Windows 10 is slated to be a free upgrade for Windows 7 and 8.1 devices until July 29 of this year, so as we draw closer to that date, Microsoft is becoming more and more aggressive with its tactics that it uses to try and force users to upgrade.
If you"re one of the faithful that has stuck with Windows 7 or 8.1, you have no doubt seen plenty of pop ups that offer two options: "Upgrade now" or "Upgrade tonight". Windows 10 has also been re-prioritized into a recommended update, some users claiming that it installed automatically.
To combat all of this, Steve Gibson has released a utility called Never 10. The free tool modifies the system to allow or prevent OS upgrading, so once it"s done, it can be deleted. No software is installed in the process.
The name “Never 10” is a bit of an overstatement, since this utility may also be used to easily re-enable Windows operating system automatic upgrading. But the primary reason for using this is to, at least initially, disable Windows" insistence upon upgrading Windows 7 or 8.1 to Windows 10.
Many users of Windows 7 and 8.1 are happy with their current version of Windows and have no wish to upgrade to Windows 10. There are many reasons for this, but among them is the fact that Windows 10 has become quite controversial due to Microsoft"s evolution of their Windows operating system platform into a service which, among other things, aggressively monitors and reports on its users activities. This alone makes many users uncomfortable enough to cause them to choose to wait. Additionally, a few months into 2016, Windows 10 started displaying unsolicited advertisements on its users desktops.
While your reason for not wanting Windows 10 could be anything - such as OneDrive placeholders - you might simply be happy with your current operating system, which is your right.
Steve Gibson is the co-host of the Security Now podcast and is known for making quality software, so if you"re not interested in Microsoft"s latest OS, this might be your solution.