KB3035583 Installing Windows 10 using Windows Update?

… Setting your Windows Update to "Never" or "let me choose" .... and then manually selecting specific updates (known not to be buggy and not to install unwanted functions) will help. …

Thank you, Langware, but my German Win 7 does not give the choice of »never« update. I set to »load ’em down, but let me install them manually«. Will that suffice? Also: at »Woody’s« I didn’t find a conscise list of **** updates. Could someone please directly point me to a regularily updated list of good and bad updates, ideally with comments. Personally I don’t mind being spied on, all I hate ist Win 10, already. See http://blogabissl.blogspot.com/2015/09/windows-10-reklame-ausschalten.html

If I leave my PCs as they are, with automatic updates on, will I wake up one morning with all my (rather: Microsoft’s) Windows 7 gone? And nothing works any more? 

Fritz,

I would recommend that you NOT leave your Windows Update set to "automatic updates on". In the past, Microsoft has released "buggy" updates that cause problems (blue screens, crashes, etc), updates that send telemetry data from ones computer back to Microsoft, updates that attempt to coerce the user into installing Windows 10, etc. Using the "automatic" setting would leave you vulnerable to having those unwanted updates installed.

I have my Windows Update set to " ... let me choose..." (or "Never") ... and I wait at least three weeks after the monthly updates have been released (for Microsoft to either fix any "buggy" updates, or for any unwanted updates to be identified). Then I install selected updates (that are known not to be buggy and known not to perform any unwanted functions). This is one of the sites I use to help determine which updates are not buggy and do not perform any unwanted functions.

Microsoft desperately wants to increase the number of Windows 10 installations. We have all seen their methods for trying to coerce users to install Windows 10. In my opinion, some of those methods are unethical.

Recently, Microsoft used Windows Update to put a Windows 10 installation update into some user's Optional list, and then enabled (checked) that item. Any user with Windows Update set to "Automatic" would have automatically started the installer. When confronted with this "trick", Microsoft said it was a "mistake" and apologized (because it is always easier to apologize than ask permission).

In another instance, Microsoft released an update that resulted in gigabytes of data (Windows 10 installation files) being downloaded and stored on user's hard drives. Some users, who did not want Windows 10 and had metered data on their broadband connection, had to pay penalties to their ISP for going over their data limit (due to the size of unwanted files being downloaded).

Will Microsoft stop using tricks like these .... or will they use even more tricks to increase the number of Windows 10 installations (and just apologize afterwards)?

We customers, who do not want Windows 10, need to be careful of any update we allow Windows Update to install (which, unfortunately, will not stop Microsoft from having Windows Update install updates that we do not want).

Setting your Windows Update to "Never" or "let me choose" .... and then manually selecting specific updates (known not to be buggy and not to install unwanted functions) will help. In my opinion, leaving your Windows Update set to "automatic" is far too risky.

Worried. Microsoft’s flooding with Win 10 starts to really worry me. I’ve got three computers running Win 7, and I have spent hours and days to switch from XP. (XP still runs fine on my daughter’s older Thinkpad.) I’ve had to find me a running version of MicrographX’ Picture Publisher (see http://blogabissl.blogspot.de/2013/10/picture-publisher-auf-windows-7-etc.html), I needed another Adobe Acrobat »Professional«, I use a self-modified German keyboard (for example to get directly »these«—and other signs). To access my computers via my local network got more difficult, some folders are forever closed to me even locally (»ask your admin« :–), all my helpers needed re-installation (like Speedfan, Gadwin Printscreen, Picasa, Outlook, Word, everything), some I didn’t get to work at all (show phone caller on screen), and to find a working driver for my old b/w laser printer took endless tries.

   Microsoft »steals« my PC (P: a minsamer), without even calling it MC now. Even old proven peripherals get trashed. –

   Question to the glass sphere: If I leave my PCs as they are, with automatic updates on, will I wake up one morning with all my (rather: Microsoft’s) Windows 7 gone? And nothing works any more? Perhaps I rather invite (other) street robbers to take away my PCs, and get  myself Ubuntu. Perhaps I have to freeze my Win 7s, loosing normal updates I’ve enjoyed since some twenty years. How? I hate trespassers into my PCs. And I distrust the cloud, where unannounced changes are normal (Picasa web albums suddenly lacking the zoom function or picture search). Deeply disillusioned. Fritz

Got it! Thank you very much for the explanation for dummies. :-)

Thank you so much, Noel!

I hope you let me quote you ...

No problem. Happy to help.