Utility that Kills Windows 10 Update

KY6LA_Howard

As many of you know I have made my living from the bleeding edge of technology. However sometimes there is just too much blood to wade through. Windows 10 is such a too bloody situation. Like all recent MS products it was released into the wild before it was finished so the MS customers could find all the problems that it would cause. There have already been numerous updates to fix problems BUT invariably these updates break something else... You only have to read the constant moaning and groaning on this community about how the latest W10 broke DAX or SSDR Or CAT to realize that W10 is still a long way from being a stable production system. One of the annoyances of W10 is that if you are using W7 or * it constantly bugs you to upgrade to W10 with annoying regular pop ups. Before I left for France a couple of weeks ago I made the mistake of clicking on the W10 upgrade button on one of my production machines figuring it would harmlessly download a copy of W10 that I could install on a test machine in the far distant future. Then I forgot about it and left for Paris BIG MISTAKE Imagine my dismay when I remoted into that machine and saw a big splash display install W10 NOW There was no way to **** the install process....if you rebooted, it would,automatically insta W10. Disaster in the making. The last thing I needed was a production Maxine encumbered with an unstable bug filled OS. At least not before 2017 or 2018. Fortunately I found this wonderful utility that not only killed the unwanted install, killed the annoying update to W10 pop ups, even removed,the entire 3G of W10 install **** and warned you if W10 and MS were trying to sneak in again. The program is called GWX control Panel http://ultimateoutsider.com/downloads/ Highly recommended for anyone who wants to avoid spilling their blood dealing with W10 until it works 100%.

EA4GLI

+1

That app is a life saver!

I have a remote computer that is running out of hard drive space. I cannot do anything about it until I can physically get to the PC and add a larger drive in it. I will have to go through the process of creating an image and add the new drive.... anyway, the machine had barely 10 to 12Gb free in the main hard drive until recently when, all of a sudden, it was almost out of space. 

The culprit?.... that **** Win10 upgrade that had taken 11GB of Hard drive downloading the install files without my consent.

Thanks to the GWX app I was able to remotely remove all that **** and go back a stable win7 system with over 10% hard drive space available.

The creator of GWX points out that Microsoft is getting more a more aggresive and sneaky about this upgrade. http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/625175/Windows-10-Microsoft-Sneaky-Background...

BTW credit goes to Josh Mayfield, the engineer that created GWX.

Carl N8VZ

Totally different experience. Windows 10 has been the most stable and downward compatible version of Windows since at least XP. It is much better than Vista, 7, 8 or even 8.1.

DrTeeth

Salvador, run the disk clean utility. You will be amazed at the Gbs you will get back.

dlwarnberg

I have had ZERO issues with windows 10.  

EA4GLI

I am way past that Guy, but thanks for the advice.

I have even created symbolic links for the AppData folder on a separate hard drive. This is a PC I built 6 years ago with one of the original SSD drives, barely 60GB, and it is a nightmare now. The PC has 5 additional drives, but the OS is in the original SSD. I will probably end up with a new install of windows 7 on a newer 250GB SSD.

dlwarnberg

FYI... a simple registry hack will stop the upgrade, you will also want to turn off auto updates in your version of windows.. that is how they get the word out about the upgrade.

EA4GLI

I think a lot has to do with the hardware. My personal experience in a Asus UX31e has been a nightmare. I am on Howard's boat. I'll wait until you guys iron out all the bugs and jump on it sometime in 2017

NM1W

Thanks Howard! This util has also been recommended by Steve Gibson (@sggrc) on Security Now; For some of us win10 is not what we want.. win7 is all that we need...

Walt - KZ1F

Or, use Mac or Linux.

dlwarnberg

I don't like running someone else's utility to do what I need... who knows what else they may be changing., do you??


To properly disable the Windows 10 upgrade as recommended by microsoft I would advise reading the following article:

Ref: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3080351

Computer Configuration

To block the upgrade by using Computer Configuration, follow these steps

Click Computer Configuration.

Click Policies.

Click Administrative Templates.

Click Windows Components.

Click Windows Update.

Double-click Turn off the upgrade to the latest version of Windows through Windows Update.

Click Enable.

Policy path

Computer Configuration / Administrative Templates / Windows Components / Windows Update Policy

Setting: Turn off the upgrade to the latest version of Windows through Windows Update

Windows registry

Important Follow the steps in this section carefully. Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Before you modify it, back up the registry for restoration in case problems occur.

To suppress this offer through the registry, specify the following registry value:

Subkey: HKLMSOFTWAREPoliciesMicrosoftWindowsWindowsUpdate DWORD value: DisableOSUpgrade = 1

Ian1

Howard I was waiting to see your thoughts on this upgrade and it seems my gut was right. Thanks for the update and link. Ian

Dave - WB5NHL

Not directly related to Windows 10 but something to consider related to purchasing a Surface device. I'm not a Surface owner but would think twice about this power management issue since Surface is intended to be portable.
https://www.thurrott.com/mobile/microsoft-surface/62772/microsoft-will-not-fix-power-management-issu...

KY6LA_Howard

While some people have had luck with W10, a heck of a lot of people on the Alpha team have run into issues with W10 updates breaking DAX and CAT. Every time MS issues a new update. Life is too short for me to waste my time debugging MS caused issues. I would rather be sitting at a cafe in Paris sipping good wine,,,,in fact that is where I am headed now.

