Control Win10 Upgrade Notification

Dahak

Diamond Member
Mar 2, 2000
3,752
25
91
Seen this over at Ars Technica that Microsoft has finally has a way to turn off the upgrade/taskbar upgrade notifications
*Edit* Due to MS starting to push the Upgrade Notification on systems that are Domain Joined but are not managed by WSUS or SCCM

Ms KB article


Some of the steps may have been done in an unofficial way but these are the valid and official way to do it

Edit
Some points to clear up

1 - Microsoft is going to start pushing this update to more systems that are on Domains that do not have WSUS or SCCM for managing updates.
2 - The article is more geared towards Sys Admins in these business hence the somewhat dense and overly complicated explanations
3 - Must have the update KB 3080351 install otherwise the registry edits will not do anything. If you are avoiding that update to avoid the upgrade notifcations, then no reason to do any of this

4 - If you want an easy way then yes you would just need to do the two following registry edits
Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate]
"DisableOSUpgrade"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\GWX]
"DisableGwx"=dword:00000001
 
Last edited:

ArisVer

Golden Member
Mar 6, 2011
1,345
32
91
Nice from them to listen from the many user complaints. On the other hand they could have make it easier for the users by providing a simple program that does that, since the solution is rather complicated.
 

Dahak

Diamond Member
Mar 2, 2000
3,752
25
91
True, but I guess they are targeting more admins vs normal users as they would want as many as them upgrading to 10

The registry edits should not be too hard for most "family admins" to follow
 

Z15CAM

Platinum Member
Nov 20, 2010
2,184
64
91
www.flickr.com
Yes you can instruct Win7 & 8 from UpGrading to WinX but you have to control the Telemetry UpDates that may appear every month although you have elected to Hide them, in order to protect your privacy.
 
Last edited:

Dahak

Diamond Member
Mar 2, 2000
3,752
25
91
I would say, this is more for those that already have the update install and are currently getting the notifications

This is more geared towards business with the GPO and updated WindowsUpdate.admx which, those setting/options are not there by default


That MS article (KB3080351) seems to be more complicated than it needs to be.

From what I can tell, ultimately two alterations need to be made in the registry:

DisableOSUpgrade = 1 (to disable upgrades)
DisableGwx = 1 (to disable GWX tray nag)
Pretty much yes

First the instructions say that for "Turn off the upgrade to the latest version of Windows through Windows Update" (aka. DisableOSUpgrade) to be present in Group Policy, you need to have an update installed called "KB3065987" (Windows 7).

They also say "You must use the updated WindowsUpdate.admx file by copying the file from the editing policy location". Whatever the hell that means. What I did was:
In a domain environment if you do not have the updated GPO Settings, then yes you would need to copy the files over and import them


Why do you need to do the copy WindowsUpdate.admx part? - the Group Policy option switches the registry setting without it.
If you do not have those options when you go to edit the Group Policy, cant edit whats not there

Why would anyone bother with the update, the copying of the file and Group Policy editing, when applying a prepared .reg file takes a fraction of the time, AND you're already going to have to edit the registry for DisableGwx anyway?

Again this is more for domain based scenarios, as its easier to edit 1 GPO then it is to make 1 or 2 registry files and try to push them out across hundreds of machines,

I will update my original post to add some more details.
 

Dahak

Diamond Member
Mar 2, 2000
3,752
25
91
I'm still at a loss as to what DisableOSUpgrade 1 is actually supposed to do.

I believe its for preventing the Windows 10 Upgrade from happening in Windows Update
like the following image
http://imgur.com/qx3rG7r

But I cant seem to get my machines to the point of that image to test if that is true or not