Some how I escaped the forced upgrade, even though just not excepting windows upgrades was not a sure way of avoiding it.
I thank my lucky stars...but truth be told, I get way too many unsolicited advertisements, enticements and bull crap already with windows 8.

You can disable specific updates - you just have to know which one.

One other technical point I should make, it is a pseudo random shift. Otherwise it would be impossible to decode.

I don't remember, but I'm sure that can be found by an internet search. I just turned updates off to avoid it.

The major problem with Vista is that Microsoft changed the entire driver model only six months before they released to the public but after they had already released a driver model to developers. It was the reason why the first year there was no antivirus and many devices (printers, etc.) didn't work either. It was an absolute debacle. The company I was working for at the time was developing driver software for testing new printers and we plainly advised HP not to upgrade any of the testing infrastructure PC's to Windows Vista and their own engineers agreed.

Which update is it?

I dread ever having to upgrade to 10! I bought a new PC, just before the forced 10 upgrades, so I could keep 7 running. As a stockholder in Microsoft, I wrote and told them the loss of Media Player was a deal breakers, and no way I would update. They tried 47 times to force a download of 10, which I blocked, until I found the update, (mislabeled) which was the gateway for the update, and I uninstalled it. I live happily with my Win. 7, and even have a Vista in perfect working order which together allow me to do pretty much whatever 10 won't let me do. I think the whole 10 experience has been a case of poor deisgn, not listening to real users, and bad marketing ploys. I have had people who either fell for it or were victim to the upgrades who have called and asked why they can't access photo or music libraries, why they can't play a CD, and I tell them because you have Win 10, the biggest ripoff from Microsoft yet. They blew it when they bought that Vista was awful, when in fact, if you stuck with it it would do whatever you wanted. Then Win 7 was fine, but they wanted more money, so they forced junk on consumers.

I'm still on W7 and not having any problems. You have to be careful though as MS has an "update" to 7 that does the same spying that 10 does. As far as sending secure emails, my first python project was to create a random shift cipher encoder/decoder. I built it so that all the parameters could be changed including adding an interleaved option. I imagine the NSA could figure it out eventually, but it would be unteresting to put it to the test.

Since 1999, Mac OS. No viri, no blue screens, no malware, no app problems.
WTF, duh!

Interesting. Do believe I'll see if I can get past 2020 and how far after that. Why not?

I still have a Windows XP machine at home (gasp!). I'm perfectly aware of the "security" concerns, but that's the machine my kids use for homework and play games on (hundreds - see Big Fish Games). And I'm a big fan of Apache OpenOffice. It's free and I'm not paying a monthly fee - nor having to have actual OS services running in the background so it will function (Office 365). And once you lock down the firewall, install an ad blocker on all the web browsers and install a couple of free security tools like Malware Bytes and ClamWin, you've done quite a bit.

I bought a used Windows 7 laptop specifically to avoid Windows 10. Paid $140 and installed free non-Microsoft software to handle my everyday computing needs. Everything works fine and I plan to continue using it even past 2020.

I'm in heaven still using Seven.
Didn't care about the scare.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonke...
Recall reading somewhere else I can hang onto Windows 7 all the way until 2020.

I'd love the alternative that simply says Microsoft gets nothing - which is what it was before Windows 10. THAT is the alternative I want. Same for everyone else. An opt-IN policy if anything - not a forced policy you can't opt OUT of.

Completely agree with your comments, blarman. I would still be using XP if it was practical since MSFT has fubared the interface repeatedly since XP. W7 can be maniputated to almost be as easy to use as XP, but it is still a PITA on a daily basis. Had an email from a friend who updated to W10 and it has somehow "honked up" his music library and he hasn't been able to put Humpty back together yet, and he has been a technical guru for 25 years.
I do not buy software with the goal of helping the software seller, and that is apparently what MSFT requires now. 25 years ago I paid for early releases so I could help clients, but then I decided that I didn't want to do MSFT's job for them. MSFT has been siphoning consulting time from the best and brightest without compensating them for decades. Now they want to do it to every customer without their informed consent.