What exactly does KB2952664 do?

If anyone is interested just paste this into your windows 7 search to see if you're participating already ;)

Change Customer Experience Improvement Program settings

It is important to note that opting out of the CEIP does not necessarily stop all (covert) telemetry operations initiated by Microspy - some have to be manually disabled through the Task Scheduler.

I haven't yet looked into all of the reported KB updates in this article, but I did go through the Task Scheduler items reported and found some that I had to disable.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/updates-to-hide-to-prevent-windows-10-upgrade-disable-telemetry.780476

Caveat emptor.

Yep

Hide them all and and don't add yourself to the M$ win-10 telemetry bonnet :p


http://www.ghacks.net/2015/04/17/how-to-remove-windows-10-upgrade-updates-in-windows-7-and-8/

If anyone is interested just paste this into your windows 7 search to see if you're participating already ;)

Change Customer Experience Improvement Program settings

Check the several websites which turn up when you search "How do I get rid of those Windows 10 reminders?"

Three updates are involved. They are: kb2952664, kb3035583, and kb2976978. The *2664 update is the one that gets the process rolling. 

Skepticaluser12,

I agree with you. Microsoft has been issuing many updates designed to coerce users into installing Windows 10.

To help prevent Microsoft from nagging me about Windows 10, and to prevent Microsoft from installing Windows 10 without my permission, I use the free tool called GWX Control Panel. A Users Guide and download can be found here ...

http://blog.ultimateoutsider.com/2015/08/using-gwx-stopper-to-permanently-remove.html

Also, I recommend regularly reviewing Woody Leonard's site for information about protecting oneself from Microsoft ...

http://www.askwoody.com/

Microsoft's efforts to coerce people to install Windows 10 is not just limited to Windows Updates. Last week, Microsoft announced that computers with newer CPU architectures ... starting with Intel's current (sixth generation) processors (known as Skylake) ... will require Windows 10 (i.e., Windows 7 and 8 will not be supported on computers with newer processors). Although a specific set of Skylake processors will be supported to run Windows 7 and 8.1, but only until July 17, 2017 ... a date much earlier than the end of life dates for Windows 7 (Jan 14, 2020) and Windows 8.1 (Jan 10, 2023).

This article has more details ...

http://www.infoworld.com/article/3025399/microsoft-windows/microsoft-wont-support-most-skylake-pcs-without-windows-10.html

And here's the Microsoft announcement ...

https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2016/01/15/windows-10-embracing-silicon-innovation/

Many customers feel that Microsoft's tactics designed to coerce users into installing Windows 10 are deplorable. However, if Microsoft does achieve its objective of having Windows 10 installed on a billion computers ... then what Microsoft does after that may make their current tactics seem tame .... Windows as a Service ... and those services (whatever they might be) will not likely be free nor optional.

To use a popular quote ...

"I have a bad feeling about this."

If you intend to neither of the above [upgrade Windows 7 to a flavor of Windows 8], it is quite safe to hide the update and forget about it. There will be no ill effects.

Microsoft see it as important because it IS if the user intends to upgrade to Windows 8.1 at some point in the future, and Microsoft assumes that users will do this. There is nothing more that can be said.. :-)

Thank you Mike, that was what I was looking for.

I understand that Microsoft may assume users will "upgrade" from Windows 7 to Windows 8, but I just do not think this is going to happen on a large scale. People may buy new computers with Win 8 (because that's what their new computer comes with), but I have my doubts that huge numbers of people running Win 7 will choose to upgrade their computer to Win 8. And I don't think (after the poor market acceptance of Win 8) that Microsoft is naive enough to think otherwise.

Thus, I wonder why in Windows Update, KB2952664 is listed as "important" rather than "optional" (since upgrading from Win 7 to Win 8 is itself optional). Given that we are not a party of every change that KB2952664 will make, and Microsoft is not sharing the details, what makes you confident that ignoring the update will result in no ill effects? Is there something about this update being designated "important" that we don't know?

I mean no disrespect to you  .... I'm just asking.

"...I'm just asking."

And you can keep on asking. Microsoft will never admit that the update's main purpose is to get you downloading Windows 10. Forget all this stuff about W8 or W8.1, If that were all it could do, it would definitely be optional. It is "important" only because Microsoft want you to do it.

Check the several websites which turn up when you search "How do I get rid of those Windows 10 reminders?"

Three updates are involved. They are: kb2952664, kb3035583, and kb2976978. The *2664 update is the one that gets the process rolling.

Hiding might NOT help! It is recommended to STOP Windows Updates - see latest Canadian Tech's resume on page 34 of 

KB3035583 Installing Windows 10 using Windows Update?

Page 34