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 you may be worried about inadvertently installing the upgrade as part of a security update.
Microsoft will start pushing out a Windows 10 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.
[...] Make sure you follow all the steps, but essentially you have to:
1. Open the Registry Editor (search for regedit in the Start Menu and run it).
2. Set [DWORD value] DisableOSUpgrade to 1 in HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate
3. Set [DWORD value] ReservationsAllowed to 0 in HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\OSUpgrade
Or, the obligatory recommendation to run FOSS instead.
[*] Javascript required.
Related Stories
New Info From MS to Prevent Windows 10 Installation on Your Domain.
I know that many here simply don't care about Windows. Fortunately or not, some of us are tied to it for our livelihood, and it is the vehicle by which we keep a roof over our heads and food in our stomachs.
In a not very surprising statement, Microsoft has announced via their Technet Blog that they are expanding the un-requested installation of Windows 10 onto PC's that are domain connected.
The response to Windows 10 has been incredible with over 200 million devices running Windows 10 around the world. A portion of that excitement is due to our popular free upgrade offer on qualified Windows 7 and 8.1 devices running Windows Home and Pro editions.
Many consumers have taken advantage of this offer thanks to an easy-to-use app called "Get Windows 10". This app introduces users to Windows 10, checks their PC for compatibility with Windows 10, and notifies the user when their PC is ready to upgrade. The Get Windows 10 app has been a popular method for consumers to quickly and easily upgrade to Windows 10.
Somebody drank a little too much Kool-aid before writing this blog post.
MS released a knowledge base article on January 13, 2016, that tells how to prevent installation via both Group Policy and via registry key.
I also note that there are still no instructions from MS on how to turn off the telemetry and phoning home of the new operating system.
(Score: 5, Touché) by mth on Sunday January 10 2016, @01:26AM
And people complain that Linux is too hard for average users... ;)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2016, @01:44AM
Keep in mind this option was meant for corporate systems administrators, not average Joes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2016, @09:25AM
Keep in mind this option was meant for corporate systems administrators, not average Joes.
So, you're saying, it's kinda dumbed-down? Okey-dokey!
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Sunday January 10 2016, @06:19AM
You're right that gksudo mousepad vs. regedit is often a wash.
The real difference with respect to ease of use is that a Windows PC ships with drivers needed to use all components included with a PC. It'd be different if PCs with preinstalled GNU/Linux were more widespread (that is, not just System76 and a couple other tiny mail order shops). This means we end up comparing preinstalled Windows to GNU/Linux installed from a downloaded disk image, and that often doesn't autodetect all hardware.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday January 10 2016, @10:26AM
su
nano $document
vi users save two more letters
(Score: 3, Insightful) by stormreaver on Sunday January 10 2016, @02:37PM
Even since Broadcom opened up their drivers, I have not installed a version of Kubuntu that did not autoinstall all necessary drivers (Broadcom makes many, if not most, of the wireless chipsets used in PC's, with Intel also very common). Contrary to what you said, it's the Windows installs that require me to hunt down and install almost all necessary drivers: motherboard drivers, wireless drivers, network drivers, video drivers, etc.
This is even the case for preinstalled Windows, as any minor change in hardware usually requires that the driver be installed from disk.
Sorry, but Linux outclasses Windows on driver preinstalls by a huge margin. Just for one small example: Linux understands that various devices use the same underlying chipset, so one driver will support all those devices. Windows requires a separate driver for each device, even if the underlying code for all those devices is identical.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Sunday January 10 2016, @10:14PM
Even since Broadcom opened up their drivers, I have not installed a version of Kubuntu that did not autoinstall all necessary drivers
"Opened up" to what extent? I installed Debian on a ThinkPad within the past couple months, and I remember having to download the binary firmware separately from a third-party site after having finished the net install over Ethernet.
(Score: 2) by stormreaver on Monday January 11 2016, @04:39AM
Broadcom released a fully Open Source driver in 2010.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Monday January 11 2016, @03:37PM
Even if the PC-side part of the driver is free software, a complete driver still often includes a binary-only firmware that runs on a separate processor in the radio chipset. To reduce the bill of materials, radio chipset manufacturers often leave out a flash to hold this firmware, meaning it has to be copied to the card every time the system boots. Does the part of the driver released as free software in 2010 include the radio chipset's firmware? It appears not, as the instructions to get this free driver working [debian.org] require the installation of the non-free package firmware-brcm80211 [debian.org].
