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Microsoft Removes the 'X' From Windows 10 Update Leaving No Way Out (theregister.co.uk)
simpz writes: The Register reports that Microsoft has changed the Windows 10 update dialog and no longer shows the "X" close button. They say once agreed to there is no obvious back-out method and it is now out of step with Microsoft's own documentation on this. They have a screenshot of this. As noted above, the latest move is out of step with Microsoft's Knowledge Base documentation, which says you can re-schedule your upgrade.
Alllllll these workarounds. Man, wouldn't it be great if your OS wasn't overtly hostile?
Just reject the license upon reboot. Previous version restored!
The issue here is that MS is acting like they are confused over what the user wants.
They want to assert that the user has given permission, and that this is the end of the story. Users assert that they have said NO to the installer many times, and have even turned on the friendly registry flags to tell MS that they dont want the upgrade.
MS has ignored these, and done upgrades anyway, getting more and more forceful and obstinate.
So, force them to do something clearly malwarelike:
When you first set up your new Win7 deployment, proactively create a folder named GWX under %systemroot%.
Good. Now, set an ACL on it. (you can do this from the command line on versions of windows that neuter the GUI, "because end users dont need that.") Put an express DENY (no, not just uncheck allow, like you were trained to. no, outright deny. we really mean it.) on write, read, and execute, with propogation to child objects enabled, and do this for TrustedInstaller and System users, as well as the administrators group, and the builtin admin user. Only allow redaction of the change from your own, personal administration account that needs your password to be used.
Turn on automatic updates.
Watch as the GWX "update" fails to install, each and every time microsoft tries to install it.
Give MS the finger, and laugh.
Parallels is a pain in the ass. Every time Mac OS updates you have to update to a new version of Parallels. And those updates cost (typically). I believe they have sorted out most of their driver problems now, but it used to be that installing Parallels would cause nothing but problems for me.
Bring in VirtualBox. I also do embedded development (Linux host) and VirtualBox saves me when I need a Windows app. The GPU drivers suck but this is typically not a big deal when doing embedded development. Overall, I actually prefer it. If it cost the same as Parallels I would still use VirtualBox.