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Windows 10 - Free Upgrade - freely installed

Team Valhalla

New Member
I'm sure there's tons of people on this forum that are a lot smarter than I am when it comes to computer software and such, so I'm just sharing what I've observed.

All my desk and laptop computers continuously offer to upgrade to Windows 10 for free. I've held off doing anything with it due to "change issues" and also what I've read here on the forum where people have had issues after going with the upgrade.

So yesterday, the computer that I have all my graphics on was "stuck" mid update. I got to looking at it and during the night it had tried to automatically update to Windows 10! I cancelled the update and the next screen that came up said - "Reinstalling previous version of Windows". After about 20 minutes, the machine rebooted and away I went.

This morning, on a different computer, I was checking news headlines and a window popped up and said that all Windows updates had not been installed. There was a button that said "retry".... clicked on that... and a window popped up and said that installation of Windows 10 had begun. I clicked the stop button and moved on.

I had heard/read that sooner or later the offer to upgrade was going to become an update. I guess it's sooner than later.

I've gone in and clicked off the automatic update feature so I don't get in trouble with an unwanted change.

Anyone else running into this?

Has anyone using Corel updated and not had any issues?

SP
 

Django

New Member
Running into this now. Windows 10 is now a recommended update and will upgrade if auto update is set. Its become a pain, as most other software were built around 7. Most software companies will not make Windows 10 compatible drivers until 7 is no longer made or supported. Same thing as when they stopped Windows XP, except they didn't make it a required upgrade.
 

Team Valhalla

New Member
The GWX feature is great for eliminating the continuous notifications... but Microsoft has amped it up and it's no longer just a suggestion, it's now trying to implement the upgrade.

SP
 

WildWestDesigns

Active Member
I had heard/read that sooner or later the offer to upgrade was going to become an update. I guess it's sooner than later.

I had heard that this was going to be, at the very least, a highly suggested update at the beginning of this year.


I've gone in and clicked off the automatic update feature so I don't get in trouble with an unwanted change.

I think it's too late for that to do any good. You have already received the updates that will nag for this type of thing. There is a write up on MS' website to handle this and do away with the nagware.

I'm not a fan of 3rd party solutions. There may not be anything wrong with a specific one, but you do run the risk of introducing bad code into your system.



Doing the Win 10 update in this manner also introduces the potential for a lot of instability down the road with the update policy for those that received their Win 10 in this manner. Something that really isn't all that good for "mission critical" environments. Sometimes be "bleeding edge" isn't a good thing, even if it is "free".
 

decalit

New Member
Yeah i have been clicking no for months now, but over night tuesday it updated itself... WTF... now i have a frozen up unusable station until i get enough free time to do a system reboot... THANKS MICROSOFT
 

phototec

New Member
I think it was Tuesday night I received a pop-up saying it was updating going to upgrade to Win 10 that night, I did NOT select anything to tell it to do that so I selected CANCEL. I'm not ready for the FREE upgrade to 10, I need to make sure it will not effect any of my existing software before doing it.

I just have not had anytime to verify what it will effect!

VersaWorks

Illustrator 5.5

Photoshop CC

FilterForge

OnOne Suite

Astute Plug-ins for Illy

Just to name a few...
 

WildWestDesigns

Active Member
I'm not ready for the FREE upgrade to 10, I need to make sure it will not effect any of my existing software before doing it.


Bare in mind, if you do the free upgrade, no matter what version of Win 10 you'll be upgrading to, you'll be subject to any and all updates as soon as they are available. That will also increase instability within your system. Remember how many threads we had on here about this or that update on Win 7 affecting something? I don't know if it will be as easy to strip away sections of updates like it once was, so you'll be stuck with waiting until MS comes out with a patch.

There is a hit or miss way of tricking it, if you use a wireless connection. You might be able to trick the computer into thinking it's on a metered connection.

I think there is 3rd party software that will also help mitigate that, I'm just not a fan of using 3rd party solutions when it should be able to be done within the OS itself (emphasis on should be). And you are assuming that they aren't doing their own thing with your system as well.

While in theory, I don't have a problem with updates, but not when they are compelled and lets face it, MS doesn't have the best history with updates (which to a degree is understandable), but if Apple has had a few update issues and they have far more control over hardware/software then Windows does.

I think Win 10 has some great things going for it, but it also has some not so great things going for it. It all just depends on what you value more.
 

300mphGraphics

New Member
I found and used this one: https://www.grc.com/never10.htm So far so good! Also removed the 6.5 gig of Windows 10 already on my system.

The elegance of this “Never 10” utility, is that it does not
install ANY software of its own
. It simply and quickly
performs the required system editing for its user.
 

WildWestDesigns

Active Member
Actually Never 10 will install the latest Windows update if you don't have it. It needs that latest update in order to work. Which makes sense. Unfortunately, I don't know if Never 10 will take away some of the extra goodies that come along with those most recent updates either. So there is that concern as well. I don't know though, I don't even have SP1 on my Win 7 VMs.

From what I can tell, it's just a GUI front end to what MS' directions are to do away with the nagware. So you are accomplishing the same thing, just don't have to get "dirty" with the back end stuff.
 

Northern Design

Northern Design Graphics
win 10

It started install on its own, I had update settings set to notify of update but not to install. WTF it over rides the settings, I purchased win 7 I did not not ask for win 10 not to shut off all the Spyware and start looking at a MacBook pro with parallels
 

player

New Member
Load the free GWX control panel and STOP win10 in it's tracks! I have done it to about 5 PCs now and it works like a charm. You can have it even preserve your option to upgrade in the future, or stop everything. GWX Control Panel.
 

WildWestDesigns

Active Member
Load the free GWX control panel and STOP win10 in it's tracks! I have done it to about 5 PCs now and it works like a charm. You can have it even preserve your option to upgrade in the future, or stop everything. GWX Control Panel.

It is possible that Win 10 has already downloaded, if only partially, on to your system. Would also need to get rid of that as well as that is bogging down your system as well.

Of course, if update notification had been shut off before the updates that had the nagware on it had been installed, this could have been precluded.

And I just let all my PCs ugrade to Win10 without any issues.

The end.

Some installs go on without a hitch, some do not. The compatibility check for this is not accurate at all (in fact, it would have been counter productive if it was).

I have never had a good experience with upgrading in such a manner with MS products. Not once. Fresh installs only have worked for me, but that is only my experience.

start looking at a MacBook pro with parallels

If you are going to do that, make sure to get one that has enough resources to run 2 OSs, as resources are shared in that type of application. Also, I would deny internet connection to the guest (Windows OS), otherwise this whole thing could start all over depending on your update configuration.

Internet to the guest isn't really necessary in this application anyway. Even to get files off the guest OS, there are multiple ways of doing that without having to allow Internet.

This is actually the setup that I use, except instead of a Mac, I use various Linux distributions and use VirtualBox. Works like a charm.
 

player

New Member
It is possible that Win 10 has already downloaded, if only partially, on to your system. Would also need to get rid of that as well as that is bogging down your system as well.

Of course, if update notification had been shut off before the updates that had the nagware on it had been installed, this could have been precluded.

GWX has a control panel with 7 or 8 options/functions that clear;block;delete the w10 downloads and functions...
 

amw

Longtime Members
Never 10

This is the best way to stop your computer from auto updating to windows 10. You can also turn use it to switch it back later. It changes group policy to stop the update and removes all win10 files. Never 10 is written by a guy who is a security expert and been around a long time, very trusted. Highly recommend using the file from his site (you can delete it after you run it and there is nothing to install).
 
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