14 DAY TRIAL // Earlier this year, Microsoft released the “Get Windows 10” app that shows upgrade notifications on PCs running Windows 7 or 8.1 in order to make the process of downloading and installing the new OS smoother.
And while this is indeed a very handy solution for those who do want to upgrade, others would rather not see these notifications simply because they aren’t interested in installing Windows 10.
Complaints have been all over the place in the last months, and Microsoft is well aware of this thing, so a company support engineer has posted on the Community forums the easiest way to block these notifications.
Keep in mind that Microsoft doesn’t specifically recommend or provide guidance to remove the Get Windows 10 app, so seeing a company engineer offer step-by-step instructions on how to do the whole thing is definitely a bit surprising.
How to block upgrade notifications
Basically, as Anil Madishetty writes, it all comes down to three simple steps. Open the Registry Editor by typing “regedit” in the Start menu and navigate to the following path:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Gwx
Create a new REG_DWORD value called “DisableGwx” and input value “1.” Reboot the PC, and notifications should no longer show up.
These instructions are nothing new, but again, Microsoft has never used them to tell people how to block these upgrade notifications, especially because it wants and needs as many users as possible to install Windows 10.
Right now, there are reports coming from users claiming that even if you manually disable the Get Windows 10 app, Microsoft can reset your settings with updates, and this is exactly what happened when it rolled out the November Update.
If you don’t want to waste your time with registry tweaks, you can always download GWX Control Panel, an application specifically developed to remove the update in charge of the upgrade notifications. But given the fact that Microsoft is now re-enabling the Window 10 upgrades on most PCs, staying away from the new OS becomes harder and harder.