EA4GLI

I kind of trust that unknown engineer more than Microsoft after all the sneaky stuff they have been doing with Windows 10.

Walt - KZ1F

Why 'jump on it' at all? When win7 is end of lifed, yeah vendors will cease supporting their product on that platform. That would provide a justification to upgrade. While I agree it is unnecessary as a platform for FRS, turning off updates means it will never leave the crippled state it is in. Sort of like never advancing ssdr beyond version 0.92. Is turning off updates really sort of biting one's nose to spite their face? A better, perhaps, alternative is spend $60 and install a stable Win 7 over it until support ends for win 7.

Ross - K9COX

Most of us that have no issues with Windows 10 don't say anything because we have nothing to say.

dlwarnberg

I guess working in the IT security field for the last 20 years has made me overly paranoid, but then again I have not been part of a company that's had a large data breach, nor have I had any viruses on my local network either.

dlwarnberg

About 67 million last count...  http://www.windowscentral.com/report-windows-10-now-installed-67-million-pcs

Andy F5VAI

During the last 3 months I have converted 8 computers in our small business from either Win7 or Win8 to Win10 (all 64bit).  The whole office has some quite complicated software. Since installation of Win10 my technical call outs by the staff have dropped considerably.  Yes, I was very much a Win10 skeptic, but I have to admit  "the proof is in the eating". 

About 3 weeks ago I therefore decided to take the plunge on my own Win7 64 (very stable machine) and so far I have not had a problem.  I uninstalled all Flex software before starting and on the reinstall everything worked fine and has continued to do so. 

I also look after some Macs and I have found that they are not without their problems these days either. 

  

DrTeeth

I just love it when people say they have not had problems with something, inferring it must be okay or others are doing something wrong. Should the same argument apply to drinking and driving?

The people who have the problems are paradoxically the most computer savvy. People who do not have problems tend to be in either controlled environments or do not stress their OS at all.

Steve K9ZW

Are these analogies accurate or just another example of emotively reaching for a solution that really is another example  of the "Illusory Correlation" logical fallacy?

There are so many moving parts that it would be far to simple to "play dumb about computers" (perhaps assigning the management of your machines to the cleaning staff?) as when the non-savvy are in charge there are less Win10 problems....

The clear likely hypothesis that does come out what we're seeing with Win10 and SmartSDR perhaps something completely different.

It would seem with Win10 the default result is a breakdown except for select instances where the planets align just right.

73

Steve K9ZW

W7NGA

Come on Guy ... I'll use your logic. My theory are those that have the most problems with Windows 10 have downloaded the most ****. 

Hardly a Microsoft issue ... 

dlwarnberg

over 30 years experience in the PC industry, 20 years IT security... from my professional opinion this statement is completely false "The people who have the problems are paradoxically the most computer savvy. People who do not have problems tend to be in either controlled environments or do not stress their OS at all."  

I find most that have issues have little knowledge about the OS they are working with be it Windows, MAC, Linux, HPUX, Solaris, etc.....

AS they say on MNF  "Come on man"

Rick Hadley - W0FG

I've been messing about with Windows since or before V3.0 and I don't think that 10 is going to turn out to be that much of a problem for anyone.  In fact, in the configuration i have it right now, it's far more stable than was W7.  I've been running it 24/7 without a lockup for at least two weeks, which is a 2-yr record for this system.  Under Win7 and my first upgrade to 10, I could never get more than a few days without a system freeze.  I will admit to being scared to let it do any further updates, at least until SSDR 1.6 comes out, at which time I'll uninstall that, do the W10 updates and reinstall and hope for the best.

Steve W6SDM

And once Window's 10 is installed, it keeps doing updates, some of which will **** already installed apps that it feels are incompatible.

Windows 10 is like ****.  It's the gift that keeps on giving. 

Dave Dave

Rick Hadley - W0FG

It won't do updates if you don't reboot the computer, which I've been able to avoid for the past 2 weeks.

Walt - KZ1F

Wow Steve. I honestly don't think I could add anything to that. That was good.

I do think the issue has more to do with one's expectations, as I've said in the past, Microsoft brought managed expectations to an all time low, i.e. after about 12 hrs either you'd have to reboot or the system would for you, It was, and is, a consumer product. Yes, there are commercial products Server 2K3, Server 2K8, Server 2K8R2, 2K12 etc. Historic problems with drivers, pretty much consistently changing API. The fact that some people use Windows strictly to do their facebook page or use IE whatever the number is now, yes, those folks are probably all happy campers. When you start to deviate from that, wha whoa. Mac is far more 'stable' if for no other reason Apple controls the entire chain, Apple MoBo, Apple devices, etc.

In my professional experience, when you deal with writing software for or administering systems that run 5 9's Consumer Windows is a tragic mistake. That doesn't mean it's all Microsoft's fault.

I don't think there is any point to do comparative anatomy over this.

KY6LA_Howard

I prefaced my comments that I work at the bleeding edge of technology. I am on several alpha teams where we stress systems to their hilt. Reports in my world is that W10 continues to break things and each new update breaks things that we have just fixed. So for my world W10 and its visible bugs is just an extra distraction we do not need...

KY6LA_Howard

@Dave I built my first computer back in 1958. While I no longer claim to be a competent programmer I tend to agree with Guy's analysis as being one of many likely causes for negative reports.