What exactly does KB2952664 do?

I got that a couple of days ago.  It's another "Get Windows 10" annoyance. I immediately hid it. I just can't understand why Microsoft can't understand that 'NO MEANS NO!"

The below response is very helpful for the Windows users but not helpful in understanding what the KB2952664 actually will do. It clearly appears Microsoft does not want the users to have knowledge of these many different new KB numbers for now.

My basic complaint with Windows is why not allow the existing Windows users who are happy with Windows 7, or possibly 8, and why are not given the proper knowledge and instructions to receive updates necessary for Windows 7 and 8 only? Our plan is to purchase Windows 10 later when we can evaluate the significance for change or upgrade to Windows 10 from our contentment with Windows 7.

Microsoft 2000 NT and Microsoft XP have been the best OS system produced by Windows in the past. Now, Windows 7 is the next best product to use thus far until proven different by use of choice not by unknown KB number upgrades labeled by Microsoft as Important and/or recommended which are Windows 10 possible upgrades.

We just need to know exactly, not vague with word semantics, what these barrage of KB numbers mean so that we can decide to stay with the current OS  we are happy with or move up to Windows 10 for ourselves.

Microsoft was embarrassed by customer's lack of acceptance for Vista and Windows 8. Microsoft failed to LISTEN to their customers. Microsoft produced versions of Windows that we did not want with features we did not need. Customers rejected those versions.

Now comes Windows 10. Perhaps Microsoft does not want to be embarrassed by customers again rejecting a version of windows that we do not want or need.

One way to avoid having customers reject Windows 10 would have been to actually listen to customers and give us a version of Windows we really want. But apparently, Microsoft does not want to use that method ... instead they appear to be avoiding transparency regarding Windows Updates whose sole purpose seems to be nagging customers into installing Windows 10. And if we try to hide these "nag" Updates, Microsoft unhides them in an attempt to get them installed (regardless of their customer's wishes).

In addition to releasing, re-releasing, and re-re-re-releasing "nag" Updates, it also appears that even in cases where customers do not respond to the nagging (i.e., those customers who do not want to install Windows 10), Microsoft still (in some cases) downloads the Windows 10 installation files. The files total approximately 3 to 6 Gigabytes; the unrequested download uses up network bandwidth and uses up hard disk space when stored on customer's computers. For more info on the huge Windows 10 installation files being downloaded without permission, see http://www.infoworld.com/article/2983777/microsoft-windows/how-to-clean-the-windows-10-crapware-off-your-windows-7-or-81-pc.html

Why would Microsoft download Windows 10 installation files to customers who have not asked for them???? Well, perhaps Microsoft is counting each occurrence of these unrequested downloads as a "Windows 10 installation".

So, when Microsoft releases a statement as to how well customers are accepting Windows 10, perhaps those numbers include cases where customers have received an unrequested download of the Windows 10 installation files.

Rather than resorting to these kind of tricks to boost the numbers, Microsoft needs only to do one thing to get customers to accept a new version of windows ... LISTEN to customer feedback, be transparent about the purpose of Updates, honor customer's request to hide specific Updates, do not force customers to accept/install all Updates (let customers choose which Updates to accept and which to reject), do not send any telemetry data back to Microsoft without customer's explicit permission, and give us a Windows version that meets our needs. For more information on how Windows 10 is snooping, see http://windowssecrets.com/top-story/attempting-to-answer-whether-ms-is-snooping/

From what I am reading, they need to get their numbers up to get more apps written for it, so they are trying to sneak it in... including popups that ONLY give you an install option, not a cancel option.

My biggest reason for not upgrading?  Because with Win10 you may not have the option to ignore individual upgrades?  So what, you can trust them?  Well this very thread has reinforced that belief on my part.

I used to take upgrades shortly after they popped up, and took almost all. NOW I don't consider installing until I have time to read all the ones, and if they don't give a good explanation of what they do, I generally google them, and if I can't find it, or am not satisfied with what I find, I hide it.

So far I have not had even a suggestion to upgrade to Win10, so I guess I've been successful.

Note that KB2952664 re-surfaced last Tuesday with the patch-Tuesday patches.  I installed it for the 20th time.  I have not researched what is new in this revised patch.  I assume that it is more nagware to install Windows 10.

And I have hidden it for the umpteenth time, along with KB3035583, and one released in December that "enables support for additional upgrade scenarios from Windows 7 to Windows 10," KB3112343. I still can't imagine any scenario where going from Windows 7 to Windows 10 is an upgrade.

With that addition, here again is a list of updates identified as nagware/spyware that I posted a few pages back:

KB2505438

KB2670838 – Windows 7 Only (breaks AERO functionality and gives you blurry fonts on some websites)

KB2952664

KB2976978 – Windows 8 only

KB3021917

KB3035583

KB3075249

KB3112343

(After removing any of the above that were installed on family members' laptops (W7 and W8), an immediate improvement in performance was noted.)