Windows 10 now tries to force you to upgrade

[dlevere]

By Martin Anderson



It seems that the initially very well-received offer of a free upgrade to Windows 10 is fast becoming an offer you can’t refuse – at least for some users. The creator of Windows 10 utility GWX Control Panel, which gives Windows 10 users the ability to silence some of Microsoft’s more persistent in-system nagging about upgrading, has observed recently that some users have been ‘positioned’ by the Windows Update process into a situation where even the special anti-upgrade software cannot stop the process.

With the legend ‘It’s almost time for your upgrade’, Windows Update presents the user with a count-down dialogue that only permits them to reschedule the upgrade process, not to cancel it. In response to the typical user question as to whether or not it is possible for GWX users to stop the syndrome, programmer Josh Mayfield writes ‘At this time, no. Specifically, if you are seeing either of the following screens, it means that Microsoft has pushed your PC into a state that GWX Control Panel currently is not able to reverse:’




The second of the two images shows all content in the Windows control panel blocked by the upgrade notice.

In September Microsoft was taken to task for downloading Windows 10 onto the machines of users running previous Windows versions, to speed up the install process. Criticism centered around the fact that this upgrade was included as part of ‘patch Tuesday’, wherein Redmond pushes critical updates to Windows, including items that have been patched against zero day exploits.

The GWX Control Panel was created initially to give legacy Windows users some control over Microsoft’s increasingly insistent in-OS advertising about the availability of Windows 10 (and the company has come in for further criticism today for the inclusion of advertisements for apps in build 10565 of Windows 10).

[MathUser]

That's lame. Now the final update for 7 and 8 is to upgrade to 10. That sucks.

[bungholio]

I'm still not upgrading. Every upgrade breaks functionality with various things that I can never recover leaving me infuriated. I'm not risking it.

[dlevere]

Microsoft is pissing me off, somehow Windows 10 was downloaded without my permission, at the bottom of the page on Windows Update. The tick box is grayed out.

I'm not updating anything until I can figure out how to get this damned thing off of my computer.

If I have to call Microsoft and have them walk me through it, then that's what I'll do. They act like they want to make you upgrade to Windows 10.

[ReyVGM]

I removed that notice from win7. Google how to do it. It works just fine as long as you don't re-download the update that adds that notice.

[AsPika2219]

I turned off Windows Update, Security Center and Action Center right now, before M$ force me upgrade into Windows 10. I don't want my PC becomes ruining again!

[Pyriel]

I wonder why I'm not getting nagged on my desktop PC. I suspect it's because I customized my installation of Windows 7 in ways that Microsoft only grudgingly allows, or because update is aware that some of my expensive, MS, development software would likely break if I was forced to upgrade. The required files have never even been downloaded to it. My laptop, which is pretty close to the factory configuration, started alerting me about Windows 10 a couple of days ago.

[dlevere]

By Mark Wilson



The other day I wrote about problems my father had after an inadvertent upgrade to Windows 10. In the comments there were numerous mocking remarks suggesting that he had been provided with plenty of opportunity to avoid the upgrade - but it seems that may not have been the case. Microsoft has admitted that the upgrade has been automatically installed on some computers.

This has been described as "a mistake" after the optional update was marked for download and installation by default. Microsoft has already raised the ire of some users who were unhappy to discover that Windows 10 setup files had been downloaded without their permission, but the unwanted installation take things to the next level. So what’s the deal?

A number of people have found that Windows 10 is not only downloading of its own accord, but also starting the installation process. There are still opportunities to back out, but for novice users it would be all too easy to be swept along and end up completing the upgrade. Despite the fact that Microsoft has categorized the Windows 10 upgrade as an optional update -- which means it should be an opt-in update -- the default setting is, unusually, to download it.

But it was all a mistake. Little comfort to those who have been upgraded unintentionally, but a mistake nonetheless. In a statement to Ars Technica, Microsoft said:

As part of our effort to bring Windows 10 to existing genuine Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 customers, the Windows 10 upgrade may appear as an optional update in the Windows Update (WU) control panel. This is an intuitive and trusted place people go to find Recommended and Optional updates to Windows. In the recent Windows update, this option was checked as default; this was a mistake and we are removing the check.

