How to disable Windows 11 upgrade nagware...?
Discussion
I've been round the houses Googling for a solution but drawn a blank. Hoping the PH hive mind can help.
I have a Win10 Pro laptop which has ESU enabled meaning I don't have to go to Win11 for at least another year(ish). However the laptop is Win11 capable and MS have decided that I need a persistent ad in the Windows Update section:
As you can see it's up to date for Windows 10, however this upgrade banner also puts this icon in the systray which won't stay hidden:
And every time I open 'Settings' it also says 'Attention needed' under the Windows update icon at the top. Attention ISN'T needed, it's just trying to irritate me into upgrading to Win11 rather than letting me know there are updates for Win10.
Obviously I don't want to disable updates/notifications for Win10 stuff but I can't find a way to tell the Win11 notification to f
k off permanently without disabling ALL update notifications. Is there anyone who's found a solution to this?
My old Win10 Pro PC that isn't Win11 capable doesn't have this notification so there must be a setting somewhere that can disable it...
I have a Win10 Pro laptop which has ESU enabled meaning I don't have to go to Win11 for at least another year(ish). However the laptop is Win11 capable and MS have decided that I need a persistent ad in the Windows Update section:
As you can see it's up to date for Windows 10, however this upgrade banner also puts this icon in the systray which won't stay hidden:
And every time I open 'Settings' it also says 'Attention needed' under the Windows update icon at the top. Attention ISN'T needed, it's just trying to irritate me into upgrading to Win11 rather than letting me know there are updates for Win10.
Obviously I don't want to disable updates/notifications for Win10 stuff but I can't find a way to tell the Win11 notification to f
k off permanently without disabling ALL update notifications. Is there anyone who's found a solution to this?My old Win10 Pro PC that isn't Win11 capable doesn't have this notification so there must be a setting somewhere that can disable it...
Try this :-
1. Open the Registry Editor by pressing Win + R, typing regedit, and pressing Enter.
2. Navigate to :-
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Notifications\Settings\Windows.ActionCenter.SmartOptOut.
3. Double-click Enabled on the right pane and set its value data to 0.
4. Restart your computer
p.s. Loads more info here if above does not resolve :-
https://www.n-able.com/blog/how-to-stop-windows-11...
1. Open the Registry Editor by pressing Win + R, typing regedit, and pressing Enter.
2. Navigate to :-
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Notifications\Settings\Windows.ActionCenter.SmartOptOut.
3. Double-click Enabled on the right pane and set its value data to 0.
4. Restart your computer
p.s. Loads more info here if above does not resolve :-
https://www.n-able.com/blog/how-to-stop-windows-11...
Edited by driver67 on Tuesday 2nd December 22:51
Unfortunately none of those worked. Thanks though.
Edit; I wonder if disabling the TPM in the BIOS would solve it as that would cause MS to see the laptop as non-compatible with Win11... The only problem is it would, in all probability, screw the BitLocker encryption at the very least.
Edit; I wonder if disabling the TPM in the BIOS would solve it as that would cause MS to see the laptop as non-compatible with Win11... The only problem is it would, in all probability, screw the BitLocker encryption at the very least.
Edited by Funk on Tuesday 2nd December 23:40
Funk said:
Unfortunately none of those worked. Thanks though.
Edit; I wonder if disabling the TPM in the BIOS would solve it as that would cause MS to see the laptop as non-compatible with Win11... The only problem is it would, in all probability, screw the BitLocker encryption at the very least.
Don't mess with the TPM, absolutely not worth the mess if you have Bitlocker.Edit; I wonder if disabling the TPM in the BIOS would solve it as that would cause MS to see the laptop as non-compatible with Win11... The only problem is it would, in all probability, screw the BitLocker encryption at the very least.
Wonder if chucking something like an Enterprise key on would ditch the nag? Though you'd have to redo the ESU via other means, but you can get 3 years out of it that way.
It should be possible to turn the nag off as it always used to be, but who knows if they changed it.
ARH said:
Just upgrade to win 11 surely. Or if you don't like the fact that windows will make you have an account, which will in reality be no different to running windows for the last 20 years, if data collection is your issue, then just run Linux.
Why does everyone have a fear of windows 11?
Doesn't help that you have to fiddle to restore some basic functions like context menus, also doesn't help that it's constantly being broken in basic ways & being needlessly fiddled with. Why does everyone have a fear of windows 11?
As a product it's turned into junk.
Don't do anything with the TPM, especially disable it - if you have encryption, you may no longer get into Windows.
https://www.grc.com/incontrol.htm
This will let you control your experience.
https://www.grc.com/incontrol.htm
This will let you control your experience.
