Windows 10 now a 'recommended update' in Windows Update

[Corky34]

How much is the Windows 10 upgrade?

Your life? Family jewels? maybe your sanity.

[AGTDenton]

If anyone is interested, I've been rolling out the following registry update to people that do not want Windows 10 just yet. This supresses the prompt in the bottom right and stops Windows updates from forcing 10.
You will need to run an elevated command prompt to be able to execute these commands (run as admin)
This is for Windows 7 and 8:

REG.EXE ADD "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Gwx" /v DisableGwx /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
REG.EXE ADD "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\OSUpgrade" /v ReservationsAllowed /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
REG.EXE ADD "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate" /v DisableOSUpgrade /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

[Peter Parker]

Still doesn't work on many Samsung laptops - e.g. RV511 - due to the broadcom wifi card. 6 month for a driver update? Or could they at least disable it? Disappointing, and I'm not expecting a fix before the summer deadline

[Saracen]

I don't understand all the hate. I'm really happy with 10

Congratulations. I'm happy for you.

If I snuck into your rooom one day when you weren't there, and upgraded your system to Linux without bothering to ask you if you wanted it, would you be grateful to me?

No?

Well, that's why a lot of people aren't happy with MS upgrade pressure.

There are reasons to not want 10. One is mandatory upgrades. It bothers some people, doesn't bother others, and is an utter red-line non-starter for some. Like me. It's not the only issue, and the reasons have been done to death many times.

Suffice to say, I personally DO NOT want Win10 on my machines. Not now, and unless MS make changes nobody including me expects, not ever.

My decision on that isn't going to change.

What I resent, what makes me actually rather angry, is MS constantly trying to exert more pressure, installing "triggers" WITHOUT my permission that nag and even pre-download the flaming thing, leaving me in an apparent non-stop battle to stop them upgrading me when I DO NOT WANT IT.

They're MY machines, Microsoft. So stop bleeping well acting like you own them.

If someone hacks my machine and causes it to operate without my permission, it's an offence under the Computer Misuse Act (section 1, IIRC), yet MS can apparently do it and it's called an upgrade.

Microsoft, I do not want the garbage you call Win 10. Leave my machines the bleep alone, will you.

What others do, including upgrade, is their choice. If you like Win10, Leety, I'm happy for you. Seriously. No sarcasm. If it suits you, great.

But I feel a bit like the French resistance fighting a constant insurgency battle against Nazi invaders. Or maybe, more like an Aztec warrior fighting Christian "missionaries" offering me the generous choice of converting, or being gutted at sword point.

What next, MS? Fit guys clad head to foot in black Nomex suits and body armour, night vision goggles and silenced MP5's, breaking in in the middle of the night .... to do a Win10 upgrade on me?

Because you've tried everything else. For ages.

And no, I STILL don't want it, recommended or not, free or not, even if delivered by half-naked dancing girls and a promise of a free cruise.

No means flaming no, okay, MS? No, nein, nyet. Got it? Capisce? Comprendez?


Anyone seen my blood pressure meds?

Nurse ..... my chest .... hurts ....



PS. If you read this, MS, feel free to still send the dancing girls .... as long as they're 'clean' of Win10. If they can bring a few spare Win7 licences, that'd be great. Oh, and the cruise tickets. Just not, under any circumstances, Win-flipping-10.

[ik9000]

It's not just MS - check out HMRC.... https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/di...072841695.html

[TheAnimus]

If I snuck into your rooom one day when you weren't there, and upgraded your system to Linux without bothering to ask you if you wanted it, would you be grateful to me?

No?

It depends what it broke.

As a developer it's infuriating that so many people stay on old OS's then complain that your software isn't supported. What's that, you want to host websockets haha no. Trying to explain these things to a lay person is hard. Many users made up their mind they didn't like a new OS because a start menu was full screen, these same people will get upset they can't get the same experience as users on modern OS.

