Microsoft continues aggressive upgrade strategy for Windows 7 and 8.1 systems
It is quite difficult to block the free upgrade offer to Windows 10 on operating system's running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1.
While it should be as easy as clicking on a "no-button", Microsoft's aggressive upgrade strategy is everything but customer friendly.
Even if you forget about upgrade enforcement on some systems, which according to Microsoft was due to a bug and not on purpose, it seems almost impossible to block the offer for good on some systems running previous versions of the operating system.
Even if you run programs like GWX Control Panel or I don't want Windows 10, you may be in for a surprise as the update keeps coming back on some systems.
According to the author of GWX Control Panel Josh Mayfield (via Computerworld), users of his software notified him that the upgrade state of the system running Windows 7 or Windows 8 was reset from their choice not to upgrade to Windows 10, to the default option which presented the update to them again.
Mayfield, who added a monitoring component to his program recently to detect changes to settings related to the upgrade, mentioned two changes in particular that are responsible for the behavior.
- The Windows Update Client update for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 which Microsoft released in December 2015.
- The fact that Microsoft re-releases updates that prepare the upgrade on older versions of Windows by changing binaries so that they are offered again via Windows Update.
As far as the updates to the Windows Update Client are concerned, the following is mentioned in the update description on both Support page entries.
This update enables support for additional upgrade scenarios from Windows 7 to Windows 10, and provides a smoother experience when you have to retry an operating system upgrade because of certain failure conditions. This update also improves the ability of Microsoft to monitor the quality of the upgrade experience.
The update information are identical with the exception that Windows 7 is replaced by Windows 8.1
According to Mayfield, these updates "tell" the Windows PC that the computer can be upgraded to Windows 10. He added that the Windows Update client appears to check the settings several times an hour which coincides with the unwanted behavior that settings are reset on those systems.
Microsoft announced earlier this year that it would push out Windows 10 more aggressively on systems running older versions of Windows. The company plans to make the upgrade a recommended update in Windows Update which would install it on all systems where recommended updates get installed automatically or where users install those manually.
Microsoft wants to boost adoption of Windows 10 as it is betting big on the success of the operating system, and it seems that the company continues to do so in an aggressive manner that gives users little choice but to pay special attention to any new update or modified updates the company pushes out via its Windows Update service.
Now You: What do you do to stop the upgrade to Windows 10 dead in its tracks? Or have you updated already to the operating system?
What mental age of reader are you targeting with the first sentence? 10?
Why not write an article on how to *avoid* upgrading from W10 to W11. Analogous to those like me who avoided upgrading from 7 to 10 for as long as possible.
If your paymaster Microsoft permits it, of course.
5. Rufus
6. Ventoy
PS. I hate reading these “SEO optimized” articles.
I used Rufus to create an installer for a 6th gen intel i5 that had MBR. It upgraded using Setup. No issues except for Win 11 always prompting me to replace my local account. Still using Win 10 Pro on all my other PCs to avoid the bullying.
bit pointless to upgrade for the sake of upgrading as you never know when you’ll get locked out because ms might suddenly not provide updates to unsupported systems.
ps…. time travelling?
written. Jan 15, 2023
Updated • Jan 13, 2023
This happens when you schedule a post in WordPress and update it before setting the publication date.
Anyone willing to downgrade to this awful OS must like inflicting themselves with harm.
I have become convinced now that anybody who has no qualms with using Windows 11/10 must fit into one of the following brackets:
1) Too young to remember a time before W10 and W11 (doesn’t know better)
2) Wants to play the latest games on their PC above anything else (or deeply needs some software which already dropped W7 support)
3) Doesn’t know too much about how computers work, worried that they’d be absolutely lost and in trouble without the “”latest security””
4) Microsoft apologist that tries to justify that the latest “features” and “changes” are actually a good thing, that improve Windows
5) Uses their computer to do a bare minimum of like 3 different things, browse web, check emails, etc, so really doesn’t fuss
Obviously that doesn’t cover everyone, there’s also the category that:
6) Actually liked W7 more than 10, and held out as long as possible before switching, begrudgingly uses 10 now
Have I missed any group off this list?
You have missed in this group just about any professional user that uses business software like CAD programs or ERP Programs which are 99% of all professional users from this list.
Linux doesn’t help anyone who is not a linux kid and apple is just a fancy facebook machine.
Microsoft has removed KB5029351 update
only from windows update though
KB5029351 is still available from the ms update catalog site
1. This update is labaled as PREVIEW if it causes issues to unintelligent people, then they shouldn’t have allowed Preview updates ot install.
2. I have installed it in a 11 years old computer, and no problems at all.
3. Making a big drama over a bluescreen for an updated labeled as preview is ridiculous.
This is probably another BS internet drama where people ran programs and scripts that modified the registry until they broke Windows, just for removing stuff that they weren’t even using just for the sake of it.
Maybe people should stop playing geeks and actually either use Windows 10 or Windows 11, but don’t try to modify things just for the sake of it.
Sometimes removing or stopping things (like defender is a perfect example) only need intelligence, not scripts or 3rd party programs that might mess with windows.
Windows 11 was a pointless release, it was just created because some of the Windows team wanted to boost sales with some sort of new and improved Windows 10. Instead, Microsoft cannot support one version well let alone two.
Windows 11 is the worst ugly shame by Microsoft ever. They should release with every new W11 version a complete free version of Starallback inside just to make this sh** OS functionally again.
motherboard maker MSI has recently released a statement regarding the “unsupported processor” blue screen error for their boards using Intel 600/700 series chipsets & to avoid the KB5029351 Win11 update:
https://www.msi.com/news/detail/MSI-On–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–Error-Message-of-Windows-11-Update-KB5029351-Preview-142215
check out the following recent articles:
Neowin – Microsoft puts little blame on its Windows update after UNSUPPORTED PROCESSOR BSOD bug:
https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-puts-little-blame-on-its-windows-update-after-unsupported-processor-bsod-bug/
BleepingComputer – Microsoft blames ‘unsupported processor’ blue screens on OEM vendors:
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-blames-unsupported-processor-blue-screens-on-oem-vendors/
While there may be changes or updates to the Windows 10 Store for Business and Education in the future, it is premature to conclude that it will be discontinued based solely on rumors.
My advice, I left win 15 years ago. Now I’m a happy linux user (linuxmint) but there is Centos, Fedora, Ubuntu depending on your needs.
motherboard maker MSI has recently released new BIOS/firmware updates for their Intel 600 & 700 series motherboards to fix the “UNSUPPORTED_PROCESSOR” problem (Sept. 6):
https://www.msi.com/news/detail/Updated-BIOS-fixes-Error-Message–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–caused-BSOD-on-MSI-s-Intel-700-and-600-Series-Motherboards-142277
I try to disable the Diagnostics Tracking Service (Connected Devices Platform User Services) but it wont let me disable it, any help will be greatly appreciated.
Tank you for your help