Free "Never 10" tool by GRC to stop unwanted Win10 upgrades

[trakers]

Microsoft has silently been forceably upgrading some Win7 and Win8.1 users machines to Win 10 without their consent. I heard the rumors, then sadly, it happened to us. Come in one morning and oh, look, Windows 10, WTH???

Steve Gibson, over at GRC, wrote this tiny utility to help people disable Win10 upgrade nagging and is suppose to stop the unwanted and unapproved automatic upgrading to Win10.

https://www.grc.com/never10.htm

 

[Gene@mpls]

GWX is another one I have used for 6-8 months with good experience. Just noticed that InfoWorld prefers it.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Microsoft has silently been forceably upgrading some Win7 and Win8.1 users machines to Win 10 without their consent. I heard the rumors, then sadly, it happened to us. Come in one morning and oh, look, Windows 10, WTH???

Steve Gibson, over at GRC, wrote this tiny utility to help people disable Win10 upgrade nagging and is suppose to stop the unwanted and unapproved automatic upgrading to Win10.

https://www.grc.com/never10.htm

It's really not secret.

In December of last year, MS said that it was going to be an upgrade to go to Win 10 for Win 7 and Win 8.1 users after the new year. Those that still had Auto Updates on would be the ones that would be affected and had updates on their computer that facilitated this upgrade that much easier (plus a few of those upgrades back in the summer already added telemetry to Win 7 and Win 8.1).

Eventually, you won't be able to escape Win 10, once Win 7 and Win 8.1 reach EOL as you won't have drivers for newer hardware for those OSs and due to that, you also won't have newer software written for Win 7 and 8.1 as well. So if you are trying to avoid Win 10 (and later releases), probably have to start thinking about running VMs and using an alternative main OS.

This was primary the reason why I moved to Linux as my main OS and haven't looked back (plus it's just better, at least in my opinion).

I'm leary of any 3rd party app to disable something that should be able to be natively disabled within the OS. Who knows what else they do while they are in there. If I recall some of the early Win 10 3rd party programs to disable all of the telemetry were malware.

Supposedly there is a way to opt out, but I have Win 7 in a VM with internet denied to it and I'm not going to find out. Another nice thing about VMs is my Win98 has new life as well (I'm partial to that one and the games that I can play once again on it, but I digress).

 

[SignBurst PCs]

Here is the official MS process:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3080351

I have successfully stopped the upgrade on a system that was being forcefully upgraded using the methods described. It isn't really all that difficult, just annoying.

You have 30 days (or so) to roll-back the upgrade to Windows 7 (or 8.1). After you roll it back, you can disable the upgrade (using the above method) and you should be good to go.

It took me 20 minutes on one of our customer's systems.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Here is the official MS process:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3080351

I have successfully stopped the upgrade on a system that was being forcefully upgraded using the methods described. It isn't really all that difficult, just annoying.

You have 30 days (or so) to roll-back the upgrade to Windows 7 (or 8.1). After you roll it back, you can disable the upgrade (using the above method) and you should be good to go.

It took me 20 minutes on one of our customer's systems.

I wouldn't be surprised if that official process will no longer work after such a point though. There is too much to gain for them to keep making it harder and harder NOT to upgrade (the other side of the sword of "it's easy to upgrade to Win 10"). In fact, I would argue right now Win 10 is MS, so they have to make sure it works.

I think that MS is even going to have a one click process for people that don't have a genuine copy of Win 7/8.1 to upgrade to Win 10. I'm sure that they might/will still pay a fee, but I don't think they are going to stop the process.

Gotta love being a "captive audience".

 

[SignBurst PCs]

I wouldn't be surprised if that official process will no longer work after such a point though. There is too much to gain for them to keep making it harder and harder NOT to upgrade (the other side of the sword of "it's easy to upgrade to Win 10"). In fact, I would argue right now Win 10 is MS, so they have to make sure it works.

I think that MS is even going to have a one click process for people that don't have a genuine copy of Win 7/8.1 to upgrade to Win 10. I'm sure that they might/will still pay a fee, but I don't think they are going to stop the process.

