What exactly does KB2952664 do?

It's baaaack! And it's time to hide it again. As of February 9, 2019 KB2952664 has been re-released ... again.

I don't want nag-ware ( which = mal-ware ) to be installed on my system. I don't want Windows 10 on my Windows 7 system - ever. I have seen too many systems that have been irreparably broken by the Windows 10 "upgrade". My regular customers are not upgrading, but I'm getting phone calls from new customers whose systems have been broken by the Win10 upgrade. As a result, I need to be able to support many users who for many different reasons, cannot and should not "upgrade" to Windows 10.

While Microsoft says that a system will run Windows 10, the truth is that many manufacturers are not providing drivers for all of the devices in all models of their "old" (like 1 year old and more). And believe it or not, the Microsoft drivers don't work either. What a shock! And so, too many systems are being bricked by the Windows 10 upgrade. Microsoft is telling people that the upgrade will work. People believe Microsoft. They let the upgrade proceed because Microsoft said it would work. The upgrade fails. The rollback process fails. And people have brought me a system to repair for which the only repair is a complete reload. And by then, people don't want anything to do with Windows 10 - ever.

As a result, I need to be able to support Windows 7 until 2020. Not that I'm complaining. I'm just stating fact.

Furthermore, there are some line-of-business applications that are not supporting Windows 10 (or IE 11), yet. Those system should not be upgraded yet.

So Microsoft can't tell me that all systems need to be upgraded to Windows 10, and that I need to allow their nag-ware updates to install. I, for one, am not allowing it.

No, it will be installed from the cloud, and ALL the changes will be incorporated.  NO update needed.

Microsoft could come out with a Windows 10.1 that contains all of the cumulative updates since Win 10.0 was released. That might make reinstalling Windows 10 easier.

But ... version 10.1 might be one of the "services" that Microsoft's  customers have to pay for.

Similarly, when Windows 10.0 reaches end of life, customers might have to pay for a subscription to use Windows 10.1 .... the possibilities for Microsoft to monitize Windows 10 "services" are endless.

Like third-party anti-virus software, Microsoft's customers might have to pay an annual subscription fee to continue receiving Windows 10 support/updates.

What of quality and customer satisfaction?  These may become extinct.

And when we have to reinstall or reset Windows 10, when many years have passed by, with ALL these hundreds of updates to install again... OOOHHH NOOOO!!! They will NOT be installed, because over hundred updates in one time, is ALL TOO much for the poor PC!!

What is the biggest reason I don't want Win10?  The fact that you cannot pick and choose updates.  

In addition to the Forced Update issue, there are several other reasons why customers currently running Windows 7 or 8 might not want to install Windows 10 ... note that since I am not running Windows 10, I cannot tell if any of the following have been mitigated ...

Windows 10 Life Expectancy. Microsoft has stated that Windows 10 will be the "last version of Windows" (quote by Jerry Nixon, Developer Evangelist, at Microsoft's Ignite conference in May 2015). If that's the case, then why does Microsoft's Lifecycle Fact Sheet (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/lifecycle) show Oct 13, 2020 as the End of mainstream support for Windows 10, and why does the Fact Sheet show Oct 24, 2025 as the End of extended support? Unanswered questions include (1) If Win 10 is the last version, why does it have an expiration date? (2) Will Microsoft change/restrict the published Windows 10 expiration dates based on hardware specs (similarly to what they have done with Windows 7 and the Skylake processor ... see http://www.infoworld.com/article/3025399/microsoft-windows/microsoft-wont-support-most-skylake-pcs-without-windows-10.html)

Privacy Issues. Personal, tracking, telemetry data being collected and sent to Microsoft. Some of these can be disabled, while others cannot. Yes others are also collecting data, but that does not make it acceptable. Many discussions on this subject, here's one: http://betanews.com/2016/01/08/if-youre-fine-with-microsofts-approach-to-privacy-in-windows-10-youre-out-of-touch/

Still (and always will be) a work in progress. Examples include (1) OneDrive Regression for Windows 8.1 users. Win 10 makes you choose which OneDrive folders you see in File Explorer. Once you have made that choice, other folders are not accessible. (2) Media Center and DVD player are missing. (3) Limited number of Universal apps. (4) Apps such as Mail and Edge are not ready for prime time yet. But the most critical example is that Windows 10 will implement Microsoft's vision of Software as a Service. The services have yet to be defined, but one can guess that they (the services) will not be cheap/free, may involve monthly/yearly subscriptions, and they will always be evolving as Microsoft thinks up new ways to generate revenue ... and since the services will always be changing, Win 10 will always contain new and buggy software.

My computers will remain on Windows 7 for as long as possible ... then I'll replace them with hardware running a non-Microsoft operating system.