Windows 10

[Serenity]

So, I'm sure there have been a wealth of these types of threads, but windows 10 screwed me it seems. Despite trekking my computer over and over I didn't want to upgrade, I woke up this morning to find windows 10 installed, and it took the liberty of deleting ALL of my picture, videos and documents. Is there any way they've been stored somewhere I just can't find?

[Skuzzy]

According to Microsoft, you would have to restore those files from a backup as it is not uncommon for the Windows 10 update to eliminate your data files.  If you happen to know one of the file names, you might try searching the entire computer for it.  There is a chance it might have gotten moved to a temporary folder and left there.

I know it is after-the-fact, but it is pretty trivial to stop the Windows 10 nagware from being a problem and prevent Windows 10 from being installed.

There is not one Windows 7/8/8.1 system, I am responsible for, which has ever seen a Windows 10 nagware bulletin.  It is pretty easy to do.

[Serenity]

Ugh. This is exactly why I kept clicking DON'T update...

[Skuzzy]

You do realize all Microsoft had to do was issue a dialog which gave you X amount of time to click on the "No" button, ir it would assume you wanted the update?

All you had to do was get rid of the nagware, disable auto-updates and you would not be dealing with this.  Microsoft is getting rabid about updating computers to Windows 10.  They are pulling out every trick in the book to get it done.

[Serenity]

You do realize all Microsoft had to do was issue a dialog which gave you X amount of time to click on the "No" button, ir it would assume you wanted the update?

All you had to do was get rid of the nagware, disable auto-updates and you would not be dealing with this.  Microsoft is getting rabid about updating computers to Windows 10.  They are pulling out every trick in the book to get it done.

I'm not very computer attuned. When it asked if I wanted to install it and I clicked "no", I assumed that would not install it...

[Chalenge]

There should be a folder on your C:\ drive named "Windows.old" which MAY have your files.

[Brooke]

Microsoft's handling of pushing Windows 10 upgrades is outrageous.

I am surprised that there aren't lawsuits over it.

[Bizman]

Microsoft's handling of pushing Windows 10 upgrades is outrageous.

I am surprised that there aren't lawsuits over it.

I'm waiting for a big enough company to get into deep trouble with it...

[Chalenge]

Nearly half of the companies poled a year ago said they would be waiting until early summer 2016 before migrating. Companies using hybrid tablets are migrating to get away from 8.1, but there is still no overwhelming drive to switch to Windows 10. So, even though Windows 10 is, perhaps, slowly smoothing out. The rush to move over to the new OS does not yet exist. Probably, there never will be a rush. The program to give Windows away for free appears to be just incentive to rush everyone into the new OS, so that Microsoft could invoke a form of extermination on the out-of-date versions. What it has in fact become is a method for Microsoft to get a ton of free beta testers that depend on them for fixes. So, now you know what Microsoft thinks of casual users.

[Serenity]

So... something interesting happened. I turn my computer off every night. Well, this morning when I turned on my computer, suddenly all of my files were back where I left them, even my screen save was back to what it used to be. I have no idea how or why that happened...

[Brooke]

Whew!  I'm glad your files are back!

[Bizman]

So... something interesting happened. I turn my computer off every night. Well, this morning when I turned on my computer, suddenly all of my files were back where I left them, even my screen save was back to what it used to be. I have no idea how or why that happened...

You've got a second chance. Use it. Backup the files to some external media as long as you can.

[Serenity]

You've got a second chance. Use it. Backup the files to some external media as long as you can.

Already done! Interestingly, nothing I did BEFORE it magically all reappeared, still exists, but thankfully that's a LOT less data lost.

[Condor]

My gaming machine is Windows 7 and I wouldn't consider upgrading to 10. Unfortunately I bought a Dell desktop with Windows 8.1 a couple of years ago for my routine home use. Hate 8.1 and have been considering the upgrade. Everything I read here is rather discouraging. If I do it I suspect I'll go the post update clean install route. I should have paid the extra $100 for Windows 7.