Last Wednesday afternoon, a young lady was typing a short letter for her employer and complained that the PC was rebooting and interrupting her work, resulting in her taking longer than usual to finish her work.
The PC she was working on was running Windows 7 but when I saw the start up screen, I saw the word "Windows 10" and thought to myself "how on earth did this happen", since as far as I knew, one has to manually initiate the free upgrade from Windows 7 or Windows 8 to Windows 10, which Microsoft provides.
Fortunately, all files on the PC were intact after the upgrade had completed and all logins to e-mail were the same as before, and she was able to complete her work.
This young lady is not all that computer savvy, so I do not expect that she would know how to initiate an upgrade to Windows 10.
Since I have been running Linux on my PCs since late 2008, I have not had to face such issues with Windows, so when I got home that evening, I decided to find out whether there have been any known cases of Windows 7 or Windows 8 auto-upgrading to Windows 10, with or without the user's knowledge or intervention, so I did a Google Search on "Can Windows 10 auto-install itself?" and it pulled up many links saying YES, it can and does.
One of the best search results is the one below, which says that Microsoft now allows Windows 7 and Windows 8 to auto-update to Windows 10 from the first week of February 2016:-
Automatic Windows 10 installs begin but how easy are they to stop? - TechRepublic
By Nick Heath | February 2, 2016, 6:40 AM PST
Robert Galbraith/Reuters/Corbis
From Monday this week Windows 10 will automatically begin installing on many home machines running Windows 7 and 8.1.
Windows users will be able to stop the installation, as they will need to confirm they want the free upgrade to Windows 10 to continue.
But while it can be refused, the upgrade may repeatedly try to install itself on Windows 7 and 8.1 machines.
This marks the start of a new phase in the rollout of Windows 10: Microsoft has changed the status of the upgrade to that of a "recommended" update, which consumer Windows 7 and 8.1 machines typically attempt to install automatically on a regular basis.
When asked whether a Windows 7 and 8.1 machine will attempt to begin the install again after it's been declined, a Microsoft spokesman did not answer the question directly - stating only that users will be able to stop Windows 10 from installing by changing their Windows Update settings.
To stop the automatic upgrade from initiating, Windows Update settings will need to be changed from "Install updates automatically" to one of several options that allow users to choose which updates are downloaded and installed - as outlined here. Unticking the box marked "Give me recommended updates the same way I receive important updates" on the Windows Update settings page may also work.
If users do upgrade but don't like Windows 10 they will have 31 days to roll back to their previous OS.
Microsoft has previously not answered the question of whether the Windows 10 upgrade will repeatedly attempt to install on affected Windows 7 and 8.1 machines. When asked the same question last year, Jeremy Korst, general manager of the Windows and Devices team at Microsoft, said only that "the customer will have the ability to delay it for some period".
The Windows 10 upgrade is automatically being installed on many Windows 7 and 8.1 machines as a result of Microsoft changing the status of the upgrade to that of a "recommended" update.
Windows 7 and 8.1 machines sold to home users are generally configured to automatically install these "recommended" updates. Machines that have Automatic Updates turned on and the "Give me recommended updates the same way I receive important updates" option selected - Microsoft's recommended configuration when installing Windows 7 and 8.1 - will see the Windows 10 Upgrade begin to automatically install. The upgrade will be pushed to these machines as part of a phased rollout. The minority of computers that don't meet the relatively modest system requirements for Windows 10 will not receive the upgrade.
Enterprise IT administrators can disable the upgrade using Group Policy settings or by using the DisableUpgrade registry key. Microsoft advises that workarounds that rely on altering other registry keys are not "supported mechanisms" for controlling the upgrade process and are not recommended.
User numbers for Windows 10 are growing and earlier this year Microsoft announced that more than 200 million devices worldwide were running Windows 10. Among businesses, Terry Myerson, VP of Microsoft's Windows and Devices Group, said that more than 76 percent of enterprise customers were in "active pilots" and there were more than 22 million devices running Windows 10 across enterprise and education customers.
