Back in the halcyon days of July 2015, before I had heard anything about Microsoft's anti-privacy stance and embedded spyware in Windows 10, I reserved a copy of my very own. This was a mistake.
Just how hard was it to get Microsoft to stop prompting me to install Windows 10? Very hard. But after ten straight days of calling techs and posting in forums, I did it.
Please join me below the squiggly doobly-do of double infuriation for comprehensive instructions on how to get Microsoft to stop bothering you, as well as how to recover if you've actually told it to reserve your copy or, God forbid, if you actually went and told it to download Windows 10 in preparation for an install. You poor sod.
How to get rid of:
Reserve your copy today!: Even if you have decided against upgrading to Windows 10, Microsoft still sees fit to nag you about Reserving Your Copy Today!™ There's a tool available if you feel comfortable using it, but if you're like me, you want to understand what's being done to your PC and feel more comfortable performing actions yourself. Here's how to get rid of the reminder:
1. Unreserve your copy of Windows, if you haven't already. Do this by clicking "view confirmation" and then cancelling your reservation when the box comes up.
2. Open up the Control Panel. From there, search for Windows Update. Enter Windows Update.
3. Click on "change settings" and change the "important updates" drop down box to "check for updates but let me choose whether to install them" or (if you prefer) something more strict. Apply the settings.
4. Go back to the Windows Update screen. Down in the bottom left-hand corner of the window, there will be an area that says "see also". Click on "installed updates" here.
5. Search for KB3035583 in the box. Uninstall it. Don't reboot yet.
6. Search for KB2976978 in the box. Uninstall it. Now you can reboot.
7. After rebooting, go back into Windows Update. Check for updates, and when it says they're ready to install, click on the hyperlink that allows you to view updates. Right click on KB3035583 and select "hide", then do the same for KB2976978.
Sometimes there will be residual files left behind after doing this. If you're concerned about that, read here about how to get rid of the residual files. Otherwise, congrats! Your problems should be solved!
Your upgrade is almost ready!/Your upgrade is ready to install!: This is the problem that I had, and it's definitely the more troublesome of the two. This is what happens when Windows 10 has been downloaded -- a picture of the resulting pop-up box is pictured above. You can't get rid of it at this point without serious contortions; even the serious contortions may not be enough (as they weren't in my case).
My honest suggestion to you is to do the following:
1. Go to the Microsoft website.
2. Log in with the account that has your Windows key registered (Windows 8) or register an account with a Windows key and log in on it (Windows 7).
3. Search for "Windows installation media tool" and click the link that goes to the Windows site. (For Windows 8 users, I happen to have a link to the media right here. Because I use Windows 8. And yes, I am sad about that fact.)
4. Download the ISO. For Windows 8, you won't have to burn it to disk; you can just double-click the ISO and run it straight from disk.
5. Choose to repair Windows. For Windows 8 systems, this will allow you to reinstall without killing your files. If Microsoft says to back up your files, do so.
6. Reinstall the OS.
7. When the options appear, do not activate Windows Update yet. Wait until you've booted to do so.
8. Before activating Windows Update, ensure updates don't automatically install.
9. Hide updates KB3035583 and KB2976978 using the instructions in the Reserve your copy today! section.
10. Install all of the updates and turn automatic updates back on (or whatever update setting you prefer).
This is truly my honest recommendation: normally I'm a very big fan of recovering the OS after catastrophic problems have rendered it unusable. I'm also a power user who is very comfortable with command lines, batch files, registry modifications, taking ownership of (and deleting) system files, etc. So when I say this, please take it seriously:
I worked on this problem for ten days straight before finally giving up and reinstalling my OS.
I let nine different Microsoft techs remote desktop into my computer for hours at a time, and they couldn't fix it either.
However, if you are truly hardheaded and/or optimistic to the point of insanity, here are some steps you can take to get rid of this without reinstalling your OS:
WARNING: THESE STEPS ARE ONLY FOR THE HARDCORE/CRAZY. I RECOMMEND YOU REINSTALL YOUR OS IF YOU ARE TRYING TO GET RID OF THIS POPUP. DO NOT ATTEMPT IF YOU ARE AT ALL INTIMIDATED BY COMPUTERS! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
So you're going to want to start with ensuring all traces of software are gone from the KB3035583 update. Open up a "run" box and type in the following:
%WinDir%\System32\GWX
A folder will pop up. This folder is your enemy and needs to be deleted.
Unfortunately, before you can delete it, you need to make sure the program inside isn't running and that you have taken ownership of the folder. Hit Ctrl+Alt+Delete and select "Task Manager". Go to detail view if you have it, otherwise just look on the list for a program called GWX.exe. Kill that process.
Go up one folder. Right click on the folder and select Properties. Go to the Security tab, and click Advanced. Then click on the Owner tab, click Edit, and when this window pops up, select your account from the list. Click Okay to apply the change.
Go back to the Properties > Security box. If you're confused, just close all the boxes and open a new one. Select SYSTEM, click Edit, and then when the next box pops up click on your username. Click Full Control under the Allow column. Click okay and exit out of all the boxes.
Now delete the folder. Then reboot.
Still having issues? Go to Run again, and this time type in tasksched.msc. A box will pop up. On the left, there are folders that you can open. Go to Task Scheduler Library\Microsoft\Windows\Setup. Are there folders named gwx or GWXTrigger in there? You need to delete both. Unfortunately, you will have to go in to the associated system folders to take control of GWXTrigger if it happens to be in your scheduled tasks system. You can search your drive for GWXTrigger to find it. Reboot after you have deleted these folders.
If the window is still popping up, you have a few more things you can do. You will be modifying the registry in a very limited way. Please do not do this if you feel uncomfortable in any way, as this is the easiest way to brick your system. With that out of the way, go to Run, and this time type in regedit. A screen will pop up. You now need to to go the following path: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\OSUpgrade. Set all of the values on these registry keys to zero. Add a new DWORD (32 bit) named DisableOSUpgrade, and set the value to 1. Add another DWORD (32 bit) value named ReservationsAllowed and set the value to 0. Reboot.
Still popping up? You can disable it temporarily by deleting your entire Windows Update folder, located at %WinDir%\SoftwareDistribution. This will allow you to temporarily install Windows Updates. You can also kill the Windows Update window that controls whether your computer is automatically rebooted every hour. Doing this will restart the timer.
However, if you're to this point, it's time to throw in the towel and reinstall your OS.
I hope this mini-guide/rant was helpful to someone. At the very least, you won't be forced spending ten days looking for solutions only to be told to reinstall your OS! Thanks for sticking with me, and if you found this helpful, please share so others can find it. Best of luck with your lack of upgrading!