Remove Links to the Windows 10 Upgrade (as of 06/08/16) (Also REVERT from Windows 10 back to a previous Windows 7, 8 or 8.1 version.) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- DISABLE SERVICE: DIAGNOSTIC TRACKING SERVICE: ---------------------------------------------- 1. Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services (extended tab) 2. Select 'Diagnostic Tracking Service' and click Stop. 3. Double-Click 'Diagnostic Tracking Service' and change to 'Disabled' 4. Apply, Ok and then close the panels. REGISTRY FIX: (uses an Ubuntu Live-CD or Live-USB) ------------- 1. Ubuntu Live-CD boot on the computer. 2. Remove the folder and contents: C:\Windows\Program Files\GWX 3. Clear Windows\Temp files and/or run Disk Cleanup. 4. Delete recent GWX.exe like files in C:\Windows\System32 if found 5. Check for folder: C:\Windows\.~BT (or if ~BT exists.) If so delete it. (This folder contains the full 4-6GB Windows 10 upgrade--ready to install.) 6. Restart to Windows (Safe Mode) 7. Add Windows registry entry: 8. Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows 9. File > New folder: Gwx 10. Open the folder: Gwx 11. On the right pane, right-mouse and choose New > Key > DWORD (32-bit or 64-bit) 12. Name it: DisableGwx 13. Double-click on DisableGwx and choose its dword value of: 1 (then OK) 14. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\ OSUpgrade and verify that "ReservationsAllowed" has its DWORD value of: 0 ============================================================================================= 1. Alternately you can create a rmwinx.reg text file with exactly the following 12 filled lines: (6 major instruction lines, 5 of them use two lines each) (Note that the folder Gwx in the first HKLM instruction is actually an abbreviation for "Get Windows 10." dword:00000001 means yes; dword:00000000 means no.) Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Gwx] "DisableGwx"=dword:00000001 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate] "DisableOSUpgrade"=dword:00000001 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\OSUpgrade] "ReservationsAllowed"=dword:00000000 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\OSUpgrade] "AllowOSUpgrade"=dword:00000000 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\OSUpgrade\State] "OSUpgradeState"=dword:00000001 2. Then right-mouse on the saved text file and choose Merge and OK in the box that follows. Note: The header 'REGEDIT4' was used with older pre-Vista Windows versions. Use the following query to see if the rmwinx.reg worked: reg query HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate You should see a folder Gwx with a DisableGwx using dword:00000001 ============================================================================================== 13. Restart Windows (normal mode.) 14. Go to the Control Panel and choose Programs & Features 15. Click Installed Updates. 16. Find and uninstall update KB3035583 (brought in the white icon & GWX folder) 17. Control Panel > Windows Update 18. On the left choose Change Settings 19. Choose check for updates w/o downloading 20. With Windows Explorer navigate to C:\Windows\Prefetch 21. Delete: GWX.EXE-C082B90D.pf (note that the hex number may vary) GWXCONFIGMANAGER.EXE-DE091572.pf (note that the hex number may vary) 22. Follow the directions on the batch file below. Verify the installation folder $Windows.~BT for installing Windows 10: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- First, verify if the $Windows.~BT folder exists on your hard drive. 1. It's a hidden folder, so you need to open File Explorer, and from the ribbon menu, navigate to View, and click on Folder Options > View > "Advanced settings" 2. Make sure to check Show hidden files, folders, and drives. 3. Click Apply and OK. 4. Go your main Windows drive and you'll now be able to see if you have the $Windows.~BT folder. If the download has already completed, checking the properties of the folder, you'll notice it's taking between 3GB to 6GB of your local storage. Reclaiming your storage space ----------------------------- 1. Open the Run command and type cleanmgr /sageset:11 and press Enter. 2. While in the Disk Cleanup utility, click the Clean up system files. 3. Select the Temporary Windows installation files. 4. Click OK to complete the cleanup. 