JoshSm said:
ARH said:
Just upgrade to win 11 surely. Or if you don't like the fact that windows will make you have an account, which will in reality be no different to running windows for the last 20 years, if data collection is your issue, then just run Linux.
Why does everyone have a fear of windows 11?
Doesn't help that you have to fiddle to restore some basic functions like context menus, also doesn't help that it's constantly being broken in basic ways & being needlessly fiddled with. Why does everyone have a fear of windows 11?
As a product it's turned into junk.
eeLee said:
Don't do anything with the TPM, especially disable it - if you have encryption, you may no longer get into Windows.
https://www.grc.com/incontrol.htm
This will let you control your experience.
Cheers, I've used GRC tools in the past, didn't realise they had this. I'll stick it on the laptop tonight and see what I can tweak.https://www.grc.com/incontrol.htm
This will let you control your experience.
Re. TPM I figured as much.
Funk said:
I had a play with Linux Mint - in fairness many years ago - and didn't like it.
To be fair to Linux, especially mint it has come on a very long way in the last few years. If choosing Linux you can even get distros that look just like windows 10. https://winuxos.org/Its not far all though as chances are if you want to do anything a bit deeper than most would you will need some knowledge or expect to read some guides.
This method to stay on Win10 is very good, and avoids any TPM shenanigans, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH3ktrhDEJs
As for cleaning out nagware and such, try https://github.com/Raphire/Win11Debloat
As for cleaning out nagware and such, try https://github.com/Raphire/Win11Debloat
JoshSm said:
ARH said:
Just upgrade to win 11 surely. Or if you don't like the fact that windows will make you have an account, which will in reality be no different to running windows for the last 20 years, if data collection is your issue, then just run Linux.
Why does everyone have a fear of windows 11?
Doesn't help that you have to fiddle to restore some basic functions like context menus, also doesn't help that it's constantly being broken in basic ways & being needlessly fiddled with. Why does everyone have a fear of windows 11?
As a product it's turned into junk.
ARH said:
Just upgrade to win 11 surely. Or if you don't like the fact that windows will make you have an account, which will in reality be no different to running windows for the last 20 years, if data collection is your issue, then just run Linux.
Why does everyone have a fear of windows 11?
Aside from the AI features being forced/baked into Windows, it's fine. It's just a reskin of Windows 10, afterall. Why does everyone have a fear of windows 11?
Context menu change is easy. I wrote this little script for auto deployment at work. Need to paste it into PowerShell. It restarts explorer.exe for the change to take effect.
$RegPath = "HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{86ca1aa0-34aa-4e8b-a509-50c905bae2a2}"
$RegKey = "InProcServer32"
$FullKey = $RegPath+"\"+$RegKey
$TestPath = Test-Path $RegPath
if (!($TestPath -eq $True)) {
New-Item -Path $FullKey -Name $RegKey -Force
New-ItemProperty -Path $FullKey -Name "(Default)" -Value "" -PropertyType String -Force
Write-Host "Registry Key Added. Restarting Explorer.exe (file explorer)..."
Stop-Process -ProcessName Explorer
Start-sleep -Seconds 5
Exit 0
} else {
Write-Host "Registry key exists"
Start-sleep -Seconds 5
Exit 0
}
Edited by Xenoous on Wednesday 3rd December 14:21
Xenoous said:
Aside from the AI features being forced/baked into Windows, it's fine. It's just a reskin of Windows 10, afterall.
Context menu change is easy. I wrote this little script for auto deployment at work. Need to paste it into PowerShell. It restarts explorer.exe for the change to take effect.
$RegPath = "HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{86ca1aa0-34aa-4e8b-a509-50c905bae2a2}"
$RegKey = "InProcServer32"
$FullKey = $RegPath+"\"+$RegKey
$TestPath = Test-Path $RegPath
if (!($TestPath -eq $True)) {
New-Item -Path $FullKey -Name $RegKey -Force
New-ItemProperty -Path $FullKey -Name "(Default)" -Value "" -PropertyType String -Force
Write-Host "Registry Key Added. Restarting Explorer.exe (file explorer)..."
Stop-Process -ProcessName Explorer
Start-sleep -Seconds 5
Exit 0
} else {
Write-Host "Registry key exists"
Start-sleep -Seconds 5
Exit 0
}
Does that alter the Win11 context menu to look the same as Win10 and restore the functionality?Context menu change is easy. I wrote this little script for auto deployment at work. Need to paste it into PowerShell. It restarts explorer.exe for the change to take effect.
