Idiots Guide to Uninstall GWX?: It's Back

H0w · 03 Aug 2015

I had been here a while back to ask about an easy tutorial for an idiot like me to uninstall GWX.
Idiots Guide to Uninstall GWX
Thru much trial and error, as I recall I was able to uninstall GWX and stop future reinstalls.

Since then, I was disconnected from the internet for several months, and just connected again today.
Also, I was in the middle of working at that time on a headache of a malware problem, which still seems to exist (causing memory to go to 99% usage, and high CPU). but that is not why I am here.

So, when I got online, my computer went into overdrive updating ("37175 update operations") in the end of all that, GWX icon shows up on my tray and GWX.exe in my Task Manager.

I thought I had gotten rid of GWX. Is it possible it's a completely new edition?
I went thru the original thread (linked above) and that's a huge headache, it's all over the place. And I can't make sense of the copious notes I took and saved to my computer at the time.

Of note
1. I can no longer find update KB3035583
2. I still have the windows update shortcut on my desktop, but I am not allowed to choose icon views from the Tools menue.

Does anyone know of an idiots guide to using the idiots guide that a complete idiot like me might be able to follow, in order to banish GWX?

strollin · 03 Aug 2015

IMO, the simplest way to get rid of the GWX reminder app is to simply open the C:\Windows\System32 folder, find the folder GWX in there and rename it to something else. Once you reboot, the icon on the taskbar will be gone and you won't be bothered with it any longer. It will still take up a little disk space (around 40MB) but you won't need to uninstall and hide any updates.