How do you stop an unwanted Win 10 download?

[Peter Mellis]

Turned on my photography dedicated (more or less) PC and a screen popped up announcing that Win 10 would download in 15 minutes. As I don't want Win 10 I looked for a way to cancel the download - failing to see a way to stop it, I shut the computer down. I don't want Win 10 and did not agree to downloading it, so I assume that this is part of Microsoft's thoughtful customer service. I assume that when I turn the machine on again, the clock will start running from wherever it stopped earlier. Is there a way to quickly stop this or do I have to let it load and then try to roll back to Win 7, something that I would rather not do?

I have no desire to upgrade the system in question and have Win 10 running on a laptop, where it has been problematic. Hopefully someone else has run into this.

[degrub]

Get gwx control panel  and install it. It will allow you to control it. Free.

[Peter Mellis]

I thought that gwx control panel was to stop the upgrade pop up - this appears to be an actual download about to take place. Will it stop that?

I searched around a bit and came across this: http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/599618/windows-10-attacked-my-pc-like-virus/ He's obviously not happy, but bombast aside, it says some interesting stuff about how Microsoft is attempting to force this on people.

[degrub]

if not, it detects the hidden folder and allows you to delete it.

[Alan Goldhammer]

I run gwx control panel on all three of the PCs in our household (2 Win7 and 1 Win8.1) and it controls the Win10 stuff just fine.  Even if Win10 downloads, it will not install without your permission.

[Joe Towner]

http://ultimateoutsider.com/downloads/ - GWX Control Panel link

[Peter Mellis]

The countdown clock didn't show itself the next time that I used the computer, so I installed GWX, clicked the boxes and turned off auto windows updates. No evidence of Win10 anywhere to be seen, so things look OK. Not very happy with Microsoft and their attitude towards their customers.

[Paul2660]

I hope this doesn't happen to you, but on my Surface pro 2 and 3, I was pretty much forced into Win10.  The Win 8 updates, would just spin away and never make a connection to microsoft.  After several tech sessions with Windows, I gave up and moved to Win 10. 

On my 15" Mac Pro on which I have bootcamp and had win7 64 installed, the same issue happened, net, the system would never connect to Microsoft.  Again, I just gave up and moved on to Win10. 

My main production machine, is still win7 and I have the control panel on it, as I never plan to move it to Win10 or anything else.

However the web is full of folks complaining about the sudden in-ability of win7 8 machine not being able to connect to Microsoft and get the necessary updates.

Paul C

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

My main production machine, is still win7 and I have the control panel on it, as I never plan to move it to Win10 or anything else.

Hi Paul,

Why not upgrade? I've upgraded from 7 to 10, and it is mostly better in all aspects (just had to reconfigure some specialist software, but that's an exception). Free, faster, more stable, more advanced, more modern look and feel, better supported, better for security, easier for developers to support when going forward, etc.

Cheers,
Bart

[Joe Towner]

If updates are scanning for ever, take a look at http://www.infoworld.com/article/3069693/microsoft-windows/windows-7-update-scans-taking-forever-kb-3153199-may-solve-the-problem.html

If you wonder why I'm anti-Win10, it's pretty simple, as Microsoft doesn't see it as an operating system now, it's a 'service'.
http://venturebeat.com/2016/06/17/microsoft-ceo-satya-nadella-windows-10-is-a-service-not-an-operating-system/

Um, no thanks, a 'service' that can force ads on you, and controls your computer without your consent, since you no longer have control over 'updates' that Microsoft installs.

[AlterEgo]

Um, no thanks, a 'service' that can force ads on you, and controls your computer without your consent, since you no longer have control over 'updates' that Microsoft installs.

not much different from the whole situation with the gov't in USA... but I don't see you moving out, do I ?

[Paul2660]

If updates are scanning for ever, take a look at http://www.infoworld.com/article/3069693/microsoft-windows/windows-7-update-scans-taking-forever-kb-3153199-may-solve-the-problem.html

If you wonder why I'm anti-Win10, it's pretty simple, as Microsoft doesn't see it as an operating system now, it's a 'service'.
http://venturebeat.com/2016/06/17/microsoft-ceo-satya-nadella-windows-10-is-a-service-not-an-operating-system/

Um, no thanks, a 'service' that can force ads on you, and controls your computer without your consent, since you no longer have control over 'updates' that Microsoft installs.

After finding the link before, (middle of the link) I was able to get my main win7 back to where it should be.  Microsoft released a composite msu with most of the updates for the past 3 months, and you can just pull that down and that will catch you up.  Make sure you turn off the windows update service first as if you don't the machine will just spin. 

This fixed it.  Hopefully it will keep updating now. 

http://superuser.com/questions/951960/windows-7-sp1-windows-update-stuck-checking-for-updates/996072#996072?newreg=f423674a652d4510a554a9bdff6cdc8c

Paul C

[Box Brownie]

Gibson Research has his own W10 stopper https://www.grc.com/never10.htm

For me it was a case of manually checking the Win Updates and hiding the KB's associated with Win10

HTH

[martin archer-shee]

I too went through the windows 10 upgrade enforcement. Long and short it did not work for me as the video card would not work properly or a second monitor. Dumped win 10 and went back to win 7. Then my computer downloaded 10 again and reinstalled. Long and short was a disaster and loss of lots of time etc.
This was the final straw for me and I am now using an iMac 27 with 5K display. Is it perfect? no but a great improvement after the learning curve.

Martin

[Pictus]

I did a clean install and no problem with Windows 10...
I also created a castrated Win10 Enterprise ISO without the "bloatware" like Edge/IE, Store, Media Player, OneDrive, Defender, Cortana, Metro...
By using MSMG ToolKit https://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/50572-MSMG-ToolKit

[donbga]

Get gwx control panel  and install it. It will allow you to control it. Free.

+1 for GWX. It really works great.

[Pavel]

Buy a Mac.  Live happy.

[FabienP]

Buy a Mac.  Live happy.

Well, see the other threads about the new MacBook Pros and the open letter to Apple. It seems that Apple managed to alienate a few working pros this time!

At least on the Windows side you can switch to a different OEM if you are not happy about current hardware options. This might not last for a long time if Lenovo keeps buying every other PC manufacturer.

Cheers,

Fabien