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

[NoelC]

Well, to be fair it's probably OK to update Windows with most updates published before mid to late 2016.  With a few documented exceptions of course.

But now...  Cumulative updates are coming for the older systems, presumably because Microsoft gains more control over you with them.  Imagine getting 0.2% more control over half a billion users.  That would be like taking complete control over a million more users.

Be afraid.  Be very afraid of what today's Microsoft wants you to do.

-Noel

[xman charl]

On 10/5/2016 at 9:45 AM, Radish said:

I had precious little faith in Microsoft anyway but since this Win 10 nonsense I have absolutely ziltch. Of course the "upgrade" will be back and even if it doesn't they'll still try and dump so called "telemetry" spyware junk onto Win 7 and 8 systems via so called updates. Only safe thing to do in this regard is a fresh install install of Win 7 or 8 and never update it for anything. Dancing with the devil to do otherwise.

Was wondering about that. Thought all that upgrade stuff was now stopped with a recent update.

Charl

[Tripredacus]

I had just a thought about this the other day. We are past the free upgrade period, but what has it been replaced with? It seems now there is no upgrade option. It would be silly to think that MS would do all this work to change Windows Update to allow in-place upgrade from Windows 7 and 8.1 to Windows 10 just to disable the upgrade thing when the free period ended. No I think it would make more sense that it would still remain and get replaced by one where you could purchase the upgrade. That doesn't seem like it exists right now which is kinda surprising.

[JorgeA]

^^ Yeah, it is puzzling. Could it be that instead of pushing people to install Windows 10, the new strategy is to graft Win10 telemetry onto 7 and 8? That way they could get the user data without making the user go through the pain of switching their OS? One could make the argument that it's the data they want for advertising purposes, not so much which OS they get it from.

--JorgeA

[NoelC]

The wording I saw made me think that they want to characterize the older systems for compatibility so that they can push patches or borderline feature enhancements that not everyone can take advantage of.  You can imagine that fracturing the Win 7 and 8.1 user base.

-Noel

[Tripredacus]

5 hours ago, JorgeA said:

^^ Yeah, it is puzzling. Could it be that instead of pushing people to install Windows 10, the new strategy is to graft Win10 telemetry onto 7 and 8? That way they could get the user data without making the user go through the pain of switching their OS? One could make the argument that it's the data they want for advertising purposes, not so much which OS they get it from.

--JorgeA

No I don't think that is it at all. MS has effectively abandoned Windows 7 from a support perspective years ago. Windows 8/8.1 you can put into that boat also. They will want to get as many people as possible onto Windows 10. Don't be surprised if we see more upgrade actions on Win7/8.1 systems. I could imagine that in a couple months there would be a notification saying they could upgrade to Windows 10 at a discount for the holidays.

[gulatti]

Microsoft has ended the free upgrade to Windows 10 few months back. So if you would like to try to upgrade it's not possible.

[JorgeA]

Protecting our pre-Win10 systems from Win10-style snooping is about to get a lot more difficult:

Microsoft previews telemetry push with new Win7/8.1 patches KB 3192403, 3192404
 

Quote

Yesterday Microsoft released seven new patches through Windows Update. Three of them -- KB 3192403 for Windows 7, KB 3192404 for Windows 8.1, and KB 3192406 for Windows Server 2012 -- confirm a trend we've long expected: Microsoft is adding new telemetry/snooping capabilities to Win7, 8.1, and Server 2012 by growing out its Diagnostic and Telemetry service subsystem, DiagTrack. The big push will come in November.

Much to Microsoft's credit, we have many details about the new subsystem. We also have tools to help you avoid installing this enhancement to DiagTrack. But in order to use those tools effectively, you must start installing Windows 7 and 8.1 updates manually -- using Windows Update will ensure that your PC starts sending more info to the mothership.

[emphasis added]

No doubt part of the plan is to make it such an onerous task to stay free of the snooping, that people will give up and go with the path of least resistance.

@dencorso: more Win7/8.1 updates to place on the list.

--JorgeA

[NoelC]

An option that even Woody doesn't embrace is to not install updates at all.

Now, if Microsoft's patches are keeping you from running all kinds of latent malware because you engage in risky computing behavior, well, that's probably not good advice.

But for those trying to get some useful work out of our older systems, tell me again why we should want changes from the very same programmers who brought us a new operating system we don't want?

If you don't constantly install updates, you can achieve things like focusing on work all day, months-long uptime, no unexpected loss of functionality or stability...

The original architects didn't design NT to be updated every few minutes.  They designed it to be a stable OS that can be the cornerstone of getting things done.

-Noel

[dencorso]

21 hours ago, JorgeA said:

@dencorso: more Win7/8.1 updates to place on the list.

Done! Thanks for the heads up!

[Mcinwwl]

Hey Windows Update enthusiasts and fanatics!

Anything to hide today? :>

[Dave-H]

You'll have a job if there is, as everything seems to be rolled up into one big single update now!

 

[Dave-H]

Just thought I'd come back here one last time to say that I'm afraid I finally decided to do the "upgrade" to Windows 10! 
I thought I'd probably bite the bullet and do it sometime anyway, as several of the apps that I was using on Windows 8.1 (including some paid for ones) seem to have now been abandoned in favour of Windows 10 UWP apps, which don't work on 8.1 of course. They are not updating the 8.1 versions any more as far as I can see.
I guess they couldn't wait to abandon 8.1, which is a shame, as it will probably be now added to the list of short-lived "Cinderella" Windows versions along with ME, Vista, and to some extent even Windows 2000 (which along with ME was only around for about a year IIRC before they were both replaced by XP).
I looked into it, and to upgrade to Windows 10 Pro from 8.1 Pro was going to cost me over £100 if I had to pay for it, so I thought I'd grab it while it was still free if you know where to go.
See you on the Windows 10 forum I'm sure (probably many times!)
 
 

[NoelC]

Makes sense, Dave, if you use Apps.  And the timing isn't bad; Win 10 version 1607 (build 14393) is about the most stable it has been.

I'm particularly impressed that you have found Apps that are actually useful / desirable.

Best of luck taming the new system. 

-Noel

[Dave-H]

Thanks Noel.
I'm not a big user of the Windows apps, but there are some that I find useful.
The Anniversary Update (1607) is the version I have, I never experienced any earlier ones so I've nothing to judge it against, but it does seem to be fine.
Cheers, Dave.