How to get rid of the “Your upgrade to Windows 10 is ready” lock on Windows Update in Win7 and 8.1

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So you signed up for the Windows 10 upgrade and, now that the bits are ready, you’re getting cold feet. I understand that.Just one little problem. You
[See the full post at: How to get rid of the “Your upgrade to Windows 10 is ready” lock on Windows Update in Win7 and 8.1]

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@woody: On Win7 SP1, uninstall both KB2952664 & KB3035583. On Win8.1, uninstall both KB2976978 & KB3035583. KB3035583 applies to both Win7 & Win8.1, so that update has to be uninstalled as well.

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@EP –

Thanks! Change made.

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Found and uninstalled 2952664 and 3035583.
Win 7 home premium sp1 and removed nagware.
Thanks.

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Woody, I have discovered that the setting you advised will still allow the reinstall of the nasty KB3035583. You must set it at Never.

What happens in the setting you advised is that since the update comes as Important and is pre-checked, as soon as you do a shut down, it will be installed, again.

Also are you certain that you need to uninstall KB2952664 as well?

CT

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@CanadianTech –

Yep, I should add that as a final point. I’ll go do that.

Not at all certain that you need to uninstall KB 2952664. It’s just another nagging patch, as far as I know….

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@Mack –

Excellent. Thanks!

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Thanks
Win 7 home premium sp1 uninstalled 2952664 and 3035583.
All OK

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@Minniemates –

Thank you!

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Another update to get rid of is KB3068708. It’s that “diagnostic telemetry” update for Win7 & Win8.1. If you see KB3068708 on either Win7 SP1 or Win8.1 in the Installed Updates list, click on it and choose Uninstall.

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@EP –

Do you think that may be helping to solidify “Your upgrade is ready”?

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Followed your steps for my laptop, to no avail. Firstly, followed your Step 2 and changed the setting to “Check for updates, but let me choose…” As such, after I got to Step 5, Windows would not ask me to reboot. I did manual reboot but of course it did not work. I then changed Step 2 to “Never” and this time, in Step 6, Windows prompted me to reboot, which I did…and waited…and waited.
After the reboot process was completed, I got in to Windows Update and still saw the “lock”. I could not make it go away, even after I repeated the process twice.
Do you have any idea on how to make this work, short of installing Windows 10 and rolling it back to Win7? (btw, I upgraded my desktop to Win10 and then rolled it back to Win7 and now my desktop PC can not connect to the Internet. That’s why I was hoping this procedure would help me rid the lock on my laptop, to avoid the same fate as my PC).

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Sorry, forgot to let you know that it is KB 2952664 that keeps re-appearing. It simply will not be uninstalled. The other, KB 3035583, is no longer in the list. I alos tried @EP by deleting KB3068708 and it disappeared from the list too.

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@Michael –

Good question. Several people I know have had the same problem.

Try following the advice on getting rid of the Windows 10 crapware here:

http://www.infoworld.com/article/2983777/microsoft-windows/how-to-clean-the-windows-10-crapware-off-your-windows-7-or-81-pc.html

Let me know if it works.

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Tried the link in http://www.infoworld.com/article/2983777/microsoft-windows/how-to-clean-the-windows-10-crapware-off-your-windows-7-or-81-pc.html

unfortunately still have the same problem.
1. Could not find $Windows.~BT folder in my system.
2. Ran the GWX Control Panel program. It only gave me the option to click on “Disable Operating System Upgrades in Windows Update” (the other two options were not found in my system).
3. Let GWX Control Panel reboot my laptop.
4. Problem still exists. BTW the KB 2952664 is still there, even though I’ve deleted it several times.

I’m really desperate now. Is what Microsoft doing is even legal????

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@Michael –

“Legal” is in the eye of the beholder, eh?

What problem are you having? If it’s just KB 2952664 showing up, hide it an forget about it. If you still have a “lock” on Windows Update… yech. I haven’t hit any systems yet that aren’t blasted free by GWX Control Panel.

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Yeah, I agree with you re “legal” is in the ets of the beholder….
My problem is that I’m still locked by the Windows Update, which means I cannot do other Microsoft updates. Also, I cannot “hide” the pesky KB 2952664, as I had no option to do that.
Do you think by letting Win10 to update and rolling it back to Win7 will solve the problem? My previous experience with doing just that with my PC resulted in not being able to connect to the Internet.

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@Michael –

Upgrading to 10 and rolling back is risky, in my experience. Rarely, there are problems.

Let me make sure I understand your situation. You’ve run GWX Control Panel, deleted the hidden folder, re-booted, and Windows Update is still preventing you from installing other updates?

