Windows 10 popup bug is blocking people from accessing their desktops

Date:
Fri, 03 Feb 2023 11:40:27 +0000

Description:
Warning: Be very careful of Microsoft 365 trial offers when first booting up Windows 10.

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Windows 10 is popping up a very unfortunate full-screen offer during setup
of a fresh copy of the OS that is preventing users from reaching the desktop.

The pop-up panel promotes a free trial for Microsoft 365 but one thatll turn into a paying subscription if not canceled and there appears to be a bug
that means if you click to decline the trial, youll actually accept it.

As Bleeping Computer reports, the so-called nag screen (entitled: Were giving you a free trial of Microsoft 365 Family) appears on first booting Windows
10, and theres no way to get around it the button to skip for now normally present has been changed to a privacy and cookies link.

With skipping the process out of the picture, users are then faced with two main options: Try for free and No thanks.

The kicker is that if you click on the No option, you get sent to a screen asking you to Confirm your payment option and then only have a choice to
start the trial and Buy later. In other words, youre asked to enter a valid set of card details, and payment will be taken to continue your Microsoft 365 subscription after the trial period has ended.

The problem was highlighted on Reddit with an illustrative photo of what happened to a user on first booting a laptop: Windows 10 preventing me from booting into desktop without first non-consensually being forced to accept their free trial and $100 monthly thereafter (obviously I cancelled after but WTF Microsoft).

Microsoft 365, for the uninitiated, is the new name for the companys leading office software suite, which used to be known as Office 365. Analysis: This needs to be sorted out pronto

What appears to have occurred here is a simple but very nasty error where the functions of the respective buttons have been swapped, so the No option
is actually registered as Yes and presumably vice versa. So to get out of the offer screen and onto the desktop, rather than skipping a choice which
really should be present accepting the offer should decline it, as it were.

Not something youre likely to think of if you havent read this article, of course, and its a very confusing situation all-round as to how such a fundamental error has crept into the first-boot sequence for Windows 10.

As the Redditor who spotted this points out, you can always immediately
cancel the subscription so it doesnt renew. Our concern is for less
tech-savvy users who may not have read the details of the offer and might not realize that they are subscribed for an auto-renewal, and thus could get a shock when money starts coming out down the line (for what is called a free trial upfront, of course).

Okay, so you could argue that anyone providing their credit card details without really knowing what for or looking closely at terms (the user is actually informed about the auto-renewal) deserves what they get, but thats hardly the point here. This shouldnt be happening at all, and in the end, its more vulnerable people who are likely to be the ones left out of pocket at
the hands of this bug. Microsoft will hopefully be on the case soon enough to sort this one out, bearing all this in mind.

Until then, it may just be the case that yes is no, and no is yes, when it comes to the Microsoft 365 trial. Or alternatively, as others have suggested on Reddit, setting up the new PC without being connected to the internet avoids the nag screen popping up in the first place, but again, this isnt something the less technically inclined users out there will likely consider.

For those who really do want a freebie office suite, or indeed a paid alternative to Microsoft 365, weve got a roundup of all the best
non-Microsoft office software out there .



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/windows-10-popup-bug-is-blocking-people-from-ac cessing-their-desktops


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