I have now realized that my previous comment contains an error. I just checked again, and the one I installed within the past couple months was Intel (iwlwifi), not Broadcom. It too requires a non-free firmware [debian.org]. I probably misremembered because the other laptop was Broadcom.
(Score: 2) by stormreaver on Wednesday January 13 2016, @05:44PM
It appears not, as the instructions to get this free driver working require the installation of the non-free package firmware-brcm80211 .
I can't speak to Debian-proper, as I haven't installed it on a laptop. I can speak to Kubuntu, though, as I have installed it on my two laptops and my nearly 70 year old mother's laptop. I'm not sure if the laptops use Broadcom or Intel, but it only matters to a certain extent.
On both my laptop installs, I did not have to do anything special to get the wireless working. I installed on two laptops without a network cable, and the Kubuntu installer asked me if I wanted to enable wireless. I just reponded, "yes," and the process continued automatically. After installing, the wireless "just worked."
I installed Kubuntu on the other laptop with the cable plugged in, and was not asked if I wanted to activate the wireless card during the install (if I remember correctly). But again, the wireless worked automatically after the installation without me having to do anything.
And drivers aside, most of my productivity software was automatically installed by Kubuntu; so it was almost completely install-and-go. The remainder was a few apt-get commands. With Windows, the operating system installation is just the first step of a very long, gruelling process to become productive.
Linux installs beat Windows installs by a very large margin.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Wednesday January 13 2016, @07:00PM
One difference between the distributions is that install media for desktop versions of Ubuntu includes some non-free binary firmware from the restricted section of the repository, while Debian doesn't include anything from non-free in its install media.
(Score: 2) by stormreaver on Thursday January 14 2016, @06:46PM
One difference between the distributions....
When Kubuntu finishes installing, and after the first reboot, there is usually a notification that pops up saying proprietary drivers may be needed for some devices. It's been a while since I've paid attention to the message, but I think it says proprietary video and wireless drivers can be optionally installed. Since I've switched over to using the Free AMD video driver, and since wireless is already working, I don't install the proprietary stuff from there. I don't know if the proprietary wireless driver was installed automatically or not, though. I am assuming not, or the message wouldn't be there.
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Sunday January 10 2016, @11:20PM
I've had universally better experience with Linux drivers than Windows drivers. The last time I reinstalled Windows (a year ago), I had to manually look up eight drivers, by product ID, move then via USB, and then install them, of course, restarting after each one. The last time I installed Linux (six years ago), everything "just werked". Oh wait, for the sake of honest disclosure, I had to run package manager install "nvidia" and some wifi driver (the liveboot itself had full wifi support, so it wasn't a big problem).
Oh yeah, ease of use with regard to drivers, real solid argument there.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Monday January 11 2016, @03:12AM
At least you were able to find the drivers. On GNU/Linux, a lot of times, the drivers just plain don't exist at all. There are scanners with no SANE driver, for instance.
(Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Sunday January 10 2016, @10:37AM
Except with Windows there is always a much easier way whereas with Linux you have Bash and...yeah that is pretty much it, and you better know enough about scripting to be able to edit those bash commands because its often written for rev foo, firmware bar and if you have rev foo hardware bar+1? Its not gonna work because Linux is picky as hell about that. Compare that to Windows where I have several reg files that go all the way back to Win2K that works just fine on Windows 10, I can send them to somebody, clicky clicky reboot and done.
As for the much easier way to fix this problem? Say hello to GWX control panel [betanews.com], tada! Just run it, clicky clicky, reboot and done. Your grandma could run this thing and in fact I've sent links to it to 70 year olds who had no issue running it, think they could have edited and run bash commands? Not a chance in hell.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2016, @01:16PM
On GNU/Linux we don't have to do anything to avoid windows 10 Spy Edition...
(Score: 3, Funny) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Sunday January 10 2016, @11:45PM
On GNU/Linux we don't have to do anything to avoid windows 10 Spy Edition...
