Criticism of Windows 10

Windows 10, a proprietary operating system released by Microsoft in July 29, 2015, has been criticized by reviewers and users. Due to issues mostly about privacy, it has been the subject of a number of negative assessments by various groups.

Critics have noted that Windows 10 heavily emphasizes freemium services and contains various advertising facilities. Some outlets have considered these to be a hidden "cost" of the free upgrade offer. Examples include media storefronts, Office 365, paid functionality in bundled games such as Microsoft Solitaire Collection, default settings that display promotions of "suggested" apps in Start menu and "tips" on the lock screen that may contain advertising, ads displayed in File Explorer for Office 365 subscriptions on Redstone 2 builds, and notifications promoting the Microsoft Edge web browser when a different browser is set as default.

Windows 10 Home is permanently set to download all updates automatically, including cumulative updates, security patches, and drivers, and users cannot individually select updates to install or not. Microsoft offers a diagnostic tool that can be used to hide updates and prevent them from being reinstalled, but only after they had been already installed, then uninstalled without rebooting the system. However, the software agreement states, specifically for users of Windows 10 in Canada, that they may pause updates by disconnecting their device from the Internet. Tom Warren of The Verge felt that, given web browsers such as Google Chrome had already adopted such an automatic update system, such a requirement would help to keep all Windows 10 devices secure, and felt that "if you're used to family members calling you for technical support because they've failed to upgrade to the latest Windows service pack or some malware disabled Windows Update then those days will hopefully be over."

Concerns were raised that due to these changes, users would be unable to skip the automatic installation of updates that are faulty or cause issues with certain system configurations‍—‌although build upgrades will also be subject to public beta testing via the Windows Insider Program. There were also concerns that the forced installation of driver updates through Windows Update, where they were previously designated as "optional", could cause conflicts with drivers that were installed independently of Windows Update. Such a situation occurred just prior to the general release of the operating system, when an Nvidia graphics card driver that was automatically pushed to Windows 10 users via Windows Update caused issues that prevented the use of certain functions, or prevented their system from booting at all.

Criticism was also directed towards Microsoft's decision to no longer provide specific details on the contents of cumulative updates for Windows 10. On February 9, 2016, Microsoft reversed this decision and began to provide release notes for cumulative updates on the Windows website.

Windows 10 has also received criticism due to deleting files without user permission after major updates. There can be multiple causes, such as a (now resolved) bug in the upgrade process, programs that are deemed to be incompatible with the new version of Windows and thus get uninstalled, a setting that didn't propagate properly when upgrading to Windows 10, or malware being detected in the files. Some users reported that during the installation of the November upgrade, some applications (particularly utility programs such as CPU-Z and Speccy) were automatically uninstalled during the upgrade process, and some default programs were reset to Microsoft-specified defaults (such as Photos app, and Microsoft Edge for PDF viewing), both without warning. Application .exe files would often get deleted automatically during updates.

Further issues were discovered upon the launch of the Anniversary Update ("Redstone"), including a bug that caused some devices to freeze (but addressed by cumulative update KB3176938, released on August 31, 2016), and that fundamental changes to how Windows handles webcams had caused many to stop working.

Microsoft was criticized for the tactics that it used to promote its free upgrade campaign for Windows 10, including adware-like behaviors, using deceptive user interfaces to coax users into installing the operating system, downloading installation files without user consent, and making it difficult for users to suppress the advertising and notifications if they did not wish to upgrade to 10. The upgrade offer was marketed and initiated using the "Get Windows 10" (GWX) application, which was first downloaded and installed via Windows Update in March 2015. Registry keys and Group Policy settings could be used to partially disable the GWX mechanism, but the installation of patches to the GWX software via Windows Update could reset these keys back to defaults, and thus reactivate the software. Third-party programs were also created to assist users in applying measures to disable GWX.