My main computer, an HP Spectre x360, is less than a year old and came with Windows 10.

When I tried updating it a few weeks ago, I received an error message that the Windows 10 1903 update could not be completed due to the BIOS being incompatible with Windows 10.

Fortunately, it was easy to update the BIOS through the HP Customer Support - Software and Driver Downloads portal and the update was successfully installed after the BIOS update.

And if you weren't at your running computer, it would have restarted by itself. You can manage when that happens, sure .. if you are there.

People are arguing you should be able to manage when updates are applied *and* when a restart happens, even if you aren't physically present at the computer. (data loss, server, etc .. there's lots of valid reasons why people might want to disable automatic updates and restarts.) Nobody is really saying don't apply the updates. At least I'm not saying that. Although, if an update breaks some existing third party software, and that software is actively being used to run a business ... you can see why people may want to be able to manage when and which updates are applied.

Anyway, you didn't really address the question. Supposedly there's a group policy for disabling automatic updates. Upthread some people complained that they were unable to stop the updates even though they were using some settings that was supposed to delay them. I was just wondering if the method in the article (group policy) worked or not.

-David

Thank you. Very well-said.

And to answer your question, no the group policy method has not worked for me. I was still getting uncommanded updates. So I now have the clunky setup where after 20 minutes of inactivity the computer goes into sleep mode.

But I sure wish that Windows would treat us like grownups and let us decide updates when and how we want them.

Because W7 support is being discontinued tomorrow & I'm on a W7 laptop (bought in fall '15) I was going to upgrade to W10 (although I hate W10 with a passion; have to use it at work & hate it). But I am worried reading this thread that there are going to be problems/crashes similar to what's described above. Another FTer installed W10 a few months ago & it was a major mess. I don't want to lose everything. Other than security patches I probably wouldn't be worrying about W7 - after all I went from Vista to W7 :p (did not install W10) & would just keep using W7. I've had no problems w/ W7 since I bought my laptop.

I primarily use my laptop for basic stuff: word, excel, email, solitaire, checking FT. I've got ESET & Malaware for anti-virus/malware. Can't afford a new laptop. Thoughts?

PS - a FTer said there's an add-on for W10 to make it more like W7. Where would I find that?

PSS - When I had Office I didn't install Outlook but now need it for one company. Is there a way to get it back/find it/activate it?

Edited to add: For my use (email, word, excel, games) & with ESET/Malaware, I've decided to wait until I get a new laptop rather than doing the upgrade now.

SkiAdcock I wouldn't be rushing to install Win10 on a perfectly-working Win7 laptop. If it works, and you don't have some regulatory compliance issues to deal with, let it ride. As long as you're not connecting to raw internet and aren't doing stupid things (visiting the seedy side of the internet), and have a decent anti-virus program, you're fine. Windows 10 still has only a 50% share of the Windows desktop market, so there's plenty of Windows users clinging to older versions.

Save the money you would have put towards Win10 away for a future new laptop. You might want to consider used enterprise-grade laptops in the future. Huge discounts and quality enterprise laptops still have lots of life left in them.

There shouldn't be any money involved in upgrading to Win10. Windows 7 seems to upgrade and remain activated. I've done it on multiple VMs.

I assume it's a 'bug' that MS aren't to bothered about fixing.... they'd prefer as many people as possible to get onto Win10.

I'd be wary of Classic Shell, as it's no longer in development (as of December 2017). An update to Win10 could completely break it.

Start10 is a paid for version (very cheap) that does the same thing, and is still updated.

https://www.stardock.com/products/start10/

Thanks all. I'm going to stick w/ my current W7 laptop. It's still running well.

The Lenovo laptop does a self-check weekly & everything shows up green/good to go wrt hardware. I've got ESET, Malaware, Carbonite on it. As mentioned above, I primarily use the laptop for word, excel, email, & websites. Nothing fancy. No dark side of the internet for me, unless you count FT, CNN, TMZ, eBay, Marriott, United, Weather Channel, etc, to be the dark side of the internet :D

If by some chance Chrome, ESET, etc, stop supporting W7, I'll get W10 then & do the Start10 thing to make it look like W7.

Otherwise I'll wait until I get a new laptop & save the $$ for now; probably won't be doing the new laptop until 2021 or so, as I am stuck w/ $9K of medical bills (when I discovered that what I thought was a decent insurance package turned out to be crap, so am trying to save $$ where I can until that's paid off - said insurance package has now been updated to a better one, but still stuck w/ the $9K, so any technology or other big outlays are on hold for a while).

Thanks for the input!

Cheers.

I can confirm that, as of tonight (14 Jan 2020), it still works!

I'll try it tomorrow on another one of my Win 7 machines and see if they stop it, now that Win 7 is no longer supported. If there's a problem, I'll report back.

Get a SSD (really cheap these days - decent 1 TB goes for <USD 100, I wager) and just install Win 10 on it (can either do a clean install or clone your existing drive then install it) . I have a whole bunch of old creaky computers (e.g., Core 2 Duos, Phenom 3-core) running quite nicely on Win 10.

These days ads are more of a threat than anything but the seediest parts of the internet.

That's what I'm about to do with this box--clone the drive then try the upgrade.

By God, it ought to, as much time as we put in finding the right specs for you. :D :D :D

Edited to add: Sharon, if you do want to simply upgrade your laptop to Windows 10, this PC World article is pretty straightforward. I personally think you should. Windows 7 will no longer get patches or updates for security holes that hackers are bound determined to find, and if you do online shopping on your laptop, you will be vulnerable.

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3513...-for-free.html

Out of curiosity - what are you using to clone your drive(s)?

I used to use Xxclone, which worked very well, but the owner/developer died, and suddenly all my copies of the program don't work any more.