Tired of the Windows 10 advertisements popping up on your Windows 7 or 8.1 PCs? Don't want Windows Update to download GBs of data on your network to prepare your PCs for an upgrade you don't even want? Don't want your PC to spontaneously reboot into Windows 10 all on its own without your consent? Don't want to have a 3rd-party hack running in the background all the time just to make sure that your PC doesn't suddenly decide to install Windows 10? Then you have come to the right place! As a computer technician, I wrote OptOut10 after much research and annoyance at Microsoft's very aggressive marketing tactics. It meets all these expectations, and I have made it available for free to anyone who wishes to use it.
OptOut10 will disable the Windows 10 upgrade advertisements, disable the automatic upgrade to Windows 10, and remove the Windows 10 installer from your computer if it has already been downloaded. If you change your mind and wish to install Windows 10 at a later time, you can manually do so anytime by visiting the Microsoft Windows 10 download page, downloading the Media Creation Tool, and following the prompts to upgrade your computer. This can be done for free until the end of July 29.
OptOut10 can even "bring your computer back from the brink" if the upgrade was already scheduled or reserved. This program's main two competitors, Never10 and GWX Control Panel cannot do this. Both of those products fail to actually opt your computer out of the upgrade, which leaves it vulnerable to a spontaneous upgrade. They successfully hide the icon but are incapable of stopping the upgrade if it was already set in motion, either by user intervention or automatically by Microsoft. Which is why I ended up writing my own.
OptOut10 is standalone freeware—no installation required, and guaranteed free of adware or malware. Click to run and you're done! As of January 2016, Microsoft added block-out style ads for Windows 10 to their MSN website that many people use as a homepage. OptOut10 automatically removes these from Internet Explorer, but other browsers must be opted out manually. To do that, follow the instructions for your browser: Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome.
License agreement:
You can make as many personal copies as you wish and use it on any computer you own or service.
You will not redistribute or modify this software in any way. Making it available for download, selling copies or rebranding are strictly forbidden. To share this software with others, please use the URL of this page.
You use this software at your own risk. While it has not been designed to cause any harm to your computer and is malware free, you are agreeing not to hold the author responsible if something bad happens.
System requirements:
Windows 7, 8, or 8.1, up to date with all GWX related updates already installed. If you uninstalled/hid any them because of prior misadvice, please unhide them, reinstall them, and reboot your computer before using this tool.
A computer not running GWX Control Panel's monitor mode or any other bad hacks that attemt to actively remove or cripple GWX.
Administrative privileges to change several system settings. However, you can use it to view your system's current status without elevation.
