UPDATED: Microsoft is blaming a bad default option for this issue.

Are you running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 and not feeling the love for Windows 10? It seems Microsoft is making it harder for users to opt out of upgrading.

Reports are circulating that some users are being presented with dialog boxes that only give them the option to start the upgrade process or reschedule it for a later date. Others are finding that the Windows Update screen is only offering them the option to begin the upgrade process, with other system updates being hidden from view.

Is there anything you can do to reverse this situation? Right now there isn't. Even Josh Mayfield, the maker of the GWX Control Panel -- an excellent utility that has previously allowed users to opt out of and avoid the nags to upgrade to Windows 10 -- doesn't have an answer at present.

"If you are seeing either of the above two screens, exactly as they appear here, GWX Control Panel is not yet able to help you," writes Mayfield, "although I am looking into whether it's possible to fix these things through software. I do not have any recommendations at the moment, though, unfortunately."

I've come across unconfirmed reports that using System Restore to take the system back to a point before September 15 will get people out of the jam, although the fly in the ointment here is that Windows 8.1 no longer generates automatic restore points by default, and they can only be created manually.

Only last month it was revealed that Microsoft was quietly downloading the Windows 10 installer files -- many gigabytes in size -- to users who had not asked for the, just in case they decided they wanted to upgrade.

It seems that Microsoft is desperate to get laggards who are still running Windows 7 and Windows 8 onto Windows 10, but there's a fine line between being enthusiastic about a new operating system and behaving like you own every PC running Windows, and I think that in this case that line has been crossed.

[UPDATE: Microsoft is blaming a bad default option for this issue:

As part of our effort to bring Windows 10 to existing genuine Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 customers, the Windows 10 upgrade may appear as an optional update in the Windows Update (WU) control panel. This is an intuitive and trusted place people go to find Recommended and Optional updates to Windows. In the recent Windows update, this option was checked as default; this was a mistake and we are removing the check.

Hopefully that will fix this issue.]

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