Posted on 03/15/2016 5:35:15 PM PDT by markomalley
Some Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users have begun to howl over Microsoft's practice of automatically upgrading their PCs to Windows 10, saying that they were never given a chance to decline the upgrade before it installed itself.
That was contrary to how Microsoft has described its aggressive strategy of pushing Windows 10 to devices running older versions of its operating system.
strategy chess How creating an alumni strategy closes the skills gap Smart companies are looking to their past employees to help drive future success and are actively READ NOW It stuck to that today. "Customers continue to be fully in control of their devices, and can choose to not install the Windows 10 upgrade or remove the upgrade from Windows Update (WU) by changing the WU settings," Microsoft said in an emailed statement.
That's not what some users experienced last week.
"My computer was working great last night [but] this morning it says, 'Microsoft Legal Agreement' with bunch of legal information and WAY at the bottom 'Accept your new Windows 10' or 'Decline,'" wrote a someone identified as scifixtion in a Friday post to Microsoft's support forum. "I hit Decline and it says, 'It will take a few moments to go back to your old Windows software,' [but] then it goes black and go[es] right back to [the] Microsoft legal agreement [and shows] 'Accept windows 10' or 'Decline.' I've hit Decline a dozen times and it won't budge."
The legal agreement that scifixtion referenced was the Windows 10 end-user license agreement, or EULA.
Others took to Reddit to report that their PCs were upgraded to Windows 10 while their backs were turned.
"I leave my house for 2 days with my computer on, I come back and I have Windows 10. What. The. F***,"...
(Excerpt) Read more at computerworld.com ...
If the Redmond scum force me to take their spyware OS, that computer goes out the window (no pun intended).
Never look a gift OS in the mouth.
I did a clean install of Windows 10 rather than the upgrade. I just save the upgrade to a flash drive and then re-installed Windows 10 from scratch. My new desktop computer previously had 8.1. It has worked like a dream.
Do the clean install rather than the free upgrade.
I still have Windows 8.1, and I have been getting pop up to convert to Windows 10. I refuse, they better not do this crap on my computer.
“Never look a gift OS in the mouth.”
Yeah. Nothing is free. Everything has a price as Windows 10 does. Not one of my systems has it, and will not.
All my stuff is backed up just in case. I have the original CD’s for W7 should that happen. I do not have the icon in my tray for W10 to auto update.
Proudly running windows 7 with absolutley no updates and a special blocker for the update. Im fine.
I got this from another member. Qiviut
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3409562/posts?page=22#22
Install this ... it stops the notices & will get rid of the files Microsoft has downloaded, if they’ve gone that far. I have it on two laptops, one of which already had the files on it - got rid of everything, working well:
GWX Control Panel
http://blog.ultimateoutsider.com/2015/08/using-gwx-stopper-to-permanently-remove.html
Per the link:
GWX Control Panel is the easiest way for users of Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 to protect their computers from Windows 10. With GWX Control Panel you can: Remove the “Get Windows 10” icon that appears in your notification area, prevent your Windows Update control panel from upgrading your computer to Windows 10, prevent your computer from secretly downloading Windows 10 installation files, detect and remove the hidden Windows 10 installation files if they’re already on your PC, optionally monitor your computer for unwanted Windows 10-related settings and files- and beginning with version 1.7 you can now easily delete some hard-to-remove program files that are known to cause Windows 10 upgrades and annoyances.
GWX Control Panel is free software that really works, is safe and easy to use, and gives you the option to re-enable the icon and upgrade notifications if you’re ever ready to move forward with Windows 10.
There was Freeper who gave me the link to GWX10 which is a free app preventing W10 from loading. I forgot who it was and mine has W7.
GWX Control Panel ( http://ultimateoutsider.com/downloads ) does some good things, but it hasn’t kept up with the full list of KB updates that ought to be removed beyond just KB3035583. It’s also a bit non-intuitive for some non-techies.
So I’ve made some easy-to-use tools to help put an end to this coerced Windows 10 installation nonsense. They can be downloaded from here and then unzipped:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_hrA7ihzIPlVXpRUnJyc1AyNkU/view?usp=sharing
The three included tools uninstall the Windows 10 nagware and the Microsoft “telemetry” (spyware) “updates” from Windows 7 and Windows 8.x Operating Systems if they are installed, prevent the updates from being reinstalled, and remove the Windows 10 installer folder $WINDOWS.~BT if it is present.
These tools must be run from an account with Administrative privilege, which is the case (unfortunately) for most accounts. They can also be run from a non-Administrator account by right-clicking them and then left-clicking on “Run as Administrator”.
The tools are most effective when run in the following order:
1. Run PreventW10InstallationUAC.exe to set Microsoft Update to “manual only” mode and modify a couple of registry variables that tell the OS to never allow a newer OS to be installed. This tool will run quickly unless you accept the optional request (recommended) to make a System Restore Point before the tool makes it changes, in which case the Restore Point will take a while to make.
Note that after this procedure finishes, no more Microsoft updates will be applied unless you manually request a check for updates and then decide which updates to accept, though making such decisions requires knowledge that the average user usually does not possess. However, for mature operating systems I personally believe that blindly accepting Microsoft updates at this juncture has more downsides than upsides.
(If you DO want to attempt to manually check for updates, you’ll first have to change the Windows Update setting from “Never Check for Updates” to “Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them” before you click the “Check for updates” button.)
2. Run RemoveW10NagwareTool.exe to remove a set of Microsoft updates that relate to Windows 10 nagware (”white flag”) popup, Microsoft spyware, and the Windows 10 installer itself if any of them have been installed. Detection and uninstallation can take a few minutes to complete.
If any of this set of updates is found, you’ll need to reboot the system.
It might also be necessary to run this tool again after rebooting if the nagware update had previously been slated to be installed AGAIN, in which case after rebooting, you’ll STILL see the Windows 10 (”white flag”) nag. If that’s the case, just run this tool again and reboot again, and then run PreventW10InstallationUAC.exe again.
3. Finally, after you’re sure the Windows 10 nagware has been removed, run RemoveW10Folder.exe to detect and remove the Windows 10 install folder if it is found.
I am so mad at Microsoft for this behavior. Let me buy a non-spyware version for $100. Why only “free” and “send all my files and keystrokes to Microsoft?”
I’m somewhat convinced that the newer your OS the more you are vulnerable to systemic internal spyware and tracking. If I could I’d go back to Windows 2000 pro.
I have a high end photo printer that will NOT operate with Windows 10. I will be pi$$ed if they do that to me.
Thanks!
One more bkmk to stop windows 10 CRAP
Thank you very much for your advice at #11!
Windows 10 is super popular. That’s what MS says. Of course this is like giving women roofies and then walking around bragging about how the women are all having sex with you.
Windows 10 is essentially a date-rape of your computer.
Over the years I’ve gotten a lot of use from my Macs and Windows computers. But Apple and Microsoft have both been high-handed at times.
What are the alternatives? I’m not a computer hobbyist, so I don’t want to tinker to set up or optimize my computer. I used to do that with System 9 extensions on the Mac - a long time ago. I continue to use my iBook for some old Mac Classic applications. And I use my Windows 7 sliding into 10 computer. It may be about time for a 3rd computer. A new OS may be the way to go for me. What can I buy that is ready to go?
o thank you
My task bar on WIN 10 stopped working months ago for me. If you still have WIN 7, like I did formerly, hold on to it as long as you can!
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