Is there a way to cancel the Windows 10 upgrade in the middle of the upgrade process?

Question

So I play "IT guy" in a company that has no IT guys. I've run into two users that had the computer start the Windows 10 upgrade process while in the middle of doing work. Unfortunately, they only tell me once it reaches the black Windows 10 upgrading screen.

Is there any way to safely interrupt this upgrade without waiting for Windows 10 to install and then rolling it back? I've had these users lose 1-2 days of work because of this and I don't have the time to sit at each user's computer and install GWX Control Panel to block it (peer to peer network, no domain server so therefore can't prevent the upgrade through GPO)

I will be pushing out an e-mail to notify me immediately if a prompt like this shows up again, but should they fail to stop the upgrade from starting, what happens if we try to interrupt it? Can it be rolled back before Win10 is completely installed?

Answer 1

It would be an easier solution to prevent Windows from updating instead.

All you need to do is to create a text file, copy-paste the following code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Gwx]
"DisableGwx"=dword:00000001

Edit: According to other superuser members the following is also necessary but in my opinion it would be overkill. I suggest trying it first without.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate]
"DisableOSUpgrade"=dword:00000001

Save it as a .reg file and send it to your users via e-mail telling them to run it.

This will only work if the users have administrator rights, else you have to do it manually.

---

In order to stop an already scheduled upgrade, you can create a simple batch script:

TASKKILL /IM GWX.exe /T /F
start /wait wusa /uninstall /kb:3035583 /quiet /norestart /log
exit

Update - tested it today on Windows 7 64 bit without the second registry edit, and it worked as expected.

Answer 2

Yes, there are some steps to how to stop windows 10 update while in progress. The steps are:

1. In Windows 10 Start menu search bar, you need to type Services and when the same desktop application appear in the search results click to open it.

2. In Services window, you will find out the list of all the services running in the background. You need to scroll down until you find Windows Update service.

3. Here you need to the right click on the Windows Update and from the context menu select Stop. Alternatively, you can click on Stop link available under Windows Update option on the top left side of the window.

Once the Windows Update service is stopped by you manually, this will also prevent Windows 10 Update in progress until you restart the download process again or reboot the system.