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General discussion

Forced to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10

Mar 7, 2016 11:03AM PST

Hi all,

I am being forced to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 by Windows! Please see the screen shot.

http://i.imgur.com/jBOTwkI.png

I didn't accept to upgrade. I do not want to upgrade. I did not click anything to upgrade. I am happy with Windows 7.

After looking at the screen shot, you will see Windows is only giving me the options of:
1. Start Upgrade Now
2. Schedule upgrade for an exact date and time (it states "the scheduled time can not be changed after this")

So, basically this is a forced upgrade!

I tried to "task manager close" this update window but it just reappears moments after. I don't see any other options other then "update it now or update it later at a specific time (which can not be changed).

Last night Windows automatically just started upgrading to Window 10. It didn't ask me if I wanted to. I didn't click on anything to upgrade. Nothing. In fact I stepped away from the computer but saw the upgrading in progress screen. It just tarted an automatic upgrade. After about 20 - 30 minutes when it upgraded, tried Windows 10 and don't like it. My video card acts weird on it. My screen flashes even after its fully installed and rebooted. I like my widgets that show my GPU, CPU, RAM and HD usage in real time so I know what's going on with my PC. Widgets are not allowed in Windows 10. I know a lot of the commands and locations for things in Windows 7 and I don't want to have them again. I have a feeling that more of my hardware is going to have an issue with Windows 10. After all these problems, I actually did a system restore to get Win 7 back last night. Now, today (less the 24 hours after the automatic upgrade) its forcing me to upgrade again by only giving me two options (both of which are to upgrade).

I may upgrade to Win 10 in a few years, but I don't want to be forced to do so now. Microsoft has been offering Windows 10 for free for a while now. If I had wanted it, I would have gotten it. I have seen the little window pop up saying "upgrade now for a limited time" almost daily. I see the advertisements on MSN's homepage to "upgrade now". Shouldn't it be my choice not forced if I want to upgrade? They are only giving me two options, both of which is to upgrade right now or in a few days. No option to "not upgrade" or "leave me alone"

I am frustrated about this. Any suggestions? The window to update is up right now as we speak.

Thanks

Note: This post was edit by the Forum Admin to include the referring screenshot by OP

Post was last edited on March 11, 2016 1:53 PM PST

Discussion is locked

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Definition
Mar 20, 2016 9:50AM PDT

Sneakernet is an old way of saying "put it on a floppy and walk it over to the other computer." Nowadays we would put it on a usb drive.

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I agree
Mar 22, 2016 6:43PM PDT

4Denise:
Thou hast revealed thine age Happy)
Cans't thou sayeth Cassette Tape, Floppy Disk (they actually flopped), and Hard disk (the ones thine children doth wrongly call Floppy but were called by name, one Diskette)??

%))

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Not ashamed to say it
Mar 23, 2016 12:35AM PDT

I am 55 years old, and still looking good!

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It's all about their commissions on sales
Mar 20, 2016 6:57AM PDT

they track what you are shopping for and you have, not popup, but personalized suggestion. Still have no clue what the difference is. they want you to rent their other programs which they nolinger sell. You have the new wiz bang OS windows 10, not you need to rent Office 360 and buy some apps from their app store and you need to rent this and that and anything else they think you might need. I'm sure they are also selling you usage info to their "partners" AKA customers who pay them for this info. Most of it can be turned off if you do the research. I suggest GOOGLE for your research since MS doesn't want you to turn it off and Bing is most of a shopping tool.

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Hands off, MS
Mar 23, 2016 1:59PM PDT

Running Pro Tools 6.1 on Win XP (old Mbox/drivers). Running Win 7 (Avast free, Mbytes free) with no updates for 7 yrs since I upgraded my low-budget Acer laptop from Vista. Still clean and haven't been hacked (then again, I don't wear a bicycle helmet riding around town, so...)

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dual boot?
Mar 19, 2016 2:55AM PDT

and find that the 7 partition still wants to upgrade?

