If you're running Windows 7 there is another update you have to add to my "dirty 10" in order not to be retrofitted with Windows 10 spying tools and not to be pestered to update to Windows 10. Here's the updated list so far:
KB2952664 KB2976978 KB2977759 KB3022345 KB3050267 KB3055583 KB3068708 KB3075249 KB3080149 KB3083710 KB3090045
These updates' only function is either to spy on you and consume bandwidth tattling to Microsoft what you are doing with your computer, to download all of Windows 10 installation files (over 4 GB at your expense!) onto your computer without your knowledge or consent or just to bug you incessantly about why you haven't "upgraded" yet.
Aside: when you have a good product, do you have to plant spyware everywhere to promote it? Do you have to force customers to download it? Do you have to spy on customers who haven't chosen to "upgrade" yet? I am really crazy and definitely wrong, I guess, but I thought when you have a great product that people line up outside stores, camp out all night and fight each other to get in the door first to buy your product. What is Microsoft saying about what they think the quality of Windows 10 is by pursuing these malware/malicious methods to force you to adopt Windows 10? These ARE the exact behaviors you install antivirus, antimalware, firewalls and other tools to prevent, aren't they? I say resorting to these tactics is a tacit admission by Microsoft that "upgrading" is not in your best interest. It is an admission that they believe that without coercion, you will not buy this product, even for free.
Okay, you have Windows 7, you have the list, what do you do now? From your start menu (Windows 10 doesn't have a start menu, it has a billboard for ads) select Windows Update. On the left panel select View Update History. It will take a few minutes to load all the updates, so take a few minutes to marvel at the transparent, three dimensional program frame, the rounded corners, the tasteful and nuanced colors, the three dimensional buttons, all the great stuff you lose with Windows 10, nerfed in favor of garishness and brutish right angles and flatness not seen since Windows 2.0. Many DOS programs had superior UI to Windows 10 and hear the minions praise it! Windows 7 says Apple doesn't have the corner on art within a computer UI. Windows 10 says "we got nothin'"
Your updates should be loaded now. In the upper right hand corner is a search window. Type "KB295" and press search and you'll get a short list to pick your first "update" from. Right-click it on the list and select "uninstall." It will ask if you want to reboot and say "no." You'll reboot only after all have been uninstalled. Then type "KB297" and find and uninstall the next two. Go down the list until they are all uninstalled. Now you can reboot.
But these are zombies and they will return unless we defang Windows update. So do the Start Menu/Control Panel/Windows Update thing again and now we will be looking at the Windows Update home screen where it will tell you that you have a certain number of important updates and a certain number of optional updates available. Our job is to make the "dirty 11" unavailable.
So click on "xx important updates are available." There's your list. Scan it for members of the "dirty 11." When you find them, right click on each and select "hide update." Now go back and click on "xx optional updates are available" and do the same thing, hiding each update in the "dirty 11."
You have now reestablished ownership of your hardware! Congratulations and thank you for your vote for freedom over coercion. Government is not the only entity against which we must be on our guard. All large organizations with too much power are equally susceptible to corruption. All you socialists and lefties out there forget that applies to government. All you right wingers and free traders forget that applies to all corporations, labor unions, trade organizations and other private entities. Corruption respects nobody and loves it when we fight over things like government vs private enterprise, labor unions vs corporations and other artificial "struggles" which are entirely fraudulent. The real struggle is between right and wrong, respect and predation, income from serving others and income from preying on others, freedom and corecion. Nobody talks about that. Many pretend it is naive to think that way. They are wrong. This is reality.
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