What exactly does KB2952664 do?

Microsoft also naively assumes that because there is a large market segment for whom privacy does not seem to be an issue (until it is), the rest of us will tag along quietly.

No matter how good an OS Windows 10 might be (or become), as long as it does not allow the owner of the hardware to decide what is downloaded and installed, it will not be an option for me, period. Nor is cloud computing for my company's bookkeeping or my personal files. Period.

Microsoft will choose which market segments it wants to offer solutions and products to. As long as I am part of one of those, I will continue to use the Microsoft products that meet my needs. Should Microsoft decide that those of us who like to create, edit, and save files on our computers using software installed on our computers are not a big enough market segment for them, I will look for other options.

If one of those is doing my personal computing on a personal computer that never touches the cloud (for which W7 will work fine as long as I can get hardware to run it on) and using a more current device strictly for online activities, so be it.

...So if I inadvertently download something it will either stop me, or will remove it?...

BD,

I've used the tool on three Win 7 machines and have had no issues. The best way I can describe it is that it makes Microsoft "blind" to the fact that you do not have GWX on your machine. It doesn't know so it doesn't care.

That being said, I am running one laptop  and one PC with Win 10. Now, there is a caveat; I have disabled "ALL" of the 'phone home' components of Win 10, and it is not a half bad OS. The laptop is an old HP and Win 10  runs really well on it. The PC is a newer Dell with an SSD and Win 10 is quite stable and very fast. I've used Spybot Anti-Beacon, which is a free download from the folks at Safer Networking (https://www.safer-networking.org/spybot-anti-beacon/) to disable all of the 'phone home" **** that is buried deep in the guts of the OS , and so far it has behaved itself.

Win 10 really is a pretty good first attempt by Microsoft and, when the "Automatic-Update-that-you-can't-turn-off" finally gets to the equivalent of Service Pack 1, it will probably be the best OS Microsoft has ever developed.

I don't contribute to this forum because I hate Microsoft; I contribute because I hate the way they have tried to surreptitiously shove Win 10 down people's throats. As far as 21st century companies are concerned I believe MS is a cut above. I just think they committed a major ethical faux pas in the way they handled the Win 10 roll-out, and recent events seem to indicate they may be listening.

The idea of the "Internet of everything" and "Everything in the cloud" is here to stay. Microsoft is just trying to position themselves to be in a position of dominance; that's what corporations do. My smart phone NEEDS to be connected to everything so it can do what I expect it to do. My PC does not and SHOULD NOT be connected to anything unless I decide otherwise, because it is where I do personal things that are no one else's business. That is, in my opinion, where Microsoft screwed the pooch. They naively assumed that my personal business was theirs.

... does GWX10 actually block them or warn somehow?  I run it and it tells me I'm clean, and I have it run in the background, but I don't know what or how it prevents anything.

GWX Control Panel actually scans you computer for any GWX files, deletes them and edits the registry to prevent your computer from aknowledging the files in the future. It's a pretty sweet tool.

D

OK, I had apparently taken all the proper precautions because everything it had checked for when I installed it was perfect.

So if I inadvertently download something it will either stop me, or will remove it?  And/or will those registry and/or group policy settings (I did both) keep anything downloaded from running?  If I get a new PC BEFORE microsoft stops the free upgrades and pushes, I of course would install this program before I do the initial update (in fact I could let IT make the registry changes on the new machine.

I'm concerned about the EOL of Win7, but for my current machine, I don't expect it to be usable by then anyway, and the new machine will actually have a license to revert back to Win10 should Win7 become too dangerous due to lack of security fixes.  I'm also a little concerned that I may not be able to get the latest processor since they're claiming to not be supporting them on Win7, so I may have to choose between a back processor or nosy (telemettry) big bother (mandatory updates) Win10.

... does GWX10 actually block them or warn somehow?  I run it and it tells me I'm clean, and I have it run in the background, but I don't know what or how it prevents anything.

GWX Control Panel actually scans you computer for any GWX files, deletes them and edits the registry to prevent your computer from aknowledging the files in the future. It's a pretty sweet tool.

D

Tnx, that helped.

Now that I see it, that sheet would be much more useful if instead of (or in addition to) the color coding, you added a column showing the risks.  That way one could sort by or filter by the risks, instead of just going through the lists.

One of these days I'm going to get a new PC and upgrade to Win7 -- I suspect it will be a MAJOR update, and I'll have to pull out all the ones to avoid.  OR does GWX10 actually block them or warn somehow?  I run it and it tells me I'm clean, and I have it run in the background, but I don't know what or how it prevents anything.