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Re: Updates
Mar 19, 2016 7:07AM PDT

The Idea that you cant pick and choose updates and that you cant stay on W7 are laughable.
My W7 Update centre is and always has been set to alert me to updates but not to download until I tell it to.
I have been doing it this way ever since I installed W7 when my pre order copy turned up at launch.
I wait a few weeks for reported issues and install updates that are relevant to me and do not install and hide any that do not have relevance to me or have been reported to have issues.
I am active on tech forums so its no hassle for me to keep on top of this sort of news.
I have no intention of upgrading my W7 machine, when and if it proves to be obsolete ( I have an XP machine that's just fine)which I don't see happening for over a decade, I will use a Linux based Os on any new PC that I build.
What I am curious about is that if W10 is now a recommended update and they are pushing it to peoples machines as updates, will this stop once W10 has been released for a year(about 4 months to go) or will Microsoft try and push the update and then charge consumers for something they didn't ask for and don't want ?

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No They Are NOT
Mar 19, 2016 9:52AM PDT

I don't believe a user exists who has the talent and patience to control what updates are applied and when. My personal opinion, but I really believe that is true and that comes after applying updates to mainframe systems, MS-DOS, Windows 3.0, 3.1, 95 and all the way up. Most users think that they can skip a patch/update if they don't want it. Sometimes, this will work. Other times, MONTHS after skipping a patch/update, the user tries to apply a critical fix and discovers that Windows Update dies with some strange number that doesn't readily indicate what has happened. That prompts a call to MS support. Why? Because patches and updates rely on previous updates being already applied. I have had to investigate this for work where someone decided not to patch the system or my boss decided to REMOVE the old installation files of a patch already applied not realizing it will be needed in the future.
To make this clear, suppose a patch comes out that lets you attach a musical instrument to your PC and you decide, "I'm NOT going to bother with that!" Sounds logical? Right? Suppose that, in order to put in that update, the size/structure of an internal table for hardware needed to be changed by the update. Now, 6 months later, a critical security fix comes out and it requires that table in its new form/size. But you didn't want to connect a tuba to your PC so you never put the fix for that in and your table is now the wrong size. Sorry, you don't get the critical fix to apply. You get an obscure error.
Zip forward to Windows 10 and now realize that all of your system upgrades will be going through Windows Update. What are you going to do? You can't move up to the equivalent of Windows 11 or 12 because YOU thought it was a waste of time to include a patch to connect a tuba to your PC but didn't realize that the specific patch changed the internal structure of a critical windows table. So, you no longer can upgrade your PC because you made what would appear to be a logical decision. Then everyone blames Microsoft. Software has ALWAYS been designed that way. Sorry to disappoint you. You can always get a job working to come up with a new way to do updates.

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I disagree
Mar 19, 2016 12:37PM PDT

Many people do manual updates for their machines. It is very common. Furthermore, those updates remain available indefinitely after they are released. They do not just disappear. If you later find that you need an older update, you simply install it. Problem solved. How do you think people do clean installs? It is possible to download and keep updates for your machine, but most people just go to Windows update and let it do its thing.

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It is OK to Disagree
Mar 19, 2016 4:51PM PDT

My experience says otherwise but then I'm not talking to one or two users. I've been dealing with this at the enterprise level. If you hide and update so that it will NEVER show up again (not just ignore it) and a future fix demands that the update you have hidden is applied, you will get a nondescript error that MOST users will not be able to figure out forcing a call to MS. But I hate to say this, if you do a "HIDE" on an update, as far as the software is concerned, the fix had disappeared until you manually unhide it. How many home users really have the capability to understand all that? It would be nice if, instead of some weird errior number, Microsoft Update could explain in plain language that the user has "hidden" and update and needs to unhide it to get the desired fix to apply. But they don't do that. By the way, denise, it hasn't been with the OS itself that really gets nailed with this. It is very likely on patches affecting .NET Framework. "I wish I had a dollar..." for every time I had to CAREFULLY uninstall all versions of .NET Framework and reinstall all of them to a stable service pack level and then reapply ALL of the patches. I know a lot of people too and they say that, when they try to apply a fix and it won't go in cleanly and gives them an error, they DON'T go back and see what patches were missing. They just hide the new patch and hope they never need it (you should talk to a former manager that I had who said that patches only go in IF they are convenient.

