Windows 10: Win 10 Pro forced upgrade.. sigh.

So I remember last summer probably.. when I was switching to Windows 10 and trying to make it look as close to the classic look with the normal taskbar with no pinning, normal quick launch buttons, a proper and configurable start menu with subfolders to sort my programs according to their purpose. I made it.. somehow against all the odds I did it and have been loving what I achieved. Nice, clean, starts up fast and works.

I updated it a bit, too and to the build 11082 (Windows 10 Pro). After that I rejected any updates, because I had to reconfigure a number of things, which just took unnecessary time. This week, Windows tells me that the build will expire in July 15th and afterwards will slowly not start working anymore and eventually I would have to update..

Ok, Windows. At one point I DID try refreshing my system up to whatever build it was, 14xxx, I don't remember. I did. I then went through all of the hassle trying to make File Explorer look okay, trying to get rid of the "preview build" watermark in the corner (I PAID for this thing! Seriously?!), not to mention the start menu and so forth. At some point, these old tricks ceased to work. I cannot disable the lock screen anymore.. and what is worse, my PC starts up SLOWER than before, giving me the loading circle twice and flinching weirdly between screens. That's what I did and lived through and eventually decided to stick with build 11082, where everything worked and looked the way I like it.

Until now yeah. I've been forced to upgrade soon and with that, I will not be able to disable the stupid lock screen that I never asked for. I had a whole library with links to solutions to things I needed to change, but these won't be working with the newer builds, soon, I'm afraid. Why is it so hard for them to make the lock screen optional? Googling a bit, I've heard others have had the same problem. Most of the possible solutions come from 1-2 years ago for builds where it worked. At some point I found out that "from build 14xxxx (or something) disabling the lock screen only works for Enterprise and Education editions of Windows". REALLY?

I'm actually willing to upgrade to Enterprise if that's what it takes, otherwise I would just like to live in build 11082 forever.
Can anyone please help me? I'm gutted to the point of no return..

:)

 

Windows 10 upgrade icon disappeared

Did a forced upgrade by downloading the Win 10 Pro image manually.

 

Can Windows 10 Pro Use Windows 7 Pro OEM Key?

To be clear, are you saying once I do all updates on win 7 pro oem, then upgrade to win 10, I can then use win 10 pro x64 ISO and do a fresh / clean install say to same system, but on different drive?

Not dual boot, but a separate drive.

Will windows,10 force me to deactivate the upgrades version of win 10 from oem or will I be able to log into either instances separately ( both are never up at same time )?

 

If they do what they did with expired preview builds in the past it won't slowly stop working. It will simply fail to boot at all and you will have no choice but to do a clean install (of some later version). You could set you BIOS clock forward and test it out but definitely is just refused to boot in the past.

What is your problem with lock screen? You mean you don't want *Start + L to work? Or you want to boot straight to desktop? If it is the second you can do that with netplwiz (Sign in User Account Automatically at Windows 10 Startup - Windows 10 Forums)

 

Hey,
thanks for the reply. My huge problem is with this screen http://www.laptopmag.com/images/wp/p...19-670x392.png

It's stupid to have to press keys to get to the password box. Sorry, but it is.
As for where you login.. for now I've removed the picture behind the box and just got my accent colour in the back of it. I hope i can still do that in whatever new version.

It's an old school approach, but why do I have to change myself because of an operating system..

 

I see what you mean. I log on automatically so I didn't notice. Accent still works (I'm on build 14379 but I think it always did).

Perhaps someone else will know about lockscreen as I'm not much of a customizer...

Do think about upgrading before 15th though unless you want to clean install. I left one VM past the expiry date and had no option but to clean install - it just bluescreens on boot. You can download 14366 from here if you want. Windows 10 Insider Preview ISO Advanced

 

Ok thank you! Just out of curiosity, us there an easy way to go from Pro to Enterprise?

 

Sure you just put in the generic enterprise key. I can't remember where it is exactly on 11082 as they keep moving it around but probably in System>Change product key.

In earlier insider builds you could swap back and forward by entering Pro and Enterprise keys. On RTM you can't - you can only go to Enterprise and not back. I'm also not sure what would happen about activation. On earlier builds you stayed activated - when this changed I don't know - probably 10240. However the activation might also be tied to the actual date (like July last year). You should make a backup anyway just in case.

The keys are here: Windows 10 Enterprise Insider Preview Build 10159 Product Key

 

Ok I'm TRYING to update but it says everything is up to date and won't "find" the new build that it is supposed to download. I moved the slider to "fast", but still nothing. In addition, I cannot untick "defer" updates..
it's Win 10 Pro x64 btw. What the hell should I do..

 

I think you got a few things wrong here. The lock screen can easily be deactivated by a freeware called Winaero Tweaker. And if you get more specific I'm sure the skilled and experienced people around here can help you with your customization wishes.

 

I've got this program (Winaero Tweaker), but I'm not sure if it works.. right now I can't get the damn thing to update. "Defer updates" is greyed out and with a tick. Using a new iso I made with the Media Creator Tool, I go through the setup until it says "You can't keep Windows settings, personal files and apps because your current version of Windows might be installed in an unsupported directory."

This is Windows 10 Professional x64 (updated from Win 7 Pro installation) | build 11082.1000.

I had stayed with this version, because I hated updating and reconfiguring all the time. It's quite an old one, that's why it keeps saying "will expire on 15.07.2016". I've no other choice now but to update.. yet as I said earlier even this isn't working. Please, any suggestions? *Sad

 

If it were me.... I would just do a clean install of Windows 10 Pro RTM release (10586), ride it out until the Anniversary update comes out on August 2, install that and just be done with it and move on from there. You do have a true, digital entitlement/license for Windows 10 Pro, don't you?

 

Yes, of course I do!
Last year I bought a new copy of Win 7 Pro x64 and I updated that to Win 10 Pro. So if I didn't like it I could've gone back to Win 7.. but I managed to configure everything as I liked and stayed with it.

Why can't I just make it update to whatever newer build it wants to..? *Sad

 

Well, you can try a manual update 10 to Insider build 14372 getting it here:
Windows 10 Insider Preview

It seems like your Windows Update might be broken and manually installing a new update will probably fix that.

 

I tried that.. well not with this exact build, but from a newer one anyway. Got the iso and started install, then got the error message: "You can't keep Windows settings, personal files and apps because your current version of Windows might be installed in an unsupported directory." I suppose 14372 will be the same, although I'd be super happy if it wasn't. And I DO want to keep my stuff..

EDIT: I managed to get Windows Update working again. Through this: Winkey + R and run "gpedit.msc". Under 'Computer Configuration' go through the tree as follows: Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update. From there I set the state for "Defer Upgrades and Updates" to disabled and "Turn on recommended updates" to enable. These were both previously unconfigured. After a restart and "check for updates" in the setttings app, Windows Update found a lot of stuff again and started downloading.