Windows 10 Unstoppable Update Auto-reinstalls Edge, Cortana, Shop

The audacity of Microsoft continues to inflame me as my computer was technically hijacked by their automatic update upon my restarting it today. And then, even though I've gone to the lengths of removing Edge, spyware Cortana and the freaking shop before, apparently we'll have to do it all again.

I wanted to give Microsoft a piece of mind on their forums. Not that they'd care, but it doesn't matter as you need a "Microsoft Password" now to post there. I don't want a Microsoft Password and if I have (I may have had to for all I know) used it to get this system going, I don't want to put that password into the internet anyway. Very tired of what I see happening with this company and what they appear to be doing.

What they appear to be doing to me is, securing an Xbox Live type of payment from people and controlling a large part of what people can do on the internet. They're already under scrutiny for trying to kill Steam by phasing out Win32 apps. Win10 is known for being more invasive to users than any previous OS and it's only going to get worse.

If anyone knows how to get rid of these aspects easily and for good, please let me know. Also, if there's a way to force the updates to let the user decide what to allow, that would be great too.

When I first heard of WIN 10, fortunately I read plenty of articles about how invasive and nefarious it was. I currently run 7, but to be truthful, WIN XP was good enough IMO. I couldn't stand using WIN 8 because of its app based OS. I tried it out on a friends computer and absolutely hated it, so I never upgraded.

You may have to start from scratch again. That sucks sorry. However, I have been 10 free just by turning off my Windows Updates. So if you start fresh again, make sure you start up without internet connection and turn the updates off. Works for me. Hope that helps.

a reply to: gottaknow

This kind of thing is never going to stop. Look at the long term trend of whats happened since 911. 911 gave them their chance to starting accelerating their control over the masses and, as I see it. its highly unlikely that they will give this chance away or decide they dont want to do it anymore.

Dont be surprised if in the not too distant future there is no local storage facility on any computer and no external storage devices either. As I see it, they only place to store data will via that very swanky name of cloud storage and that will be in the facilities like those two big super storage facilities in one of the Dekotas where they will likely be able to store a hundred years of worth of global electronic data.

As I see it Instead of having to find and delete unapproved data on the net, they will simply either delete it at source or lock you out of your computer for xyz time which will likely double each time.

It's all about control. Remember that, its all about control of the population.

Right now the only solution is to update to the pro version. Or set your machine to a metered connection.

Win 10 does give you a warning about automatic reboots and gives you the option to reschedule them. But you might miss these alerts if you're not in front of the computer at the time.

I've been using computers daily since the eighties. And I'm amazed how much they've advanced. One thing that hasn't changed is users whining about every little thing.

That said, users should have more control over updates. And I'm sure we will get it in time.

I have been free of windows for 4 years now both at home and at work.
I really don't understand why more people don't switch to linux. It is absolutely hassle free.

2 years ago my old desktop running vista had become fairly obsolete so I purchased a new HP with 8 installed. Ended up upgrading to 10 in the last free week. 4 weeks ago I unplugged the new computer and installed Linux on the old one. When I find the time and method 10 will be replaced on the new one as well.

originally posted by: Dr X
I have been free of windows for 4 years now both at home and at work.
I really don't understand why more people don't switch to linux. It is absolutely hassle free.

I tried Linux (in its various distris) 3-4 times over the last 10+ years.
It is NOT hassle free, as it is more work to get it to run and keep it running than it frees up with unclicking some "I do like to give out my private data to Megacorp".

Just not the same kind of hassle. But Linux does have its own share of problems.

originally posted by: gottaknow
The audacity of Microsoft continues to inflame me as my computer was technically hijacked by their automatic update upon my restarting it today. And then, even though I've gone to the lengths of removing Edge, spyware Cortana and the freaking shop before, apparently we'll have to do it all again.

I wanted to give Microsoft a piece of mind on their forums. Not that they'd care, but it doesn't matter as you need a "Microsoft Password" now to post there. I don't want a Microsoft Password and if I have (I may have had to for all I know) used it to get this system going, I don't want to put that password into the internet anyway. Very tired of what I see happening with this company and what they appear to be doing.

