First Aid for forced Windows 10 upgrades

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Unceremoniously upgraded to Win10 over the weekend? Know someone who was? Here’s what to do. InfoWorld Woody on Windows
[See the full post at: First Aid for forced Windows 10 upgrades]

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Hi Woody,

Thanks for what you do.

I have had no problems with the Win 10 upgrade all along. I have windows update set to “Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them” and I regularly use “GWX Control Panel”. However, what worries me is you stated in this article that one of your Win 7 machines attempted to install Win 10. If this happened to you, can I expect a forced attempt at some point on my machine? I would appreciate your thoughts on this.

Regards

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Nope. As long as you’ve run GWX Control Panel, you should be fine. Microsoft has published registry settings that are guaranteed to thwart installation of Win10. GWX Control Panel sets those registry bits, and then some.

I was running a test machine – intentionally didn’t install GWX Control Panel, and I left Auto Update turned on.

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OK, I didn’t realize you left out the GWX Control Panel and left Auto Update on.

Thanks

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Yeah, it’s a test system. I’m never treat a real system like that.

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“And second, no, you aren’t going crazy, and no, you didn’t do anything wrong.”

Except click Accept when you meant Decline.

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I’m not at all certain that’s the case, given the huge outbreak on Friday night.

If the offered EULA didn’t specifically state “By clicking Accept, you will be upgraded to Windows 10” then all bets are off. I have never seen a screenshot of a Win10 EULA like that.

I did, however, see a different sequence (on Sunday) that includes explicit acceptance of Windows 10, and I posted the screens for that sequence.

In October, Terry promised us “You can specify that you no longer want to receive notifications of the Windows 10 upgrade through the Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 settings pages.” I haven’t seen it.

Microsoft’s losing customers and losing credibility. Rapidly.

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Are you in the habit of accepting license terms for software you DON’T want to install?

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No, I don’t believe I ever have accepted a EULA for software that I don’t want to install.

The question is whether this particular EULA states, in black and white, that accepting the EULA implies that you accept installation of Windows 10. For most software, the EULA is a separate step.

The Win10 installer now has a more accurate EULA – a large line across the top, and the admonition that, when you click on Decline, that Windows 10 will not install. That’s progress.

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The GWX Control Panel website suggests that even with GWX Control Panel installed it is a good idea to disable automatic updates, and choose instead to have the updates download and notify they are ready to be installed so the user can review them and decide which should be installed. The implication is that Microsoft may come up with a new way of forcing the install of Windows 10 that GWX Control Panel has not yet been updated to block (kind of like a zero-day malware attack). So my question is, is it possible Microsoft would come up with a new way to install W10 that would evade the current blocking efforts of GWX Control Panel? Would the GSX Control Panel detect this and alert the user in a timely manner? I support a number of home users and don’t really want to turn off automatic installation of updates on their systems because I don’t want them to have to deal with trying to decide which updates should/shouldn’t be installed and I want security updates to be installed automatically and as soon as they come out. Any suggestions on how to deal with this dilemma? Thanks

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It’s highly, highly unlikely. The registry setting GWX Control Panel uses are documented by Microsoft, and offered to the business community, specifically to keep Windows 10 from installing. Microsoft has a public relations disaster on its hands as things stand now. There would be screams all over the world if they bypassed their own blocks.

Microsoft has set the rules of engagement and, as best I can tell, they’re keeping within the rules – and have every intention of doing so in the future.

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