Help please: how to uninstall Windows 10 after kids installed it by mistake :-(

esuhl

takman wrote: »

Just so everyone knows there is no need to install third party software to stop any mention of windows 10 on your computer. You simply have to hide three particular updates and it will never download anything to do with it.

That's simply not true. I have hidden the (more than 3) updates on several Windows 7 machines. Microsoft keeps modifying the code, as malware authors often do, causing them to appear as "new" Windows Updates.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/01/12/microsofts_get_windows_10_nagware_is_showing_signs_of_sentience/
http://www.computerworld.com/article/3044518/microsoft-windows/users-seethe-as-windows-10-arrives-while-their-backs-are-turned.html
http://www.computerworld.com/article/3029664/microsoft-windows/microsoft-pushes-windows-10-upgrade-using-tactic-it-once-called-a-mistake.html
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/02/02/microsoft_ups_pressure_win_10_holdouts/

takman wrote: »

But for everyday computers I see no reason not to update to it, as long as all the required drivers are available. But generally people are resistant to change so that's why Microsoft are forcing it on people!.

I think people are more resistant to spyware, poor design and bloated junk than they are to change in itself!

takman wrote: »

They have mentioned that this will be the last windows and all updates from now on will just be windows 10 updates.

Microsoft have warned us that Windows 10 will leave mainstream support in 2020 -- only a few months after Windows 7 leaves extended support! Extended support for Windows 10 will end in October 2025.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/lifecycle

So, for everyday computers, I can't see any reason why anyone would want to move from Windows 7 to Windows 10. As much as people often resist change without good reason, there are just as many people who embrace novelty and eye-candy for no good reason.

spud17

amibovvered wrote: »

Absolutely - I too woke up last week to Windows 10 and I don't have kids.

Oblivion wrote: »

I'll add that to the list ... Windows 10 makes you sterile.

I_have_spoken wrote: »

Windows 10 told the kiddies they were adopted!

Common knowledge that if you block Win 10, a kitten is drowned.:D

securityguy

As a statement of fact, if a PhD student managed to demonstrate even a tenth of the alleged "spyware" aspects of Windows 10, they would without doubt get a very good paper at a top conference and have no trouble getting a good Post Doc or a job with a security research shop. The technology to monitor it is perhaps little outside the realm of the standard home user, but well within the limits of "prosumer" networks and trivial for someone in a computer science department - they would just need an ethernet switch with mirror-port facilities and a machine fast enough to capture the packets. And in any event, if even a tenth of the claims were true, it would be setting off alarms in the network operations centre of any company with any serious concern about exfiltration, such as dealing floors. The discovery would be catastrophic for Microsoft: it would make Windows toxic for any activity that falls under the European Data Protection legislation, for a start off (yeah, I know, they're all in on the conspiracy).

We can therefore assume that a lot of skilled, well-resourced people are watching Windows 10 installations, and haven't caught it doing what it is blithely accused of. I don't have a dog in this fight: I don't use Windows on any of my day to day machines, and I'm not researching in this area. But I know people who are, and what they aren't finding is anything like what is being claimed. Those that claim there is widespread spyware in Windows 10 only need to provide a packet trace to prove their point.

Jivesinger

esuhl wrote: »

That's simply not true. I have hidden the (more than 3) updates on several Windows 7 machines. Microsoft keeps modifying the code

Of course Microsoft keeps modifying the code - they want to improve the compatibility of the upgrade process and keep widening the list of computers it will support.

Surely it's a good thing if they're trying to fix bugs in the upgrade process...

Edit: That said, I do think Microsoft are too aggressive with their upgrade process.

esuhl wrote: »

Microsoft have warned us that Windows 10 will leave mainstream support in 2020 -- only a few months after Windows 7 leaves extended support! Extended support for Windows 10 will end in October 2025.

Extended support and mainstream support are very different things.

Windows 10 is still having improvements and features added to it, but Windows 7 updates are just a long (very long) list of security patches.

Also the October 2025 date refers to the old version of Windows 10 which was released last July. Most Windows 10 users are already using a later version which I think will be supported even longer than the extra 5 years (over Windows 7) which is there at the moment.

