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


dencorso

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pcalvert and dencorso -- I'd like to read that article about the cost of Win 10, but Forbes blocks me since I'm not a subscriber.  Is it available anywhere else?  Thanks.

 

glnz, are you using an ad blocker? Forbes.com recently tweaked their website to block users who are using ad blockers.

 

I'm using Ghostery on Pale Moon and can visit the site by unblocking just a few ad servers: DoubleClick, LiftDNA, Media.net. I have all the others blocked, and can get in no problem even though I'm not a subscriber. You may want to play around with various combinations of blocked and unblocked servers.

 

--JorgeA

 

I'm using too but with uBlock Origin and i didn't have access to site until i installed

Scriptish -   https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/scriptish/?src=ss

​and

​Anti-Adblock-Killer script for it - https://reek.github.io/anti-adblock-killer/

:thumbup

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Folks - many thanks for the detailed and interesting info on the Forbes website constraints.  Certainly hope Forbes doesn't set a new standard.  However, this time, I received a copy of the article from a different source.

 

With apologies to the OP here, let's save the Forbes discussion until next time and then open a new thread.  Happy to keep reading here about tying MS's left and right shoelaces together when it pushes Win 10.

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I installed .NET 4.6.1 on my Win 7 Pro 64-bit eleven days ago, and today a search in C:\ does NOT find GWX on my system (other than a GWX log file from last July before I UNinstalled so many of the Win 10 upgrade updates).

 

(Is GWX still the tell-tale?  Or should I now also search for something else?  Ironically, I'm dual-booting Win 7 Pro 64-bit and Win 10 Pro 64-bit on my machine, so I'd obviously like to keep both.)

 

Just FYI - The only other .NET I might have in my Win 7 is 3.5.1.  In "Turn Windows features on or off", its checkbox is a solid blue, not a checkmark and not empty.  But when I open its sub-list, the two sub-items have empty checkboxes, none checked, so why do I have the solid blue at the main level?  My list of installed Windows updates mentions numerous updates for 3.5.1 (and also updates for 4.5 and 4.5.2, which I imagine are now superseded by 4.6.1).  Am I supposed to have other .NETs?  And I don't know what .NET does anyway ... is it like a hair dryer?

Edited by glnz
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(Is GWX still the tell-tale?  Or should I now also search for something else?  Ironically, I'm dual-booting Win 7 Pro 64-bit and Win 10 Pro 64-bit on my machine, so I'd obviously like to keep both.)

 

According to Woody, the latest "trust us, this patch improves Windows" doesn't leverage GWX.  No one so far has been able to derive what it does, and so suspect it's a Trojan.

 

I only mention this because GWX isn't apparently Microsoft's only tentacle.

 

This new patch doesn't install anything in the GWX folder, nor does it flip any of the registry settings users have been using to block the forced march to Windows 10. As a matter of fact, at this point nobody seems to have any idea what it does.

 

How does the old Scotty saying go? "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

 

-Noel

Edited by NoelC
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The 1st post has been updated again! Out-of-band (or more exactly: one day early) "Windows Update Client for Windows x and Windows Server 20xx R2: February 2016" update pair added to the list. ;)

BTW, did I miss the "Windows Update Client for Windows x and Windows Server 20xx R2: January 2016" update pair, or did MS really skip the Jan instance of it? Are they really getting sloppy even at conning the sheeple? :dubbio:

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dencorso - thanks for valuable resource!

 

May I suggest that you add a "last edit date" to the first post?  I didn't see it.

 

Also, just now, per your first post, checking everything on your list with wusa /uninstall /kb:xxxxxxx, I UNinstalled KB 2990214, 2999226 and 3065987.  However, afterwards, that caused my Windows Update to lose its "View update history" list.  And, of course, in a number of new iterations, WU tried to re-install a whole bunch of the updates on your first-post list, so I had to re-hide them.  At one point, WU started throwing the red-cross error message, but a reboot fixed that.

 

Although today is patch Tuesday, I haven't seen any new new ones yet.

Edited by glnz
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Hey Den, as you know I love, love, love this thread!  But when I need to check another computer, or even the latest MS offerings to see if they are trying to slip one of the "bad" updates through, I find it easier to have an alphabetized list specific to the OS to check from such as:

Windows 7 SP1                 Windows 8.x KB2952664                     KB2976978 xKB2977759                     KB2999226 xKB2990214                     KB3022345 xKB2999226                     KB3035583 xKB3021917                     KB3044374 xxKB3022345                     KB3046480 xKB3035583                     KB3050267 xxKB3046480                     KB3065988 xxKB3050265                     KB3068708 xKB3065987                     KB3075249 xKB3068708                     KB3075853 xxKB3075249                     KB3080149 xKB3075851                     KB3083325 xxKB3080149                     KB3083711 xxKB3081954                     KB3102812 xxKB3083324                     KB3112336 xxKB3083710                     KB3123862 xKB3102810                     KB3135449 xxKB3112343KB3123862                     x == Windows 8.xKB3135445                     xx == Windows 8.1
 
which I think is current as of today.  Might you consider providing such a format in the summary section of the first post as a convenience?
 
Thanks for the consideration, my friend.
 
Cheers and Regards
 
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Double check the list at the top.

 

After that, I'd only suggest even considering the ones that say "Security", and only if they're well-documented.  Always remember, it's Microsoft's programmers we're talking about.  These are the same folks who brought us Windows 10 and who are working to shoehorn malware in via Windows Update.  They are not to be implicitly trusted!

 

Consider Woody Leonhard's advice here:  http://www.askwoody.com/

 

MS-DEFCON 2:  Patch reliability is unclear.  Unless you have an immediate, pressing need to install a specific patch, don't do it.

 

-Noel

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All -

In my wife's mini-office with two Win 7 Pro 64-bit machines, I've been fairly vigilant the last few months about NOT installing recent non-security updates.  However, both machines have the following updates from a while back, and I'm concerned that if I UNinstall them now I'll cause issues:

2952664 (listed four times in the View Updates list in each machine)

3075851

3065987

3068708

3022345

 

One more fact - the machines do NOT have GWX folders, thanks to my other UNinstalls.

 

In your experience, if I UNinstall the above five now, after many months have passed, what might happen?

 

Thanks.

Edited by glnz
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3068708

3022345

 

I'd uninstall only these two, as they specifically increase telemetry - which benefits Microsoft at the expense of your bandwidth.  I'd start with uninstalling the later one first.

 

If you're not seeing GWX activity (or have used one of the published methods to thwart it) and you DO want to continue getting other updates, I would certainly start with just those two and leave the other ones (which are updates to Windows Update itself) in.

 

Make sure to have the system backed up (which is sound advice no matter what you're about to do).

 

-Noel

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NoelC and others - My home Win 7 machine now shows two updates available:

3118401, captioned "Update for Universal C Runtime in Windows",

and

3121255, captioned " "0x00000024" Stop error in FsRtlNotifyFilterReportChange and VSS backup of PI Data server fails in Windows"

 

What do you think about 3118401?

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NoelC and others - My home Win 7 machine now shows two updates available:

KB3118401, captioned "Update for Universal C Runtime in Windows",

and

KB3121255, captioned " "0x00000024" Stop error in FsRtlNotifyFilterReportChange and VSS backup of PI Data server fails in Windows"

 

What do you think about 3118401?

 

My Vista system, too, is being offered 3118401 as an optional update.

 

As soon as I saw the magic words "Universal" and "Windows 10" mentioned on the KB page, as per my personal policy I hid the update. Although Vista isn't eligible to downgrade to Windows 10, heaven knows what the update will really do.

 

--JorgeA

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