5. Restart the computer. You may find it takes a long time because the clean manager has to do a cleanup routine--much like installing Windows updates. BATCH FILE TO REMOVE WINDOWS 10 UPDATES & TRACKING: (File name: 'rmwinxup.bat') ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copy the batch file code between the =='s into Notepad and save as 'rmwinxup.bat': (Choose to save with All Files instead of the .txt extension.) ===================================================================================== @echo off rem as of 05/04/16 echo Detect Updates echo -------------- echo. pause echo Detecting Windows Updates... for %%i in ( KB2952664 REM compatibility upgrade for upgrading Windows 7, its purpose is to "make improvements to the current operating system in order to ease the upgrade experience to the latest version of Windows KB2976978 REM A compatibility update for Windows 8.1 and Windows 8 which "performs diagnostics on the Windows system [..] to determine whether compatibility issues may be encountered when the latest Windows operating system is installed KB2977759 REM A compatibility update for Windows 7 KB2990214 REM same as KB 3044374 but on Windows 7. KB3012973 REM no info added 10-16-15 KB3021917 REM same as KB 2976978 but on Windows 7. KB3022345 REM (retracted) enabled the Diagnostics Tracking Service in Windows (Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1 KB3035583 REM enables "additional capabilities for Windows Update notifications when new updates are available KB3044374 REM update for Windows 8.1 enables systems to upgrade from the current operating system to a later version of Windows KB3068708 REM update to 3022345 KB3075851 REM KB3075249 REM enhanced the User Account Control (UAC) feature to enable it to collect more information from the elevation prompts KB3080149 REM update to 3022345/3068708 KB3123862 REM Upgrade-to-Windows 10 helper ) do ( REM dir C:\Windows\ /s /b | find "KB3022345" dir C:\Windows\ /s /b | find "%%i" ) echo. pause echo Remove Found Updates echo -------------------- echo. set /a i=1 set /p count="How many updates need to be removed? " :while1 if %i% leq %count% ( set /p kb="Enter the Update Key Number starting with the 3 characters kb: " wusa /uninstall /%kb% /quiet /norestart set /a i=%i%+1 goto :while1 ) pause echo Press "Enter" to exit. exit ===================================================================================== Then restart the computer. REVERT FROM WINDOWS 10 -- back to Windows Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 (within 30 days) On July 29, 2016, Windows 10 will no longer be a free upgrade and it will require a one-time payment of $119. (Oh joy!) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Start > Settings 2. Click the button "Update & Security" 3. Choose the recovery option under "Go Back to Windows" 4. Click "Get Started" 5. Once done, run "Disk Cleanup" 6. Select "Clean Up System Files" 7. Click the boxes in front of previous Windows Installations. 8. Restart and then make Windows registry changes to prevent the "upgrade" to Windows 10 from happening again. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Block the following IP addresses in Windows 7: 203.32.125.151 and 203.32.125.152 in %systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc\ (Run as administrator & save the changes under the category "All Files." These IP addresses require much bandwidth because of continuous activity. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From /. org on 05/24/16: In a move guaranteed to annoy many people, Microsoft has "jumped the shark" on encouraging users to upgrade to Windows 10. Microsoft has faced criticism for changing the pop-up box encouraging Windows users to upgrade to Windows 10. Clicking the red cross on the right hand corner of the pop-up box now activates the upgrade instead of closing the box. And this has caused confusion as typically clicking a red cross closes a pop-up notification. The upgrade could still be cancelled, when the scheduled time for it to begin appeared, Microsoft said The change occurred because the update is now labelled "recommended" and many people have their PCs configured to accept recommended updates for security reasons. This means dismissing the box does not dismiss the update. Brad Chacos, senior editor at the PC World wrote about this incident over the weekend, and described it as a "nasty trick". Comment: Microsoft Windows: noun, A 64-bit compilation of 32 bit extensions and a graphical shell for a 16 bit patch to an 8 bit operating system originally coded for a 4 bit microprocessor written by a 2 bit company that can't stand 1 bit of competition with 0 bit of understanding good UI.