My laptop hardware is suitable for running Win 11 (unfortunately). I've
just got a Windows Update message offering to upgrade my Win 10 laptop
to Win 11. I really don't want this: I don't want the uncertainty of
whether all existing applications and utilities will still work with Win
11, nor the changes to the user interface that I have to try and work
around (eg using Classic Shell or similar) to maintain the Win 7 Start
Menu and the Quick Launch toolbar that I have configured.

For the moment I have selected the option "Don't upgrade for now" for
Win 11, but that "for now" is worrying because it implies that at some
point I will lose the ability to refuse the upgrade. It also seems to
have paused *all* updates (including service packs and routine updates).

I want all Win 10 updates, but I want to be able to refuse *permanently*
to be forcibly upgraded to Win 11.

How should I do this?

The laptop is an HP Omen, possibly model L94583 15-ek0xxx, which is
about 2 years old. I've no idea how I would go into the BIOS/UEFI if I
needed to change anything at that level.

On 9/19/2023 9:12 AM, NY wrote:
> My laptop hardware is suitable for running Win 11 (unfortunately). I've just got a Windows Update message offering to upgrade my Win 10 laptop to Win 11. I really don't want this: I don't want the uncertainty of whether all existing applications and utilities will still work with Win 11, nor the changes to the user interface that I have to try and work around (eg using Classic Shell or similar) to maintain the Win 7 Start Menu and the Quick Launch toolbar that I have configured.
>
> For the moment I have selected the option "Don't upgrade for now" for Win 11, but that "for now" is worrying because it implies that at some point I will lose the ability to refuse the upgrade. It also seems to have paused *all* updates (including service packs and routine updates).
>
> I want all Win 10 updates, but I want to be able to refuse *permanently* to be forcibly upgraded to Win 11.
>
> How should I do this?
>
> The laptop is an HP Omen, possibly model L94583 15-ek0xxx, which is about 2 years old. I've no idea how I would go into the BIOS/UEFI if I needed to change anything at that level.

https://www.grc.com/incontrol.htm

10 21H2 # If you have really old Intel graphics (GMA X4500) you might stop here (19044.xxx)
# The thing is too stupid to tell you "Hey! Your graphics are now too old!"

10 22H2 # Prevent Windows from going past the last version. This is 19045.xxx
# if you look it up on Wikipedia. The "winver.exe" application tells you
# where you are currently. Windows 10 was "aggressively" headed for this version.

11 22H2 # For a Windows 11 user, this prevents the "Fall Update" 23H2 from coming in
# 23H2 is not on offer yet.

There are some boxes in the InControl application, for entering
where you want the thing to stop. if you load the "current version"
you are using, whatever it is, then that stops Upgrades where they are.
You can convert from "19045.xxx" to "22H2", using tables like this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_10_version_history

These things involve about three registry edits, so you will find
reference to the Registry Edits on the web too. The first time I used
InControl, I'd already done the edits. InControl apparently has one extra
registry location it edits (I didn't care to hunt it down).

If you have a GMA x4500 (Optiplex 780 Core2), then the OS will try to go from
Win10 21H2 to 22H2. The attempt to Upgrade will roll back, without explaining
what is going on. The "SetupDiag" utility is clueless. I inserted an HD6450 ATI
video card (13 watt card), and the upgrade to 22H2 then completed. As an example
of WDDM (graphics driver type and version) shenanigans. The graphics driver
types are XDDM for WinXP era (which Win10 would agree to use), and WDDM up to
about WDDM 3.1 or so. The HD6450 might be WDDM 1.3 or so (pretty crusty, but
apparently good enough). That's one of the lower power graphics cards you
will ever find :-) Like a lot of cards, it idles at maybe 3W, and when drawing
13W it is "flat out" as it were. I thought it was too old and had retired it,
but it was perfect for this job. And you can "feel the difference" in the
graphics too -- the X4500 was obviously not accelerated. At least the 13 watt
card is trying...

Paul

NY wrote:
> My laptop hardware is suitable for running Win 11 (unfortunately). I've
> just got a Windows Update message offering to upgrade my Win 10 laptop
> to Win 11. I really don't want this: I don't want the uncertainty of
> whether all existing applications and utilities will still work with Win
> 11, nor the changes to the user interface that I have to try and work
> around (eg using Classic Shell or similar) to maintain the Win 7 Start
> Menu and the Quick Launch toolbar that I have configured.
>
> For the moment I have selected the option "Don't upgrade for now" for
> Win 11, but that "for now" is worrying because it implies that at some
> point I will lose the ability to refuse the upgrade. It also seems to
> have paused *all* updates (including service packs and routine updates).

Toggling the Win11 option to stay on Windows 10 doesn't enable the
option to Pause Windows 10 Updates.
Fyi.
Directly below that Win11 offer is/was the Pause Update button. If
actually enabled on Win10 that option will also have a 'Resume Updates'
button.
..but the only route that 'Pause' was enabled was user selection of
the Pause option, not user selection of Win11 option to stay on Win10.

Also, semantics related
- Win10/11 do not have Service Packs(it has cumulative[monthly],
feature[annually], .NET[when released, sometimes monthly], out of
band[special updates in the 3 or 4th week of month]}.
>
> I want all Win 10 updates, but I want to be able to refuse *permanently*
> to be forcibly upgraded to Win 11.
>
> How should I do this?
>

--
....w¡ñ§±¤ñ

On Tue, 19 Sep 2023 14:12:18 +0100, NY wrote:
> My laptop hardware is suitable for running Win 11 (unfortunately). I've
> just got a Windows Update message offering to upgrade my Win 10 laptop
> to Win 11. I really don't want this:
>

Get the free InControl at
<https://www.grc.com/incontrol.htm>

Steve Gibson at GRC is one of the "white hats" in my
book. He released a series of programs that prevented
the forced upgrade to Windows 10 (remember that?), and
InControl is the current upgrade preventer.

It's worth looking at his other offerings, particularly
Shields Up on the site's homepage.

--
Stan Brown, Tehachapi, California, USA
https://BrownMath.com/
Shikata ga nai...