Well they finally admitted it

[torchwood]

For anyone who has Updates set to
Apply and install automatically.

Roy


Microsoft pushes Windows 10 upgrade to PCs without user consent - Windows 10 Forums

 

[ThrashZone]

Yep nothing new M$ has been prepping win-7 for nearly a year.

 

[Crash Underride]

I personally find it offensive that they are forcing it on people. I can honestly smell a lawsuit when the wrong person loses important data or their files are ruined.

 

[Callender]

Well they actually admitted it some time ago - October 2015 but they soon fixed it.

Microsoft Admits It Accidentally Forced the Windows 10 Upgrade on Windows 7 PCs

Basically, the optional upgrade to Windows 10, which was… er… optional, was checked by default, which means that it was automatically downloaded and installed on Windows 7 PCs. The company says that it all happened accidentally and has since removed this configuration to make sure that users are still allowed to choose if they want to install Windows 10 or not.

Other than that if users set windows updates to "Give me recommended updates the same way I receive important updates" then that "Get windows 10" update may well be checked and downloaded.

 

[OvenMaster]

Starting with XP in 2004, I have had Windows Update set to "Never check for updates" (I'll do it myself, thank you).
I have never allowed automatic updates.
If I ever find myself in a position to use Win10 or similar, I'll be happy to spend the extra money for the Pro version on a retail DVD to install from scratch, not an upgrade. At least with that you get Group Policy Editor and a delay on updates.