Gotta love being a "captive audience".

This may be true, but I would bet that there will always be a way to bypass the upgrade one way or another. There are a lot of businesses that will need to stay on Win 7 for a while. Enterprise customers can opt out via WUS or Group Policy. The rest of us are left with 3rd party solutions or registry hacks. Most folks won't want to dive into their registry, so there is already a technical barrier to stop the average user from doing this.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

This may be true, but I would bet that there will always be a way to bypass the upgrade one way or another.

I'm talking more about an "oem" method if you will. The way that they have handled everything so far on this whole Win 10 roller coaster, just has to make me wonder when the other shoe drops.

There are a lot of businesses that will need to stay on Win 7 for a while. Enterprise customers can opt out via WUS or Group Policy.

Most businesses should be on Enterprise as it is (although not all are, I realize that), so they have that ability. Just like that don't have to deal with updates as soon as they are available like the mainstream consumer just has to do the updates when they come out. I think Enterprise Win 10 users get a couple of months to make sure everything is kosher, before they update.

Truth be told, in my opinion, if something is "mission critical" it shouldn't be online and that would forego a lot of this stuff.

The rest of us are left with 3rd party solutions or registry hacks. Most folks won't want to dive into their registry, so there is already a technical barrier to stop the average user from doing this.

I have a problem trusting 3rd party solutions for something that should be able to be done easily within the OS itself.

A lot of stuff MS does, because it can and not really a whole lot the end customer can do about it in the long term. That's the bad thing.

 

[GB2]

Here is the official MS process:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3080351

I have successfully stopped the upgrade on a system that was being forcefully upgraded using the methods described. It isn't really all that difficult, just annoying.

You have 30 days (or so) to roll-back the upgrade to Windows 7 (or 8.1). After you roll it back, you can disable the upgrade (using the above method) and you should be good to go.

It took me 20 minutes on one of our customer's systems.

Casey...any chance you can explain this in English?? I looked at the support document but quite honestly I don't have a clue as to where I would start with that.

 

[SignBurst PCs]

Casey...any chance you can explain this in English?? I looked at the support document but quite honestly I don't have a clue as to where I would start with that.

If you are already upgraded, you have to roll-back the upgrade first: http://www.howtogeek.com/220723/how-to-uninstall-windows-10-and-downgrade-to-windows-7-or-8.1/

You will need to be familiar with the Microsoft Registry Editor (regedit.exe) and /or Computer Configuration.

Note: I had to restart the computer a couple times before the upgrade and notifications disappeared.

Here are the instructions to block the upgrade for most of us (some of these steps are from memory, we may have to adjust):

Method #1 Computer Configuration

Click Start (or Windows button on Keyboard)
Type "mmc" (no quotes) in the search bar
It should find mmc.exe, click it or the enter key (approve any security warnings)
A blank console should open
Click File
Click Add / Remove Snap-In
Click Group Policy Object
Click Add
Next Windows should say Local Computer
Click Finish
Click OK
Click Local Computer Policy
Click Computer Configuration.
Click Policies.
Click Administrative Templates
Click Windows Components
Click Windows Update
Double-click Turn off the upgrade to the latest version of Windows through Windows Update.
Click Enable.
Close Console

Note: Policy path = Computer Configuration / Administrative Templates / Windows Components / Windows Update Policy
Setting: Turn off the upgrade to the latest version of Windows through Windows Update

Method # 2 Windows registry

Important: Follow the steps in this section carefully. Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Before you modify it, back up the registry for restoration in case problems occur.

To block the upgrade to Windows 10 through Windows Update, specify the following registry value:

Subkey: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate
DWORD value: DisableOSUpgrade = 1

You can also hide that persistent Windows 10 reminder

Important: Follow the steps in this section carefully. Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Before you modify it, back up the registry for restoration in case problems occur.

For non-Enterprise versions of Windows, the notification icon can be suppressed through the Windows registry. To do this, set the following registry value:

Subkey: HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Gwx
DWORD value: DisableGwx = 1

 

[AF]

I used the utility on all our Win7 systems without issue. Everyone is grateful to have the nagware shut off for good.