Only issue I have is that Win10 doesn't support media center exactly. So, on my one PC with Media Center, I'm trying to avoid the upgrade. But, I let one of my kids use that PC, so I'm sure it's just a matter of time before he hits the button...
I have my updates set to notify me, but not download or install (I do that manually). For a few months now there is are two particular updates that I have been hiding, but they unhide themselves every time there are new updates. Still, I recognize them and hide them again before updates. I wonder what KB###### generates that update dialogue you got Chip? The one that puts the little Windows logo in the system tray and nags you from there is KB3035583. I have hidden that probably 20 times since it was first released on all my machines. It's like a cockroach. It keeps coming back. Perhaps I will try one of the suggested methods for permanently disabling this.
I've been playing Russian Roulette with Win10, having updated about 6 months ago, and letting it have at it for updates.
I generally like the GUI, but it has been entertaining.
Things that have happened
- many USB drivers broke at first
- for about 2 weeks they tried to do all prints through a Metro interface app
- that printer app seems to have been given up on, but for a while all my network printers disappeared
- double click select was broken on some really old legacy programs
- one day it took overnight to restart one time
BUT all these have been fixed for now, especially after I updated BIOS and Intel Chip drivers (downloaded from Del) Win10 does not check for driver updates, but seems like it should and at least warn you about it.
Been nag-free since I installed GWX control panel on my pc and laptop. I've got them setup and working how I like. I'm not upgrading to a new OS until there is a compelling reason. And "save Microsoft money" isn't a compelling reason.
I'm waiting for the day a student installs Windows 10. Apparently giving them an account with no privileges can't really stop them from missing that tiny X in the corner and ruining my machine.
I'm waiting for the day a student installs Windows 10. Apparently giving them an account with no privileges can't really stop them from missing that tiny X in the corner and ruining my machine.
If they have "no privileges", they can't install anything.
To that end, they can't even log in to do anything at all.
Never10 digs deep into the Windows Update software to stop Windows 10 upgrades.
Steve Gibson, the author of the popular freeware Shields UP! anonymity app, has released Never10 for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 PCs.
The idea is simple: The Never10 software will hide in the background and block any attempts by Microsoft to upgrade your system to Windows 10.
Gibson’s program takes advantage of a back door in the Windows Update software, where individual PCs can be configured to stop forced upgrades.
When this first surfaced, I did grab and run that GWX one. It worked rather well in fact. Then a few days ago the KB who thinks it is right in suggesting the upgrade function, surfaced. It was hidden.
I find it ironic that ever since shortly after this thread was started I have been unable to get updates on any of my Windows 7 machines. I have three Windows 7 PCs...two are professional, one is home and the other is a VM on a Windows 8.1 Laptop. For a month now I have not been able to get updates. Windows tells me there are updates. But when I try to download and install them each machine just sits there at 0% of the download process. This can go on for hours. Restarts and other fixes have failed.
The only thing I have done on the two pro machines and the one home machine is repeatedly hide the two updates that nag you to download Windows 10. Interesting...
I've had a similar problem, though not quite as bad. I've gotten updates eventually, but I had to let the machines run overnight to get them. I saw this article, installed the indicated patches and it did seem to help considerably. It's too soon to call it a fix, but it might be worth trying. I think you can still get them manually by downloading, but I think MS is getting ready to pull the plug on that method. Incidentally, when I found these in the list of available patches, I checked only the two needed patches, then later let the others install.
I saw this article, installed the indicated patches and it did seem to help considerably.
So, after all these years of viruses and trojans and other malware people are still downloading/installing random stuff from random websites.
Unbelievable.
Right. InfoWorld has been around forever. The author of the article has been writing Windows books for twenty years or so, and as Chris pointed out, the patches are straight from Microsoft's servers. If a patch off the MS update servers qualifies as "random stuff from a random website", what exactly meets your stringent standards?
[edit] Heater, the problem Chris has is common and results in a chicken-or-egg situation where it takes forever to get anything off the update servers, including what appears to be at least a partial fix for that very problem. Add to that the fact that many people are avoiding non-security patches for fear they are going to get sucked into Win10, and the result is that even when a fix may be available it isn't getting onto the machines that need it. If you'd taken just a second to look at the linked article I think even you would agree that the criticism you leveled at me was completely unjustified.
Had that tech support calls also on win 7. On win 10 I have issues with Quartus and my fpga not showing as a com port.
Quartus is not Win10 compatible, according to the Altera web site. Win8 is the latest Quartus compatible version. The next release of Quartus probably will be compatible, I might upgrade when that happens.
