Windows 10 Forced Upgrade to Win7, 8, and 8.1

[asonisgeyo]

For those of you running Windows 7, 8, or 8.1, you may want to strongly consider taking measures to prevent Microsoft from pushing Windows 10 to your computer without your consent. This is real and happening to a lot of PCs as I write this on 5/24/16.

Two relatively easy ways to prevent this are to install GWX Control Panel or Never10 which effectively stop automatic updates and remove the offending updates and preloaded Win10 OS that are waiting to do their trick. I have no affiliation with either product, but just am observing that they seem to work, stopping the auto scheduled Win10 update.

http://blog.ultimateoutsider.com/2015/08/using-gwx-stopper-to-permanently-remove.html

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

The tradeoff is that you are stopping automatic updates, and may miss some critical security patch or bugfix. Both these tools do selectively allow installation of updates, assuming you can tell if an update will solve, or cause problems.

Microsoft is willingly and intentionally causing a lot of grief by forcing people to make a choice to stop updates or have their system potentially trashed by an unsuccessful update, one that could render mission critical software and hardware inoperable. Microsoft is making that update decision for you, which in my opinion is the single worst thing they have ever done to their customers.

[Aveleoau]

Our computer just self-loaded 10 (I think). I'm not a big fan so far. From what I've read, it is fairly easy to roll back to 7, but you have to do it within 30 days, or you'll need the 7 CD, which I don't have, as it was already installed. My wife claims she didn't agree to 10. but it got on there somehow. Grrr!

[awufeigv]

Is 10 a bad system? This machine runs 7 and I assume support will stop soon... for the average user is it unwise to let it change?

[Barreraoi]

Win10 is not a bad system per say - it might work well for you, or your computer may not be up to the task of running it, or the hardware and software you rely on may or may not work on it. It is full of internal MS sanctioned spyware and adware, and will force you into a subscription model - paying endlessly for Microsoft Office for example, and soon, for the operating system itself.

The biggest problem is legacy software and hardware not working on it. I use QuickBooks Pro 2008 for my business, rely on it, it has all the features I need, and it will not run on Windows 10. That is roughly a $500 cost to update the software for me-- unanticipated. Also I use the Adobe CS5.5 Suite which I purchased in full. It has quite a few bad problems running on Windows 10. Updating that forces me into the Adobe endless subscription model - and there are very few of the new features that I really want or need. My friends business has Win7 specific video hardware - and the forced upgrade happened during a video shoot Monday - costing the shoot - six hired people had to be paid to stand around while they rolled back so that the expensive production hardware would work. So a lot of us have good, informed reason to stay on Win7.

Yes, you should be able to rollback. Some people are doing it with no problem, some are having trouble and ending up with borked systems. Some have no idea how to do it.

Don - your wife did nothing. Essentially it was pushed on her. She got a message telling her upgrade will happen - there was a way to decline, but in very fine print and not at all obvious. Clicking the X box (upper right corner of the dialog) to close the dialog initiated the update. Intentional misdirection on Microsoft's part and they are getting a ton of criticism for it.