It’s unlikely that Microsoft’s pushing Windows 10 files onto Windows 7 machines

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Another one of those rumors that’s bound to take off like wildfire. I’ve seen it already on Neowin and Business Insider, and Forbes can’t be too far b
[See the full post at: It’s unlikely that Microsoft’s pushing Windows 10 files onto Windows 7 machines]

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Woody,
I think the points you make on this topic about the “tinfoil hat” hysteria are valid. However, I also believe that MS jumped the shark when it used Windows Update on Win 7 and 8 systems to download nagware for Win 10 updates. This was a most unusual and cheezy use of the update process and set the table for people becoming very suspicious about Microsoft’s intentions and in particular where MS was going with Windows. MS was also less than forthcoming concerning what they were doing and with their actions to limit information regarding updates in general versus past practices, MS has created a suspicion that they intend to hijack personal systems so that they can have a marketing/adserver platform masquerading as an OS. If MS wants to control the speculation, I would say that “sunshine is the best disinfectant”; they just have to speak clearly and definitively about what and why they are putting on our systems and presto, there is no great need to speculate.

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@Frank –

Agreed completely. Microsoft will rue the day they installed potentially unwanted programs on (hundreds of) millions of machines.

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“Microsoft will rue the day they installed potentially unwanted programs on (hundreds of) millions of machines.”

I hope this outcome is equally applicable to the Win 10 Forced Update policy for non-Enterprise customers. There should be some consequence for such heavy-handed treatment of their customers.

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I’ve checked one of the machines I administer, and there it was: a hidden directory called C:$Windows.~BT, with about 4 GB of files. The machine is in Belgium, if that makes a difference.

I understand why you think it’s unlikely that Microsoft is pushing Windows 10 files: because it would be so grossly stupid. It also happens to be true.

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Woody,

I’ve commented on your site a couple of times about the “nasty” and “evil” KB3035583 and KB2952664 patches. No amount of hiding would stop KB2952664 from installing. Once installed my machines would slow to a crawl for 30 minutes at a time while the HD light pulsed flashed some sequence. Resolution to the slowness can from an install of new Nvidia drivers. I can not tell you why this made the difference.

But all that is to preface that currently KB3035583 is in my hidden updates and also an installed update, and KB2952664 is installed multiple times in my update history.

Finally I have two hidden directories: $Windows.~BT and $Windows.~WS.

Call me a tinfoil hat wearer, but MS pushed Windows 10 onto my machine and no amount of, “NO” was respected by MS.

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May I suggest whipping up a Win 7 VM and see for yourself if what people are saying is true or not?

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I’ve got ’em, dated July 29, and I’m quite sure I did not click the “reserve” button.

However, I did run the Windows 10 beta on a VirtualBox VM on this same computer, so perhaps Microsoft felt this was as good as reserving a copy?

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I too found a Win 10 exe related file in my downloads folder, it reffered to KB 2952664 in the file name.
I know I did not put it there!

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Postings on patchmanagement.org from various contributors confirm that unsolicited downloads of considerable size have appeared on their machines. All of this brings to mind the famous line from “The Maltese Falcon” ..,. “When you’re slapped you’ll take it and like it.”

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@kdock –

No, running in a VM shouldn’t infect…. er… lead to an installation on a host. Ever.

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@Pronounce –

I have several Win7 machines and a couple of VMs. None of the hardware machines are showing the folder – not sure why. I’m starting a VM with Win7 right now to see if I can attract the folder – a honeypot, if you will. It isn’t clear when and how and why some people are getting the files and others aren’t.

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@Pronounce –

How big are the folders?

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@Yan –

True on both counts. Sigh.

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@Eric –

Alas, Microsoft’s general response (this isn’t a direct quote) is, if you don’t like the forced updates, don’t install Windows 10.