Boy is my Win10 out of control on my XPS15 (9550)! The number of times I close the lid and slip it into it's travel bag and pull it out later to find it hot and the battery just about flat! So I experimented to get it to go into hibernate because all power is shut off the machine right? Wrong! Even with shutdown or hibernate from the power button the unit will wake itself up after 3 seconds. Useless machine! Still tracking down the problem and solution but it appears it is a Win10 problem and I am not the only one.
I find it ironic that ever since shortly after this thread was started I have been unable to get updates on any of my Windows 7 machines. I have three Windows 7 PCs...two are professional, one is home and the other is a VM on a Windows 8.1 Laptop. For a month now I have not been able to get updates. Windows tells me there are updates. But when I try to download and install them each machine just sits there at 0% of the download process. This can go on for hours. Restarts and other fixes have failed.
The only thing I have done on the two pro machines and the one home machine is repeatedly hide the two updates that nag you to download Windows 10. Interesting...
Chris - not sure if are still having problems with Win7 updates but I've had the same problem once or twice but was able to get past it.
Here are a couple of links that might help
NOTE: probably best to use Internet Explorer to open these links and run the Fixit program
I've read the message, and it literally says "Or you upgrade now, or you upgrade tonight, but you will upgrade!" (no option to close it for good, nice touch M$). Well, one should upgrade to Linux, so it seems...
Another much contested M$ tactic. They don't grow, and they don't even bother to change the tune. They don't understand that the owners own the PC, and they only have the rights we give to them, as users. The user can ultimately take them away by completely wiping the drive (yup, as a safety measure, you can never know) and installing other OS. But that is just my view. Of course there are people that will say that M$ is doing nothing wrong and they own the computers/hardware where Windoze is installed.
I have tried everything posted here as well as things I found in my own research. The Windows 7 VM won't update at all...it gets stuck at "Checking for Updates..."
The newest of the three remaining PCs got updates finally, but it took a while and the progress showed 0% for downloading until the updates were downloaded and installing. It's like they're slowly downloading, but the screen doesn't update until installation starts.
Same thing happened on my rebuilt older Alienware machine, except it took much longer (2 hours).
The Dell with Windows 7 Home Edition never finished and when I downloaded those two stand-alone update you linked, it said it was checking for updates during the installation of the first patch, but never got past that after several hours.
Since I am fed up with that PC and it keeps asking to put Windows 10 on it, I decided to let it upgrade to Windows 10 as I don't really use that machine any more. The Windows 10 installer downloaded everything it needed and asked about starting the installation and as soon as it did, you guessed it, it went to check for updates and got stuck there for hours until I forced it to shut down. :O
Boy is my Win10 out of control on my XPS15 (9550)! The number of times I close the lid and slip it into it's travel bag and pull it out later to find it hot and the battery just about flat! So I experimented to get it to go into hibernate because all power is shut off the machine right? Wrong! Even with shutdown or hibernate from the power button the unit will wake itself up after 3 seconds. Useless machine! Still tracking down the problem and solution but it appears it is a Win10 problem and I am not the only one.
I've seen such oddness when external devices (often usb) wakeup the computer. For example, you hit hibernate and the thing shuts down. Then your mouse wiggles "by itself", and the PC wakes up again.
Could be lan, wifi- all sorts really. Try checking the windows power saving settings, plus in device manager make sure "wake up from sleep" is un-ticked for anything in the likely suspects category.
Chris - I ran into some of the same problems. My wife has an old Asus netbook she uses only while traveling, so at times it went some months without getting any updates. I tried to update it recently and it also refused to cooperate no matter how long I left it, so like you I decided to put Win10 on it. I had the same issue you did when the Win10 installer checked for updates; it got stuck there for hours until I stopped it. I had used the MS media tool to download the Win10 image to a flash drive, so I was able to run the installer again without downloading, and I told it to not look for updates. With that, everything worked. I let it run for several hours after Win10 was installed to allow it to get the most recent updates, which it did. It's worked reasonably well since. Since it's an old machine I did have to download a new video driver from Intel, but that worked OK too.
I'm not sure what to suggest if you installed those two patches and still have issues. I put them on four Win7 PCs (two laptops and two desktops) and all four were greatly improved. Naturally that doesn't mean they will continue to update more quickly, but so far they have.
This old Dell just needs to be recycled...It's a dual core, but originally came from Dell with Widows XP on it. It has the license sticker on it, but of course companies like Dell give you no restore media (it's part of the hard drive image, which failed years ago). So if I can find a Windows XP OEM CD ISO I am going to put it back the way it was and just donate it.
Thanks for all your help though. I really wish I could get my Windows 7 VM working. It was a fresh install and had some initial updates, but now it just sits there at "Checking for updates...0%" and doesn't ever find anything even though I know there are. I've tried the FixIt tool, the stand-alone updater and everything just sits there.