Jivesinger

securityguy wrote: »

We can therefore assume that a lot of skilled, well-resourced people are watching Windows 10 installations, and haven't caught it doing what it is blithely accused of. I don't have a dog in this fight: I don't use Windows on any of my day to day machines, and I'm not researching in this area. But I know people who are, and what they aren't finding is anything like what is being claimed. Those that claim there is widespread spyware in Windows 10 only need to provide a packet trace to prove their point.

This article does look at this sort of analysis. (Probably from the Pro-Windows 10 camp but that shouldn't put people off reading it.)
http://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-10-telemetry-secrets/

esuhl

Jivesinger wrote: »

Of course Microsoft keeps modifying the code - they want to improve the compatibility of the upgrade process and keep widening the list of computers it will support.

Surely it's a good thing if they're trying to fix bugs in the upgrade process...

So why don't Microsoft offer supplemental hotfixes as they would in any other situation?

Or, why don't Microsoft release a patch for Windows Update that fixes the bug that causes hidden updates to become unhidden when they are retrospectively modified?

takman

esuhl wrote: »

That's simply not true. I have hidden the (more than 3) updates on several Windows 7 machines. Microsoft keeps modifying the code, as malware authors often do, causing them to appear as "new" Windows Updates.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/01/12/microsofts_get_windows_10_nagware_is_showing_signs_of_sentience/
http://www.computerworld.com/article/3044518/microsoft-windows/users-seethe-as-windows-10-arrives-while-their-backs-are-turned.html
http://www.computerworld.com/article/3029664/microsoft-windows/microsoft-pushes-windows-10-upgrade-using-tactic-it-once-called-a-mistake.html
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/02/02/microsoft_ups_pressure_win_10_holdouts/



I think people are more resistant to spyware, poor design and bloated junk than they are to change in itself!



Microsoft have warned us that Windows 10 will leave mainstream support in 2020 -- only a few months after Windows 7 leaves extended support! Extended support for Windows 10 will end in October 2025.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/lifecycle

So, for everyday computers, I can't see any reason why anyone would want to move from Windows 7 to Windows 10. As much as people often resist change without good reason, there are just as many people who embrace novelty and eye-candy for no good reason.

I have a computer with windows 7 installed. I have hidden the 3 updates and no prompts or downloads for Windows 10 are on it anywhere!. I can provide any proof from this computer that you need to show this is 100% true!!!.

As for the support for windows 10 like I have said there are plans for this to be constantly updated and for no new windows operating system. Obviously they won't state that it will be supported forever because that would be silly for them to commit to it. But they will keep extending the support as time goes on.

Windows 10 does actually have extra features over windows 7 although some people will never believe that lol.

securityguy

Jivesinger wrote: »

This article does look at this sort of analysis. (Probably from the Pro-Windows 10 camp but that shouldn't put people off reading it.)
http://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-10-telemetry-secrets/

Precisely so. Thanks for the link: I'd not seen that article. I think that rather makes my point for me: that the telemetry is substantially more limited, both in scope and scale, than is claimed by the excitable, and is easily turned off.

Catssquirrel

Know spyware has been crept into Win7 via 'security updates', in Win10 its the default.

dekaspace

takman wrote: »

I have a computer with windows 7 installed. I have hidden the 3 updates and no prompts or downloads for Windows 10 are on it anywhere!. I can provide any proof from this computer that you need to show this is 100% true!!!.


Windows 10 does actually have extra features over windows 7 although some people will never believe that lol.

You misunderstand, the 3 updates just hide the nagging but different updates add the spying faciliaties so whilst they don't nag you they monitor what you use.

And people aren't doubting Windows 10 is faster as much as it still has flaws as its early days, plus it has malware in it and things dont work.

Its like Windows 8 I did a HND in programming and even the lecturers said not to use 8 as actual programming software MADE BY MICROSOFT wasn't compatable, eventually like 2 years after it came out a compatable version arrived.

And even now theres conflicts with some games and programs.

securityguy wrote: »

I'm sure your children will appreciate living in a house running on obsolescent technology, so they can go to university clutching their more than a decade out of date laptops.

That will probably be the same children like much of the general public who only uses the internet for things a 10 year old laptop would work perfectly on and be just about as fast in everyday use but assume its old therefore outdated.

Most people confuse badly maintained computers as slow/old when something as simple as a reinstall makes it good as new or at very most a quick removal of a few screws on side panel (or base of laptop) and a stick of ram will suffice)