My first impression after the auto-upgrade was that it did not appear to slow down her work. However, Windows 10 is known to consume more memory and had disk space than Windows 7 and if it subsequently turns out that Windows 10 runs slower on that not very new PC, then it may be necessary to revert back to Windows 7. Microsoft allows for this within 31 days of an upgrade.
A Google search on "How to revert back from Windows 10 to Windows 7?" pulled up several descriptions of how this can be done.
One of the best being but you will need to backup your work files, just in case something goes wrong:-
Change your mind about Windows 10? Here's how you can roll back
CNET editor Dong Ngo shows you a quick way to roll back to your previous version of Windows if you just completed an in-place upgrade to Windows 10. Or, if you're completely happy with Windows 10, how to regain the storage space occupied by the previous Windows' files.
Editors' note: This post was updated on August 11, 2015, with the information on how to permanently remove previous Windows' files to restore storage space.
So Windows 10 is here and we think it's great . If you've already upgraded, but are feeling a little buyer's remorse (as much buyer's remorse as one can have for something that costs zero dollars), don't fret. We're here to help.
Microsoft gives you 30 days from the day you upgraded to Windows 10 to roll back to your previous version of Windows. Before you do so, however, it's a good idea to back up your data, even though it will remain intact.
(On the other hand, if you are totally happy with Windows 10 after the upgrade, make sure you check the bottom of the post for what you can do to gain your storage space, occupied by the previous Windows' files, back.)
All backed up? OK, let's get going.
Rolling back to previous Windows
Enlarge Image First on the Start Menu, click on Settings. Screenshot by Dong Ngo/CNET Step 1: From the Windows 10 Start Menu, click on Settings.
Enlarge Image On the Settings page click on the Update & Security button Screenshot by Dong Ngo/CNET Step 2: On the Settings page, click on the button that reads Update & Security...
Choose the Recovery option and then click on "Get Started," under "Go Back to Windows." Screenshot by Dong Ngo/CNET
Step 3: Now on the Update & Security page, click on Recovery and then under Go Back to Windows X (where "X" is the version of your previous Windows prior to upgrading to Windows 10), click on Get Started.
Pick a reason why you want to go back and then click on Next. Screenshot by Dong Ngo/CNET
Step 4: Select a reason for the rollback and then click Next.
After a warning and a confirmation, the rollback process will start. The process can take as short as a few minutes to about half an hour depending on the speed of your computer. In my experience, rolling back from Windows 10 to Windows 7 was much quicker (just about a fourth of the time) than my original upgrade process.
Note that once rolled back, you might have to reinstall some apps, and some of the settings changes you've made in applications may also be lost. Also, make sure you remember the log-in password for the previous version of Windows since the password for Windows 10, if you have changed it, will not stick, either.
Once rolled back you can re-upgrade to Windows 10 at any time. Screenshot by Dong Ngo/CNET
In case you're wondering why 30 days and not longer, Microsoft hopes that after this time you'll get used to Windows 10 enough and hence find no reason to go back. After the 30 days the Recovery function will be used in case you want to reset Windows 10 or roll back to a previous build of Windows 10.
So what if you want to roll back after the 30-day mark? There is at least one option: back up your previous version of Windows (7 or 8) using system backup software. You'll also need an external/secondary storage device to complete this. Personally, I'd recommend the free version of Macrium Reflect, which works smoothly and supports Windows 10.
Remove previous Windows' files
The reason you can roll back is that during the upgrade Windows 10 actually stores the entire previous Windows installation (and its software) on the computer's drive. This means a large amount of disk space, around 30GB, is used for this options. If you're completely happy with Windows 10 and feel there's no need to ever roll back, or you have an alternative backup of the previous Windows stored on an external drive, it's a good idea to remove these files to gain back the disk space. Here are the steps:
Step 1: Run Disk Cleanup. You can look for it using the search field on Windows 10's Taskbar, then click on it.
The Cleanup system files option will include previous Windows' installation. Screenshot by Dong Ngo/CNET
Step 2: Wait for the scanning to finish then click on Clean up system files.
Check the boxes for files you want to remove. Screenshot by Dong Ngo/CNET
Step 3: The scan will restart, once it's done, check the box in front of Previous Windows installation(s). Optionally, you can also safely check all other boxes. Then click on OK. Answer the confirmation prompt affirmatively and wait for the cleanup process to finish.