What they appear to be doing to me is, securing an Xbox Live type of payment from people and controlling a large part of what people can do on the internet. They're already under scrutiny for trying to kill Steam by phasing out Win32 apps. Win10 is known for being more invasive to users than any previous OS and it's only going to get worse.

If anyone knows how to get rid of these aspects easily and for good, please let me know. Also, if there's a way to force the updates to let the user decide what to allow, that would be great too.

First, you can remove Edge from updates. I happen to like it on hand. It is a little browser that has helped me in gaming when Maxthon has it's minor fits. And some websites will not function without edge, IE (which I do no have ) or FF. I do keep Chrome on 1 machine.

You can also remove the password to login to your machine and get a new program for another one.

I happen to like Cortana on my laptops. It is useless on my desktop. I removed it. I have windows10.

All you have to do is search how to remove what you don't want and keep and how to them gone. You don't have to have cortana or a microsoft login with Windows10.

If you don't want to 'google it', use duckduckgo.com

originally posted by: EternalShadow
When I first heard of WIN 10, fortunately I read plenty of articles about how invasive and nefarious it was. I currently run 7, but to be truthful, WIN XP was good enough IMO. I couldn't stand using WIN 8 because of its app based OS. I tried it out on a friends computer and absolutely hated it, so I never upgraded.

You may have to start from scratch again. That sucks sorry. However, I have been 10 free just by turning off my Windows Updates. So if you start fresh again, make sure you start up without internet connection and turn the updates off. Works for me. Hope that helps.

I really liked 98SE. But time goes by. If you don't want an apple machine, Win10 is the most stable.

I skipped 8 as it was geared toward touch screens and I don't have a touchscreen other than my phone. If I had a tablet, I might have put win 8 on it. The only really bad one was Vista. But it wasn't the Devil, just not organized very well.

a reply to: ManFromEurope

I find that most problems in installing linux comes from putting it on random hardware.
If you do a little research before you buy any hardware and check it works then you will have little issues.
The more modern distros, like mint for example do tend to work out of the box much better than they did in the past.

a reply to: Dr X

You are right. It is that and that Linux is not as 'out of the box friendly' as most. But once instaled and practiced on it is very good.

remove a bunch of stuff from Win10

PC World-Disable Cortana

Softpedia- remove Edge

This is for the anniversar update in August, though I know there was one in the last 24 hours

How to geek-disable Cortana in Anniversary Update

16 Windows 10 Anniversary Update issues- How to fix

These should roll it back to IE 11:

This:
Go
Controlpanel>programmesfeatures>Turnfeatures On/Off tick Ie11,
Then go to Control panel>defaultprogrammes> select Ie11.

or this might work too:

start menu > windows accessories > internet explorer
control panel > defaults > internet explorer _ set all defaults..

Unpin Edge and pin IE


Otherwise, the easiest route is to just make another browser your default.

a reply to: ManFromEurope

I migrated 6 years ago after 20 horrible years with MS and I wouldn't go back for 1 nor 10 metric tuns of gold.

In fact it is much easier to setup and run Linux (Ubuntu/Debian/Other large distro) with some basic security then Windows.

For example under Linux you get 90-100% software from secure repositories. Apps are compiled exactly for your system, no need for download of some strange installs from strange websites ....

Here is some software that should disable everything you don't want with a click or 2 of a button. www.ghacks.net...

The one i use , which also allowed updates to be disabled permanently (until Microsoft works around it). I also noticed that no matter how many entries for Microsoft you make in the hosts file for blocking things like bing and there stupid app store, They change IP's once a week give or take so its never blocked for long. very dirty.

www.majorgeeks.com...

I activated Windows 10 on all of my systems so that I have a valid license if I ever need one for the future, (like if I sell one of my systems) but after doing so I reformatted all my drives and switched back to Windows 7. I have serious privacy reservations about Windows 10, the UI is extremely ugly, and there were no real features that I felt warranted staying with Win10.