If that’s the case, is it OK if I get you in touch with the guy who built GWX Control Panel?

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Yes, even after running GWX Control Panel, Windows Update is still blocking me from installing other updates?
If you want to get me in touch with the guy who built the GWX Control Panel, I’d be more than happy to oblige. Thank you very much Woody.

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@Michael –

Shoot me email, please – woody at ask woody dot com.

Let’s see if we can get to the bottom of it!

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I have played with the same issue for over a week now and believe the problem occurs once you’ve agreed to the Windows 10 download and/or have gone to Windows 10 and then reverted to Windows 7.

So here’s the best you can do once you’ve gotten back to Windows 7:
1) Uninstall and then hide KB3035583 – that will remove the nag screen. (if you can’t do this first, try #2 below and then come back to this)
2) Download and run the Mr. Fixit module for Windows Update – that will ensure you can manually run updates in the future.
3) Stop Windows Update services via services.msc, delete the SoftwareDistribution folder in C:Windows, then restart the service.
4) Go to windows update and manually run an update – every time Windows 10 shows up, and there are at least three, hide them. Keep running windows update until it completes with a no updates found message.
5) Set windows update to search for, but not download or install updates.
6) Do not try to uninstall KB2952664 as it will keep automatically reinstalling and you’ll just be wasting your time.
7) Go into your directory structure and delete the folder ending in .~BT – it is the one that houses the image for Windows 10 and is simply wasting space.

In conclusion – your system will be fine now, it will present you with future updates when manually run it and Windows 10 will not try to install – caveat: whenever you reboot your system and go to windows update, a failed installation message for Windows 10 will appear (I have not figured out how to rid the system of this) along with “never” appearing in the last updated and installed fields, however, simply press check for updates and it will, so all is running smoothly.

If anyone can figure out how to get rid of the failed Windows 10 message, please let me know.

Hope this helps someone – Brad

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@Brad –

Have you tried using GWX Control Panel?

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GWX is removed when you “uninstall” KB3035583 and only affected the system tray nag, so I did not use it.

What I can not get rid of is the attempt to verify/download the Windows 10 image every time the system is rebooted. It’s not a big deal in light of Windows Update actually working and the Windows 10 “update” being hidden; just one of those lingering nagging defects that keep me awake at night.

There is a file somewhere that brings this info back on every reboot – just haven’t found it, or a fix yet (some research indicates it may be one of the .cab files).

Brad

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@Michael

You may want to download and try the following Mr. Fixit tool for Windows Update:

WindowsUpdateDiagnostic.diagcab

I would also recommend deleting the SoftwareDistribution folder as I outlined above. Once you’ve started to run a manual update, you can check the log file for errors, etc.

Brad

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@Brad –

Have you tried GWX Control Panel? If so, yell and I’ll get you in touch with the guy who wrote it…

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Upon your recommendation, I tried the GWX Control Panel last night – it did not find the system tray app and could not run – as I said, if you “uninstall” KB3035583, the GWX directory and app are removed. This thread involves individuals who have either reserved a copy of Windows 10, or actually installed Windows 10 and returned. Point being, once you do either of those two things, the whole nag process gets kicked up a notch by a whole new group of wu*.* files being installed. The GWX Control Panel is not going to fix people once the new files are installed.

Brad

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@Brad –

I believe GWX Control Panel works for some people who clicked on “reserve a copy” — but sometimes Windows gets locked in a loop that can’t be undone.

Anyway, shoot me mail and I’ll get you in touch with the guy who created GWX Control Panel. I know he’s still trying to figure out how to block the Win10 install nag in its later stages. woody@askwoody.com

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Still working on comparing the wu*.* files/structure between a fully rebuilt Windows 7 machine (with KB3035583 hidden) and the Been to Windows 10 Hell and Back machine. If I find some more information that will help solve the windows update nag upon reboot situation, I will send you an e-mail.

Brad

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@Brad –

Please do, and I’ll make sure the guy who wrote GWX Control Panel gets a copy.

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@Brad, September 27th, 2015 at 14:38

Followed your advice, with the following results:
1. I no longer have this KB 3035583.
2. Run MrFixit and it reported fixing a couple of problems.
3. Stopped Windown Update services, deleted the SoftwareDistribution folder, then restarted the service.
4. Went to WindowsUpdate and manually run an update–> could not do this because Windows is preventing any updates until I run the update to Win10 (“Windows Update cannot currently check for updates, because you must first restart the computer so that a previous installation can be completed”)
5. Set windows update to search for, but not download or install updates.
6. Followed your advice on not unistalling KB 2952664.
7. Could not find anywhere the folder ending in .~BT.

