And various stories have been proven. Including my friend who just wanted to use their computer, remembered to always click 'No' when it asked, and lost operation of her Wi-Fi card when she returned from a bath and her Windows had silently upgraded to Windows 10. I verified the behaviour after rolling it back, denying its request to update, and then letting the computer sit still for less than an hour.

I used to doubt too, whether it happened on its own or whether people made mistakes. Even back then, I believed if so many people can be made to make the same mistake, then it's more like they've been duped than that they all just happened to make the same mistake. Now, when I saw it happenning right in front of me, I was furious.

So it's a somewhat lighter dark pattern.

Enlighten me: Someone clicked in typical "just ok everything"-mode on "update to Windows 10" and ... surprise ... it updated to Windows 10. Dark pattern? I don't see it.

People like latest and greatest things, so they see a pop-up "Hey, Windows 10 is here! Click here to upgrade!". And the person is like "SWEET! GIVE IT TO ME!". After 1 hour of upgrading, user is back in Windows 10, "Damnit, some of my shit ain't working! Goddamn automatic upgrade!"

Repeatedly throwing a question at users and being surprised that they eventually slip up and install it is probably a dark pattern.