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@Woody

I’d like to know how to search for the $Windows~BT folder(s). So far, I haven’t seen it on my W7 x64 machine but I don’t know if I’m searching in the right places. My machine is set to show all hidden folders.
I did not reserve a W10 offer…and I have not installed any of the “adware” updates. so, I’d be interested if I have $W~BT.

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Hi Woody,

Just wanted to confirm that Microsoft is most definitely forcing the download of the Windows 10 bits on systems that did not sign up for it. I made the mistake of allowing KB3035583 and KB2952664 to install on my 64-bit Windows 7 system. I now have a 5.66 GB Windows.~BT folder on that system. I did not sign up for Windows 10. I’m going to follow your helpful “How to get rid of the ‘Your upgrade to Windows 10 is ready’ lock” article from InfoWorld to clean up this system.

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@John –

There’s an update coming this morning in InfoWorld….

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@Louis –

If you’re showing hidden files and folders, it’ll be located in your root c: drive — C:$Windows.~BT.

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@Woody

Completed the search. No $Windows.~BT folder on my W7 x64 machine. Again, I had never installed any of the adware/spyware updates.

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All I did was run the readiness part of Get Windows 10. I am running a fresh install of Windows 8.0 Pro, updated, fully patched, no Reserve My Copy for Win 10, then upgraded to Win 8.1 through the Store App, and applied all current updates to get to Win 8.1 Pro 64-bits.

I did NOT reserve a copy of Win 10. I did run a check to see if I COULD upgrade on my hardware. That’s all it took. The Optional Update to download and install the Windows 10 Upgrade is now automatically checked every time I Check for Updates. There is also the popover ad to upgrade every time I Check for Updates. The option to Reserve My Copy is still showing as not yet responded to in the popover ad.

Microsoft certainly IS forcing this upgrade down the unwilling throats of users of Win 8.1 (and a friend of mine on Win 7 Home 64-bits who never even clicked through to Check My System) by automatically checking the checkbox of this Optional Update in Windows Updates, if we check for updates manually.

There is no tinfoil involved here. This is in fact happening. My friend got the download (but not the installation) in the background and never knew what was making his PC go wonky at intervals. It happens that automatically and silently.

My friend does not monitor bandwidth usage like I do, and does not designate his home network as a metered connection. (Is this even an option in Win 7 Home?)

I strongly recommend that everyone be on the lookout for this stealth upgrade.

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@RC –

You’re right, and I was overly naive last week. Embarrassingly so.

Check out my new post on InfoWorld. http://www.infoworld.com/article/2983777/microsoft-windows/how-to-clean-the-windows-10-crapware-off-your-windows-7-or-81-pc.html

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@Louis –

That seems to be the best approach, and I’ll be modifying my “MS-DEFCON” stance to support it.

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No folder for me either but then again i never got the Win10 upgrade notification despite having both KB2952664 and KB3035583 – i uninstalled them just last night incidentally. KB2952664 being a tricky thing to get rid of since it kept reappearing, ended up running powershell commands helpfully provided by user naTong here – https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/unable-to-uninstall-update-kb2952664/1c0e8b8a-c79b-4998-b6be-f8134cef4e82?page=3

Then again, a while back i did go through the task scheduler turning off the GWX and CEIP triggers when i discovered CEIP had been switched on despite it always being off. I’m presuming KB2952664 being the cause of this? My new updates notification is also now permanently hidden though, i’ve noticed that issue brought up here and elsewhere.

While i’m here, what’s happened to https://fix10.isleaked.com That was a useful little library of these wretched updates for Win7 and 8. Had to use the wayback machine for it today so i could opt-out somebody’s laptop of the Win10 spyware. Not that it seems M$ are honouring that – http://arstechnica.co.uk/information-technology/2015/08/even-when-told-not-to-windows-10-just-cant-stop-talking-to-microsoft/

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The announcement from Microsoft you quote at Infoworld settles the issue: “we help customers prepare their devices for Windows 10 by downloading the files necessary for future installation”. Yes, Microsoft really is downloading several GB of installation files to “help” customers.