In Soviet GNU/Linux, windows 10 Spy Edition avoids you
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Sunday January 10 2016, @10:13PM
??? Either how long since you used Linux, or what version are you running.
I can believe that PuppyLinux or Blackbox might be that text oriented, but Red Hat hasn't been that text oriented in at least a decade, and neither has Debian. And most other distros are based off of those two. Slackware *might* be that text oriented, I haven't looked at it in a long time. I don't believe that Gentoo still is, though it used to be.
Just because you CAN do nearly anything via a text based interface doesn't mean that's either the only way or the most common way. It may well be the most commonly explained way because both the text interface is the easiest to explain and it's the one that requires the most explanation.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Monday January 11 2016, @12:06AM
Have Pulse break, what do you get? Bash commands. Graphic issues, network issues, can't get your wireless working? Bash bash and oh yeah, Bash.
Sorry but if everything works perfectly then and ONLY then you won't need Bash, update/upgrade the OS, have an issue? Then you quickly find that nothing works in Linux without bash, in fact I dare you to disable Bash and you'll find the entire OS will not run without Bash, in many ways Linux is just like Win9X in that it will not work without the primitive shell known as Bash required behind the scenes, similar to Win9X and DOS.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Monday January 11 2016, @07:45PM
There are, indeed, things you can't do without bash. But since you can even recompile the kernel that's not surprising. I believe that everything you can do without text commands on MSWind, you can also do without text commands on most Linux versions. Now I'll grant you that it's now been over 15 years since I so much as looked at MSWind, so my belief might be obsolete. But I remember text editing the repository to get the graphics driver to work.
That said, it is true that more hardware is tested with MSWind than is ever tested with Linux, so if you are using barely supported hardware you may get into places where you need to shell script. I prefer to avoid buying such hardware. So my experience is that I use bash scripting more often than I am required to.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Tuesday January 12 2016, @06:35AM
You do not realize how much of a crutch that Bash has become with Linux. With OSX and Windows sure you CAN use Powershell or whatever shell OSX has but you never have to as you ALWAYS have options.
Like I said just try removing Bash, use chmod to remove access to bash and see what happens, like Win9X with DOS the OS won't even boot without the thing, THAT is how much of a crutch its become. That is why I've said for years that Linux is a server OS, great in server and embedded roles, but will never be a decent desktop OS because nobody working on the thing are willing to do the work required to bring Linux up to the same level of ease of use as Windows and OSX.
Sure if you sit down and do a shitload of homework to pick just the right hardware (which just FYI even THAT will sometimes bite you in the ass as Linux forums USED to tell everyone to buy Aetheros wireless, until the kernel devs shat all over the Aetheros drivers) you can get a working system but I could so the exact same to build a Hackentosh, that isn't practical for the mass majority. Until you can just walk into Walmart and see a penguin on the box and know it'll work? Its just not gonna ever get above the sub 2% its been for the better part of 20 years.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday January 12 2016, @07:39PM
What does "the system won't boot without bash" have to do with "You have to use bash too much". (Yeah, I know that isn't what you said. But trying to figure out what you meant by "too much of a crutch" isn't making any sense to me.)
Yes, the SYSTEM uses bash a lot. So what. The user doesn't need to use it, and for well over a decade perfectly useable accounts have been createable which had access to ALL shell scripting languages forbidden. I once made accounts for people who only had access to a database script which I wrote, and the only access they had to it was via a graphics interface. (Well, OK, this was actually under an old Altos AT&T UNIX system, but doing the same thing under Linux would be trivial.)
It's my suspicion that most Linux users these days never touch shell scripting. This is certainly true for many users. That the system uses shell scripts is totally irrelevant.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Wednesday January 13 2016, @09:44AM
Because it shows how badly ingrained in the minds of the devs it is? Everyone else moved away from using shells as a critical part of the boot process because its a bad idea as it can cause all kinds of dependency hell and version hell, but not Linux, because the devs simply cannot fathom doing squat without Bash.
