Do they still push Windows 10?

[KublaiKhan]

Some time ago, I grew weary of the pop-ups and secret downloads. I installed GWX Control Panel, and was never again harassed by Windows 10.

I'm reinstalling Windows 7.

Will I again be plagued by Windows 10 pop-ups and secret downloads? I don't want to boot my machine up one morning to find Windows 10 on it. Do I still need GWX Control Panel?

Thanks for your time!

 

[firefoxx04]

You know, I have not had to deal with that for a while on at least 5 different Windows 7 systems. I think I ran a tool on them at some point, but it didn't come back.

Windows 8.1 is the problem. It tends to just upgrade on its own. Windows 7 does not, at least in my experience.

 

[mrmez]

AFAIK the free upgrade period for w10 has long passed. You'll probably still get some popups, but shouldn't automatically install w10.

 

[BFG-9000]

The simple answer is no, they no longer push KB3035583 as GWX is over and done with.

However WindowsUpdate still pushes all of the telemetry crap to make 7 as bad as 10, such as KB2952664 (so they can claim 10 is no worse than 7...) meaning you have to be careful of which updates to install.

It's actually pleasant to use 7 nowadays as there are no more pushy upgrade ads, plus every month you can download the latest updates as the ""Security only update" (note NOT the "Monthly Rollup") listed here.

For a long time, WindowsUpdate ran every day for hours at 100% CPU but now that you can download just one file every month (and perhaps another for iE) to update, you can just leave automatic updates disabled. I can put up with this for the three remaining years Win 7 will be supported.

 

[KublaiKhan]

Great. But do we now need to run another security program to halt telemetry gathering on Windows 7? I have not search through my installed updates for KB2952664, nor would I have known to do so. Is there a list of updates I need to remove, or a security program that does it for us? Something akin to "Destroy Windows 10 Spying?"

Perhaps it's as easy as uninstalling key updates and blocking reinstallation?

As far as updates go, is "Never check for updates" the best choice, along with unchecking "Give me recommended updates...?"

Thanks again!

 

[BFG-9000]

There's probably no need for a program as pretty much all of the KBs to avoid are now under "recommended" instead of "important" updates (notably except one--the latest cumulative monthly rollup which includes all of the telemetry updates). I don't install anything under "recommended" except perhaps hardware drivers.

A good explanation and list of the offending KBs can be found here.

"Never check for updates" is indeed the best choice, as otherwise it will check at least every few days (as mentioned this used 100% of one core for hours each time and I think Microsoft were slow to fix it as they wanted to annoy people into using 10). You can manually run it every month after patch tuesday to get all of the Office, dotnet and iE updates--after manually downloading and running that month's "Security only update." Be sure to untick that month's Monthly rollup under "important" though!

Note if even one of those dastardly Monthly rollups gets installed, then you will have the entire suite of telemetry goodies installed and they will not be listed individually--only under the KB of the monthly rollup. To try to get you to just use the rollups instead, Microsoft has made the Security only updates inconveniently not cumulative. So on a clean install you will need to download and install every one of them back to October 2016 when they started having them.

But once this is done, Windows 7 will work just as you remember from before Microsoft started screwing it up to move people to their new advertising platform 10 (ads for OneDrive in Windows Explorer is something even Google would've been too ashamed to do!)

 

[KublaiKhan]

I've read Windows 10 has key logging, and uploads every web site you visit, the name and contents of every file you work with. Seems more like spyware than adware.

I've kept recommended updates unchecked since initial installation, and managed to catch it when Office suite installation re-selected the option during it's installation—and before they were downloaded.

I have updates enabled right now, as there have been necessary security updates pop up while I continue reinstalling software. I was planning to switch to "Never check for updates" once I had everything up and running, but should I just do that now?

 

[BFG-9000]

Yes, not only does installing Office reset your update preferences, so does installing MSE!

I prefer to set "Never check for updates" before connecting to the network as you can always click on the update button to run it manually when you want. "Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them" would accomplish the same thing but you'd have to first wait for the download popup dialog and then wait again for the install popup to show up.

"Download updates but let me choose whether to install them" downloads everything to litter your disk with installation files that will never be used, plus needlessly uses up bandwidth from your ISP. And of course "Install updates automatically" gives you all those wonderful telemetry features of 10 without even letting you use Cortana.

In 10 your documents are uploaded to the cloud just in case you suddenly ever decide you need to edit them on your Xbox One, and the webpages you visit are synced too so you can pick up your phone or laptop and continue right where you left off browsing on your desktop with all tabs restored from the cloud including the shopping and banking ones. What could go wrong?

 

[KublaiKhan]

Yikes! Windows 10 scares the crap outta me.