[ik9000]

If anyone is interested, I've been rolling out the following registry update to people that do not want Windows 10 just yet. This supresses the prompt in the bottom right and stops Windows updates from forcing 10.
You will need to run an elevated command prompt to be able to execute these commands (run as admin)
This is for Windows 7 and 8:

REG.EXE ADD "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Gwx" /v DisableGwx /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
REG.EXE ADD "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\OSUpgrade" /v ReservationsAllowed /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
REG.EXE ADD "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate" /v DisableOSUpgrade /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

Two queries - is it definitely reg.exe and not reg32? And can a line be added to also block by KB number - i presume if an update that they have assigned it a KB number too?

[lumireleon]

I miss WINDOWS STARTER EDITION that costed only $50.......MICROSOFT nowadays is boooring coz of costs.

How much is the Windows 10 upgrade?

...IF you are building a new system that you only need DX 12 for gaming and graphic design ($50) the rest including windows media centre, internet explorer (edge) those I dont need ($120).

[ik9000]

It depends what it broke.

As a developer it's infuriating that so many people stay on old OS's then complain that your software isn't supported. What's that, you want to host websockets haha no. Trying to explain these things to a lay person is hard. Many users made up their mind they didn't like a new OS because a start menu was full screen, these same people will get upset they can't get the same experience as users on modern OS.

Sure, but if I choose to stay using office 2000 and XP that is my choice. It shouldn't be forced upon me to change.

What that smacks of is MS acknowledging their changes in recent OS have not been sufficient to cause people to voluntarily upgrade in large enough numbers to make enough profit. So now, seemingly by whatever means, they want to get everyone onto an OS where the "licence agreement" means they can do what they like when they like, and once people have agreed to this and the up-take is large enough, then they will be able to kill off win10 at will and force people to pay for the upgrade to win101. Bother those pesky people with old un-ending licence terms on win7 etc with machines that still perfectly suffice for the time being. Getting in the way of MS profits. How dare they?!

[Corky34]

If I snuck into your rooom one day when you weren't there, and upgraded your system to Linux without bothering to ask you if you wanted it, would you be grateful to me?

Not disagreeing with the sentiment but to me what Microsoft are doing is more akin to phoning people up and asking if the want a "free" whatever, 31 times in the last six months, and no matter how often you say you're not interested and to stop calling they just refuse to leave you alone.

Their acting like an annoying telesale marketing firm that just refuse to take no for an answer, while that's great if you want a "free" whatever, it gets really annoying if you don't.

[LSG501]

Sorry Saracen, I've had to go and install win 10 on a new rig, used a win 7 code to get it as I don't want to 'waste' my win 8 licenses .... it's not really better than win 8 in my view, had to force drivers to install on some hardware because the manufacturers don't want to support it in win 10 even though it works in 8 (desperate for more sales as their recommendation is to buy more of 'their' items... yeah no) and in some ways I feel win 8 is actually better, I prefer the start menu on 8 and 10 is more restricted even in tablet mode for example.

I have gone heavily into everything I can find to turn off all the 'tracking stuff' of course

Well, that's why a lot of people aren't happy with MS upgrade pressure.

Still don't like the pressure being put on people, my mums work laptop was getting the pop ups no end which was irritating for me as the tech guy is to put it bluntly useless.

There are reasons to not want 10. One is mandatory upgrades. It bothers some people, doesn't bother others, and is an utter red-line non-starter for some. Like me. It's not the only issue, and the reasons have been done to death many times.

Don't like the windows upgrade like you but with 10 pro (can't do it in home by the looks of it ) I've been able to control when and how my updates install and reboot via gpedit... although still need to work out how to stop individual updates without the silly MS tool.. they really need to give that control back to us

What I resent, what makes me actually rather angry, is MS constantly trying to exert more pressure, installing "triggers" WITHOUT my permission that nag and even pre-download the flaming thing, leaving me in an apparent non-stop battle to stop them upgrading me when I DO NOT WANT IT.