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You have your experience
Mar 19, 2016 8:02PM PDT

... and I have mine. Many (and I mean many) home users manually install their updates. Not all home users are ignorant, like it or not. Some people are lazy, but those people are not the ones who usually manually install their updates. Your original assertion that there are no users who have the talent and patience to know what updates to apply and when is simply not true.

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There's experience then there's experience.
Mar 20, 2016 7:35AM PDT

@ Hforman After having already posted that I do the self same thing you say is impossible your basically calling me a liar which is not ok.
Your experience is I would suggest is of the typical end user, not an enthusiast like myself.
When I say typical end user I mean the general public that actually believe what the sales person tells them in the shop and are after all the core demographic Microsoft are aiming for and make up the vast majority of computer owners/users.
An enthusiast like myself can and does manually update their machines, personally its a monthly thing.
I have never came across the issues you describe with updates that have not been installed causing issues later.
Further more I do not update drivers (such as graphics cards) to the latest available version (as some would suggest is vital) all the time because I know that its not required and is actually the cause of many driver related issues that people have.
I have personally configured and built my own computers for the last 20 or so years, going as far as to reconfiguring graphics drivers at the code level to optimise the performance for a specific game.
So please don't try and tell me what I can and cant do with a PC
As 4Denise stated there are many more than just me out there doing their own updates manually.

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Forgot 2.0
Mar 19, 2016 12:40PM PDT

You forgot Windows 2.0. I got it when I bought my first HP scanner. That's what ran the scanner. As I recall no GUI.

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I Skipped a Few
Mar 19, 2016 4:58PM PDT

When you bought a copy of DOS 6.2, it came with Windows 286 and Windows 386. I personally don't know anyone (home or enterprise user) that has ever installed one of those. I also skipped ME, VISTA and anything else I personally never played with. Patching systems whether it be an OS or an application has always been difficult as there were always things that go wrong. In today's world, not everyone is a technical guru. There is more out there besides the IT department and learning how to hook up a mainframe computer to the Internet (not WWW) through a front-end communication box using teletype protocol for the physical layer to TCP/IP. Happy

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Welcome to the MS minefield
Mar 21, 2016 12:08PM PDT

@minimac17,
You are quite correct on several fronts: traps abound here for the uninformed or the unwary; proactive countermeasures (such as GWX Control Panel) have unfortunately been necessary to avoid these aggressive moves by MS.

I am responsible for maintaining a number of different machines. One thing not mentioned here is that MS Update can hang indefinitely in many cases -- requiring varying extents of repair -- though that can even be a blessing in disguise, because I have seen and documented numerous MS updates that proved fatal to the OS running on that computer. This happened yet again to one of mine a couple days ago, rendering it unbootable and unrecoverable. Not in "Safe Mode," or via Restore Points that I also cannot get to, by any other way that I know of. I will have to resort to outright replacement with a boot partition image made about 10 days prior to application of their KB "fix." So, you can't just blindly accept these things without sufficient vetting. I've gotten quite cautious, but it wasn't enough this time. I don't recall this sort of thing happening much in the XP days, but from what I gather this whole quality control thing has gotten steadily worse, from 7 up to present day with 10.

Another thing not mentioned is that Updates you have explicitly rejected and have therefore hidden keep getting re-released and keep returning to the active section, sometimes under new names and KB #s. I've made and keep updating a detailed listing of them all, but the vigilance required for this becomes tiresome.

A couple of the systems I maintain actually still run XP -- for the benefit of some crucial, legacy apps -- and were disconnected from the internet a couple years ago, as a security measure. Personally, I'm fed up with the course that MS is on, so I can see either Apple or Linux or a static, virtualized 7 in my not-so-distant future.

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Dual Boot 7/10
Mar 19, 2016 9:15PM PDT

I have been dual booting since the beginning of the insider Program. there has been no problem with updates ( win 7 gets win 7 updates, win 10 the same.
BUT win 10 popups, urging me to upgrade, are a constant feature when I am using win 7. As if I need to dual boot win 10/win 10 system!

