How to NOT upgrade to Windows 10

It seems that Microsoft are determined to push Windows 10 to everyone, whether you want it or not.

Now, for those people using Windows 8 that don't have the time or know-how to wipe their computer clean and install Windows 7, sure, let the upgrade go ahead. Windows 10 is a big step forward from 8 (or 8.1).  Unfortunately 8 was such a massive leap back from 7 that the "big step forward" only goes about halfway to catching up with Windows 7.

So, if you don't want to be forced to upgrade from 7 to 10, log on with an administrator account and open a command prompt, either through Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt, or press Win-R and type "cmd" and OK. You'll get a DOS window open. Now type the following command, exactly as shown:

reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate" /v DisableOSUpgrade /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

A reboot shouldn't be needed, but you may want to restart your PC just to be sure.

This has been tested on the Professional and Ultimate editions of Windows 7. Enterprise edition doesn't automatically upgrade. It should work on Windows 7 Home, but I haven't tested this.

If your Windows 7 computer is joined to a Windows NT or Active Directory domain then you won't be offered the automatic Windows 10 upgrade, at least for now. Microsoft obviously decided (somewhat wisely) that they didn't want to upset millions of systems administrators worldwide! You may want to run the above command just to be sure that you aren't "stealth upgraded" though.

This has been a public service announcement. Normal service will resume shortly.