Users who don’t have a lot of free disk space won’t be happy, but users who go over their data limit (for example because of “tethering”) and have to pay extra will be furious.

A class action lawsuit seems unavoidable. Microsoft’s conduct is beyond aggressive, it’s self-destructive.

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@Yan –

Agreed.

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@yan —

Solution — For everyone above Windows 7, set your Internet connection(s) to Metered Connections.

@Woody —

Any way to set a Windows 7 network connection to a Metered Connection in the Home Edition?

@ All Folks —

This is the final straw which should convince even the most die-hard advocates of Automatic Updates. AUTOMATIC UPDATES IS FOR CHUMPS!! Set your Updates to Notify But Do NOT Download.

Windows 10 users (even Pro Users not connected to a corporate Domain) — You are completely out of luck, should Redmond decide to “help” with future Threshold 2 (Huge Widnows 10 upgrade due out this Fall) installation by downloading “a few files” behind your backs.

There is little likelihood of a Class Action lawsuit succeeding, due to Microsoft’s Windows EULAs (all versions). We have all agreed to accept periodic updates and to install them in a timely fashion (at least the security related ones). There is no provision for bandwidth usage.

While at some point I may want to upgrade my Toshiba Satellite non-touch laptop from its current Widnows 8.1 Pro to Windows 10 Pro, I am in no hurry to do so. This means being Checkmark Vigilant until further notice.

My ASUS Transformer Book tablet doesn’t have available working Windows 10 driver updates yet, so I HOPE Redmond respects that and never tries to put 3.6GB of installation files on my 64GB internal storage eMMC array. That would use up more than ten percent of my available space, for an upgrade installer which at this point I cannnot use in there.

Worse, the tablet is WIMBoot, meaning any accidental upgrade installation may be irreversible. I might be stuck with a non-functioning, automatically self-updating brick. If such cases become more widespread, THAT would be cause for a lawsuit!

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Update — 8GB of files?? That’s twice the size of the Win 10 Pro installer! And one-fourth of the total space on my Transformer Book!!

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@RC –

Interesting open question – why do some people have 3 GB, others 5 or 6 GB, and some as many as 10 GB in their crapware folder?

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“Interesting open question – why do some people have 3 GB, others 5 or 6 GB, and some as many as 10 GB in their crapware folder?”

Would a system with numerous external devices connected to it during the compatibility check cause downloading specific drivers for all of those devices?

Just a thought, I can’t think of any other reason than something that’s machine specific.

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

I see there’s a registry option if you haven’t got access to gpedit.msc (which i don’t) by creating a new DWORD at HKLMSOFTWAREPoliciesMicrosoftWindowsUpdate called DisableOSUpgrade with the value of 1. I had no key listed there called WindowsUpdate so i created one but i am led to understand that that key is only created if you have auto updates enabled. As well as removing all the suspect updates of course it might be worth a try. Although if someone is thinking NO! DON’T DO THAT! ARE YOU MAD! then please tell me. Seems this is related to KB3065987 which was the update client for july 2015.

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@T –

Much, much easier to use GWX Control Panel. It takes care of all the registry stuff for you.

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@Ed –

Possible, but the size difference is enormous.

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@woody –

Yup, absolutely. Does it also root out all the gwx entries in the registry? I didn’t personally think i needed it since i never got any nagware. I did have 3035583 until i removed it so on the surface i’ve removed gwx and had the task scheduler triggers disabled much longer than that anyway. Funny enough, after doing that registry fix and nothing else my update notification came back.

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I just ran the gwx control panel to see what it found and everything shows ‘not found’ and ‘no’ which i suspected. So that’s nice.

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@T –

Are you still seeing the icon in the system tray?

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@woody

You mean the nagware icon? No, i’ve never had that as i say. Maybe because i disabled those triggers when i found out the CEIP had been turned on without my consent.

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