14 DAY TRIAL // A few weeks ago, we came across an update that was supposedly installing on Windows 7 and 8.1 computers to prepare them for the upgrade to Windows 10, and at that time, it all seemed to be a way to nag users and more or less “force” them to switch to the new OS.
While Microsoft hasn’t said anything about KB3035583, the update that has often been referred to as a “Windows 10 downloader,” the company has revealed that there are two more patches that make sure that your computer is ready for the new OS.
KB2990214 for Windows 7 and KB3044374 for Windows 8.1 are both being shipped to users starting this month, and according to information provided by a company employee, you have no other option than to install them.
“Don’t think you can skip it”
joscon, who claims to be a Microsoft engineer, said in a post on TechNet that both updates are supposed to bring a number of improvements for Windows Update, so even if you don’t plan to switch to Windows 10, you still need them. So skipping them is not an option. Here’s his statement in full, but emphasis is ours:
“As you can tell from the KB article titles, these WU clients are used as part of the Windows 10 upgrade scenarios which will go live at release but are still used for down-level operating systems as the ‘regular’ Windows Update client. This update is applicable to your systems even if you're not planning to migrate to Windows 10, so don't think you can skip it. It rolls out today as an Important class release.”
These updates are being shipped to users who are running Windows 7 Service Pack 1 and Windows 8.1, as well as their server variants, the Microsoft engineer added.
And if you don’t want to install Windows 10, Microsoft is shipping the updates to all PCs because there are people who actually want that, so in case you change your mind at some point, your computer will be fully prepared for the new operating system.