How to remove Windows 10 upgrade updates in Windows 7 and 8

Thanks for the welcome. I have been caught by that download once before, and uninstalled it as I did then. There has been a change in its effect, presumably since the New Year. I found that I was unable to get anywhere this time - System Restore had no effect, in spite of trying three different save-points. The only 'quick' way of getting going again was to reinstall KB3035583, whereupon everything worked (though with less speed).

I did have the number down on an 'avoid list' and had stopped automatic updating. But, alas, it was the end of the day, and I didn't check! Why on earth Microsoft is so determined to put our backs up, we may never know. It certainly IS war on Windows 7 - we must all conform to their empire (shades of Chairman Mao). Suppose we all finish up on their semi-tiled system and then they move to tablets only? It will be Linux for me.

bigmck said:

Microsoft can not make any money giving Win 10 away for free. There will be something for them to make money on. Maybe Ads on every page or it might become a subscription service like MS Office 360. Something is up their sleeve and it is more than their arm.

But they can. MS is adopting the Google model of selling information collected by using their product. Who is MS selling this data to ?

For one:

https://www.markmonitor.com/

No doubt those organizations whose mission statement involves DMCA such as RIAA and their movie equivalent whose name escapes me at present, will find the tracked information worthy of purchase. They might not use that info to go after users downloading music or movies illegally but where they are downloading them from is a prized bit of information.

Reports Archive - RIAA

Software manufacturers would also pay for information that for example, records how software is used. For example, many software vendors (AutoDesk, Adobe, Intuit, etc.) are moving to "renting" software. Knowing how often and for how long the programs are used would allow a better assessment of you to structure those charges.

The reason, I think, that MS is mum on what lies in the future with regard to how much Windows will cost is they don't know how big the market will be for the information they will collect. And that could be one of the reasons they are attempting to force feed this upgrade on us .... the value of the information is proportional to the sample size.

MS has never been about innovation. They bought DOS and made a big deal to provide it to IBM; that has been the model ever since. Obtain technology by acquisition or imitation. And with that kind of background, watching Google make billions without selling a real product has gotta have made them want to imitate that financial model.

I have been holding off installing KB2999226 and KB3097966 as tho the description says nothing about telemetry or OS upgrades, it is on a lot of folks "Hidden Updates" lists. Anyone care to enlighten me about what are the specific concerns with these updates ?

Much Thx ...

I did read the descriptions and about 3097966 being related to potential problems related to DLink, but thot that it mighta had something else as it was on a few peeps lists in this thread.

As for the other, being an ole fogey, first thing that comes to mind when I see CRT is Cathode Ray Tube :) .... and yes I still have a 1600 x 1200 Nanao in use that I bought for $2k in early 1990s... at $100 / year ... I have gotten more use per dollar out of it than many LED screens.

Not sure why it wasn't called VCRT (Visual C RunTime) .... I have 16 Visual C Redistributables entries in Programs and Features which were installed by various programs and / or games at one point or another (dated 2005 - 2013) and thot perhaps functionality might be impaired w/o the update. While on the subject .... it never really bothered me as they are rather small.... but is there any reason to keep those old 2005, 2008 Redistributables ? or is it like java whereby every once and a while I uninstall everything and just install the latest one ? My initial impression was that each program / game that installed it, might be tied to that version.

Just a heads-up: KB2952664, which I had previously hidden (in Aug, Sept & Oct) showed back up again.

According to my notes, it's W10 update-helper app that checks system compatibility and also enables some Telemetry