For now, both workstations, my PLEX server, mail server and both laptops are all back on Windows 7, and I'm pretty happy.

Mine too.... but my computer said hells no to it for some unknown reason.
It took about a half of a hour to go back to previous settings of windows... thought my computer
was pretty much done for this morning. Grrr.

a reply to: gottaknow

Here is what gets me, I bought a brand new Dell with Windows 10. After three days of use it tells me "your computer is not compatible with Windows 10" lol. This computer only had Windows 10.

I would say Microsoft has many issues with Windows 10.

The auto update thing is just wrong. Microsoft does not care...

Great thread.👍

Pa reply to: [post=21293827]Dr X[/post
No it's not.
The average person using a laptop will most likely have trouble getting wi fi going. Let alone hardware support issues,

First off, thanks for all the replies. I have an ever-growing fear and distaste for what appears to be happening to the internet and computer system changes over the years. I see an amazing creation being corrupted and negatively changed before our very eyes with blinding speed for the same green/gold reasons EVERYthing has been corrupted and negatively changed over the centuries.

@EternalShadow: I loved XP. I dealt with Vista. I think 10 is about all I can take and it's probably too much. I don't intend to go back to 7/8 and am mostly upset that people aren't demanding that these companies be forced to be more responsible to their customers.

@Azureblue: Love your post. Especially the last sentence. I fully agree with you as I somewhat mention above. The damage caused by both the "cloud" and what the phones have done is already irreparable. I fear what you fear. That the cloud control will become the crowd control. It's already so bad.

@Moresby: Thanks for the clue regarding metered connections. Didn't know anything about that and will be reading up some more. I probably should have gone for pro, but I remembered doing that with Vista and then seeing absolutely no difference in what it gave me compared to Home for that OS. Tricky, tricky.

@Dr X, CharlesT, ManFromEurope and JanAmosComenius: I HAVE been wanting to get a system with Linux/Ubuntu for several years now, but as I can usually only afford one good build at a time. Being primarily used for gaming, have gone with the only apparent choice we are given as gamers. Certainly NEVER going to Mac. Getting older isn't helping that jump either.

@reldra: Thanks for the advice and especially the links. If there are websites that already do not function without Edge, I find that fairly ominous already. I will definitely look more into the password idea. Didn't know that was an option. Cool.
Also just want to mention that while a-Googling I will go, I felt justified in making this post here as I both know there's a lot of savvy people on this site that have the answers - maybe better than what's on those first few pages and I wanted to vent against this source of continued frustration!!

@Tjoran: And THAT's precisely what I was hoping I might see from asking for you folk's advice. Something that never would have occurred to me to seek out myself. Thank you, kindly. Bookmark'd.

@ ReprobateRaccoon: I believe everything works just fine but have some personal thing about going backwards now that I've gone a year with a smoothly running system. Even if that system has some evil in it's core. Glad to hear 7 is still kickin' it but I rue the day when they just "decide" to say it's gotta go.

@starlitestarbrite: I knew I wasn't the only one. Sorry it was touch and go with your system! My older Vista has ceased to be able to update anymore and will just hang there.

@Quantum12: Too funny! And no they don't care. They just don't.

a reply to: gottaknow

This freaking update keeps getting froze on the HP screen with a spinning ball of dots.

Only way for me to stop it is to unplug my computer for a while, turn it on and then it says "installing previous *can't remember*".

From what I hear this update is a full installation of the OS and IDK why it keeps getting stuck.

Every time I restart my computer it restarts the update.

I was going to start a threat on this, maybe I can get help in this thread. I am not as good as I used to be with computers and Windows 10 has me feeling like I am reading Cantonese backwards.

Last thing I want is to have to take my PC in the shop because of a Windows update. Apple update killed my Ipad last week and I am still sour about that...

Someone help please.

I am at work right now so can't really troubleshoot until later.