Is Microsoft forcing Update to reactivate? Mine just did

IronMew

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Italy
I'm running 8.1 with Classic Shell. I decided to keep Windows Update disabled entirely until the whole "we'll ram Windows 10 down your throat if it kills us" thing dies down, so I set it to never search for updates, then disabled the security center warning about it.

I'm OK doing this because I mostly run Linux, I know what not to download and have my important data backed up to drive cradles that I keep physically disconnected anyway, so even really bad malware can't really touch me.

After weeks of perfect non-updated operation with no annoyances about Windows 10, today Windows declared, entirely out of the blue, that it needed to reboot to install updates.

I'm positively, absolutely, emphatically 100% sure that I did not re-enable the updates, but when I went looking the option had reverted to "install updates automatically".

Is this a deliberate action by Microsoft (perhaps through Defender updates, which were the only ones I was installing through the Defender application itself)? The last shot in the increasingly unethical series to get people to upgrade?

I imagine it'd have blown up on the Internet already if it were like that, but then again, I can't think of anything I did that might have re-enabled that setting, nor did I install any application that could conceivably have anything to do with it (just a game through Steam and a mp3 tagging utility).

Needless to say, I then went and screwed everything up through my own stupidity (PSA: don't install the GWX control panel and deactivate everything after the Win10 nag updates have begun installing but before the installer has rebooted, or you'll get a persistent, unsolvable fatal error on boot with the GWXUX.exe file and you'll be a sad panda). Sigh.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win8.1, Antergos, LMDE
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
Welcome Italy, from sunny central Florida, USA.

I'm so sorry that you experienced a problem with the GWX Control Panel. Be aware though, that there are two versions of it.
There is an older version that does not have the options that the newest one does. So I recommend to anyone, that they download the very latest version of the GWX Control panel.

Personally, I have about a dozen PC's, both desktop and laptop, that run Windows 8.1 and I've installed the GWX Control panel (new version) on every one of them, and so far (fingers crossed) I've not experienced any problems at all. On most of my PC's, I've left the Windows Updates set to Automatic.....still no problems or nags to upgrade to Windows 10.

I do have the same gripe about auto updates that I did years ago with AOL..... you're on your computer, and you have to leave, so you go to shutdown so you can get going (or you'll be late to get somewhere) and the dang updater tells you to wait, because it's installing updates. I hate to just leave it running, but sometimes I've had to do just that or be late for an appointment.
For that reason, I HAVE shut off auto updates on some PC's, like my main PC that I'm on right now.

Again, I'm sorry you had a problem, but thanks for letting us know about it anyway.

Cheers mate!
TechnoMage :cool:
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win-8.1/Pro/64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer X-1200
    CPU
    AMD 2 Core
    Motherboard
    Acer
    Memory
    Crucial, 4GB
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    NVIDEA GeForce 9200
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    24" Acer
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    Sandisk, SSD 500GB
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    emachines 101 key
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    Windows Defender
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    Using Classic Shell on Win-8.1 /pro/64
It was the latest version, freshly downloaded from here, but don't worry, it was my fault entirely - I've been doing computer repair and tinkering long enough that I only have myself to blame. I damn well know that once a system update starts it shouldn't be screwed with, and if you don't like what it's doing you let it finish and *then* get rid of it.

I'm more worried about the updates reactivating on their own than about the critical error. If there is a rapid way of fixing it (I dunno, putting the GWXUX.exe file where Windows expects to find it...) then great, otherwise I'll just reinstall.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win8.1, Antergos, LMDE
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
I'm more worried about the updates reactivating on their own than about the critical error. If there is a rapid way of fixing it (I dunno, putting the GWXUX.exe file where Windows expects to find it...) then great, otherwise I'll just reinstall.

Try this latest block windows 10 release. "Never 10"

Looks pretty good.

How to make sure your PC doesn't auto-install Windows 10 | CIO

Never 10 is the latest way to banish Microsoft's unwanted Windows 10 advances- The Inquirer
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8.1 64, LT -Windows 10 Home 64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP 500-075 Desktop + HP 15-f018dx Laptop
    CPU
    Intel Core i5 3470 Ivy Bridge 3.2 GHz Quad Core/ LT - i3-4030U 1.9 GHz
    Motherboard
    Foxcon Joshua-H61-uATX
    Memory
    8 GB/ LT - 6GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel Graphics Media Accelerator HD (DX10.1)
    Sound Card
    Integrated IDT 92HD73E
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    1T HDD, 16G Sandisk Cache Drive, 2T Seagate 3.0 External
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    Wireless
    Mouse
    Wireless
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    IE11
    Antivirus
    Norton 360
    Other Info
    CyberPower UPS, Macrium Backup, Revo Pro, Malwarebytes Premium
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