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: 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.