Here is a simply experiment that will show you I am right...pick a support forum, any forum, be it Ubuntu, PCLOS, you take your pick. Now give them a simple problem, say "graphics driver won't load" or "sound hardware not detected", now ask them for a GUI solution when they immediately start their "open up Bash and type" mantra and see what you get...you will get cursed, insulted, accused of being a shill, when the simple fact of the matter is they can't do it without bash because no matter how simple the issue they only know how to go to Bash, its a crutch they just will not let go of.
this is why I will always compare Linux NOT to Win2K on up but to Win9X, because just like with Win9X where every solution offered was to bypass the OS and go straight for the shell? The same holds true for Linux. this is fine in a server role where there usually isn't a GUI in the first place but its simply unacceptable in a consumer OS. Ironically the most popular consumer OS that uses Linux is Android by far and what was the very first thing Google did, in the very first release? Removed the shell. Because of this apps do not depend on the shell and frankly the OS is better for it. Now look at how many "programs" in Linux are nothing more than glorified screen scrapers that simply use the GUI to create a list of commands for Bash, hell there is hundreds and hundreds of them, video and text conversion just to name 2 are practically all screen scrapers, why? Because they have leaned on bash for so long they simply do not know how to write a proper program without it.
I wish it weren't so but I've seen enough to know its sadly all too true.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Wednesday January 13 2016, @07:43PM
OK, I understand that you don't like even the system shell scripting. That's a good reason for you to use something else. I don't think it's an argument that many people would even understand, and of those who understood it I believe that most would disagree.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 3, Informative) by RamiK on Sunday January 10 2016, @01:34AM
And the nag screen kept reappearing.
But, it's also possible that people applied the registry changes, and also removed kb3035583. After Microsoft reissued the patch with recommended, instead of optional tagging, it got past the auto updating and overrode the old settings while installing thus resulting in the reappearance of the nag screen.
compiling...
(Score: 4, Informative) by DonkeyChan on Sunday January 10 2016, @01:51AM
Takes 10 seconds.
http://ultimateoutsider.com/downloads/ [ultimateoutsider.com]
(Score: 3, Informative) by frojack on Sunday January 10 2016, @05:34AM
Yup, and even though I had fallowed all the prior recommendations, for manual blcoking the damn thing kept coming back.
The last time it was with some obscure language pack.
GXW put a stop to that.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by Hyperturtle on Sunday January 10 2016, @09:49PM
It's sad that it takes an external tool to control this.
For the record, removing the updates that discuss updates to windows update, or to make the upgrade process to a newer version of windows smoother -- remove all of those and you won't have this issue.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday January 10 2016, @09:55PM
But freezing your machine at some point 2014 is dangerous.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2016, @01:55AM
in other words, if you don't want windows 10, don't follow said official document
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2016, @01:57AM
Don't forget to unplug the Ethernet cable when you aren't using the computer, or else it might download and install while you aren't there to stop it. If you have a wifi card you are probably screwed, it can auto turn on like my new android phone likes to do to and waste battery on who knows what.
(Score: 2) by No Respect on Sunday January 10 2016, @09:42AM
Uh no, PCs don't do that. Disable the wifi adapter and it stays off. It's not like your new android phone FFS.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 22 2016, @07:51PM
They may not now, but in many laptops the wifi power state can be controlled by software, so it potentially could happen.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Snotnose on Sunday January 10 2016, @02:04AM
Big effin mistake. What happened was I was doing stuff and got a popup asking if I wanted to update. As my mouse was on something I wanted to click on I selected "yes" without ever having a chance to read the new dialog box.
I was afraid to abort the install, so I let it update me from Win8.1 to Win10. Big effin mistake.
I've got 3 big problems with win10:
1) About once a week, when I open my laptop it's unresponsive. I have to power cycle to get it back.
2) About every 2 weeks, when I open my laptop it's done a reboot. Not cool Microsoft. You should Never ever reboot without my explicit permission.
3) It has this nasty habit of detecting my mouse is somewhere it isn't. Things like I hit back in a browser and my window goes full screen. Hit a bookmark in a browser and it goes to the start menu. etc etc etc. It is 100% non-repeatable, the first few times I thought I'd messed up. But it's pretty consistent, once a day or so I click left mouse and something completely unrelated to where my mouse pointer is activated.
