It’s pretty great that you can get Windows 10 for free if you want it. If you don’t—or if you simply want to download it on your own terms—however, bad news: Microsoft is downloading it anyway. Here’s how to block it.


For the Windows 10 update, Microsoft has chosen to automatically start the download process, regardless of whether you’ve confirmed you want the update. This makes some sense for those who use automatic updates normally, except Windows 10 can be huge. As in multiple gigabytes huge. If you have a capped data connection, or simply don’t want to bother downloading it right now, Ghacks has laid out some steps for blocking the updates:

Search for “Programs and features” in the Start Menu. Select “view installed updates” on the left side of the window. Windows 7: locate the following updates: 3035583, 2952664, 3021917 Windows 8: locate the following updates: 3035583, 2976978 Right-click each update select uninstall. Select Restart Later when the prompt appears. Restart when you’ve finished these steps for each update.

Once you’ve finished this process, you’ll need to block the updates from being installed again. To do that, follow these steps:

Search for Windows Update in the Start Menu. Choose “check for updates.” Windows should find the same updates from above. Click on “important update is available.” Right-click each of the updates above and select “Hide update.”

This should prevent your computer from downloading those updates again in the future. Keep in mind that if you want to upgrade to Windows 10 later, you’ll need to unblock these updates. However, this should help prevent Microsoft from downloading several gigabytes of data to your machine when you’re not ready for it.


Windows 10 may already be on your PC even if you don’t want it | Ghacks