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wrong
Mar 23, 2016 8:49AM PDT

MS make virtually no money by selling software to non-enterprise. MS makes much more money off their patents that are used in Android devices. Anyway the issue is there is a urgent security updated need and peole ignore it then their system gets hacked and they want to blame MS for not keeping their system secure when it's THEIR OWN FAULT they refused there security update. This eliminates this 100% Seriously "forced" updates are not an issue. A bunch of whining about nothing

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Shame on Micro$oft
Mar 22, 2016 8:40PM PDT

Micro$oft has NO shame!! M$ thinks they OWN your pc and are going to try to do whatever they want to YOUR pc!

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Hi txbearsfan81 I added the screenshot to your post.
Mar 11, 2016 1:54PM PST

Cheers,
-Lee

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It gets worse
Mar 19, 2016 10:43PM PDT

I've upgraded a few machines now to Windows 10, and one of the things I hate is that it wants to update on its own. If you work like I and many others do, leaving multiple windows, apps, and browser tabs open for extended periods - as in days - the update with automatic restart can be an unpleasant surprise when you sit down at your desk and find yourself staring at a fresh desktop instead of your workspace from the day before. Some jobs just require multi-day workdays and lots of context switching. With 7, I just told update to notify but not download. On 10, you have to dig into the core and tell it you are on a metered connection, or go in and stop the update process manually. That should change back to the Windows 7 option - an OS should not force you to change your work habits or work less efficiently. It's not an impossible problem, of course - you recover the open tabs with History, the apps usually autosave, etc. but open e-mails have to be manually saved as new if you want to get back to where you were. Unnecessary work, that could be avoided if MS just left things the way they were in 7.

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Forced Upgrades
Mar 11, 2016 9:42PM PST

There are ways to bypass this operation. But it requires removing some of Windows KBs and the stopping all updates from Microsoft. This could lead you to more problems than it may be worth.

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Bingo!
Mar 19, 2016 9:53AM PDT

Exactly correct!

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Bingo!
Mar 20, 2016 7:34AM PDT

Thank you.

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I agree
Mar 18, 2016 8:12PM PDT

I totally agree. Let's see those screenshots and the key strokes that got you to that point. I have three computers that were on 7 and 8 and I never got a forced upgrade. That only happens if you do not pay attention to the messages you are getting and accidentally brought yourself to the upgrade.

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Re: upgrade
Mar 7, 2016 11:35AM PST

It seems that windows with the 2 choices has the usual red cross at the top right to close it. Doesn't it have that with you?

And what happens if you schedule the update for 31-12-2099?


Kees

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No way to close update box
Mar 7, 2016 11:37AM PST

No "X" to close it and the latest date I can schedule out is 3/11/2016

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no way to close update box
Mar 11, 2016 1:00PM PST

This has been happening several times a day for a week now. I finally got tired of it and entered a time of 10:00 am this morning. Around 9:00 am I received a message letting me know that it was getting close to the upgrade time. Then 10:00 am came around and nothing happened!
A later notice informed me that the upgrade was going to take place. I have never found it - where is it? Not in downloads, not installed ..... This is not a good beginning; if it starts like this, what can I expect?
Karin

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Stopping Windows
Mar 11, 2016 9:56PM PST

If all else fails, you Ctl, Alt, and Del at the same time. This will take you to the task manager. If you look at the bottom of the selections, you will see end task.

When you use this, a list of the programs running will appear. You can select Windows and close the program. This works for edge and other browsers that get stuck

You also can hold down the power button for about 10 seconds. This will give you a "Hard Shutdown" I don't recommend that you use this unless it is the last resort. This is very hard on hardware and could cause problems with programs. But it is a way to get out.

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Uh-ohh
Mar 7, 2016 5:48PM PST

That window that you have asking for a time to install means that W10 is downloaded and ready.
I would certainly hope that you have a saved clone or image to get back to W7, if not then you may have to bite the bullet and let it install, then roll it back to W7.
I have never seen that window unless something was accepted, either by accident or unknowingly.

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In the news.
Mar 7, 2016 5:54PM PST