Beware Possible Forced Upgrade to Win 10

[Pib]

Now I've had Win 10 on my two year old Lenovo laptop since day one of Win 10's public release of 29 Jul 15 and Win 10 works just fine...the best combination of Win 8.1 and Win 7 in my opinion. I also have an almost 10 year old Toshiba laptop running Win 7 and according to the Get Win 10 evaluation tool it can not be upgraded to Win 10 due to the laptop's old ATI video chip which causes compatibility problems. That's fine with me as this laptop is my secondary/backup laptop and will probably go to its grave with Win 7 on it....and I expect that grave will be filled in before Jan 20 when Win 7 critical/important updates will stop being provided by Microsoft...when Win 7 itself is completely laid to rest.

But for you folks running Win 7 and Win 8.X that don't want to have anything to do with Win 10 (at least for now), if the below 3 Feb 16 article is correct Microsoft is upping its push to get folks onto Win 10 by changing it from optional update status to recommended update status in your Windows Updates settings...Choose How To Install Updates.

Most folks probably have their Windows Update set to automatically download/install udpates versus Check for Updates But Let You Choose What to Install. With the automatically install option you may now be presented with a End User License Agreement (EULA) during one of those update installs/reboots which is really asking if you want to install Win 10 now (but possibly in vague terms), you click Yes, and Win 10 begins the install process.

So beware....read the article at below weblink for more details and some options on how to avoid the forced Win 10 upgrade such as changing your Windows Update setting and using GWX:


New details emerge about forced Windows 10 upgrade -- and how to block it (partial from article below)

Microsoft has started rolling out its latest Windows 10 upgrade offensive. "Upgrade to Windows 10" has moved from an occasionally sighted Optional update to the much more common Recommended. Many Windows 7 and 8.1 users report the upgrade now appears as a checked item in Windows Update, clearing the way for the installer to launch automatically -- typically when the system reboots.

[NeverSure]

Good post. As always, if a person makes regular images of his HDD he can always dump the image on it and be back where he was the night before. I use Macrium Reflect (free) which has a scheduler and it makes an image of my HDD every night and saves it to an external. This is good also just for regular updates when rarely one screws things up.

Cheers.

[Pib]

I use Macrium Reflect Free also.

[puuchaibaa]

So this is why I started noticing the Win 10 upgrade as a Recommended update. This is one of the reasons why I never have automatic updates. Manual updates can be a bit of a pain but as least you can choose what and when to update. With this change from MS I now have to uncheck the Win 10 upgrade every time.

I actually think Win 10 is very good (except for the fact that they force all updates on you). It's the best of Win 7 and Win 8, which is to say mostly from Win 7 and very little from Win 8 and it's ghastly Start screen. However, Win 10 can mess up some older laptops like Vaios which don't have updated drivers. Hence I can't allow the update on a few of my older notebooks.

[billd766]

I migrated from a bent copy of Widows 7 on my 3 year old HP desktop to Win 10 about 3 months ago as it was a free offer.

I ran it for a while then upgraded a couple of older Acer laptops, one was about 8 years old and the other was about 6 years old.

The desktop is running Win 10 at 64 bit and the 2 laptops are on the 32 bit system.

They all work well enough and get the updates and I use driver booster to update the drivers.

I am happy with Win 10 after a few years with Win 7. I skipped Win 8 xxxxx completely.

[NeverSure]

I bought a new Acer laptop (normal 15") with Win 10 x64 factory installed. Not an upgrade. I added RAM and a 500GB Samsung SSD.

I'm not so sure that this Win 10 is so stable. I can't figure out if Outlook and Chrome are the problem or if W10 is it. Those are the two programs I work the hardest as Outlook is getting 3 email accounts including one that is IMAP - Gmail. I have a ton of tabs open in Chrome so I don't know what's to blame. Both Chrome and Outlook will freeze but not at the same time. They may start working fine if I close and reopen them, but then again sometimes I have to reboot the computer. I haven't done that since XP. I never had that issue with 7 or 8.1.

This is perhaps once per day. BTW when I reopen Chrome it does go right back to where it was regarding open tabs, etc.

