Microsoft is facing charges for installing a Windows 10 update that destroyed data and damaged the computers of three plaintiffs. The class action suit was filed against the corporation on March 23 at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division. The plaintiffs are Howard Goldberg of High Land, Robert Saiger of Urbana and Stephanie Watson of Northfield, all in Illinois.
According to the three, the Microsoft Windows 10 upgrade is a defective product. According to The Register, the complainants stressed that the defendant "failed to exercise reasonable care in designing, formulating, and manufacturing the Windows 10 upgrade and placing it into the stream of commerce". As a result of this failure, the plaintiffs' data saved in their computers were lost while the drivers were damaged. The plaintiffs also claimed that the company failed to offer sufficient warning about the possible risks of installing the update.
It is also further specified in the complaint that the defendant accounts for 85 percent of operating systems used in computers across the globe including those of the plaintiffs. All three purchased computers from 2013 to 2014 with the Windows 7 OS. Microsoft offers free upgrades to their operating systems via the internet which the plaintiffs took advantage of.
ARS Technica noted that Microsoft aggressively pushed for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users to upgrade to Windows 10. Offering the upgrade for free was just the first yet most important step by the company. A number of users, including Watson, experienced getting the Windows 10 upgrade automatically. In Watson's case, her computer was upgraded without her accepting it. The result was that her data were lost and her computer was damaged in a way that it became unrepairable even by Geek Squad. Saiger, meanwhile, chose to upgrade which resulted in his software ceasing to work as well as loss of data. Goldberg declined the upgrade for six months but eventually relented. However, the upgrade failed to download and install thrice leading to damage to his device and loss of data. In all three cases, the plaintiffs were forced to spend for the repair of the damaged computers and, in Watson's case, buy an entirely new unit.
