Defeating the Windows 10 Monster

This morning I arrived at my PC and was absolutely SHOCKED to see the words "Your Windows 10 Upgrade is Ready". Now let me be clear. This didn't mean that it was ready to install. It had already been installed, they just wanted me to accept the license agreement. The reason I was so startled by this because I did not instantiate this request! I declined the agreement and it told me that it could reinstall my older version of Windows (I'm using Windows 7) but that it may take a while. I nervously allowed it to do that hoping that it would be able to restore everything back to normal. About a half hour later, I was back up and running, or so I thought. I kept getting notices that Windows 10 was ready to install and I should either do it now or it offered me a way to schedule it in the next few days. There was NO option to say "No thanks" or "Never". So then I turned my Windows Update settings to manual rather than automatic, hoping I could at least deny it when it asked me again.

But this was still disconcerting to me. I do remember saying a number of months ago that I'd like a free upgrade to Windows 10 when it was ready, but really wanted to just have it in case I ever decided to install it. Don't get me wrong here. I have been told that Windows 10 is a far better operating system than Windows 7 and it has a lot of features I am excited to check out. I wanted to do that on my Windows Vista machine, which is not critical to my work, but alas there are no free upgrades for Vista.

I still found this whole concept incredulous. Was this really happening or is my machine infected with a virus? Using Google I found that indeed, this was actually happening. Microsoft is forcing people to upgrade! Read the article here.

In my experience, enduring a major operating system upgrade can be a daunting task. You must make sure everything is backed up, that you have all software licenses ready, and are willing to negotiate any hiccups that may occur. There is no guarantee that software you depend on for work purposes will function properly on the new operating system. This process can take anywhere from an hour or two to a day or longer, depending on the problems encountered.

Now back to my story. My system repeatedly attempted to re-download and re-initiate the Windows 10 installation. I went to the internet for help. I was able to find a setting in the registry (found here) that can be installed so as to prevent Windows 10 from forcing an upgrade.  So far that has been working. However, I discovered that the software that I no longer wanted was still on my PC and taking up more than 6GB! I found it in the c:/$WINDOWS.~BT directory. When I tried to delete it, it told me I couldn't because I don't have administrator privileges. Being the only user on the machine and knowing my way around it, I am sure that I am indeed an administrator. However, having run into similar situations before, I ran the Windows Explorer program "As An Administrator" then tried to delete it. Same thing. I'm not an administrator.

So I did more digging. These files must apparently be deleted through the Administrative Disk Cleanup facility. This took approximately one half hour to complete. So, having done that I thought I was home free. I still had this nagging message when I went to Windows Updates and tried to search for updates.

So apparently there are remnants of Windows 10 still there. So I rebooted my machine. This took another half and hour since when it started back up it was "Configuring Updates". Again I figured I was home free when Windows 7 finally loaded. Alas, when I went to the Windows Updates screen, the above screen reappeared. So now I have no way of even updating Windows 7.

I'm a software developer guy, not a Windows configuration guy. But I am technical enough to be able to handle the things I had to do to get this far through this mess. I often wonder what people do who depend on their machines to make money for their businesses (as I do), who have no clue how to go about fixing things like this.

As a software guy, if I ever delivered a program that automatically upgraded itself  without warning I would be fired, shot, thrown to the wolves and then fired again.

Microsoft in my eyes has now far surpassed the "unmitigated gall" level. I just hope enough people who experience the same thing I did today make noise about it also. Microsoft, I'd like my computer back as well as the last 8 hours of my life.