I dunno. The box isn't hot and Win 10 doesn't crash, other than being locked up by one of those two proggys. Since Win 10 freezes when a proggy does, I don't know what I think yet.

Cheers.

[Ks45672]

I bought a new Acer laptop (normal 15") with Win 10 x64 factory installed. Not an upgrade. I added RAM and a 500GB Samsung SSD.

I'm not so sure that this Win 10 is so stable. I can't figure out if Outlook and Chrome are the problem or if W10 is it. Those are the two programs I work the hardest as Outlook is getting 3 email accounts including one that is IMAP - Gmail. I have a ton of tabs open in Chrome so I don't know what's to blame. Both Chrome and Outlook will freeze but not at the same time. They may start working fine if I close and reopen them, but then again sometimes I have to reboot the computer. I haven't done that since XP. I never had that issue with 7 or 8.1.

This is perhaps once per day. BTW when I reopen Chrome it does go right back to where it was regarding open tabs, etc.

I dunno. The box isn't hot and Win 10 doesn't crash, other than being locked up by one of those two proggys. Since Win 10 freezes when a proggy does, I don't know what I think yet.

Cheers.

Username chosen appropriately....

[puuchaibaa]

I bought a new Acer laptop (normal 15") with Win 10 x64 factory installed. Not an upgrade. I added RAM and a 500GB Samsung SSD.

I presume you've run test diagnostics on your ram. Do your ram modules match exactly (same manufacturer and model)? If they don't match there's a chance the mainboard is running dual channel memory when it shouldn't. Normally the bios reverts to single channel in this case, so you might want to have a look to be sure.

[Rob13]

turn your updates off.

[rhythmworx]

I written a simple batch script to rid of the many ghastly updates shortly after the date you mentioned, I then did as above and turned off updates on 7.

I then stopped using windows online unless I'm gaming, currently use Linux.

[TheCruncher]

I had this happen this the other day.

I have the update set to " check for updates but let me decide what to download", and a few days ago I noticed that it was starting to install updates. I could abort the process with only 7 updates installed so far, but Microsoft had changed my update settings to " automatic install updates"

[Chicog]

turn your updates off.

And leave your PC open all the vulnerabilities that Microsoft actually publish each month when they fix them.

Yeah, what a cracking idea.

[Rob13]

I had this happen this the other day.

I have the update set to " check for updates but let me decide what to download", and a few days ago I noticed that it was starting to install updates. I could abort the process with only 7 updates installed so far, but Microsoft had changed my update settings to " automatic install updates"

You have to go in to services and disable completely otherwise it turns itself back on.

[mxyzptlk]

Good post. As always, if a person makes regular images of his HDD he can always dump the image on it and be back where he was the night before. I use Macrium Reflect (free) which has a scheduler and it makes an image of my HDD every night and saves it to an external. This is good also just for regular updates when rarely one screws things up.

Cheers.

Thanks for this good info. I was using Windows backup (Win 7 Pro 64 bit) but now after testing Macrium Reflect, I now use that as my backup solution.

[TheCruncher]

I had this happen this the other day.

I have the update set to " check for updates but let me decide what to download", and a few days ago I noticed that it was starting to install updates. I could abort the process with only 7 updates installed so far, but Microsoft had changed my update settings to " automatic install updates"

You have to go in to services and disable completely otherwise it turns itself back on.

It seems so, but that is not how it is supposed to be, is it?

It should remember your settings, and don't change them, otherwise they could as well leave out the option.

[Rob13]

When I used settings somehow the update would turn itself back on,not sure if that's the way they planned it or not. By disabling it though, it stays off, now I can turn it back on and update at my own convenience,. You get alot more control over the updates like which ones to download and which ones to skip by disabling it.

Edited March 9, 2016 by Rob13

[patyh]

You can still go to your updates settings and untick the Windows 10 update under the optional update tab... by default, it is checked.

[chrisinth]

As long as you are comfortable with RegEdit:

If you would like to prevent MS from auto upgrading, you can do this as follows:

Open the Registry Editor (search for regedit in the Start Menu and run it).

Set DisableOSUpgrade to 1 in HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate

Set ReservationsAllowed to 0 in HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\OSUpgrade

That'll do it.........................