Microsoft is changing its controversial Windows 10 upgrade pop-ups

My beloved Acer laptop has been nagging me to update to Windows 10 for some time now. The notification is persistent, to say the least.

But that's about to change. In the wake of customer complaints that these upgrade notices are confusing and irksome (in one case, a Windows 10 upgrade alert famously interrupted a live TV newscast), Microsoft is rolling out a new, friendlier notification, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

Before:

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The most confusing aspect of the Windows 10 pop-up notification was the little red button with an "X" sitting in the upper righthand corner. If your instinct was, like most people, to click that "X" to make the pop-up go away, you were in for surprise: Clicking the X meant you were actually giving Microsoft consent to schedule the upgrade automatically.

This aggressive approach have elicited a chorus of criticism from some users, who find the pop-ups annoying and misleading. One woman has reportedly sued Microsoft for $10,000, claiming that her computer upgraded to Windows 10 without her permission, leading to all sorts of technical problems that stalled her business.

Now:

Microsoft's new upgrade prompt will provide three, clear-cut options to choose from: "upgrade now," "choose time" and "decline free offer." This time around, clicking the "X" will dismiss the notification, at least for a few days. Clicking "decline free offer" will permanently disable the notification from ever surfacing again.

Microsoft's push to convert Windows 7 and Windows 8 users to convert to Windows 10 is an attempt to unify their userbase. On July 30, Microsoft will start charging $199 for its Windows 10 upgrade. But, until then, the persistent, albeit softer, notifications will remain.