The PC running these VMs has 8 cores, 16 GB RAM and a 512GB SSD. Not sure why every other VM works (Windows XP, Vista and even Windows 10), but the Windows 7 one won't update. Won't even find updates. Hos PC is Windows 8.1.
As I mentioned earlier, the individual updates don't just blindly install. They check for updates themselves and don't install on that one PC.
Last week when my Windows Update kept hanging up, I wrote down the KBxxxxx number for the liosted updates and looked up each one in MS Technet https://technet.microsoft.com
I downloaded 17 updates manually and installed them one at a time. It was a pain because I had to reboot almost every time. After installing them all - voila! the Windows Update started working again. You could also use the Windows Catalog to find and download the ones you need.
This may sound paranoid, but I can't wonder if the fact that I keep hiding the two updates that have to do with nagging you into Windows 10 are partially what's causing my problem. I guess what I mean by the paranoid part is if Microsoft is making ti so that by not having these updates installed the system is not stable. Seems weird, but there is a rash of people who have been dismissing those updates and seemingly having the same issues I am.
Since the majority of my computers are Windows 7, that concerns me greatly. I also see that I am not the only one with a Windows 7 VM who can't get the updates to be detected, but since it is a clean install and had at least one set of updates I am hesitant to remove the VM and start over because I could end up right back in the same place.
As it happens I did take a second to visit the InfoWorld link. It's one of those horribly advertising laden sites I tend to avoid so I did not pursue it further.
But you are right, my apologies, the download link looks legit.
My statement was not intended to be criticism levelled at you personally.
This may sound paranoid, but I can't wonder if the fact that I keep hiding the two updates that have to do with nagging you into Windows 10 are partially what's causing my problem. I guess what I mean by the paranoid part is if Microsoft is making ti so that by not having these updates installed the system is not stable. Seems weird, but there is a rash of people who have been dismissing those updates and seemingly having the same issues I am.
Since the majority of my computers are Windows 7, that concerns me greatly. I also see that I am not the only one with a Windows 7 VM who can't get the updates to be detected, but since it is a clean install and had at least one set of updates I am hesitant to remove the VM and start over because I could end up right back in the same place.
Chris. I use Windows 7 and have these updates hidden and I have experienced Windows update issues but they can be caused by various things such as not properly shutting down before powering off...
Comments
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2449634/ibm-researcher-finds-pdf-library-used-by-microsoft-edge-has-serious-exploits
I generally like the GUI, but it has been entertaining.
Things that have happened
- many USB drivers broke at first
- for about 2 weeks they tried to do all prints through a Metro interface app
- that printer app seems to have been given up on, but for a while all my network printers disappeared
- double click select was broken on some really old legacy programs
- one day it took overnight to restart one time
BUT all these have been fixed for now, especially after I updated BIOS and Intel Chip drivers (downloaded from Del) Win10 does not check for driver updates, but seems like it should and at least warn you about it.
Been nag-free since I installed GWX control panel on my pc and laptop. I've got them setup and working how I like. I'm not upgrading to a new OS until there is a compelling reason. And "save Microsoft money" isn't a compelling reason.
Marty
If they have "no privileges", they can't install anything.
To that end, they can't even log in to do anything at all.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/3048836/windows/never10-is-a-free-app-for-when-you-absolutely-positively-dont-want-windows-10.html
Never10 digs deep into the Windows Update software to stop Windows 10 upgrades.
Steve Gibson, the author of the popular freeware Shields UP! anonymity app, has released Never10 for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 PCs.
The idea is simple: The Never10 software will hide in the background and block any attempts by Microsoft to upgrade your system to Windows 10.
Gibson’s program takes advantage of a back door in the Windows Update software, where individual PCs can be configured to stop forced upgrades.
The only thing I have done on the two pro machines and the one home machine is repeatedly hide the two updates that nag you to download Windows 10. Interesting...
http://www.infoworld.com/article/3058260/microsoft-windows/heres-how-to-significantly-speed-up-windows-7-scans-for-updates.html
Hopefully that will help.
Bob
Unbelievable.
The links are direct to the Microsoft website, so I wouldn't say it's random stuff from the random website.
Not normally known as trustworthy source mind.
Right. InfoWorld has been around forever. The author of the article has been writing Windows books for twenty years or so, and as Chris pointed out, the patches are straight from Microsoft's servers. If a patch off the MS update servers qualifies as "random stuff from a random website", what exactly meets your stringent standards?
[edit] Heater, the problem Chris has is common and results in a chicken-or-egg situation where it takes forever to get anything off the update servers, including what appears to be at least a partial fix for that very problem. Add to that the fact that many people are avoiding non-security patches for fear they are going to get sucked into Win10, and the result is that even when a fix may be available it isn't getting onto the machines that need it. If you'd taken just a second to look at the linked article I think even you would agree that the criticism you leveled at me was completely unjustified.
