14 DAY TRIAL // It’s not a secret that Microsoft has been quite aggressive in its attempt to upgrade computers to Windows 10 and users turned to all kinds of tricks to block this and just stick with their current Windows version.
While third-party software solutions such as GWX Control Panel are quite popular these days, it is important to know that Microsoft is offering an alternative way that’s actually quite easy to implement in Windows 7. And very effective, that is.
It’s all possible with an update released by Microsoft in mid-2015 for Windows 7 computers (download the 32-bit/64-bit version here), which introduces support for a new policy that completely blocks the upgrade to new Windows versions, as AskVG reports. So all you have to do is to install this update and then enable the new policy to make sure that your computer never gets upgraded to Windows 10.
How to enable the new policy
Once you install this update (it’s also shipped via Windows Update, so if you’re running a fully up-to-date computer, it should already be there), you can enable the new policy via the Group Policy Editor or via the Registry Editor.
To use GPE, click the Start menu in Windows 7 and type gpedit.msc to launch it and then navigate to the following path: Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Update
Open the option called “Turn off the upgrade to the latest version of Windows through Windows Update,” set it to “Enabled,” and you’re done.
For the Registry Editor method, just click the Start menu, launch the app by typing regedit.exe and go to this path:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows
Select the Windows folder, right-click it and create a new entry called “WindowsUpdate.” On the right page, create a new DWORD entry called “DisableOSUpgrade” and set its value to 1.
These methods might not be new for more experienced users, but they certainly come in handy when seeing all these forced upgrades reports. We’ve also heard readers say that Microsoft might overwrite these changes with new updates, so it’s better to check back every once in a while to make sure you stay on Windows 7.
The free upgrade promo ends on July 29, and Microsoft will remove the Get Windows 10 app from our PC at that date, so stories on forced upgrades should no longer show up.