$RegPath = "HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{86ca1aa0-34aa-4e8b-a509-50c905bae2a2}"
$RegKey = "InProcServer32"
$FullKey = $RegPath+"\"+$RegKey
$TestPath = Test-Path $RegPath
if (!($TestPath -eq $True)) {
New-Item -Path $FullKey -Name $RegKey -Force
New-ItemProperty -Path $FullKey -Name "(Default)" -Value "" -PropertyType String -Force
Write-Host "Registry Key Added. Restarting Explorer.exe (file explorer)..."
Stop-Process -ProcessName Explorer
Start-sleep -Seconds 5
Exit 0
} else {
Write-Host "Registry key exists"
Start-sleep -Seconds 5
Exit 0
}
Other irks with Win11 are the requirement to have to click 'All Apps' to see all your apps (previously they were just 'there' in the Start Menu in Win10) and I've also re-added 'Control Panel' and 'Command Prompt' to the Start icon right-click context menu as an update changed them to PowerShell.
I just wish MS would let us configure things the way we would like rather than forcing someone else's (often s
t) choice/decision on us all.Funk said:
Does that alter the Win11 context menu to look the same as Win10 and restore the functionality?
Other irks with Win11 are the requirement to have to click 'All Apps' to see all your apps (previously they were just 'there' in the Start Menu in Win10) and I've also re-added 'Control Panel' and 'Command Prompt' to the Start icon right-click context menu as an update changed them to PowerShell.
I just wish MS would let us configure things the way we would like rather than forcing someone else's (often st) choice/decision on us all.
It does, yes. Only after explorer restarts. Just remove the registry key if you want to revert it back to the Win11 right click context menu. Other irks with Win11 are the requirement to have to click 'All Apps' to see all your apps (previously they were just 'there' in the Start Menu in Win10) and I've also re-added 'Control Panel' and 'Command Prompt' to the Start icon right-click context menu as an update changed them to PowerShell.
I just wish MS would let us configure things the way we would like rather than forcing someone else's (often s
t) choice/decision on us all.ARH said:
Just upgrade to win 11 surely. Or if you don't like the fact that windows will make you have an account, which will in reality be no different to running windows for the last 20 years, if data collection is your issue, then just run Linux.
Why does everyone have a fear of windows 11?
Because it's crap?Why does everyone have a fear of windows 11?
I'm tinkering with it at the moment and it's hard work. It's going to need a lot of firewalling and messing around to just make all the childish bulls
t disappear and make it an operating system rather than what it's finally become, a spyware stfest that's ramming it's AI, cloud, backup, 365 subscriptions at you, while also making you a mere user of your own computer on the Microsoft Domain.I'm sure it could have been the most excellent of OS ever had they just had a 'turn all the bulls
t off' mode.I'll get around to moving to it. But it's just the time/effort to work through all the bulls
t.The single biggest off-putting thing for me is that they want me to use their AI/services/cloud, and so the whole OS is leaky and completely inappropriate for home business users out of the box.
And no, I won't use Linux, because despite being 'good', it's terrible too because as soon as you need to do anything slightly complicated, it takes days to figure out the exact stupid CLI command to use for your specific version... if you're lucky.
Edited by Mr Whippy on Wednesday 3rd December 22:34
shtu said:
As for cleaning out nagware and such, try https://github.com/Raphire/Win11Debloat
I can highly recommend Win11Debloat, it really does make Win11 feel like Win10 and even gets rid of the persistent "Please send all your data to OneDrive!" which used to pop up on my start menu every 14 seconds as a big yellow warning. It's menu driven so you can choose what it does and does not alter. sicarumba said:
shtu said:
As for cleaning out nagware and such, try https://github.com/Raphire/Win11Debloat
I can highly recommend Win11Debloat, it really does make Win11 feel like Win10 and even gets rid of the persistent "Please send all your data to OneDrive!" which used to pop up on my start menu every 14 seconds as a big yellow warning. It's menu driven so you can choose what it does and does not alter. For some reason I had shutup10 in my head.
I’m sure there is an app by some business out there too, and they do it as a freebie, similarly with a ui that just reaches into registry etc and toggles stuff.
Another one worth looking at is WFC.
If Windows can’t see the internet it’s generally pretty quiet. A nice UI, nice logging, blocking of new rules you don’t allow.
It is ultimately just a nicer UI for the built in firewall which is very good in itself, but great with the real-time connection watcher etc.
ARH said:
Just upgrade to win 11 surely.
Why does everyone have a fear of windows 11?
I had caught that fear from the internet. Then somebody on here said they'd done loads of migrations and it was very straightforward. Eventually I just thought "sod it" and did the migration myself. It was extremely straightforward and I've yet to find any issues with Windows 11.Why does everyone have a fear of windows 11?
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