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Confirmed: How to stop Windows 10 forcing itself onto PCs – your essential guide
The Register ^ | Jan 8, 2016 | Iain Thomson

Posted on 01/07/2016 10:08:43 PM PST by dayglored

Official from the Redmond horse's mouth

If you're using a PC running Windows 7 or 8 you may be getting a little sick of endless popup screens telling you to upgrade to version 10, and worried about inadvertently installing the upgrade as part of a security update.

Microsoft will start pushing out the upgrade as a recommended, virtually mandatory, update very soon (it's right now only an optional download). Some people are tempted to turn off Windows Update completely to avoid getting the new operating system - don't. It'll leave your computer vulnerable to attack as you'll no longer get security patches.

It's actually rather easy to turn off the Windows 10 upgrade function without losing vital regular software updates. Microsoft even has an official document explaining how to do it.

A Redmond spokesperson confirmed that support page is still valid - its instructions still work even though it was quietly published a few months ago. It involves digging into the Registry to disable the Windows 10 upgrade path, but it's not impossible nor particularly scary for a Register reader.

Make sure you follow all the steps, but essentially you have to:

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
For corporate users, there's nothing to worry about - the Win10 upgrade is going to be blocked for users of Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 Enterprise editions, and for any build joined to a domain or relying on Microsoft Device Manager. Redmond isn't dumb; if the entire office suddenly tried to download and install that much data, the screams would be heard all the way to Seattle.

If you want to set up a policy not to download the update, Microsoft has made software updates available for download that will do this automatically for Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 that are here, and for Windows 8 and above, as well as Server 2012 R2 here.

In any case, this is going to be a non-issue in a few months. Microsoft is only offering Windows 10 as a free upgrade until July. After that, people will have to pay if they want Redmond's latest operating system, and hopefully the nagging will stop then - but don't bet on it.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet; Hobbies
KEYWORDS: dsj02; microsoft; upgrade; windows; windows10; windowspinglist
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To: dayglored

for later


61 posted on 01/08/2016 3:16:59 PM PST by apocalypto
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placemarker


62 posted on 01/08/2016 5:49:38 PM PST by Oztrich Boy ('Life is a comedy to those who think and a tragedy for those who feel' - Horace Walpole)
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To: dayglored

I tried that NODoz once. Yikes.


63 posted on 01/08/2016 7:47:10 PM PST by gunsequalfreedom (Conservative is not a label of convenience. It is a guide to your actions.)
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To: terycarl
> Simple question, why would anyone not want to upgrade for free to windows 10????

From Win7, why bother - Win7 is just fine and I like its interface better. Although I will say that Win10 runs just a touch faster for some things.

From Win8/8.1, if I had bought a machine with it preinstalled, I'd run, not walk, to Win10.

64 posted on 01/08/2016 8:16:30 PM PST by dayglored ("Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.")
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To: Abundy
> how do I uninstall it from my Surface Pro 2?

Good question, if it's even possible. I don't know if Win7 or Win8 runs on it; I doubt it.

65 posted on 01/08/2016 8:18:23 PM PST by dayglored ("Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.")
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To: Kirkwood
> I am serious. I’m not going to spend in excess of $100,000 to get a team together to write and debug all new programs to replace the ones I use to run my business. Win7 runs Virtual XP, so why not Win10?

They don't want to support it.

Virtual XP in Win7 is just a VM (virtual machine) using Microsoft's own VM hosting software.

You can get FREE third-party virtual machine hosting software from VMware (Player), Virtual Box, and others, that will run XP just dandy. I suggest you look into that.

66 posted on 01/08/2016 8:21:57 PM PST by dayglored ("Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.")
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To: gunsequalfreedom
> I tried that NODoz once. Yikes.

You ought to see the "Energy" drinks the kids are using these days. Equivalent of 2 NODOZ in one squirt of the stuff. Poor heart pounding like a freakin jackhammer after a couple...

67 posted on 01/08/2016 8:24:41 PM PST by dayglored ("Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.")
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To: dayglored

For later use.


68 posted on 01/09/2016 2:02:15 AM PST by SES1066 (Quality, Speed or Economical - Any 2 of 3 except in government - 1 at best but never #3!)
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To: dayglored

And then there is Vivarin?

http://www.drugs.com/cdi/vivarin.html


69 posted on 01/09/2016 4:13:55 PM PST by gunsequalfreedom (Conservative is not a label of convenience. It is a guide to your actions.)
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To: gunsequalfreedom
Re: Vivarin

I don't think I've ever seen a PDR page for caffeine tablets. Wild...

70 posted on 01/10/2016 9:21:27 AM PST by dayglored ("Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.")
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To: goodnesswins; catnipman
Bfl...and thanks....now if I could get our desktop to just update win 7 correctly

I thought I had the same problem - Windows "Checking for updates" ran for a long problem but finally stopped and showed 35 updates, one of which was apparently a "phone home to Microsoft" update for Win 7, SP-1 regarding system performance. A second had to do with some eastern European currency symbols. I skipped both.

71 posted on 01/12/2016 12:12:21 PM PST by CedarDave (Extremist muslims want to kill you; moderate muslims want extremist muslims to kill you.)
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To: Mears

bfl


72 posted on 01/12/2016 12:16:55 PM PST by Mears
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