If you've got a Windows 7 or Windows 8x computer that is not owned and managed by your company, and you haven't upgraded it to Windows 10 yet, Microsoft has come up with another way to nag you to upgrade: an ad in your Internet Explorer browser.
The company has added the ability through a security patch, the company says in its security patch documentation.
Microsoft has explained in its documentation that one of the patches it has added to the security update "adds functionality to Internet Explorer 11 on some computers that lets users learn about Windows 10 or start an upgrade to Windows 10," Microsoft explains.
The new upgrade nag apparently appears in the form of a a blue banner when a user opens a New Tab in IE that tells you "Microsoft recommends upgrading to Windows 10," according to the Windows tips expert, Woody Leonhard, who noticed the odd patch and wrote about it for Infoworld.
Leonhard, a programmer who has penned a number of books about Windows over the years, has some harsh thoughts about using security patches to distribute ads to convince Windows 7 users to upgrade.
"Many people — present company included — feel that putting an ad generator inside a security patch crosses way over the line. In fact, you have to ask yourself if there are any lines any more," he writes.
Those who are using Windows 7 computers that are managed by their companies will not get the nagware update as part of their security patch.
Consumers and small businesses using Windows 7 are already familiar with the many, many messages Microsoft has sent them telling them about Windows 10. And some folks found that Windows 10 has shown up on their PCs automatically and uninvited.
It's a crazy war that Microsoft insists on having with the people that use, and love, the older versions of its operating system. They don't want to move those PCs they own to Windows 10, whatever their reasons, and Microsoft seems to be laying awake in bed at night, concocting new ways to convince them to upgrade.
