How to avoid being "upgraded to Win 10" against your will:

[Radish]

Two things;

 

1) Dencorso, are you going to update/edit your original post at the very top of this thread as new information comes in? Or do we need piece together the information on the thread for ourselves?

 

2) Saw this on another forum. The poster seemed to be suggesting that users can create a registry entry that can prevent being updated to Windows 10. Entry is as follows:

 

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate]
"DisableOSUpgrade"=dword:00000001

The poster also implied that the policy/entry requires KB3065987 to be installed to get the registry entry to work. But KB3065987 is in Dencorso's list of updates to be wary of:

 

KB3065987
"Contains some improvements to WU Client in Win 7 SP1 or Win Server 2008 R2 SP1." Suspect WU update... take care!

 

You can see the original post here (in case I'm misinterpreting what the poster said). Poster's name is "abbodi1406".

 

If any of you guys try this or get more information on it I'd hope you would post up the results here.

Edited July 23, 2015 by Radish

[jaclaz]

Well, actually it's an "official" setting, from the mouth of the wolf:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3080351

 

 

To suppress this offer through the registry, set the following registry value:

Subkey: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate
DWORD value: DisableOSUpgrade = 1

 

so I would say it is confirmed.

The point remains that (as it happened in the past for similar settings in the Registry) seemingly the good MS guys have reset (through Windows Update) other user chosen settings, overriding them.  

 

So, to be on a safer side, I believe that changing permission/ownership of that key might be a needed additional step.

 

These lately reports of the prompting for the Windows 10 update reappearing after having been hidden/disabled by the user, besides the actual practical effects (nothing that a full re-image form a proper backup cannot "fix") are IMHO a clear sign that the (long standing but unwritten) pact between MS and end users about MS respecting user preferences has been broken unilaterally ( it is a rather dramatic change between "optin" and "optout" with the added possibility of the "don't-care-what-you-opt") and I wouldn't be surprised if in the near future (as soon as the MS servers will be past the flood of the downloads of the "final" version of Windows 10 by the morons less experienced users actually wanting to upgrade) the MS guys may decide to revert that setting or override it, forcibly installing the update to all systems that are not "Enterprise" or "Embedded".

 

jaclaz

[NoelC]

Less experienced users, indeed.

 

An IT friend of mine was just saying last night that he was thinking of booting up an insider copy of Win 10 now that the time is growing near, just to see what all the fuss is about for himself (he hasn't even seen it run).  Oops, too late, I told him.

 

Another friend, a quite experienced engineer who hasn't seen Win 10 (except for glimpses on my screen) was overheard saying yesterday that "upgrading to WIn 10 can't be avoided".

 

Type Microsoft hype machine is working.  Apparently only we incurably curious geeks have an idea what to expect.

 

-Noel

[Radish]

Thanks Jaclaz.

 

Nothing is simple with this is it. For now I've rolled back my system to a clean install of Windows 7 (with no updates of any kind applied) and I'll be keeping it that way (it runs fine anyway) until real light is shed on this situation. Microsoft and their new 'OS' chock full of monitoring spyware and a vehicle for advertising 'apps' - *$&@!

Edited July 23, 2015 by Radish

[dencorso]

1) Dencorso, are you going to update/edit your original post at the very top of this thread as new information comes in? Or do we need piece together the information on the thread for ourselves?

Yes, of course! But only info I consider trustworthy (and not misleading, even if from MS) will be added. The aim of this thread is to really prevent getting 10, and all available info that can help should find its way to the 1st post. But my policy here is really "Trust no one." And, to my undestanding, that registry setting prevents the offer from appearing, but it's far from clear whether it prevents the actual morphing into 10, when MS decides it's time. Now, the absence of the "updates" listed is the surest way we know of that ought to really avoid 10.

[helpdesk98]

I am just letting my one system go. I want to see what happens if I just let MS take control. Note: This is not my everyday system I have pre MS control backups. So far nothing I haven't even seen the Win 10 tray icon yet. I am going to look through my update history and cross reference it with the first post.

[NoelC]

For now I've rolled back my system to a clean install of Windows 7 (with no updates of any kind applied) and I'll be keeping it that way (it runs fine anyway)

 

Good for you.

 

There are those who propose doom and gloom if you don't keep a Windows system perfectly updated.  As though hackers will burst in through the back door and seize control the moment you do anything online.  As though the day after support ends the system will just stop working.

 

I wonder, though... 

 

Since the mainstream system is now patched against all of those discovered potential intrusions, how many "specially crafted web sites" (portrayed in the Windows Updates to bring the doom and gloom) really are still out there trying to snag stragglers who don't run Windows Update?  I'm betting not that many.

 

So...

 

You have to browse to a "specially crafted web site" that's specifically set up to take your system over.  Certainly a vast majority are not.  And there are pretty good measures that can be put in place to avoid the bad ones.

