Auto upgrade from win 7 / 8 to Win 10 still happening.

Forums › Microsoft Windows › Auto upgrade from win 7 / 8 to Win 10 still happening.

nunz

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#207252 15-Dec-2016 17:42

I got a call from a client. his mum's computer had just hosed itself. All she uses it for is email (office 2010 / outlook) and seeing the stuff home page.

I got there and the windows 7 computer had just ~~updated~~ downgraded itself from win7 to Win10. ( Sunday 11th December. ) There was a nice little file on the desktop telling her what apps she would need to reinstall - including MS Office 2010.

There is no way she either downloaded, agreed to or clicked the appropriate buttons to install windows 10. It was an auto downgrade from Windows 7.

Long story short. Normally you would go to the Updates / Recovery area and click the recover the computer to Windows 7 option. That option is now removed and wasn't available - so it would rule out an old version of win 10 sitting around since august waiting to strike.

The Windows.old folder was missing files - including the old registry so recovery of license keys wasn't possible and the HP recovery partition was hosed thanks to Windows 10.

It took a data recovery, full reinstall on win7, download of Office 2010 and reinstall, recovery of data and trying to get the licenses for all sorts of things to get it back to working for her again. I also installed the GWX control panel and banned Windows 10.

Anyone else seeing these surprise "Upgrades" still going on?

I'm also tackling MS on the issue as it is unacceptable that my client should not have quiet enjoyment of her product that she purchased - as per NZ principle of law.

MS support will do a full reinstall of Win 7 for you - but cannot answer how they will put in the details remotely during an in place reinstall or deal with the missing drivers when Win7 reboots and cant get on the network again (NC drivers not native in Win 7). So client is forced to pay me to do this job. I'd like to do it for free but I need to feed my family too.

gzt

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#1689660 15-Dec-2016 18:03

That surprises me. Is it a particularly slow net connection? Like dialup? ; )

Also the lack of a restore point is weird.

How often is the machne actually used?

nunz

1421 posts

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#1689706 15-Dec-2016 20:12

gzt: That surprises me. Is it a particularly slow net connection? Like dialup? ; )

Also the lack of a restore point is weird.

How often is the machne actually used?

ADSL - 10Mbps DS mostly.

No restore point and the restore to win7 option gone. Went through that with Ms tech and asked where it was now hidden or if there is a way to restore it. It was gone.

The auto change to Win10 finished in Aug?? There is no way this hasn't restarted in 4 months. Updates alone would force that as Win 7 has had some forced restarts recently - and before that too.

gzt

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#1689730 15-Dec-2016 20:35

What's the date stamp on the hidden folder $WINDOWS.~BT in the root directory? C:\

1101

3122 posts

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#1690952 16-Dec-2016 11:34

nunz:

Normally you would go to the Updates / Recovery area and click the recover the computer to Windows 7 option. That option is now removed and wasn't available ....

thats what happens approx a month after the updowngrade to 10 .

Brumfondl

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#1691045 16-Dec-2016 12:45

1101:

nunz:

Normally you would go to the Updates / Recovery area and click the recover the computer to Windows 7 option. That option is now removed and wasn't available ....

thats what happens approx a month after the updowngrade to 10 .

If it has installed the Anniversary update then the rollback period is only 10 days. This still leads me to believe that the timeline the OP was given was not entirely correct and that the upgrade had taken place some time earlier than stated.

nunz

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#1704246 16-Jan-2017 16:22

1101:

nunz:

Normally you would go to the Updates / Recovery area and click the recover the computer to Windows 7 option. That option is now removed and wasn't available ....

thats what happens approx a month after the updowngrade to 10 .

Two to three days after the "update" It's just plain missing and the updates backup folder was missing things like the registry.

nunz

1421 posts

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#1704248 16-Jan-2017 16:24

Brumfondl:

1101:

nunz:

Normally you would go to the Updates / Recovery area and click the recover the computer to Windows 7 option. That option is now removed and wasn't available ....

thats what happens approx a month after the updowngrade to 10 .

If it has installed the Anniversary update then the rollback period is only 10 days. This still leads me to believe that the timeline the OP was given was not entirely correct and that the upgrade had taken place some time earlier than stated.

Nope - Sat night / Sunday rolled over- i was there on monday. I know it was working on friday as she emailed me. She couldn't email post update as office 2010 had been removed by windows 10 and all licensing info removed as the registry was gone.

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lNomNoml

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#1704286 16-Jan-2017 16:54

You can still upgrade from Windows 7, 8, 8.1 to 10 for free, it works in Microsoft's favour to allow it anyway.

nunz

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#1704303 16-Jan-2017 17:21

lNomNoml:

You can still upgrade from Windows 7, 8, 8.1 to 10 for free, it works in Microsoft's favour to allow it anyway.

I hear you - upgraded my Windows 10 laptop this week - From windows 10 to Linux mint. Works beautifully and holy smokes - its fast. My sons laptop- upgraded from windows 10 to 7. Now minecraft actually runs.

freitasm

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Geekzone

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#1704308 16-Jan-2017 17:49

FWIW I think Windows 10 is now worthy of upgrading from Windows 7.

nunz

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#1709589 25-Jan-2017 20:03

freitasm:

FWIW I think Windows 10 is now worthy of upgrading from Windows 7.

I have one laptop I use as a crash test dummy for Windows 10. Straight from DSE, off the shelf, i7 with 12Gb ram - not tweaked - as a comparison / learning experience.

Startups still way too slow - the conhost / network manager still chews truckloads of CPU for long periods of time post boot, long periods of high disk usage etc.

Its the upgrades - and this gets worse if you only use your machine once or twice a fortnight.

The only way to get it running semi smooth was to kill:

Updates
All dropbox, onedrive type apps
Skype ( as per MS knowledge base)
Windows Defender and Ms security stuff
and a range of other crud ware that keeps coming back e.g. live apps for weather, stock market, xbox, etc etc that are not wanted.

As a developers machine it was a huge slow down and the windows 7 version of it still eats the windows 10 version for speed and stability. That said, 2 x auto restarts in last fortnight and a couple of pcs died after this weeks updates. Still not sure why but one very ticked off wife when she couldn't get emails three nights in a row as the pc kept installing and uninstalling updates. Took pity on her, kicked the system into safe mode and reverted then banned the flakey updates.

Lastly - my biggest gripe - this is MY PC. That means I DECIDE what is going to start, install, run, get sent to the internet - not MS. Until that is possible without huge arguments with the OS then I'll be staying in my luddite troll cave or joining the enlightened in their Linux paradise.

ludez

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#1709601 25-Jan-2017 20:21

Windows 10 was a massive step up from windows 7, it's an archaic is now. I love windows 10

ScuL

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#1709668 25-Jan-2017 22:31

Nunz I share your negative sentiments about Windows 10, I recently bought a new laptop and went out of my way in order to downgrade it to Windows 7 :)

Haere taka mua, taka muri; kaua e wha.