Get Windows 10 advertisement in Windows 7/8.1 was both unclear and deceptive. It offered only “Upgrade now” and “Start download, upgrade later” options. And if you were silly enough to actually close the windows by click the red Close window button in its upper-right, the upgrade would silently proceed without your approval. Not cool, Microsoft.

But now, Get Windows 10 is much clearer.

Here, we see the end date of the free offer clearly stated. There are three options, all of which are clear: Upgrade now, Choose time, and Decline free offer.

Upgrade now is obvious enough. If you select Choose time, you’ll be provided with a simple UI for scheduling the update.

And if you choose Decline offer, you’re presented with something Microsoft had never offered before: A way to actually turn this damn thing off and get on with your life.

I’m still not happy it took so long to get to this place, and I still feel this is the UI Microsoft should have offered a year ago. But … whatever. It’s here now. And if you’re serious about not getting that free Windows 10 upgrade on your PC, you now have an officially sanctioned way to keep using Windows 7 or 8.1.

Mission accomplished.