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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.
(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.