Hi all,
 
I am trying to keep this short and to the point. I do not want a forced upgrade to Windows 10 from my presently finely tuned, finally stable (more or less) with all my musicware Win 7 Pro 64 PC.
 
(I don’t care how many who’ve made upgraded are now thrilled to death – this is not up for discussion. Among many, many reasons, my audio interface is not supported by Win10. How to -- and not whether to -- prevent some stealth or other forced upgrade is of paramount importance, this is the only thing I’d like to discuss here, please.)
 
I should mention, in case it’s relevant, that although I’ve been getting recommended updates automatically, for some reason, I, unlike many, have never seen anything on my desktop, in my system tray or elsewhere asking me if I wish to upgrade to Win10. Nor have I yet to see the 3 gb $WINDOWS.~BT downloaded on my PC, although I suspect that will be coming soon. The recent
news which I’m reacting to is in one of many recent stories, such as this one
 
http://www.extremetech.co...ate-automatic-download
 
So far I have read about two apparently quick and easy ways to prevent this (I do not want to take the route of opting out of all recommended Windows updates; rather, I just want to avoid the Win10 download / upgrade.)
 
-- One is a free download called GWX Control Panel. It is explained here
 
http://blog.ultimateoutsi...ermanently-remove.html
 
and available for download here
 
http://ultimateoutsider.com/downloads/
 
-- The other is mentioned here
 
http://www.howtogeek.com/...dows-10-automatically/
 
in what the article refers to in hypertext as a link to "our registry hack file," which it says if you just download and install, it will prevent windows 10 upgrade from downloading.
 
Assuming either of these lets all other recommended updates though, they sound like quick and easy solutions. But I know so little about IT that I worry, is just trusting these sources and running this hack likely to have unintended consequences, including bugginess, instability, loss of my present functionality, or other disruption?
 
Also—it’s not clear to me whether this GWX Control Panel would help me even though I’ve not seen the system tray “Upgrade to W10”nag.
 
(Hands over ears) I just want them to leave me alone!
 
Seriously, I’d be really grateful for any layman-friendly, practical advice.

I'm on Win 8.1, and have it set to "Check for Updates but let me choose whether to download or install".  Until recently the Win 10 update has been in my Optional update list and checked by default.  During the weekly updates, I would simply uncheck that box and just let the others run.

Recently, I remembered that you could "hide" an update by right-clicking on it and choosing Hide update.  (You can always unhide it later).  I tried it on the Win 10 update and it worked!  Even after multiple reboots, it is still hidden.

Unplug the Ethernet cable?

Ok, I've since researched GWX, it's been blessed by a few folks I trust, so I ran it, and got the view shown here

https://dl.dropboxusercon...en%20set%20to%20on.JPG

Indeed, my system had been set to allow Win10 upgrades ... those cockroaches. I clicked the button and it seems to work / do no harm ... time will hopefully bear this out.

The only "forced" I have encountered is that one update referenced above that has been hidden on my machine. The one that does make me a bit irate is signing out of hotmail, which has an incessant pop-up for Win10 if using Internet Explorer (Windows can bypass its own pop-up blocker, of course). Because of this I shifted back to Firefox, but I do find Microsoft's tenacious and surreptitious methods increasingly annoying.

Agreed. I too resent MS continually twisting our arm when they know they have us over a barrel. Only to force us into the yearly subscription model...
 
KB3035583 is the update I have uninstalled and have hidden.
 

Came here to wonder who else was still sitting in the Windows 7 arena. I upgraded my computer to Windows 10 last year. For the most part it has worked well. I just reinstalled another laptop with a fresh Windows 10 install and I have to say overall I am not impressed. All the rough stuff just pushes the balance too far in the direction of I really don't want it. The only thing that impresses me about Windows 10 is that it does boot faster and performance does seem a little bit better overall, but the cost for that just seems too damn high.
 
I am planning to reinstall my computer to clean it up a bit and I am half tempted to just go back to Windows 7. I actually think my best bet would be to reinstall my machine as Windows 7, disconnect it from the Internet and use a Linux machine for connected activity.

My main DAW is still running Win 7 because my interface isn't supported in Win 10.
 
I do have Win 10 installed on my secondary machine which I use just to sketch out ideas and also on my laptop which is mainly used for troubleshooting.
 
The only thing that will force me to update my DAW is when Cake no longer support Win 7 ( or I come into some "spare" cash)