For several years I have had my Windows Updates turned off. A few minutes ago I found that I only have two choices. 1.Install Windows updates automatically ( Recommended ) 2. Let me Choose. Lo the "Never install updates has disappeared." Now, as I understand it, Windows ten only has one speed: Update automatically. Period. If we follow this thinking we find that Microsoft wants to Lease their software for a fee. MS doesn't want users to own their operating system. MS wants to charge a fee for the use of their software. Perpetual extortion. I am perfectly happy with Windows 7. I don't want it modified by Microsoft. I don't want it updated by Microsoft. I don't want spies installed by Microsoft. Note: Do you know what part of Bill Gates anatomy Micro soft is named after? Does anybody know of a way to keep Microsoft from twiddling with what is MY software? I would greatly appreciate knowing how to do that. On a side note: Doing a search for Office 2013 or Windows 7 comes up with isos that are loaded with viruses and won't install. Just beware!
Another option is to install Win-7 Enterprise. It is functionally equivalent to Win-7 Ultimate with one exception. And that exception is that there is no upgrade path from Enterprise to any version of Windows 10. This might change in the future, but for now that's MS's policy. Since there is no way to upgrade Enterprise to Win-10 you don't get any of the nagging prompts, or have to worry about malicious updates being downloaded and installed. Even though I hate doing a clean install, it's good to do one once a year to get rid of any bit rot that happens over time. I used Acronis to zero out the drive and installed Win-7 Enterprise and updated it with Simplix. It took a little over an hour. Next came all the Dell Drivers, and much to my surprise they all installed without any problems, and once done, I had internet access, video, and all hardware worked as before. Then I had to re-install all of my programs, Office, FireFox etc and get the configured the way they were before. All this updating took longer than the initial Windows installation. After all the updates were installed I ran the evil-update removal batch file and got rid of any of the Windows Updates that I didn't want. There are others, but this list pretty much covers most of the bad guys. Spoiler wusa /uninstall /kb:2282822 /norestart wusa /uninstall /kb:2952664 /norestart wusa /uninstall /kb:2976978 /norestart wusa /uninstall /kb:2977759 /norestart wusa /uninstall /kb:2990214 /norestart wusa /uninstall /kb:3021917 /norestart wusa /uninstall /kb:3022345 /norestart wusa /uninstall /kb:3035583 /norestart wusa /uninstall /kb:3044374 /norestart wusa /uninstall /kb:3045999 /norestart wusa /uninstall /kb:3050265 /norestart wusa /uninstall /kb:3063858 /norestart wusa /uninstall /kb:3068708 /norestart wusa /uninstall /kb:3075249 /norestart wusa /uninstall /kb:3080149 /norestart :new wusa /uninstall /kb:3088195 /norestart wusa /uninstall /kb:3042058 /norestart wusa /uninstall /kb:3093983 /norestart wusa /uninstall /kb:3093513 /norestart As expected there were many updates installed, but I removed them, and to my surprise only kb3093513 came back and I hid it, and so far none of the other Windows Updates have re-appeared. I've configured Windows Update to Check for Updates, but not to download them or install them. I'm running PeerBlock so Windows Update complains that I should check for updates because it can't phone home with PeerBlock running. Every so often I'll turn off PeerBlock and let Windows Update run. And much to my surprise there are very few, sometimes no updates available. I'm not sure why this is, since my Win-7 Ultimate always seemed to have something to update. I've been running Win-7 Enterprise for a couple of weeks now, and I'm happy to report that everything works exactly the same as it did in Win-7 Ultimate. Seems a bit snappier, but that's probably due to lack of bit rot. It took some time but I'm glad I did it. If you've got a weekend with nothing to do, and want to stay with Win-7 this is an option to get away from the constant nagging from MS to upgrade to Win-10.
Or due to lack of technical understanding. Don't expect to be taken seriously when you say stuff like that.
That is very alarming to read. I follow a similar policy with W7 updates and only switch them back on periodically to see if I've missed anything important ..... usually NOT. Now I am reluctant to check again. Have any other MDL members seen the " Never install " option disappear ? It would certainly fit with the general MS policy of coercing or nagging W7 users into switching to W10.
+1 I have changed several workstations here to Enterprise now and no Win 10 hassles whatsoever. Sonic.
Thanks for replying Michaela Joy , but have you kept Updates mostly turned off , and then turned them on again for the tediously regular horror-show on the first Tuesday of each month ? That is at the core of my concern here and why I replied in this thread ..... I'm thinking that MS are taking deliberate action against users who are strenuously refusing all but the most essential of updates . They clearly do not like it !
@Mutoid: You're right. I started to have problems with windows updates taking an extremely long time and simply disabled them. That was a while back. I'm hoping that others will let us know. For now, I'm avoiding MS updates like the plague.
Maybe We were lucky not to have grabbed a "poison" update that removed it. If so, leaving WU off is the best advice to date.
Same. Did you install any Windows Update Client updates? I wonder if they removed the options in the newer WU client. (That would be my guess at least, but I have no proof either way. I have not installed any updates related to the WU client though, so I may be correct in that assumption.) At this point I'm growing increasingly more suspicious of using WU and would rather DL and install each update on a per-KB basis. I'm not trusting anything they're peddling going forward. They've gotten too sneaky on damn near everything that I'm no longer giving them a rope to hang themselves (or attempt to pull me over the ledge with). Wonderful product support til 2020, Microsoft.
@zero2dash: I agree with you. I would rather use the Simplix pack and update. It just makes more sense than going with WU.
Just to let you and others know what I have done and found so far. For the longest time I have been having trouble with any browsers that I used. FF, Chrome, Pale Moon, and even IE11. It was driving me nuts. Dec 19 2015 I decided to do a fresh install of Win7 and let M$ update me. Before this I was using a program from here at MDL (which I will not name) that would give me the updates. Steps I did: >Disconnected from the internet. >Clean installed Win7 and Daz loader >installed my drivers >Manually Installed IE11 and the updates need for it to be installed. >Installed MSE and ZoneAlarm. >Set auto updates to Never Install (Which I always do) >Connected to the internet and did a manual update >After 55 min. no updates found yet!! >Stopped the updater and installed KB3102810 a NO NO update >Restart a manual update and got through in about 5 min. >let M$ install 50 updates at a time going back after each reboot and installed the next 50 >Did this till all were done. Did not care if there were any Win10 updates in the bunch! >Installed FF browser As of today FF is running the way it should be and I am a happy camper I have 2 Win10 updates KB3102810 which I installed my self, and KB3112343 which M$ installed. I have not removed them. I do a manual update every few days and M$ has never offered anymore Win10 related updates for me. But that may change tomorrow on Patch Tuesday. I have run nothing to protect me from Win10 upgrading bulls_t and check very often if Win10 is being downloaded to my computer. Nothing yet?? AS of now my Win7 on this new computer has never run better. My updates right now are a total of 151 including Net frame 3.5 updates. I was installing 99 extra updates before, that was not needed at all for my system. From now on I will do my own updating. LOL From now on I will accept any important update they want to give me and see what happens. I'm going to push the limits As for Optional or Recommended updates I have never accepted those since my XP days and never will. I found long time ago they ether did nothing for me or screwed me up!!