People with PCs that are running either Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 have probably dealt with the seemingly endless prompts to upgrade to Windows 10.

Those wanting to opt-out of the upgrade were once given the option to do so, but in the six months since the operating system's release, we've learned that its installation files have been forced onto some people, and others are simply unable to ignore the upgrade any longer.

If you don't fall into either of these groups, however, and you've managed to continue working with Win 7 and Win 8.1 without issue, Microsoft has finally published an official way to permanently disable those pesky prompts.


Setting a Group Policy Object (GPO) is probably the fastest way, but the setting is only available on PCs that have installed the proper updates from July 2015: 3065987 (Windows 7) and 3068988 (Windows 8.1). These updates install a new GPO, and enabling it will make sure your computer never detects, downloads, or installs an upgrade for Windows 10. According to ZDNet, the GPO can also be found on Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate and Windows 8.1 Pro machines using the Local Group Policy Editor.

Simply navigate to Computer Configuration/Policies/Administrative Templates/Windows Components/Windows Update. Then double-click "Turn off the upgrade to the latest version of Windows through Windows Update" and enable it.


Another, slightly longer method is to head into the registry and add/edit a few things. Before diving into it, check to see if your PC is up to date. You'll need to have already installed the aforementioned updates.

Next, consider backing up your PC's registry by clicking "File" then "Export," just in case something goes wrong while you're messing around in there.

In order to get to the registry, if you're on Windows 7, click the Start button, then type "run" into the search bar and open the Run program when it appears. Type "regedit" into that, hit Enter, and it'll open up the Registry Editor. For Windows 8.1 users: Windows key + R to open the Run program, then enter "regedit", Enter, and same end result as on Windows 7.



Now that you're in the registry, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Win dows\WindowsUpdate. Once there, select Edit in the menu > New > DWORD (32-bit Value). Name it "DisableOSUpgrade" and hit Enter to finish creating it. Lastly, double-click the newly created DisableOSUpgrade entry and change its value date to 1.

The next step is to hide the "Get Windows 10 app" notification icon that occasionally shows up. Simply head back into the Registry Editor, navigate to HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Gwx, create a new DWORD (32-bit Value) and name it "DisableGwx." Then edit that entry and change its value data to 1.

Restart your machine. Provided everything went as planned, you should've just successfully disabled any and all Windows 10 upgrades/updates and pop-ups. Congrats.