I Woke Up & My PC Looks Different.
It seems there is not enough people ready to commit to Windows 10 yet so Microsoft is giving us a kick in ass. We have had an influx of clients calling us complaining about coming into work on Monday morning to find their PC has been upgraded to Windows 10 without any warning. We have had a mixed out come of scenarios for reverting their PCs back to Win7. Sometimes it rolls back without any problems, other times we see the message “An Error Has Occurred” leaving us to either leave Windows 10 on their PC or reinstall Windows 7. Even when the roll back is successful, Microsoft Office is corrupted and needs to be reinstalled. For those of us who are blessed with hard copies of Microsoft Office should be up and running in a few minutes. For everyone else, go find your key cards or your Microsoft store logins and figure out how to re-download it. We have also seen Quickbooks get corrupted as well, particularly versions that are not current.
How & Why Did This Happen?
Most people have Windows Updates set to automatically download and install. Microsoft used that to their advantage and sent the Windows 10 down in an update (guess they thought they were doing you a favor).
It’s Free, Right?
For whatever reason, Microsoft thinks this is necessary but it is not. Windows 7 is good to use until 2021 without any issues. If you don’t like Windows 10 you do not have to upgrade. The only reason to upgrade is if you like the word FREE. But be mindful of what free will get you. There are plenty of “Phone home to big brother services” in the new Operating system and MS says you can turn them off if you don’t like it. What they don’t tell you is there are more services that you are not privy to turn off. Depending on which version of Windows 10 you upgraded to Automatic Updates are no longer an option to turn off.
I Got Windows 7 Restored, Now What?
First thing, DO NOT TURN OFF WINDOWS UPDATES! “It sounds logical, turn them off and Windows 10 can’t come down.” However, it also prevents windows from getting any security updates which are strongly advised. There are a few ways to remedy the problem. First, change Windows update settings to “Notify me but do not download or install updates”. This works but you will need to manually review, download and install every update. The second way is to check for updates, review them and look for the “Windows 10 Upgrade”. Right click it and select hide. This will prevent it from installing and allow automatic updates to continue to work properly.
If you still need help, give us a call and schedule a repair.