Configuring Mini-PC's With Zero Auto Updates On Windows7 and Tiny7?

Hello, I have some mini-PC problems, it started when Windows 10 kept pushing updates to flood my 32gb hard drives to a mere 100 mb's in my Asus VivoSticks TS10 making them inoperable. I had to keep deleting updates everyday and could not shut down the automatic updates in the policies no matter what I did.

The same thing happened with Windows 11 in my AceMagician T8 Pro (albeit it has a 256 gb sized drive, so size wasn't the issue there) but I was able to shutdown many update functions in many policies and directories, yet it still says its updating, but only during boot up. I'm trying to figure out how to shutdown all updates forever.

Frustrated, I wiped these drives on both mini-PC's and formatted to EXT4 with a Linux install. I've learned to hate Linux, its far too complicated to deal with and I don't want to waste days-on-end in the shell and I don't know code to play around in it. Linux was a dead exploration.

So now I want to go back to Windows for both mini-PC's but downscaling to a Windows 7 or Vista or XP where I can affectively shutdown the automatic updates features for real and not have it run secretly in the background without alerting the user. A real and permanent update shutdown.

I'm told by various people that Windows 7 is the last Windows op system where you can shutdown automatic updates for real and its not a fake shutoff. I'm wondering how true this is and what your input is? And if there will be a driver issue in downscaling to Win 7 or Vista for these particular PC's?

Now before 'some' start jumping-up-and-down shouting that shutting down automatic updates is wrong to do and you don't want to do that and blah, blah, blah. I've heard that all before, but I have my strong reasons to never update anything I own and I don't, and I've never had a problem doing so in 15+ years.

Lastly, I use these mini-PC's to run just 1 program - Think or Swim stock trading platform on TD Ameritrade/Charles Schwab. I do not use these PC's for any web browsing, photos, music, not even office like Word, Excel, any chat messengers or anything. These PC's will have no other programs loaded into it besides Think or Swim and never used for anything else. They are as barebones as you can get, only the default installed programs from the Windows disc. I use an iMac as my daily workhorse, I don't need to use these PC's for that.

So the update issue whether some think is good or bad is irrelevant. So with all that being said, my question is what Windows platform can I completely shutdown the automatic updates? Can a Dell reinstall disk do this with no product key code or a reusable key code for multiple machines? And I'm told that all the drivers for Windows 7 are the exact same file as used in Windows 10 so is that true as well? And it looks like Tiny7 is perfect for my 2GB RAM / 32GB HD Asus VivoSticks I think? Thank you.

Configuring Mini-PC's With Zero Auto Updates On Which Windows? | Tech Support Forum

AmericanPharaoh said:

Configuring Mini-PC's With Zero Auto Updates On Which Windows? | Tech Support Forum

...yes I squeezed as much info as I can out of that forum and I can't get any more good data so I've moved on to here. Is that a problem for you?

I shut down updates for my Windows 7 box since day one with no issues. You just turn off updates in services.msc and set the autostart to disabled. If I needed updates, I installed them manually, same thing with drivers. The problem with automatic updates is if they get interrupted, your system might become unbootable so it's a huge liability.

Out of curiosity, how big is Tiny7?

Bondppq said:

...yes I squeezed as much info as I can out of that forum and I can't get any more good data so I've moved on to here. Is that a problem for you?

Nope, no problem whatsoever ...Just giving others here at 'Seven Forums' a heads-up, that others from a different help site have already attempted to resolve this issue prior to you coming here for help. Members here can now review this link and see what has already been suggested. Time saver.

Bondppq said:

So the update issue whether some think is good or bad is irrelevant. So with all that being said, my question is what Windows platform can I completely shutdown the automatic updates? Can a Dell reinstall disk do this with no product key code or a reusable key code for multiple machines? And I'm told that all the drivers for Windows 7 are the exact same file as used in Windows 10 so is that true as well? And it looks like Tiny7 is perfect for my 2GB RAM / 32GB HD Asus VivoSticks I think? Thank you.

You can shutdown WU on all versions even Win 10 & 11
Download Sledgehammer - MajorGeeks

As a general rule, drivers are different for each Win version. There are many exceptions where they work in some upgraded versions. Most recent drivers don't work on downgraded versions.

BlueBonnett said:

Out of curiosity, how big is Tiny7?

I have only downloaded the iso which is 733.2 mb's and I read that it won't take more than 2 gb's once its installed. I haven't been able to do it yet, all USB boot loaders; (Etcher, Rufus, SystemRescue) are giving me constant errors, the pattern of my life :/

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AmericanPharaoh said:

others from a different help site have already attempted to resolve this issue prior to you coming here for help.

From what I have learned in the past about using forums is that I want differing opinions from others. I want to see who says go this way or that and I want to gauge the knowledge of users. Because some users don't know what the hell they are talking about, but some do, and some are just jerks.

I'm seeking the best advice possible which could come from ANY source, but how do I know that I picked the exact right forum with just 1 posting on just 1 forum? And since problems are rather timely, I don't want to limit my feedback results waiting on just 1 forum.

No one wants to wait days or weeks if no one responds back or gives bad advice, and some threads go cold with no replies. Then I would have wasted all that critical time waiting on just 1 forum. We all have profiles on other tech forums like myself, and last I checked a forum wasn't a marriage. I don't know, to me all that makes tremendous sense.

So Tiny7 is the same size as the Windows XP ISO, nice. It probably fails because crucial drivers were removed to achieve the small size. Since you are using an unconventional machine, the included drivers are likely too generic. You can fix this by integrating drivers into the ISO, SIW2 will have links.

Nothing wrong with increasing your reach. In any case, the solution is to turn off windows updates in services.msc and disable it. Easy.

I have been thinking that my best approach now is to install Tiny 7 and install an OSX into it like Mojave as I don't like the latest OSX's. And then run the Think or Swim platform on the OSX which is really the ultimate and only goal here. This will always keep atleast 10 GB's of space on those little 32 GB VivoSticks I have and I can run TOS fluidly. I'm thinking of going this route now. I prefer OSX to Win or Linux, I use OSX mostly so I'm trying to stick with it.