Windows 10 upgrade nagware ruins live weather broadcast on US TV news channel

It's not just consumers who are finding Microsoft's perpetual nagging at users to update to Windows 10 annoying. The nagware has now caused embarrassment by interfering with a live weather broadcast, given by a meteorologist on local TV in Iowa, US.

On 27 April, Metinka Slater, news meteorologist for KCCI 8 News - a local TV channel in Des Moines, Iowa - was in the middle of giving her routine weather report, predicting thunderstorms would move across the state, when suddenly Microsoft decided to interrupt with their familiar "Get Windows 10" ad.

Of course, most people will know that TV studio weather reports work by having a presenter stand in front of a green screen while talking into a camera. The presenter gestures to their left or right and their image is superimposed onto an interactive weather map showing clouds, rain, sun or snow moving across different towns, counties and areas of the country.

But in this case, it seems that the interactive map had already been rendered and was playing from a program on a Windows PC – and evidently, one that hadn't been updated to Windows 10. Luckily, Slater didn't let the sudden surprise get her down or take her off her presenting stride.

"Microsoft recommends upgrading to Windows 10. What should I do? Don't you love it when that pops up?" she told viewers without missing a beat.

She then tried to move onto the next slide, but then found that her wireless pointer was no longer working. "Hmmmm what's going on with my clicker now? It's that Windows 10 right? People are going to say, 'Don't do it!'"

IBTimes UK would recommend that KCCI News 8 consider installing freeware like GWX Control Panel, that lets users stay on Windows 7 or Windows 8 which removes, at least, some of the annoying nagware adverts.

"Get Windows 10" uses malware techniques

In March, it was discovered that Microsoft's Get Windows 10 tool was using similar techniques to illegal malware in order to promote the new Windows operating system, including a patch that constantly reinstalls itself after the user has removed it.

Apparently, the same patch also mutates over time, in order to make all previous attempts by a user to block it from being updated - or to uninstall unwanted patches - obsolete. The only way to remove Get Windows 10 for good and stop it from bothering you is to remove every single registry entry relating to the KB2952664 and KB3035583 patches, which is a really time consuming and complicated process.

The Get Windows 10 tool is only a small reason why some consumers have been experiencing problems with the new operating system, which is meant to be the "last ever" that Microsoft will make. In future, the company will simply update Windows 10 with new features, similar to Adobe Photoshop CC's subscription model.

Among other things, it was discovered by users that Microsoft is secretly downloading 6GB of Windows 10 files onto machines that haven't upgraded; the Threshold 2 update deletes default programs and freezes during the update; and most recently, Windows 10 updates are forcing PCs to use Microsoft products to open various file formats as a default, instead of allowing the user to choose for themselves.

Even archaic browser, Internet Explorer, seems to have Get Windows 10 ad generators included.