Well, it's happening. Microsoft has added Windows 10 to the list of recommended updates for Windows 7 and 8.1 users. That means if you've got a Windows PC and you're perfectly happy with the operating system you chose, bought and payed for a few years back then you may wake up to an unwelcome surprise soon. That is if you've got Windows Update set up to automatically install updates.
Thankfully you can get around this by entering your control panel, choosing System and Security, then clicking on Windows Update. From there you can change settings to let you decide what's installed on your PC. I'd personally recommend "let me choose when to download and install updates" as the automatic download isn't exactly small and will suck up your bandwidth if set to anything else besides "never check for updates".
For the record here, it's still advised to install security updates and the like to keep things flowing normally, but if you don't want to walk in to a room after refilling your coffee cup and see that you have a new OS installing, I'd recommend unchecking the one that says Windows 10 before confirming any installations. If you -do- get caught in the auto upgrade, you'll have 31 days to choose to reverse the action.
Also here's how to stop that annoying little nagware popup telling you your free copy of Windows 10 awaits.
- Open the Registry Editor (search for regedit in the Start Menu and run it).
- Set DisableOSUpgrade to 1 in HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate
- Set ReservationsAllowed to 0 in HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\OSUpgrade
Furthermore, if your reason for not updating to Windows 10 is the fact that it spies on basically everything you do... Well Windows 7 and 8.1 have been doing that for quite a while now, so they're just as bad. Bigger reasons to avoid the upgrade are things like these:
- Your PC is optimized to run it's current OS, not Windows 10. Things could bog down, you may see tons of errors etc.
- Your PC is old/unsupported by Windows 10. Microsoft doesn't care about that, they'll still install Windows 10 for you and it could brick your machine potentially costing you money to have it reverted to your previous OS.
- Your PC is running software that cost you loads of money and will not be supported by Windows 10. Again, Microsoft doesn't care and you may not be able to use that software any more.
I’m still on the fence with Windows 10. I chose Win 7 for my build in 2014 and have been quite pleased. I did try to upgrade to 10 a few months back and got trapped in the endless reboot error I had read about. After much cursing and trial and error, I managed to get a restore point to work and Win 7 booted back up. Going back through my Windows Update history, I see every time it tried to download the upgrade to Win10 it failed. I don’t know why and haven’t tried to download it manually. After nearly having to wipe my HDD and reinstall Win 7 manually, it’s totally soured my feelings.
if you want directx 12, you will have to upgrade :/
Well what games right now support or even require DirectX 12?
not many if any at all atm, but that will change soon (first big one is Deus Ex) and the win 10 upgrade won’t be free forever
Gahhh. Yeah I’ll prolly do it after the move. Just gonna take forever to back up the main rig
Deus Ex is DirectX12? Ok, I guess I’ll give it another go after February is over.
not exclusively (thats only fable legends and GoW ultimate if i’m not mistaken), but support is starting. No idea how long it took dx10 to become a requirement, certainly a couple of years, but keep in mind that that was also held back by a bad vista adoption rate. The switch to dx12 will most likely be much faster and from what we know so far, it’s also a bigger step
This has happened a lot from what I’m hearing. I’m going to eventually cave and update myself. But I want it to be after #4if for sure, and perhaps even like a month from now after a few more updates have taken place and maybe there’s some more stability to the whole process. Perhaps that’s wishful thinking.
But yeah I’m like you, happy with Windows 7, it’s been extremely stable and easy to use for years. No reason in my mind to have changed things from there.
#fuckmicrosoft needs to be added to the top of the webpage. =P
Seriously though, Apple is no different. But at least they tell you ahead of time that they’re abandoning you’re hardware, instead of doing a forced install.
Thank you Microsoft. You’ve joined the ranks of U2 douchiness (or perhaps you’ve always been there).
I’ve been afraid of installing windows 10 b/c I don’t have any idea how badly it’ll affect my machine.
I second the motion to change fucksteam to Fuckmicrisoft