how do i COMPLETELY stop my computer from updating!?!?

How do you square the 'Windows 10 is wonderful' attitude with the way the forced updates actually stop the computer working for long periods of time? Where it's being used to run live situations (recordings, live shows etc.) this tendency is potentially disasterous.. in some industries actually dangerous.

Come on you hackers... produce a bit of code that will stop Windows ever ever ever updating. Thousands of us out here don't want it to do it. 

(Yes we know the goodies will tell us it's important etc. etc. Please refrain)

 Alternatively can someone tell me how to get hold of a copy of XP to load on my machine? That worked and was reliable.

so then your saying i should just have to re-download all my drivers everytime microsoft wants to update my computer then? because thats how technology works?

i have made my compouter work for a good long while now (not even sure how many years to be honest), and it has built in wireless ethernet and hd audio, along with the MSI r9 390 graphics card i have been running for the past couple years now. im prettttty sure i know how to make it work for me bud.

as i have been saying, it whenever microsoft wants to update my computer (yes, them changing SOFTWARE on my computer) that i have issues. i'll have about 10 more "services" turned on that are using up my cpu for their background services that i dont need on my gaming pc, i'll have to re-download the drivers for my audio to work, re-download the drivers for my xbox one controller, re-download the drivers for my smart phone on the pc to be able to download pictures from it. but yeah, thats just how technology works, right? just give in to all the spamware that microsoft wants to shove down our throat. its almost as bad as the advertisements on websites in how it slows down a pc.

BTW, i LOVE how you say "do a search", "learn how to use technology", and yet you still cannot reply to me in a way that explains your reasoning for me to "learn how to make it work for you"....... just what the hell do i need to learn exactly bulldog? just learn to accept microsofts spamware?

you seem to be misunderstanding me bulldog, its the updates that are CAUSING the issues! get an update in the middle of the night, then oh, why doesnt my sound work anymore? oh, microsoft did an update and now i have to download the correct drivers again because the ones they "updated" to DONT FREAKIN WORK!

but yeah, thats a "learn how to use your computer issue" isnt it?!

and just what exactly determines what motherboard you can have to run windows 10? or what cpu? what is specific about any  as far as i know, the only possible issue there could be from a "hardware" compatibility standpoint, is if your gpu does not support the latest version of directX. more often than not, the compatibility issues are from software changes, mainly being microsoft changing the drivers on your working system to ones that they think will work better, but end up bricking your rig. but yeah, i'll just "learn to use my computer better" and the issues will just go away! just what do you deem to be "proficient at using a computer" bulldog?

I'm right there with you.

Please understand that I don't mean to argue with you. I'm merely illustrating the points I made earlier.

"I have seen several fairly recent machines, used for nothing other than MS Office applications, that got badly damaged by automatic updates."

Are you really in a position to say that no other activity was performed on these machines - literally nothing else - other than signing in and using Microsoft Office applications? I find that difficult.

Let's say, for the sake of argument, that the above is 100% correct. What makes you so sure that whatever problems were caused by Windows and not Office, which gets updated exactly the same way?

Let's again say, for the sake of argument, that Office had nothing to do with the machines' problems. Do you know for a fact that the hardware is supported on Windows 10 - did you ask the manufacturers, who decide whether to support Windows 10 - or are you presuming that the machines should be supported because they are 'fairly recent?' And did you check to determine that the machines are using Windows 10 drivers.

Beyond all that, how would you account for the fact that so many Windows 10 computers are completely up to date and yet have no problems, including my computers?

"Recovery is often impossible for these reasons ..."

First, recovery is always possible by booting the computer from a USB drive or a disk. Doing this is a complete end-run around the hard drive, so it does not matter how messed up someone's copy of Windows is. Your computer could be totally tied up in knots and completely unbootable - which I have done - and yet be restored to working order in little time - which I have also done.

I have yet to have an update deactivate System Restore. What a feature update (translation: new version of Windows) will do, what it's supposed to do, is erase all existing restore points. That's because you don't want to restore a restore point made before the update. That would give your computer a toxic mixture of old and new system files, system drivers and registry hives that is almost guaranteed to crash.

Even at it's best, which isn't saying much (in my opinion,) System Restore was not designed to pull a computer out of serious trouble. Only a backup can do that, and System Restore is not a backup nor was it ever claimed to be a backup. Restore points contain key system files, system drivers and registry hives that were intended to hopefully restore the Windows UI so that users would have access to Windows' own tools to help them solve a problem.

System Restore is turned off by default in Windows 10 (I believe, correction appreciated) because there's a much better way to pull a computer out of otherwise irretrievable trouble: restore a backup. When System Restore was first introduced with Windows ME, home users did not have access to convenient image backup software as we do now. Today there are many excellent third-party image backup applications that make it easy and convenient to backup and restore your entire computer in one shot in just minutes.

Microsoft hasn't said in so many words why they deprecated Windows' own System Image Builder with the Fall Creators Update, but I can take a guess: Like many other utilities that have been included in Windows over the years for no extra charge - like Fax and Scan, Snipping Tool, Voice Recorder, Wordpad, etc. - System Image Builder was not designed to take the place of a full-out third-party application. Rather, these utilities provide a fundamental level of functionality for users who don't know how to install software or are too anxious to try. Considering how much excellent image backup software there is in the third-party space, developed by organizations that specialize in that technology, Microsoft might have said "why try to re-invent the wheel?" Indeed, Microsoft explicitly recommended that users install third-party image backup software.

Thus, Microsoft stopped developing SIB, and that's why it doesn't work well.

Of course, many of the same people who complain endlessly about how terrible Windows is don't backup. They have lots of excuses, even though computer bloggers, teachers, authors and media personalities have been practically begging people for years to backup. When you have an image backup you are as close to bullet-proof as you can be with a computer. In just a few minutes you can send your computer back in time to when everything was fine. But people don't do it.

I'm not claiming that Windows 10 is blameless, not at all. They've got a lot of attitude that needs adjusting. But it's too convenient to blame Microsoft for everything that goes wrong. If you read through the posts in the forum, you'll quickly see that many posters are at the bottom of the barrel in computer skills (and in common sense, in some cases.) Other posters don't think its their responsibility to learn how to use a computer. These people make a mess of things and, of course, they blame Microsoft.

Finding a way to stop updates is not the answer to avoiding computer problems (and the attempt will eventually stop working, anyway.) Learning how to use a computer, just like someone learns how to use a dishwasher, a car, a hand drill, etc., is the answer. And if someone doesn't believe they should have to do that, at least learn how to backup.

I think you did not do it right. If you did (disable updates), updates cannot be downloaded and installed. It will not work, that is how it works. What updates are they? You can download the hide and unhide troubleshooter to hide them.