How to cancel Windows 10 upgrade after installation failure

Anonymous
2015-08-29T20:45:08+00:00

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:

  1. Permanently cancel any upgrade reservation to Windows 10
  2. Permanently remove the update from Windows Updates so it leaves my 8.1 alone
  3. 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::

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Windows update

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Anonymous
2015-09-08T16:24:18+00:00

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:

  1. Right click the Action Center icon on the taskbar and go to "Windows Update".
  2. In the left hand menu, click "Change settings".
  3. Change it from Automatic Updates to "Download updates but let me choose whether to install them".
  4. Click "Save Changes" and then click "Control Panel Home".
  5. Go to "Programs and Features" and click the link to "View installed updates".
  6. 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.
  7. Reboot next and then go back to Windows Update again.
  8. 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.
  9. 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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  1. Anonymous
    2015-11-12T19:39:20+00:00

    Hi Gayle,

    Sorry to hear about your dog passing away. It's sad that pets can't live as long as their owners.

    As far as Windows Updates are concerned, here's a screenshot of how my own system is configured to receive them.

    As you can see, I've chosen not to receive either Recommended updates (which includes Windows 10 of course) or updates for Microsoft products.

    So every Patch Tues, all I get are security updates with the odd optional update(s) which are often of no interest to me.

    But others such as security patches get downloaded and then I can choose whether to install them or not. I tried the other option which is to choose whether to actually download them or not even, but found that to be too problematical.

    As regards Windows taking an hour to boot, that's crazy. So do the following to check the hard drive for file system errors.

    1. Hit Windows key + X and click Command Prompt (Admin).
    2. Type: Chkdsk /f and hit Enter.

    You'll get a message that a diags check can't run because the volume is in use and whether you want to schedule a check on the next reboot. Click Yes and then either reboot immediately, or finish what you're doing for the day and then either reboot, or just shutdown.

    When the machine boots up again, the diags check will run. You can choose to cancel it within 8 seconds, but if you ignore that, it'll run. It shouldn't take more than ten minutes, but could take more if the tool finds errors which need to be fixed.

    After the machine boots the the desktop again, do the following.

    1. Hit Windows key + X and click Event Viewer.
    2. Expand "Windows Logs" and then right click "System" and click "Filter current log".
    3. In the menu which opens, change Anytime at the top to something which reflects the time you ran Chkdsk and then in the Event Sources dropdown menu, scroll down and checkmark Wininit.
    4. Click OK and you should see just one Event log. Right click that and click Copy ----> Copy Details as Text.
    5. Come back here, right click and click Paste which will paste the log file you copied.

    If you want to keep a copy of the log file open Notepad and paste it in there as well.

    ======================================================================

    Another thing to do is to run the Disk Cleanup tool.

    1. Hit Windows key + R, type: cleanmgr and click OK, OK.
    2. The tool will scan your hard drive for files which can be safely deleted.
    3. When you see the menu where you can checkmark boxes, click the "Cleanup System Files" button. This will cause a secondary scan to run. There might be a couple of folders on your machine still called $Windows.~BT and $Windows.~WS

    Since you're not going to upgrade to W10 anymore, these can be deleted using the "cleanup System Files" button. They won't be described that way in the disk cleanup tool, but you should be able to see the description "Previous Windows installations" (or words to that effect) or possibly "Temporary Windows installation files". I've never installed Windows 10 so I can't tell you exactly how they're described.

    But anything in the Disk Cleanup menu can be safely removed.

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-11-12T20:30:46+00:00

    I'll go through the rest of your instructions this evening, but I just went to change my Windows Update settings to match yours. As soon as I did that, look what showed up back on my main Windows Update home screen. It hasn't been there since running that GX application. Sigh. I will see if it goes away again after your other instructions are carried out. If not, I'll try running the GX Control Panel again.

    AND when I go to "optional update", look what is still checked by default. I have unchecked it and hidden it AGAIN (third time, I think?).

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-11-12T23:40:21+00:00

    As regards Windows taking an hour to boot, that's crazy. So do the following to check the hard drive for file system errors.

    1. Hit Windows key + X and click Command Prompt (Admin).
    2. Type: Chkdsk /f and hit Enter.

    You'll get a message that a diags check can't run because the volume is in use and whether you want to schedule a check on the next reboot. Click Yes and then either reboot immediately, or finish what you're doing for the day and then either reboot, or just shutdown.

    When the machine boots up again, the diags check will run. You can choose to cancel it within 8 seconds, but if you ignore that, it'll run. It shouldn't take more than ten minutes, but could take more if the tool finds errors which need to be fixed.

    After the machine boots the the desktop again, do the following.

    1. Hit Windows key + X and click Event Viewer.
    2. Expand "Windows Logs" and then right click "System" and click "Filter current log".
    3. In the menu which opens, change Anytime at the top to something which reflects the time you ran Chkdsk and then in the Event Sources dropdown menu, scroll down and checkmark Wininit.
    4. Click OK and you should see just one Event log. Right click that and click Copy ----> Copy Details as Text.
    5. Come back here, right click and click Paste which will paste the log file you copied.

    If you want to keep a copy of the log file open Notepad and paste it in there as well.

    Well, I ran the chkdsk and all seemed to go fine. However, there was no log that showed up on the above filter, or on any Wininit time filter, and I tried with all the checkboxes open (Information, etc, etc) as well as checked. Chkdsk did run with the /f parameter, it took about ten minutes as you said it would. I sat and watched it run, but it did not save a log of any kind, I'm afraid. There was plenty of other stuff in the log, but nothing that showed up when I filtered with Wininit.

    Is there any other Event Source the chkdsk log might be filed under?

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-11-13T13:48:00+00:00

    Oops! My mistake. The log is located in Application, not System. Sorry about that.

    But your screenshot showing Windows 10 arriving on your doorstep yet again is amazing! Obviously MS won't take "No, I don't want the damn thing" for an answer.

    There was mention of MS planning a push to get Windows 10 installed on machines which haven't willingly upgraded, but I understood that to be planned for January next year. But maybe MS has brought plans forward now:

    http://www.infoworld.com/article/3001448/microsoft-windows/got-windows-10-microsoft-push-comes-to-shove.html

    Are you using the GWX Control Panel program by the way? That's supposed to prevent Windows 10 from installing. http://blog.ultimateoutsider.com/2015/08/using-gwx-stopper-to-permanently-remove.html

    By the way, the updates which are written in italic text might indicate that they aren't intended for your machine. I had one myself yesterday which was a patch for Lenovo machines and I have an Acer. That was this one: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3107998

    Also KB3101246 is only of interest if you have a Bitlocker enabled machine. So even though it was a security patch I didn't install it since you only get Bitlocker with 8.1 Pro.

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