Microsoft Offers a Way to Prevent Automatic Windows 10 Upgrade on Windows 7 Computers

- Last updated on June 5, 2016 by VG

Ever since Microsoft released its latest OS Windows 10 to public and announced about free upgrade to Windows 10 within first year of its launch, the company has been very busy in sending Windows 10 upgrade to Windows 7 machines via Windows Update. Microsoft has released many updates for Windows 7 which help users in upgrading their Windows 7 OS to Windows 10. Sometimes the whole Windows 10 ISO file is downloaded on user's machine without any confirmation and asks user to upgrade the computer to the latest Windows version. It happens when the Windows 7 computer is set to automatic download and install updates.

Windows 10 Automatic Upgrade on Your Computer Again

Many Windows 7 users are satisfied with their operating system and don't want to upgrade to Windows 10. For such users, we have posted a detailed tutorial to stop automatic upgrade to Windows 10 which can be found at following link:

How to Remove "Get Windows 10 Upgrade" App and Icon from Taskbar?

Today in this tutorial, we are going to share another easy method to prevent the automatic Windows 10 upgrade on Windows 7 computers. This method requires installation of a new Windows update released by Microsoft which allows Windows 7 users to block the Windows 10 upgrade in their machines.

Thanks to our reader "David" for sharing information about this update.

Actually Microsoft has released an update "KB3050265" which upgrades Windows Update client in Windows 7 but this update also adds a new policy in "Group Policy Editor" program to turn off upgrade to latest Windows version through Windows Update.

So if you also want to restrict automatic Windows 10 upgrade in your Windows 7 computer, you just need to install the required update and then enable the policy using Group Policy Editor or Registry Editor and Windows 7 will never detect and download Windows 10 on your computer. Thus it'll never prompt you to upgrade to Windows 10 operating system.

If you want to disable Windows 10 upgrade in your Windows 7 computer, following steps will help you:

STEP 1:

First of all download and install the required update manually from following link:

Download KB3050265 Update for Windows 7 32-bit (x86)

Download KB3050265 Update for Windows 7 64-bit (x64)

This update is available for both 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) editions of Windows 7 operating system. You can know which edition of Windows 7 are you using with the help of System Properties window in Control Panel.

STEP 2:

After installing the update, restart your computer and now you just need to enable the new policy to prevent Windows 10 upgrade.

You can apply the new policy using any of following 2 methods:

METHOD 1: Using Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc)

METHOD 2: Using Registry Editor (regedit.exe)

Follow the simple steps mentioned below to enable the policy:

METHOD 1: Using Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc)

1. Type gpedit.msc in RUN or Start Menu search box and press Enter. It'll open Group Policy Editor.

2. Now go to:

Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Update

3. In right-side pane, double-click on "Turn off the upgrade to the latest version of Windows through Windows Update" option, set it to Enabled.

4. Apply the changes and restart your computer.

Now Windows 7 will never prompt you about Windows 10 upgrade through Windows Update.

PS: If you decide to re-enable Windows 10 upgrade in future, double-click on "Turn off the upgrade to the latest version of Windows through Windows Update" option and set it to Not Configured.

METHOD 2: Using Registry Editor (regedit.exe)

If you are using Windows 7 Home Basic or Home Premium edition, you'll not be able to run gpedit.msc command because these editions don't come with Group Policy Editor.

If you can't use or don't want to use Group Policy Editor, you can take help of Registry Editor for the same task. Just follow these simple steps:

1. Type regedit in RUN or Start Menu search box and press Enter. It'll open Registry Editor.

2. Now go to following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows

3. Create a new key under Windows key and set its name as Windows Update

4. Now in right-side pane, create a new DWORD DisableOSUpgrade and set its value to 1

5. Close Registry Editor and restart your computer to take effect. After reboot, Windows 10 upgrade will never appear on Windows Update.

PS: To re-enable Windows 10 upgrade in future, delete the DWORD DisableOSUpgrade created in step 4.

NOTE: If you are not familiar with Registry editing tasks, we are also providing ready-made Registry script to do the task automatically. Download following ZIP file, extract it and run .REG file. It'll ask for confirmation, accept it. Restart your computer and Windows 10 upgrade will be disabled in Windows 7:

PS: If you are using Windows 8.1 and want to prevent Windows 10 automatic upgrade, the methods mentioned in following article should work for you:

How to Disable Automatic Upgrade to Latest Windows Version in Windows 8 and 8.1

Also Check:

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Published in: Troubleshooting, Windows 7

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About the author: Vishal Gupta (also known as VG) has been awarded with Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award. He holds Masters degree in Computer Applications (MCA). He has written several tech articles for popular newspapers and magazines and has also appeared in tech shows on TV channels. (Connect with Us)