Obviously, after this you can't roll back to previous Windows version anymore, unless you had backed up the machine using third-party software prior to the upgrade to Windows 10.
Quite frankly, I think Microsoft is being rather unreasonable with PC users by imposing these auto-updates on them, which can catch many users unawares, especially if they do not know what's going on.
Install Linux on the PC and stop this nonsense once and for all?
Yes, I would love to but it's not my PC, so it's not up to me.
My journey to Linux began when I was unhappy with Windows Vista on a notebook I bought in 2007.
At first, I tried to install Windows XP from an original Windows XP install CD which I had but discovered that it did not recognise the SATA (Serial-ATA) hard disk on that notebook, since that copy of Windows XP was designed to support older PATA (Parallel-ATA) also known as IDE hard disks.
Worse, I had already wiped Windows Vista off the hard disk, and Hewlett-Packard would most probably have charged me a bomb to reinstall Windows Vista.
To have Windows XP recognise the SATA hard disk, I would have had to find the right Windows XP drivers for the SATA hard disk controller on that notebook and this proved difficult and moreover, I wondered whether I had rendered the hard disk unreadable.
Luckily I happened to have a Sabayon Linux install DVD which came with a copy of Linux Magazine which I had bought, so I booted it up and it recognised the SATA hard disk without problem, so I thought "What the heck! Go ahead and install it", which I did and there began my Linux journey, and I never looked back.
I later switched to Fedora Linux, then to Ubuntu Linux and now I run Linux Mint 17 on my main work desktop and Linux Debian 8 on my notebook and another desktop PC, both with the Cinnamon desktop. Rather interestingly, Debian 8 with the Cinnamon desktop also runs on an about 11 year old Benq Joybook 2000 notebook, my friend's son wanted to throw out, so she gave it to me and I restored it. Debian 8 is the latest stable version of Linux Debian and is the basis upon which Linux Ubuntu and Linux Mint were built.
The screen cap below shows the Cinnamon desktop on Linux Mint 17.
I have three office suites installed here. LibreOffice, WPS Office for Linux and Free Office.
LibreOffice is a free and open source office suite by the non-profit The Document Foundation.
You can download it from here and you can select the version for Windows, MacOS X or Linux as well as a choice of version for many different languages.
https://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-fresh/?version=5.1.1
WPS Office is an alternative to Microsoft Office developed by the China-based Kingsoft Corporation and is available in free and paid versions for Windows, Linux, Android and Apple iOS platforms
The personal editions of the four versions can be downloaded for free, except for the Business Edition (Premium) for Windows which costs US$79.99 lifetime license.
Free Office is by SoftMaker Software GmbH in Germany and runs on Windows, Linux and Android platforms.
It can be downloaded for free but you will have to provide your name, country and e-mail address.
http://www.freeoffice.com/en/download-freeoffice-mobile-office?id=1
So you actually have quite a few free of charge and legal alternatives to Microsoft Office, not only for your PC but for your phone or tablet as well.
The only thing you need to do after installation is to configure LibreOffice and Free Office to save your work in Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint formats by default so that people using Microsoft Office can open them.
This is because, as it comes, LibreOffice (and Apache Open Office) by default saves such documents in .ODF (Open Document Format), whilst Free Office saves documents in its own format.
Free Office is a good choice if you want a basic office suite without too many bells and whistles, though it can only save your work in formats up to Microsoft Office 2003.
WPS Office looks a lot like Microsoft Office clone, which I find rather cumbersome to use.
LibreOffice is somewhat a balance between the above two and is the main office suite which I use. I installed the other two were installed just to try out. It can save your work in formats up to Microsoft Office 2013.
If you are wondering what is that "pdfsam" you see, well that is a utility which lets you split PDF documents into individual PDF pages and also to merge individual PDF documents into a single document. So if you only need a chapter or an article from a PDF document, you can use PDFSam to split a PDF file into individual pages, then merge selected PDF pages to create a PDF document featuring only the article or chapter you want.
PDF Sam for Windows and Mac can be downloaded from here.
Cheers
Charles
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