How to cancel Windows 10 upgrade after installation failure

Anonymous

I've waited for my free Windows 10 upgrade (currently running Windows 8.1 with no problems). It finally came through, and about 10% through the second (black-background) reboot the computer just went black -- did not restart, just completely black-screened and shut down. I wound up having to restart, and it immediately went into "Restoring previous version of Windows" mode. It then black-screened again, and on the second attempt to restart, Windows 8.1 restored.

I am currently laid up with a broken back and don't have the ability to deal with computer issues right now (I'm not even supposed to be sitting upright for more than ten minutes at a time) so wish to completely cancel my Windows 10 upgrade. I have already clicked the "agreement", though and no longer see a "cancel upgrade" link anywhere.

I have "hidden" the update to Windows 10 in Windows Updates, but want to eliminate it completely, and also remove all of the temporary set-up files from my PC. I'll be buying a new computer in the spring, most likely, anyway, so will just get Windows 10 then.

Please provide SIMPLE steps to:

Permanently cancel any upgrade reservation to Windows 10
Permanently remove the update from Windows Updates so it leaves my 8.1 alone
Permanently and cleanly remove all temporary update files from my computer to restore the space they are hogging up.

Thank you. I hope you can reply quickly with steps that won't have me tied to the computer for hours, so my doctors don't yell at me. ::smile::

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Anonymous

Hi Gayle,

What you need to do here first of all is to change the way you receive updates. With Automatic Updates enabled, the operating system will reinstall the nagware prompt which is KB3035583 after you uninstall it which will be a step we'll take in a minute.

So proceed as follows:

Right click the Action Center icon on the taskbar and go to "Windows Update".
In the left hand menu, click "Change settings".
Change it from Automatic Updates to "Download updates but let me choose whether to install them".
Click "Save Changes" and then click "Control Panel Home".
Go to "Programs and Features" and click the link to "View installed updates".
Copy/paste KB3035583 into the Search field top right and when it appears below, right click it and select "Uninstall".This is a large installation so uninstalling it can take several minutes.
Reboot next and then go back to Windows Update again.
Since you now have different WU settings, click the link if there's any which are awaiting your approval which will take you to the menu where you can decide what to install.
If you see KB3035583 in the list, right click it and select "Hide update". The box you normally have to checkmark to select an update will turn grey and when you exit WU, those files will be sent to the repository called "Restore hidden updates".You can restore any updates which have been hidden in there at any time by clicking the link, making your selection and then selecting "Restore".

The next step is to make a registry change which will prevent Windows 10 from downloading and installing.

Hit Windows key + R to launch the Run command, type: regedit and click OK.

Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE --> SOFTWARE --> Microsoft --> Windows --> CurrentVersion --> WindowsUpdate --> Auto Update --> OSUpgrade

Click the OSUpgrade key (which looks like a folder) and then in the right hand pane you should be able to see four values called respectively:

AllowOSUpgrade

KickoffDownload

KickoffSource

OSUpgradeInteractive

Some or all of these will have a value of 1. You need to change those to a 0 like you see in the screenshot.

To change a registry value, right click it and go to Modify. In the Value field at the bottom, change the figure 1 into a 0

Click OK and Windows will add the 0x00000000 (0) itself.

If it's already a 0 then you don't have to touch it.

In addition, you need to create a value. To do that, right click a blank part of the right hand pane and choose New --> DWORD with the name DisableOSUpgrade. Windows will add REG_ to the beginning of DWORD after you create it.

If you inadvertently lose the highlight when you create the new value, right click it and select Rename.

Next, right click your new value and go to Modify. Change the 0 into a 1 in the Value field. Click OK to confirm and exit.

Reboot and then go to Windows Updates. You will now be able to install 8.1 updates without being nagged by Windows 10.

I posted the same instructions in the following thread and as you can see from the responses, it clearly works:http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows8_1-update/windows-10-upgrade-cannot-be-removed-from-windows/4854a84d-a8a8-47da-a936-bd5d08138bfb

If there's anything you don't understand though, please don't hesitate to ask.

