Starting last week, Microsoft is displaying Windows 10 upgrade notifications on Windows 7 and 8.1 computers, trying to convince users to reserve their free copy of the new operating system and install it once it becomes available on July 29.

This little tool was deployed on everyone’s computers via Windows Update and is running with a process called GWX.exe, which appears to be standing for “Get Windows X.”

Although it was supposed to help users benefit from a great Windows 10 offer, it was only a matter of time until people started complaining of the fact that Microsoft installed this tool on absolutely all computers without asking first, thus creating additional trouble on some PCs.

Once you reserve a free upgrade to Windows 10, Microsoft will automatically download the necessary installation files in the background and launch the setup on July 29, thus making sure that everyone gets the new OS during the same day.

Installed without automatic updates enabled

This is quite a problem, some users say, because shared computers might be upgraded to Windows 10 without the administrator’s consent and without others knowing it.

What’s more, some are complaining that Microsoft installed this tool on their PCs even though automatic Windows updates were disabled.

“This is ridiculous, again! Yet another mass attack from Microsoft. I do NOT have automatic update in any PC, but again some MS update changed option to automatic, without asking me anything! First thing from where I can notice this is settings on Task Manager (update speed changed, always on top, etc.). After latest MS updates I have serious performance problems with our company’s older PCs running Win7,” one user posted.

At the same time, others claim that computers could get locked because the GWX.exe process is trying to connect to the Internet and firewalls are blocking it because of suspicious activity, so new rules and filters must be configured just for this process.

If you want to remove the Windows 10 upgrade notification from Windows 7, here’s a very small trick to do it with just a few clicks.