I never had any of these problems before Win10. The main thing that boggles my mind is it will reboot while my laptop is closed, without ever asking me. This, IMHO, is a big enough issue to tell anyone who will listen to never "upgrade" to Win10.
I'm not even going into the time I spend turning off the Microsoft spying.
IMHO, Win10 is a farking disaster, nobody should run it.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Sunday January 10 2016, @03:16AM
If you want to control reboot. Shut down the laptop yourself, then remove the battery and power cord. No way Microsoft can reboot with out you. Can't you just turn off auto-update, like I've done for all my Windoze machines since Win 98. Now in Win 7 and I update when I want and only after reviewing what updates are being pushed out. I just don't like software companies trying to grab my computer when I'm in the middle of something.
When life isn't going right, go left.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday January 10 2016, @04:15AM
That's silly. You don't have to go to those lengths.
The problem is that his laptop is not really sleeping, its just darkening the screen.
He needs to google that problem, because it was common for certain mother boards, and was related to a settings problem.
Most users can simply dig through the hidden settings and fix this. They don't make it easy to find.
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=windows+10+doesn%27t+sleep [lmgtfy.com]
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2016, @05:16AM
I've had sleeping computers wake themselves apply updates and reboot themselves before. The first time it happened, I thought maybe I was wrong about putting it to sleep; but after it happened again and I lost work, I tested the hypothesis by scheduling the automatic update and reboot for a time I was awake to verify. I told the computer to sleep, it fell asleep with the square wave pattern on the power indicator and all, and I waited. Sure enough, Windows woke the computer, installed updates and rebooted. Interestingly enough however, not all the computers I own will wake themselves to install updates in that fashion. A colleague at work suggest it might have something to do with the RTC timers not being settable by Windows Update on some motherboards, even when on AC power.
(Score: 1, Troll) by Phoenix666 on Sunday January 10 2016, @03:15PM
Your post had me laughing uproariously and smacking my forehead. Why do people allow Windows on their equipment?
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2016, @09:34AM
The real problem is he's running proprietary spyOS...
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Sunday January 10 2016, @03:36PM
Hey, thanks. I'll look that up later this morning. It never occurred to me it could be a settings thing.
As for auto update, it's set to automatically download updates, then ask me if I want to reboot. This is what I want. I don't have a problem with it rebooting, I have a problem with it rebooting without me telling it "ok, now is a good time to reboot".
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2016, @09:14PM
As another AC pointed out, it could actually be waking it from sleep. Try disabling the sleep timers in all your power profiles, if you don't use the timers for other things. If that doesn't work, there are a couple of posts on superuser that dive deeper into bending Windows to your will of not waking itself like that.
(Score: 2) by jasassin on Sunday January 10 2016, @10:05AM
Try that on a Surface Pro.
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 2, Informative) by Some call me Tim on Sunday January 10 2016, @06:04AM
You probably know this but the Win10 upgrade can be rolled back (within 30 days) to Win7 or 8.1 if that's what you started with. http://www.howtogeek.com/220723/how-to-uninstall-windows-10-and-downgrade-to-windows-7-or-8.1/?PageSpeed=noscript/ [howtogeek.com]
Questioning science is how you do science!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2016, @09:58PM
Yes, WHAT THE FUCK is up with that?
There is ABSOLUTELY NO technical reason why the roll-back should be time-limited!
I've reinstalled a friends laptop this weekend, she wanted to try W10 and was told she could revert if she didn't like it. It was randomly installing a broken GPU driver every few days, necessitating a reboot to safe mode to manually reverse. They didn't bother storing system restore checkpoints (why did they build that damn broken system if they don't enable it by default anyway). Of course, the "upgrade" was just over a month ago, so no option to revert.
I did ask her if they bought her diner and a movie first.
For now, I'm perfectly happy with by PIRATED version of W7 with updates completely disabled (a proper browser, some common sense and a virtual machine is all I need). It runs for months without rebooting, never once fucked me over with updates, and it doesn't try to blackmail me into "upgrading".