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53 additional answers

Anonymous

2015-10-23T19:12:05+00:00

This is worrying. I've noticed that when updates arrive now it's imperative to check the Optional updates first to see what those are before downloading any rated as Important as noted here: http://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-says-it-will-no-longer-check-windows-10-upgrade-default-windows-update

According to that site, Microsoft has supposedly removed the checkmark for KB3035583, but if you say it's still opposite, then I really don't know what to say. Personally, I dilligently check every single update that lands in WU before installing it. If any doubt crosses my mind about its intentions, it gets hidden immediately. If it turns out later to be harmless, I can always unhide and then install it.

As regards that notification checkmark I've noticed myself that it misbehaves and unchecks itself sometimes. You could try removing the checkmark and the adding it again maybe. In any event it doesn't exactly fill me with confidence about MS software if they can't even make their own site work properly.

If you've written a post though, hit CTRL+A to select everything and then right click and click Copy. If the message box looks like it's hanging, click Cancel, confirm you want to leave the page and then reload it again. When you open a new message box, right click and click Paste (or just hit CTRL+V). That will paste your previous message which you copied.
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Anonymous

2015-10-24T01:21:09+00:00

Perhaps the checked version of *5583 was a hold-over from a previous download on my system. I am not at the computer as much as I was previously, and I hadn't checked updates in at least several days.

I did hide it again, and so far it's staying hidden. I do find that, since the nag box first showed up on my computer, I cannot just let Windows do all selected updates at once. If there are more than two or three in the queue, it will hang indefinitely (I thought it was running on shut-down last night and this morning woke to find that the computer was hung up at the exact same progress spot as it was when I'd gone to bed). I have to force a shut down and reboot to get the computer back at all, and then waste a couple of hours installing one update at a time.

I never had a problem before the whole Get Windows 10 fiasco began. This laptop is not that old, and was still running like a new machine before Microsoft decided we all needed to "improve" our lives, whether we wanted to or not. :-/

I've tried unchecking and re-checking the "Notify me when someone responds" box just now. Let's see if that does the trick.
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Anonymous

2015-10-24T15:04:39+00:00

When you created the registry key called "DisableOSUpgrade", you did choose DWORD and not QWORD I hope (?).

I had another user yesterday who found Windows 10 trying to install in spite of the registry setting and it turned out she'd created a QWORD because she thought that was appropriate for a 64-bit version of Windows.
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Anonymous

2015-11-12T17:50:35+00:00

So sorry, thought I replied to this weeks ago. Since the death of my very dearest canine friend, I'm afraid my brain is screwed in backwards.

But yes, DWORD, not QWORD.

The little program that was recommended (GWX Control Panel) seems to have done the trick, though. Windows 10's update monster has not crept back out from under the bed again.

However ... is anyone else having huge and cascading computer issues since the whole "Get Windows 10" fiasco began? The problems started before I ever tried to remove the thing, though continue to escalate. This computer was running like new, with absolutely no problems, before the Get 10 nag arrived. I'm not sure if it was the various efforts to get it to go away, the original OK'ing the update that then failed to install, or it just screwed my system up royally in general.

I had to switch to tell Windows not to download updates unless I checked them and told it okay. It quickly shifted then to my only being able to install one update at a time once they were downloaded, or the computer would lock up. For the last several weeks, I can't do even that. I can't install any updates at all. If I check one at a time, it will download them, but then get halfway through the "installing update" bar and just stop. The bar goes gray, I can't stop the installation, can't back out of Windows Update, all I can do is reboot the computer. Which, of course, may be part of the problem -- I'm sure it doesn't help an already screwed up application to have to crash it deliberately in mid stream.

The system is also taking ages, and I mean sometimes over an hour!, to boot up in the morning. Half the time, all of my background programs won't even load. I don't know what half of them are (they came stock with the system and since I don't know what they do, I haven't tried to remove them, since they never caused an issue till now). The one it "usually", but not always, hangs on is when it's trying to connect to Skydrive, which I almost never use. I don't mind not having that (or most of the others) autoload, but I have to be very careful to make sure my antivirus is up and running. Most of the time it will hang before that one is working. There have been days I've had to reboot the system once or twice to even get it to boot up in a functional format.

None of this was occurring before Microsoft decided everyone on the planet needs Windows 10.

I'd say someone owes me a new computer, but it would probably have Windows 10 pre-loaded, and then I'd be really scr**ed. LOL
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