They're MY machines, Microsoft. So stop bleeping well acting like you own them.

completely agree with this.

[scaryjim]

... if I choose to stay using office 2000 and XP that is my choice. ...

tbh, if you're tech-savvy enough to have good reasons for staying on Win XP/Office 2k then you're also tech-savvy enough to know how to avoid the "free" upgrade (which isn't valid from XP anyway, but that's another story).

Of course MS want people to upgrade to Windows 10 so they can make more money. That's what companies do. It's the whole point of capitalism. But it's nothing to do with forcing people to pay once they're tied into an ecosystem - that would be a clear abuse of their dominant market position and they've been slapped for that before.

it's because - and they've pretty much said this directly - they don't consider the income from OS license sales sufficient or stable enough. People don't want to pay the kind of OS license fees they'd want to charge. So they're shifting focus, and looking to get a large installed user base that they can monetise through selling additional services. The Win 10 upgrade offer was a deliberate attempt to get as many people as possible onto a common platform through which they could more easily (and cheaply) market those services.

And that's the bottom line. MS are doing what they think will make the most money. If you want an OS that's designed without that capitalist backdrop, use linux. If you wanty to play games and they're only released for Windows, complain to the developers. You never know, 2016 might be the big year for Linux on the desktop...

[AGTDenton]

Two queries - is it definitely reg.exe and not reg32? And can a line be added to also block by KB number - i presume if an update that they have assigned it a KB number too?

Yes REG.exe is fine for 32bit and 64bit, I've rolled it out to both with the same scripts.
The prompt, Get Windows 10 App, in the notification area is KB 3035583
However, the actual Windows 10 download I don't believe has an assigned KB, as I've rolled out the registry changes and deleted any files on all our machines I cannot give you a definite answer but a quick search on it failed to bring up any results.

The registry changes are aimed at corporations that do not want 1000's of machines all updating at once and causing complete chaos.

HTH

[TheAnimus]

Sure, but if I choose to stay using office 2000 and XP that is my choice. It shouldn't be forced upon me to change.

What that smacks of is MS acknowledging their changes in recent OS have not been sufficient to cause people to voluntarily upgrade in large enough numbers to make enough profit. So now, seemingly by whatever means, they want to get everyone onto an OS where the "licence agreement" means they can do what they like when they like, and once people have agreed to this and the up-take is large enough, then they will be able to kill off win10 at will and force people to pay for the upgrade to win101. Bother those pesky people with old un-ending licence terms on win7 etc with machines that still perfectly suffice for the time being. Getting in the way of MS profits. How dare they?!

Actually there comes a problem when you then network your machine up.

If you are using still 2000 you aren't getting security updates, it's quite likely your machine will be a bot, polluting the environment.

[peterb]

It depends what it broke.

As a developer it's infuriating that so many people stay on old OS's then complain that your software isn't supported. What's that, you want to host websockets haha no. Trying to explain these things to a lay person is hard. Many users made up their mind they didn't like a new OS because a start menu was full screen, these same people will get upset they can't get the same experience as users on modern OS.

I don't generally update my software for the convenience of developers, I do it for my convenience.

Of course, that carries more clout if you are a large corporate with in-house developers, but then that is more likely to be a specialist application - and there is no compulsion to upgrade.

But a freelance developer will develop while there is a market. And if an application is working OK on an existing OS, it's not likely to stop (unless it is a subscription app, but that's just another issue) so unless there is some compelling must have feature that demands an upgrade, then why change.

Microsoft clearly see an easier and more predictable cash flow from a subscription software model. They talked about it with the introduction of XP, but like the thin client systems of the late 1990s, the connectivity wasn't there. Now it is, and Microsoft are jumping on the bandwagon.

[scaryjim]

The registry changes are aimed at corporations that do not want 1000's of machines all updating at once ...

Slightly off-topic, but I'd be amazed if corporations with 1000s of desktops weren't managing updates via WSUS or GP....