If you're running Windows 7 or 8.1 and you're trying to avoid Windows 10, Microsoft has now remedied the problem so the optional upgrade is not selected by default. What's that sound? A collective sigh of relief, I believe.

[dlevere]

How can I cancel my reservation? I don't want to upgrade to Windows 10 at all.

Open the Reservation app in the notification area (double click it)

Click the Hamburger menu in the upper left corner, then select View Confirmation.

In the lower left, click Cancel reservation and then confirm (twice).

Can I uninstall the Reservation completely from my computer?

Click Start (or press Windows key + S for Windows 8.1 users)

Type: view installed updates

Hit Enter on your keyboard

Look through the list for the KB3035583 and KB2976978 update.

Right click each update and click Uninstall.

[rimsky82]

I wonder why I'm not getting nagged on my desktop PC. I suspect it's because I customized my installation of Windows 7 in ways that Microsoft only grudgingly allows, or because update is aware that some of my expensive, MS, development software would likely break if I was forced to upgrade. The required files have never even been downloaded to it. My laptop, which is pretty close to the factory configuration, started alerting me about Windows 10 a couple of days ago.

Is your computer on a domain? I've noticed at work that domain computers are not being bothered with the Win10 update. Most likely because they know that sysadmins want complete control over what OS their clients are using, MS wants them to buy through volume licensing anyway, and that upgrading business computers can render required 3rd party software useless.

[Pyriel]

Nope, not on a domain. The only way it's really different from my laptop is that I used a config file for the setup to move standard directories (Users mainly) off the system drive, and did a couple of other minor tweaks so the SSD I originally had the OS on wouldn't accidentally fill up if I ran something that used my temp folder. Other than that, I do have older versions of SQL server installed, which may or may not be compatible with Windows 10 without some sort of patch. Most of the IDEs are also on the laptop, now that I think about it.

[xxphillips]

Hi every one
I'm going tobe getting a new laptop at some ponit is Windows 10 really bad? I'm using Windows 7 right now and I really liked XP. I've never used 8 before. Please let me know what you lot think

[rimsky82]

Hi every one
I'm going tobe getting a new laptop at some ponit is Windows 10 really bad? I'm using Windows 7 right now and I really liked XP. I've never used 8 before. Please let me know what you lot think

Most of the people here will tell you it's of the devil, but I think it's a great improvement over 8 for those of us that have used Windows a long time. Probably the biggest caveat is that if you want to use Cortana (Microsoft's version of Siri) to her full potential, you'll have to agree to release a lot of privacy settings. If you are the private kind of person that tries to stay off the grid, forget about Cortana. It will ask you all of those privacy settings when you set up Windows 10 though.

Basically, if Cortana is going to remind you of an appointment, she needs access to your calendar. And if she is going to recommend a restaurant for dinner, she needs your location. Obviously she takes your location, sends it to Microsoft, they search for a Jimmy Johns, then send back the recommendation. That is the whole "sharing your location" thing. Whether or not they save that information for marketing purposes, I don't know... but probably? Like I said, you can turn all of that off.

Everything else is pretty good imho.

[Pyriel]

As far as I know, everybody thinks Windows 10 is pretty damn good. They just don't like having an upgrade foisted on them. I haven't researched which pieces of software will need patches, upgrades, or a VM to work properly, and that's the only thing really holding me back on my laptop. I don't know if I want to try upgrading my PC, as I'm guessing the Windows 10 upgrade's installer will raise some hell over things I've done, unless I recreate the install settings file (assuming 10 will accept it) and run it manually. That's something I only mess with once every few years when I do a fresh install for some reason, so I'm in no particular rush to go back through it. I don't remember half of what I need to do, or where I stashed the last settings file I made.

Edit: Oh, and nobody really likes to be an early adopter for Microsoft stuff on production machines or any machine they need for a particular purpose.

[lee4]

Free Windows 10 offer ends on July 29, 2016