'Never10' Tool Stops Accidental Windows 10 Upgrades

Now if I could just find a way to figure out why a friend is unable to upgrade to Windows 10, no matter what she or I tries! Computer meets and exceeds requirements; she reserves and gets an acknowledgment; downloaded the forced upgrade through the "create bootable media" website; it won't launch with no error codes. We have tried everything we can think of with no joy. Even Leo Notenboom of Ask Leo gave up!

What won't launch?
The bootable media won't boot?
Or do you boot from the media and then Win10 won't install?
Or do you install Win10 and then Win10 won't boot?

Is she able to go back to the version of Windows she was using before?

She is running Windows 8.1 and wants to upgrade. At the "create bootable media" site, there is also an option to simply "upgrade now." This is the option that I used for my upgrade. It downloads a small file which you double click which launches the Windows 10 upgrade. I've done it on a couple of other computers too. Her downloaded file will not launch or do anything. Using Team Viewer I've deleted, redownloaded, run CCleaner on the registry, stopped the GWX process (the Windows 10 upgrade icon on the lower right) and tried to run as administrator. Nothing happens - no error, nothing. Her main drive is a 250 GB SSD with 180 GB free.

Suggestions from the Ask Leo forums included making sure IE was not disabled and making sure there hadn't been failed attempts to do the upgrade in the Update History. No joy with either possibility. The computer is clean of any hint of malware.

My friend is 91 years old and lives in California. Although amazingly computer savvy, creating bootable media, changing the boot order in the BIOS etc. would be beyond her capabilities. I was just trying to help her avoid having someone come in to her home to do this upgrade. Honestly, I told her she should just forget it, but she successfully upgraded her laptop and really likes Windows 10 and would like it on her desktop too.

I have waved the white flag of surrender on this one!

I guess she could try Steve Gibson's Never10 tool, to check if the problem is due to one of the two registry entries that allow Windows 10 to install somehow being flipped.

Despite the name, Never10 allows you to either set the registry entries to either block or allow a Windows 10 install.

I didn't even think to check out the tool since what she wants is to install. If it also does the opposite, it might be worth a try.

If she tries it, let me know how it works out.

I have sent her the link along with everything I've done and the point I'm at and she is going to call her computer guy to come to her home. If he decides to try it, I'll let you know. I hesitate to do it and screw up her computer when I'm 2,000 miles away! Her computers are sort of her main contact with the world and I don't want to jeopardize that.

Hi Draclvr. When you are helping these people who live so far from you, are you connecting direct to their computer and taking it over? Just curious.

Yes, I am! I use software called Team Viewer. My son used it all the time when he worked in a computer repair and sales business. If you are using it for private use, it's free. They had a Pro account at the business. It allows me to connect to a computer remotely after the person on the other end provides me with an ID and a password. The password is only good for a few minutes, so we both have to be sitting in front of our computers at the same time. Once we are connected, I open up a chat window so we can communicate.

I will not use this unless the individual trusts me completely as normally it is FORBIDDEN to allow someone else to have access to your computer remotely. I discuss with them exactly what I am doing each step of the way. The person on the other end could disconnect instantly any time they wanted.

Thanks. That's what I thought. I know I've see it discussed here before and of course I've had to have Microsoft do it a couple of times which made me nervous when I was put on hold for about a 1/2 hour. Also have had to do that at work on occasion. Pretty cool for you to be able to help them that way!

It is great... my mother lives 600 miles away and when she still had a computer, I was able to help her with a lot of things without being there. It was a lifesaver for me as no one up there could help her and it was impossible to get any kind of computer assistance in the home.

If you go to
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3080351
you can read what Never10 is doing to change the registry to allow or disallow installation of Windows 10.
Only instead of having to read through all that, and differentiate what settings allow vs disallow Windows 10 install, Never10 offers an easy interface.

You can read more about Never10 and see screenshots at
https://www.grc.com/never10.htm

You can see from the screenshots that it's very clear what Never10 is doing. You can run it to check whether Windows 10 install is enabled or disabled on the computer. There is also a clearly labeled button on the interface to change whether Windows 10 install is enabled or not.

The only trick is that you have to run it as an administrator if you want to make changes in the registry.

This little tool looks really easy to use. I sent the information on it to her computer guy. I'd rather he be there in front of her computer instead of 2,000 miles away like me!

There was someone in the grc newsgroup who reported that he'd been using the GWX Control Panel to prevent the Windows 10 install, and when he tried Never10, Never10 said "Windows 10 upgrade is ENABLED for this system!" The reason given for this was that the GWX Control Panel only turns off one one of the two registry keys that affect Windows 10 installation, while Never10 checks that both keys are set to disable the Windows 10 install.

So in your friend's case, where she wants to install Windows 10, Never10 might display that "Windows 10 upgrade is ENABLED" even if one of the keys is set to disable the installation. So she may want to toggle the button to disable the upgrade and then re-enable it.

Never10 also checks that the latest Windows Update is installed, and will offer to download the update to Windows Update if an old version of Windows Update is installed.

It seems like the folks at Gibson have covered all the bases and possibilities!

Thank you for all this info!

You can use the media you created to do a clean windows 10 install instead of an upgrade. The windows 10 media will work with a valid windows 7 and windows 8 key. If you dont know the key you can use Belarc Advisor to get the key and write it down. You can even include the windows key in the media if you are using a usb key. See website link below. Note this is for windows 8 media but also works for windows 10 media. I have used it many times.

Solve Windows 8 Clean Installation Product Key Do Not Match Problem