The past year has not been easy for system owners or administrators on devices running Windows 7 or Windows 8 who don’t want their systems to be upgraded to Windows 10.
The main reason for this was that Microsoft pushed a myriad of patches to devices running previous versions of Windows with the sole aim to get those Windows versions upgraded to Windows 10.
Probably the most notorious of them all was “Get Windows 10”, a patch that displays an upgrade prompt to the user in various forms. What made the patch particularly problematic was that Microsoft updated it a lot. This meant that it reappeared on devices running Windows 7 or 8 even if the user or a system administrator hid the page to block it from ever being installed on the device.
Another part of the problem was that Microsoft modified the prompt itself making it less user friendly with every iteration. This was borderline malware-like behavior, something that did not seem to bother Microsoft in the slightest.
But it was not just that patch that infuriated part of the Windows user base. Microsoft introduced telemetry patches as well, most notably KB2952664 for Windows 7 and KB2976978 for Windows 8.
This update performs diagnostics on the Windows systems that participate in the Windows Customer Experience Improvement Program. These diagnostics help determine whether compatibility issues may be encountered when the latest Windows operating system is installed. This update will help Microsoft and its partners ensure compatibility for customers who want to install the latest Windows operating system.
If you checked for updates on Windows 7 or Windows 8 recently, you may have noticed that these two patches have once again been updated.
This means that they are offered to all users on Windows 7 and Windows 8 again.
What makes this rather worrying from a user point of view is that these updates were prerequisites for the Get Windows 10 update KB3035583.
Some users are already worried that Microsoft might re-introduce the Get windows 10 update again, likely because the operating system’s growth fell to a snail-like pace in September 2016.
The update description offers no hint as to what made Microsoft push out an updated version of it to user systems. It could be unrelated to the Get windows 10 campaign, considering that users may still initiate updates to Windows 10 from systems running Windows 7 or 8.
Then again, those who use Microsoft’s upgrade assistants will notice that compatibility checks are performed during the upgrade process as well.
While Microsoft is keeping its customers in the dark in regards to what is actually going on, those who don’t want their devices to upgrade to Windows 10 better block KB2952664 and KB2976978 once again to make sure nothing of that sort happens.
Those who find one of the patches installed already may find this guide useful that explains how to remove and block already installed Windows updates.