I upgraded all of my computers to Windows 10 after imaging either 7 or 8.1. Ran a few days, imaged 10 to preserve activation (don't trust 'digital entitlement' after 4-7 years) & reinstalled my OS via the image taken and removed all of Windows 10's update files with this neat .bat file (instructions must be closely followed). The only part I never could figure out was how to blacklist the sites on the list, or didn't want to for 8 computers with over 20 combined installs of 7, 8.1 & Linux Mint 17.
Stop Windows Telemetry/Tracking/Upgrading to Win10 « alaya:techne
Note, this page is refreshed every 2-3 months & applies to both 7 & 8.1, so bookmark & check back. These removed updates will be reoffered, so be sure to hid them if you don't want Windows 10. The main thing afterwards is to download security updates only, the ones that states 'Security Update', not 'Update for Windows 7'. Many of the latter are trying to sneak back in funky updates for Windows 10.
BTW, I still say that Windows 7 was the pinnacle of Microsoft, their greatest OS ever, as many as Windows 7 devices & OS's were selling, of which Microsoft was/still are getting royalties for each, it's kind of hard to imagine why they'd want to release an OS that was very rushed in Windows 8. Could had waited at least two more years. And contrary to popular belief, Windows 10 is not a 'forever OS', it's EOL is on October 24, 2015. Microsoft will likely have a Cloud based OS prior to then, but they'll be as usual, playing catchup, Google has had theirs since at least 2010, so assuming a 2020 release (as always, their first venture of a OS is & will be a bust) will be a 10 year jump on Microsoft.
Windows lifecycle fact sheet - Windows Help
Worse yet, Microsoft in essence stole $40 from many of these customers, less than 16 months later to learn that they couldn't run 8.1 because of the lack of CompareExchange128 instruction set in the CPU (CMPXCHG16b). So many had to downgrade back to the OS they were running, or if no backups prior to upgrade (bad idea), install media (for OEM licenses) or recovery disk sets created, then a Linux version. Though it's easy to create an AIO Windows 7 install DVD, that'll work with the COA on the computer. Though many OEM's will activate with the COA with retail media, others (like HP) won't.
What happens should a future upgrade or major update requires a later CPU instruction set? Customers screwed again. Technology doesn't stand still for any OS.
For as long as Digital River was hosting Windows 7 downloads, am surprised that everyone, with or without a Windows 7 license, didn't have these ISO's stored somewhere. I always keep my ISO's, have everyone from W2K forward, including a couple of Server OS's.
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