So, in conclusion, my system is still messed up, despite the help, suggestions and good intentions of several people including yourself and @Woody.

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@Michael

Once you restarted the update service, did you reboot the machine? If yes, once rebooted, I would go to services and ensure update is running; if that doesn’t fix it, I will need to look at things further.

Another thought – there are a couple of different Mr. Fixit tools, did you run the one that ends in .msi, or the one that ends in .diagcab? I know one did not work for me, but the other did.

Let me know. Thanks.

Brad

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@Woody

Saw your post concerning the flood of rereleased KB’s – thanks, seems Microsoft just won’t let end users make their own decisions.

Also, several of us “Been to Windows 10 Hell and back” folks have found that the restore from Windows 10 corrupts several scripts in the Scheduled Task manager – have you heard of this before? The only solution I’ve found to date is to delete the tasks out of the C:windowssystem32tasks directory and then to “export” the tasks from a clean machine and “import” them into the affected machine. If you have some contacts, it would be nice if someone could come up with a zipped script and files to make that nasty and lengthy process easier.

Just my thoughts.

Brad

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@Brad –

Hadn’t heard of Scheduled Task corruption – but there seem to be lots of niggling things that go wrong on a rollback…

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@Michael

Found that the Mr. Fixit .diagcab file can be difficult to find. Do a search for Windows Update Error 0X800F081F and go to the bottom of the page to click on the Windows Update Troubleshooter to download/run. Once completely run, reboot your machine and try to manually run Windows Update again.

Brad

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@Woody

I agree about the rollbacks, however, it’s also a statement about Microsoft because one of the scripts it corrupts is the one that accesses your previous backups, so if you relied on the Windows Backup tool (rather than making an image), you get hosed again.

It just goes to show that the best thing you can do before any upgrade is to have a complete image, made by third party software, before you even begin.

Brad

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@ Brad (response to October 6 at 14.45)
I did reboot the machine after restarting the update service. No avail. Also, the Mr FixIt that I used was the one ending in diagcab.
Terrible thing, this Microsoft Win10 update.

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@Michael

Unfortunately, I’m at a complete loss as I’ve been unable to recreate your issue. The Windows 10 restore back to Windows 7 did completely hose my laptop and I was forced to reload everything from scratch; the other machine is limping along for now and I will probably end up reloading it sometime when I have a spare day.
I have been unable to track down all the corrupted files that the restore process creates along the way and feel that a fresh start via a “now knowledgeable” reload process is the only prudent path to take. Needless to say, I won’t be so trusting of the Microsoft “Have We Got A Deal For You”s anytime in the future.
As I mentioned to @Woody, I’m going to make sure I have a complete image via third party software before I push that button in the future! Sorry any of us couldn’t be of more help.

Brad

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@Brad, @Woody
Thank you so much for really trying to help me solve my problem with Win10 upgrade. Although a real fix has not been found yet, I do appreciate all your efforts to help me, who is not a technical guy, to solve this pesky problem. It’s really uplifting to know that there are guys like yourselves out there who are willing to help complete strangers who otherwise would have been lost in the quagmire of so-called “advanced techological developments.” Keep up the good works guys. Thank you.

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It worked for me Woody.

I had a client who’d upgraded from Win7 Pro to Win 10 – probably by accident. I rolled his system back immediately but 2 days later we were receiving the windows 10 upgrade notifications with and “install now” or “install later”. I thought I’d cancelled it but it had obviously downloaded it again and was set to install again after a restart.

A few things to note.

Step 3. In the “system file cleanup” mine stated “temporary Windows installation files” @ 6.1 GB. It did not take long to delete these – less than 10 seconds.

Step 5 – Reboot time was also very quick. Less than a minute.

Step 6 – back into windows update and the message “Windows 10 failed to install” was displayed. Check updates worked fine and brought back KB2976978 & KB3035583 which I then hid. System had 2 or 3 further reboots and report all ok.

Very good advice by Woody, thank you – would reiterate; do take a backup of important data before taking these steps.

Craig

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One more thing to add to may last comment.

Windows update did bring back KB3035583 as an available update, even though I had hidden it minutes before.

So now I have two KB3035583’s in my hidden updates. Both show slightly different file sizes, so I wonder if they are different?

Same thing happened on a previous system (which hadn’t been rolled back).

So keep an eye on KB3035583 and check it doesn’t return.

Thanks,

Craig

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Hi Brad and Woody:

I can collaborate that KB3035583 and KB 2952664 did come back again after the first reboot as Craig stated. I also worked on this with AVG support and they are recommending that people check the updates upon reboot. As has been stated in many websites, Microsoft is being very aggressive regarding Windows 10.

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