 

The chance of such a web site still being online (for all but the vulnerabilities discovered this month) probably grows smaller with time, since the majority of systems are no longer vulnerable.

 

So pretty much all you don't get by avoiding updates entirely are the benefits of any/all bugfixes since your system was built. 

 

Even though there have been literally hundreds of updates, if it works for what you need it for, long-term, then you probably didn't need those bugfixes.  I find that when I read the Windows Update descriptions, only about 1 in 10 updates even remotely applies to my usage of Windows.

 

And bugfixes aren't entirely positive...  I've noticed that some updates come with a downside - a performance penalty.  I have had the same fairly powerful workstation for a few years now, and I do performance measurements after every update.  Performance remains consistent except now and again an update knocks it back a noticeable amount.  Why, for example, should my desktop be slower today on Win 8.1 than 2 years ago on Win 7?

 

 

-Noel

Edited July 23, 2015 by NoelC

[ptd163]

Why, for example, should my desktop be slower today on Win 8.1 than 2 years ago on Win 7?

 

Because Microsoft forgot how make operating systems after Windows 7 and is now just coasting on their market and usage share dominance. I would be completely unsurprised if 7 goes through an XP style holdout considering how much work needs to be put into 10 just to make it useable.

Edited July 25, 2015 by ptd163

[NoelC]

That's a benign way to look at it.

 

A more cynical view might be that they're making the older systems less and less efficient through Windows Updates so the new one will look better by comparison.

 

-Noel

[dencorso]

[...] It's already done, can't y'all see it? People have accepted a reservation for 10, already. But most peolple are on automatic updates. All MS has to do is just push 10 onto everyone who is on automatic updates and reserved 10. Afterwards, if push comes to shove they can always say: "Oops! Sorry! We regret we misunderstood what you really wanted. But... so deeply sorry yet again: it's irreversible! And your current licence doesn't allow for downgrading either... Oh, well!

But I can concoct a more optimistic view, albeit less optmistic than yours: while keeping the numbers of XP, Vista and Win 8.0 about unchanged, let's admit reservation for 7 and 8.1+ was purely random (which surely is not true, but let's suspend disbelief)... if so, half the 7 and half the 8.1+ become 10... that, using the numbers from my original post about this, means, at the very least, 37% Win 10 overnight, which is much more than 8.1+ and 8.0 ever reached, even if considered together! I remain appalled at the sheer crooked brilliancy of it! In summary: "when you cannot seduce 'em anymore, well... simply con 'em!"

 

The more I read, the more a reflect on it, more sure I get about my forecast: Win 10 will have 35-40% of the user share when the numbers for August get released. Soon we'll know whether I'm right or not. And none of this through real product improving and added value!

[NoelC]

Not even just a lack of added value, but destroyed value.

 

Evil genius at work.

 

-Noel

[Dave-H]

Indeed, they'll be able to trumpet how successful Windows 10 has been, but it'll mainly have been because they pushed it out for free, not only to Windows 8/8.1 users, but to Windows 7 users as well!

I do wonder how much potential revenue MS have lost and will lose through not charging existing Windows 8 users for Window 8.1, or Windows 7 and 8/8.1 users for Windows 10. The latter is far more major of course because of the huge number of Windows 7 installations out there.

Whatever they said, I don't consider 8.1 to have been a completely new operating system. As its name implied, it looked much more like a service pack for Windows 8 to address some of its many shortcomings!

I suppose offering free upgrades is worth it to them to maintain their dominant market share.

Edited July 24, 2015 by Dave-H

[Radish]

Just read an interesting thread on another forum started by someone that wants Windows 10 but was bewailing the fact that he isn't getting the GWX tray icon showing up. Seems he installed all the updates that would get him Windows 10 but still no GWX tray icon. Seems that he was in line for the 'upgrade' but had to look in the following location to confirm for himself:

look in task scheduler > Library > Windows > setup > GWX if the tasks are active

The information might be of use to some who don't want the 'upgrade' but are wondering if they are still in line for it even though the GWX thingy isn't showing in the tray.

 

 

 

[Tripredacus]

An unfortunate scenario has come to light. Say you had chosen to reserve Windows 10 at some point in the past. Say you are seeing all the negative reactions about Windows 10 and want to wait a while before upgrade or maybe you changed your mind and don't want it. Well guess what? TOO BAD!

A user on another forum has found this out the hard way. I would consider it "being upgraded against your will" although not exactly the same as this topic.

Here is what his computer now says...

[Dave-H]

I assume the guy had automatic Windows Updates turned on.

It's downloaded the Windows 10 update, and when he re-starts it will install it, and it's probably already gone too far with the installation process for it to be aborted without potentially hosing the whole system.

I'm keeping Windows Update in the "inform me but don't automatically download or install" mode, as I always do.

I'm going to let it do its thing on my netbook when the time comes, but if I don't like the result I won't let it anywhere near my main machine!