Today, Inquirer posted a story about IT Guys reporting that Windows 10 Upgrade files are getting downloaded even though they it wasn’t opted by anybody. This is that kind of situation where even though it was a Job of IT guys to make sure to block all automatic update, and only roll out updates that was approved, things have gone the other way.
Keeping the blame game aside, it’s actually very easy on how this automatic downloads can be prevented. It is in fact the exact opposite of how we manually triggered the update. If you read that carefully, we mentioned about two updates:
- For Windows 7 SP1 : KB3035583 and KB2952664
- For Windows 8.1 : KB3035583 and KB2976978
To see if these updates are installed. Go to Program and Features > Installed Updates and look for those specific updates. When you find them, right-click and uninstall. You may need to restart. Next you will have to hide these updates so Windows skips installing them. Go to Program and Features > Select Updates to Install > Choose those updates and hide.
This makes sure, that the Windows Upgrade files are not downloaded. The next obvious step is to remove the downloaded files if there is any. The best way to get that done is using the Clean Up tool see get rid of the temporary system files.
- Open File Explorer from Task Bar, and select This PC. This will list all your drives.
- Now right click on the drive you have the backup stored. If you were never asked to select a different drive, then you need to select C drive else choose the drive you had used to save the backup.
- Now right click on the drive > Properties > Disk Cleanup. You should see the wizard looking for files thats taking up space.
- Once you get the Disk clean up wizard back, with list of files that can be cleaned. Look for a button which says “Clean Up System Files”. Click on it.
Lastly, check for Windows ~BT Folder in your C drive. Make sure to enable show hidden folder. If you see it, make sure to delete it.
So that was easy! If you are on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 and do not want Windows 10 files to be downloaded on your machine unless you ae ready, get this done.
