Consider this: "downtime on all workstations at once, during business hours, regardless of consent, and afterwards, peripherals no longer interface (WHICH IS WHY WE WANTED TO TEMPORARILY KEEP W7 WHILE WORKING ON A FIX)" - but no physical damage to computers, so everything is great and wonderful, right? Right? Nope, that's malware by any other name. Including the overreaction by mgmt: "IT shall repave to Win7 from backups, lockdown and disable WU - we literally cannot afford to catch Windows X again." Everyone loses, just because some schmuck at Redmond had the great idea of an unconsented "up"grade.

Edit: Intentionally forces the system to a state where functionality is unknown (as opposed to breaking the system on purpose). Big honking difference, yeah right. "I just pushed him into the pool, you mean I should have checked if he can swim? Wait, what do you mean 'if he even wanted to?' That's ridiculous, of course he did!" The problem (malware-ness, if you wish) isn't with the upgrade (we would have upgraded in a matter of 6-8 weeks), it's the disregard for consent ("you didn't say 'no' often enough, that's a loud and clear 'yes' to me").