If you go into Windows Update and get a screen that says “Upgrade to Windows 10” (screenshot), you may think you’re stuck - the only update you can install is the one that upgrades the system to Windows 10. You can safely treat Windows Update as you always have - which, in my case, means setting Windows Update to “Notify but don’t download,” and avoiding this month’s patches until we know more about them. If you go into Windows Update and see a normal update screen listing important and optional updates, you haven’t been fully infected by the Windows 10 upgrade shenanigans. If you can see the Get Windows 10 icon in your system tray, Josh Mayfield’s GWX Control Panel (updated today) will delete the icon, remove and hide the offending KB patches, and perform the registry change that tells Windows 7 and 8.1 to not install Windows 10 - but it only works if you use it early enough in the upgrade cycle. I’ve seen a flood of new complaints from Windows 7 and 8.1 customers - and admins - asking how to get rid of the Get Windows 10 icon in the status bar, how to prevent Microsoft from force-downloading 5GB of pre-installation files onto customers’ PCs, and how to keep PCs from getting locked up with a seemingly forced “Upgrade to Windows 10” notification.

Many of us were astounded to find that, as of last night, Microsoft’s Windows 10 nagware is being installed on domain-joined computers.