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

[alacran]

Any comments about new KB's just released, I'm not going to apply any one of them until I get info from you guys. (Win7 x64 user).

I do not trust MS any more. Almost all of KB's just repeat same description (nothing is clear now), and if I check for more info online every thing looks hiding a second intention.

 

They are making me paranoic.  Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance for your comments.

 

I know this is 8 forum but here is this topic.

Edited August 12, 2015 by alacran

[NoelC]

On my Win 7, 8.1, and 10 systems I vetted all the updates as best I could this week, then chose to install them all.

 

Nothing new has shown up forcing inviting me to upgrade.

 

-Noel

[Tripredacus]

Windows computers on domain configured to use WSUS also are getting the automatic download:

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/b47ec651-0278-4667-9a72-6926173c2b4c/domain-joined-computers-downloading-w10-installation-files?forum=win10itprosetup

[NoelC]

Is there any chance hopeful users are triggering the download process somehow manually?

 

-Noel

[ralcool]

Noel, I didn't click reserve or install or anything.. and it still downloaded itself.

[NoelC]

Ralcool, had you hidden the GWX update beforehand?  If so, what other updates did you hide?

 

I'm just trying to be rigorous about what stops the updates.

 

So far I haven't seen any C:\$WINDOWS.~BT folders showing up on my several systems, on which I've hidden just the following:

 

Win 7:

 

KB2952664

KB3021917

KB3035583

KB3068708

 

Win 8.1:

 

KB2976978

KB3035583

KB3046480

KB3068708

 

-Noel

[ralcool]

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/173961-windows-10-gwx-update-removal-tool-for-windows-7-and-windows-81/?hl=%2Bdont+%2Bwant+%2Bwindows

 

Honestly, I got lazy and ran the tool. There was possibly too much to decide to remove at the time.

 

It seems though it probably only removed (KB3035583), but it is back again in the update list. Undoing the work.

 

I'll go and hide the updates you've mentioned... or continue to keep now the 'notify for download, notify for install' setting in gpedit. Why did I not do this sooner on the 8.1 machine I'll never know.

 

Lesson learned.

 

-sean

Edited August 14, 2015 by ralcool

[NoelC]

Yes, some of the updates have been known to show up again as many as two additional times.  I think Microsoft promoted them through all the levels ("optional, recommended, important" or whatever categories they use).  Microsoft, with their aggressive business practices, has ensured that these are definitely not "set it and forget it" times!

 

For reference, my short lists are a little shorter than the ones proposed at the top of this thread, and don't include hiding the "improvements" to Windows Update itself - just the ones that overtly seem to benefit no one but Microsoft, revolving around the installation of Win 10.  Honestly, probably only hiding (and watching out for the recurrence of) updates like KB3035583 that explicitly are known to push Windows 10 would be enough.

 

The trouble with hiding too many updates is that you could end up with a  Frankenstein's monster of a system, where some parts may not work with other parts.  Nothing says Microsoft has made each and every update a package that can be left out from a system and have it work properly in the future.

 

-Noel

[Dave-H]

Just an update on my friend's Windows 7 laptop that I mentioned in post #122.

I looked again today at it and found the dreaded hidden C:\$WINDOWS.~BT folder sitting there, with about 5 GB of presumably Windows 10 files in it, just waiting for someone to double click the setup.exe file!

It was dated from about ten days ago, and how it downloaded such a huge amount of data in the background without anyone being aware of it is rather worrying, as even though the machine is on a connection that's fast for ADSL, it would still have taken hours to download that amount.

Needless to say, after tediously wading through all the necessary permissions changes, it was consigned to the recycle bin!

[NoelC]

Heh, maybe someone needs to make a small, low-impact program just sit around and watch for the appearance of C:\$WINDOWS.~BT.  It would run in the background and pop up a warning if the folder appears.  It could be started at logon and just sit out there, tirelessly watching your 6...

 

Over time it might grow into a watchdog of epic proportions as more and more things had to be watched / protected.

 

Could be a whole new market of products on the horizon.

 

-Noel

[dencorso]

Heh, maybe someone needs to make a small, low-impact program just sit around and watch for the appearance of C:\$WINDOWS.~BT.  It would run in the background and pop up a warning if the folder appears.  It could be started at logon and just sit out there, tirelessly watching your 6...

 

That's a nice idea! And since it's not quite time-critical, it might, say, check just once every full hour, which would make its impact really negligible...

[Glenn9999]

Heh, maybe someone needs to make a small, low-impact program just sit around and watch for the appearance of C:\$WINDOWS.~BT.  It would run in the background and pop up a warning if the folder appears.  It could be started at logon and just sit out there, tirelessly watching your 6...

 

It wouldn't be very hard to do, either...

[jaclaz]

Or maybe try creating the folder and then removing all permissions from it (leaving full control only to a given user).

It would be interesting to see if the stupid windows update can override this setting.

 

jaclaz

[dencorso]

AFAIK, the TrustedInstaller can do anything, isn't it?

[NoelC]

Or maybe try creating the folder and then removing all permissions from it (leaving full control only to a given user).

It would be interesting to see if the stupid windows update can override this setting.

 

Windows Update can and has been seen to override anything it wants.  Permissions do not daunt it.

 

I'm surprised there's not more being said about this.

 

-Noel