Quartus is not Win10 compatible, according to the Altera web site. Win8 is the latest Quartus compatible version. The next release of Quartus probably will be compatible, I might upgrade when that happens.
Chris - not sure if are still having problems with Win7 updates but I've had the same problem once or twice but was able to get past it.
Here are a couple of links that might help
NOTE: probably best to use Internet Explorer to open these links and run the Fixit program
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/troubleshoot-problems-installing-updates#1TC=windows-7
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/gp/windows-update-issues
Another much contested M$ tactic. They don't grow, and they don't even bother to change the tune. They don't understand that the owners own the PC, and they only have the rights we give to them, as users. The user can ultimately take them away by completely wiping the drive (yup, as a safety measure, you can never know) and installing other OS. But that is just my view. Of course there are people that will say that M$ is doing nothing wrong and they own the computers/hardware where Windoze is installed.
The newest of the three remaining PCs got updates finally, but it took a while and the progress showed 0% for downloading until the updates were downloaded and installing. It's like they're slowly downloading, but the screen doesn't update until installation starts.
Same thing happened on my rebuilt older Alienware machine, except it took much longer (2 hours).
The Dell with Windows 7 Home Edition never finished and when I downloaded those two stand-alone update you linked, it said it was checking for updates during the installation of the first patch, but never got past that after several hours.
Since I am fed up with that PC and it keeps asking to put Windows 10 on it, I decided to let it upgrade to Windows 10 as I don't really use that machine any more. The Windows 10 installer downloaded everything it needed and asked about starting the installation and as soon as it did, you guessed it, it went to check for updates and got stuck there for hours until I forced it to shut down. :O
I've seen such oddness when external devices (often usb) wakeup the computer. For example, you hit hibernate and the thing shuts down. Then your mouse wiggles "by itself", and the PC wakes up again.
Could be lan, wifi- all sorts really. Try checking the windows power saving settings, plus in device manager make sure "wake up from sleep" is un-ticked for anything in the likely suspects category.
I'm not sure what to suggest if you installed those two patches and still have issues. I put them on four Win7 PCs (two laptops and two desktops) and all four were greatly improved. Naturally that doesn't mean they will continue to update more quickly, but so far they have.
This old Dell just needs to be recycled...It's a dual core, but originally came from Dell with Widows XP on it. It has the license sticker on it, but of course companies like Dell give you no restore media (it's part of the hard drive image, which failed years ago). So if I can find a Windows XP OEM CD ISO I am going to put it back the way it was and just donate it.
Thanks for all your help though. I really wish I could get my Windows 7 VM working. It was a fresh install and had some initial updates, but now it just sits there at "Checking for updates...0%" and doesn't ever find anything even though I know there are. I've tried the FixIt tool, the stand-alone updater and everything just sits there.
The PC running these VMs has 8 cores, 16 GB RAM and a 512GB SSD. Not sure why every other VM works (Windows XP, Vista and even Windows 10), but the Windows 7 one won't update. Won't even find updates. Hos PC is Windows 8.1.
You can search by KB number and OS, and sort by date. You can then download the individual updates.
Last week when my Windows Update kept hanging up, I wrote down the KBxxxxx number for the liosted updates and looked up each one in MS Technet
https://technet.microsoft.com
I downloaded 17 updates manually and installed them one at a time. It was a pain because I had to reboot almost every time. After installing them all - voila! the Windows Update started working again. You could also use the Windows Catalog to find and download the ones you need.
This may sound paranoid, but I can't wonder if the fact that I keep hiding the two updates that have to do with nagging you into Windows 10 are partially what's causing my problem. I guess what I mean by the paranoid part is if Microsoft is making ti so that by not having these updates installed the system is not stable. Seems weird, but there is a rash of people who have been dismissing those updates and seemingly having the same issues I am.
Since the majority of my computers are Windows 7, that concerns me greatly. I also see that I am not the only one with a Windows 7 VM who can't get the updates to be detected, but since it is a clean install and had at least one set of updates I am hesitant to remove the VM and start over because I could end up right back in the same place.
As it happens I did take a second to visit the InfoWorld link. It's one of those horribly advertising laden sites I tend to avoid so I did not pursue it further.
But you are right, my apologies, the download link looks legit.
My statement was not intended to be criticism levelled at you personally.
Chris. I use Windows 7 and have these updates hidden and I have experienced Windows update issues but they can be caused by various things such as not properly shutting down before powering off...
Hidden updates:
KB2952664
KB30211917
KB3055583
KB3123862
KB3068708