Old Posted News

[Whatacrock]

Microsoft Forces the Windows 10 Upgrade on Windows 7 PCs

The upgrade is automatically initiated at system reboot

Microsoft’s offering Windows 10 as a free upgrade to those on Windows 7 and 8.1, and an update that was released on June 1 is supposed to offer a direct way to move to the new operating system.

Initially, this update allowed users to decide whether they want Windows 10 or not, but it turns out that some changes that the company has made recently to this upgrade system no longer allow options to delay or cancel the switch.

In other words, your computer might be automatically upgraded to Windows 10 after a reboot because, just as ZDNet writes, Windows Update only offers an option to start the installation of the new OS and nothing more. What’s more, no other updates are displayed for the time being, so unless you install Windows 10, you can’t do much else in Windows Update.
Third-party apps no longer working

What’s interesting is that it appears that some third-party apps that could previously block the Get Windows 10 app and delay the upgrade to the new OS forever no longer work, but it’s not yet clear if Microsoft blocked them on purpose or a recently-delivered update makes them ineffective.

Josh Mayfield, who created GWX Control Panel (previously known as GWX Stopper), says his app no longer works and he can’t tell for sure if there’s a way to bring it to life again in the future.

“GWX Control Panel is not yet able to help you, although I am looking into whether it's possible to fix these things through software. I do not have any recommendations at the moment, though, unfortunately,” he explained on his website.

There are some users, however, who claim that System Restore can really come in handy because going back to a previous OS state before October 14, the date when Microsoft reportedly made the change, could allow you to block the upgrade.

Unfortunately, there are plenty of users who might be impacted by this change, so we’ve reached out to Microsoft to see if they’re indeed forcing the Windows 10 upgrade and will update the article should we receive an answer.

Please note that we still haven't received an answer from Microsoft, so take the report with a pinch of salt until we find out what exactly happens on these Windows 7 PCs.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/microsof ... 4597.shtml

[Whatacrock]

This is becoming total madness, have changed settings for WU. Any more madness and am going to disable totally.
VM's are now set with no internet access--- this is going to slow things way too much but what the Hell.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!

[DesertJerry]

I noticed that the recent Tuesday update to my Win7 w/SP1 64bit resulted in the Win10 icon re-appearing in the taskbar - again.

Will also mention that I do have the folders: $WINDOWS.~BT and $Windows.~WS in my Windows 7 w/SP1 folder - Microsoft's previously mentioned attempt to download the Win10 update in the background and to not report this to users. Have opted to NOT delete these folders - I believe they are harmless unless invoked by the user.

I did extract and run the previously downloaded program: I_Dont_Want_Windows_10.zip - which did remove the Win10 icon from the taskbar.

As I did upgrade my version of Win8.1 to Win10 I see no need to do the same to Win7 - at this time or, maybe, never. (After all, I'm still running XP on both of my systems.)

[Whatacrock]

Follow Up Story

Microsoft Admits It Accidentally Forced the Windows 10 Upgrade on Windows 7 PCs

As we reported to you yesterday, a number of users that were still running Windows 7 on their PCs had been forced to upgrade to Windows 10, with Windows Update providing no other option than to restart the computer and start the install.

Although at first it wasn’t very clear what exactly happened because the Windows 10 upgrade was supposed to be optional in the first place, a statement released by the software giant to Ars confirms that it was all just a mistake.

Basically, the optional upgrade to Windows 10, which was… er… optional, was checked by default, which means that it was automatically downloaded and installed on Windows 7 PCs. The company says that it all happened accidentally and has since removed this configuration to make sure that users are still allowed to choose if they want to install Windows 10 or not.

“As part of our effort to bring Windows 10 to existing genuine Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 customers, the Windows 10 upgrade may appear as an optional update in the Windows Update (WU) control panel. This is an intuitive and trusted place people go to find Recommended and Optional updates to Windows. In the recent Windows update, this option was checked as default; this was a mistake and we are removing the check,” the full statement reads.
You can still delay the upgrade

At first, it was believed that installing Windows 10 was the only option for PCs impacted by this change, but it wasn’t. Actually, users could view the optional updates selected for install and uncheck the Windows 10 upgrade manually. What’s more, the Windows 10 installer needs users’ confirmation to begin, so there are several ways to stop the upgrade from happening if you just want to stick to the existing OS version.

But this is clearly no excuse from Microsoft and for many, it’s hard to believe it was just a mistake. Not when the company needs to upgrade as many people as possible to Windows 10.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/microsof ... 4650.shtml

[Whatacrock]

@DesertJerry -- I hide these updates but each time they are updated , they reappear in the WU List, so need to uncheck and hide the update.

The follow story is a response from one of the MS representatives.

[ChrisJ]

<snip...>
Although at first it wasn’t very clear what exactly happened because the Windows 10 upgrade was supposed to be optional...

But this is clearly no excuse from Microsoft and for many, it’s hard to believe it was just a mistake.

Please, you foisted upon our systems gigs of unwanted clutter, don't also insult our intelligence.

► Show Spoiler

* THIS * WAS * DELIBERATE *

[TheAPGuy]

that spoiler actually took a bit to load and display... like 5 seconds... I closed and opened it again to check if it was blank at first.

[ChrisJ]

that spoiler actually took a bit to load and display... like 5 seconds... I closed and opened it again to check if it was blank at first.

I removed Marquee.

The forums have become sluggish and slow for me for a few months now. Even with a cache built up pages take longer to load, I see the 'contacting ap.net' and 'transferring data from ap.net' far longer than I used to, I figured the ads might be getting more bloated, longer animations, larger images.

[TheAPGuy]

No ads. I have not put them back in if I remember. I don't know what your issue is since It loads damn near instantly for me. even my tablet.

Is your bookmark to autopatcher.com (which redirects to here) or to autopatcher.net? I have two bookmarks one for the .com and one for the .net. I keep an eye on the .com and sometimes it does take a while.

[ChrisJ]

No ads. I have not put them back in if I remember. I don't know what your issue is since It loads damn near instantly for me. even my tablet.

The new forum used to load very quickly for me too, definitely when I had a cache built up. I'm not sure when but some time in the recent past every page I visit takes much longer. I notice now at the bottom of Firefox, not sure what you call the widget but every page here now goes thru this cycle of 'contacting autopatcher.net' - 'waiting for autopatcher.net' - 'transferring data from autopatcher.net'. This is why I try to keep my attachments around for only a short time, I just cleaned out the old stuff. There are 2 other phpbb sites I visit and they still load fast for me.

OT: This reminds me... A mod at one site I used to visit had an offsite avatar, a 5+MB pic of he and his wife. I downloaded the image, it was something like 5000x4000 pixels. The size limit on the site was 90x90. I kinda think I know why he did it, he was a homely kind of guy and his wife, for him IMO, was a little out of his league in the looks department. I think he wanted people to notice. My point is, his avatar alone made it almost impossible for me on dialup to load the forums, he was all over the forums as a mod.

Is your bookmark to autopatcher.com (which redirects to here) or to autopatcher.net? I have two bookmarks one for the .com and one for the .net. I keep an eye on the .com and sometimes it does take a while.

This is what I have as links, for some time now...

New Site: http://www.autopatcher.net/forum/
Old Site: http://www.autopatcher.net/forums/