Admins across the globe have noticed an unwelcome change in the way Microsoft handles upgrades for PC: Lately, with the Patch Tuesday update for Internet Explorer 11, Microsoft seemed to have attached a Get Windows 10 malware variant onto their customers’ systems.
There have been numerous reports confirming the issue, which includes Rod Trent from WindowsITPro and a heavily trafficked Reddit thread.
Basically, PCs with no admin rights, attached to the WSUS update server, are displaying the well-known Get Windows 10 icon in the system tray. And when any user clicks on it, they are greeted to the bad taste ad like below
It leaves a pretty bad impression about the Admin as it says the following:
Your system administrator has blocked upgrades on this PC
Check with your system administrator about upgrading this PC to Windows 10.
Are you a system administrator? You can customize this app to get your organization upgraded to Windows 10. Find out how.
An admin also reported that some domain-attached VLC-licensed PCs installed KB 3035583 — the widely reviled Get Windows 10 app — months ago, but that the Get Windows 10 icon didn’t appear until now. While, another report claims of a new c:\windows\system32\GWX folder.
Obviously, admin aren’t joyous about it, but it seems Microsoft is for once and all trying to do an end run for upgrading users to Windows 10 and blaming admins for halting the upgrade until now.
There isn’t anything concrete about the way this nag appeared, but as of now all this accounts to the Internet Explorer “security” patch, KB 3139929.
Do let us know if someone sees a similar message regard to Windows 10 update in the comments section below.