(Score: 1, Troll) by No Respect on Sunday January 10 2016, @09:51AM
You were a moron to begin with if you were voluntarily running 8.1. You open your laptop and it reboots maybe once every couple of weeks? So what? Windows isn't stable enough to run for weeks on end. Never has been, never will be. It's doing you a favor. If you were expecting to be able to run Windows for months on end without a reboot then you really are a moron.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Sunday January 10 2016, @10:33AM
"Windows isn't stable enough to run for weeks on end. Never has been, never will be."
Bingo!
(Score: 2) by Common Joe on Sunday January 10 2016, @11:46AM
You may be bumping into a settings problem. Windows 10 defaults to automatically rebooting after an update. (At least, mine did.) Go to your start menu, click on Settings --> Update and Security --> Advanced Options. Under "Choose how updates are installed" (at the top), look at the drop down that says "Automatic (recommended)" and change it to "Notify to scheduled restart".
You're definitely right that it's not cool. That should not be a default setting.
I got a different problem with my touchpad. My touchpad is so sensitive since the Windows 10 update that my mouse "moves on its own" to a completely different part of the screen and then it clicks. Apparently, the bottom of my thumbs happen to catch the touchpad on my laptop. I'd turn it off when I'm typing something longer except Windows 10 made that not possible too.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2016, @02:23PM
Does the mouse cursor automatically move to and click on ads?
(Score: 2) by Common Joe on Sunday January 10 2016, @08:57PM
No.
I wasn't sure a few weeks ago, but now I am. It is definitely my palm brushing the touchpad on the laptop. But it was definitively the upgrade that made the touchpad more sensitive. I have the most trouble when using Writer in LibreOffice.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by meisterister on Sunday January 10 2016, @02:25AM
On my games box, I first got Microsoft's ads a few months ago. I then had my computer undergo the standard treatment for bullshit in the OS that I don't like (I did the same thing to the Windows store and all of the Windows 8 preinstalled "apps"):
1. Open task manager and get the location of the executable in question.
2. Get ownership of the directory it's in and all of its contents.
3. Give yourself complete control over that directory.
4. Kill the offending process and nuke the directory from orbit.
For good measure, I also disabled Windows update, because I will never "upgrade" any of my PCs to Windows 10 and don't care how much Microsoft wants me to.
(May or may not have been) Posted from my K6-2, Athlon XP, or Pentium I/II/III.
(Score: 2) by jdavidb on Sunday January 10 2016, @03:50AM
I bought this Windows 7 HP Elitebook from Woot.com in 2014. I have yet to see any offer to upgrade to Windows 10. It simply hasn't happened.
Meanwhile, the non-networked desktop PC the kids use is on Windows 8 and is desperate to update itself to Windows 8.1. It likes to remind us many times per session.
ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2016, @04:44AM
In the arms race between Microsoft and its customers, this registry thing will work for a time, then Windows 10 will again be foisted.
(Score: 3, Informative) by termigator on Sunday January 10 2016, @05:29AM
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:eKYfmXevR74J:https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3080351%2Bhttps://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3080351&gbv=1&sei=NOuRVub2E8uSmQG5hJ7ADQ&hl=en&&ct=clnk [googleusercontent.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2016, @10:16AM
You don't need to leave your search string in the URL.
Everything from the plus sign (%2B) onward is just noise[1].
You can also remove the http|https that comes after the 12-character hexadecimal number.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:eKYfmXevR74J:support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3080351 [googleusercontent.com]
[1] ...unless you *intend* to highlight text.
Additionally, you can append &strip=1 to the URL and that will eliminate the download of the unnecessary scripts, unnecessary frame, unnecessary image, and unnecessary stylesheets.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:eKYfmXevR74J:support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3080351&strip=1 [googleusercontent.com]
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2016, @10:20AM
Hey! That 12-character string is NOT hexadecimal.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by digitalaudiorock on Tuesday January 12 2016, @02:18AM
I added those two registry values to my Windows 8.2 machine. Note that for the first one that specific key didn't exist at all, so I had to add the new key and add the value to it.
Didn't seem to work...today I got the same old "upgrade to windows 10" "reserve your copy" bullshit.
Luckily I only need that Godless cluster fuck for my job and otherwise use nothing but Gentoo.