I'm Sick and Heartbroken

[GTRS Fiero]

No more Windows 7 Pro or Home retail sold legally.  OEM is very restricted.

[GTRS Fiero]

It's actually still Windows 10, but the next iteration of it. When Windows 10 first came out, there was a statement from Microsoft that it would be the last version of Windows, but that they would keep making changes to it.
...

"It's a feature!"

Edit - I've got a "Developer" version of Win 7 on my desktop. I am still receiving patches and updates, but they have never tried to update it to Win 10.
Charlie, I'm glad you got your stuff "back".

I don't have Developer Edition of 10, but I do have Enterprise.  It only gets security updates.  No feature updates.

Windows 7 has MUCH more control of updates, stock.  There are third-party apps to control updates on 10.

They're changing Windows to be a servuce. 

[GTRS Fiero]

When you stopped working with Microsoft, mentioned in your first message, what you were left with was actually a temporary account. That's why the default location of your document, download, and other folders is \Users\Temp. Normally with a Microsoft-connected account, it would be \Users\me. Your old local account was at \Users\cmmse or something like that. What I did was to make that location read-write from your current account. Normally, other accounts are read-only when accessed from your current account, to protect them. But in this case, that other account is actually your old account.

Local accounts are still possible, but much more difficult.  A microsoft account allow them more control and tracking.  The microsoft account does allow the user more control, in that the user can turn off certain things that can only be turned off online, using the microsoft account.  Rather scary, that you must ho to a web site to disable unwanted things on your computer.

[Fierofool]

Well, that was short-lived.  This morning everything was gone again.  I've just spent nearly 2 hours on the phone with Microsoft, getting everything restored.  I told them about having recovered the files and asked why they were gone again.  He said that there may have been another update after recovery. 

So I asked if there was a way that I could stop the automatic updates and he said I didn't have that option.  Looks like every time there's an automatic update to the newer version of Windows, I will be going through this again.  But for the time being, I am back to the old Windows 10 and everything is back as it was.  It may be time to change to Linux or some other operating system. 

If I don't have the option to block automatic updates, I wonder why the laptop hasn't updated. 

[GTRS Fiero]

Install stopupdates10.  Use it to disable updates.

http://m.majorgeeks.com/files/details/stopupdates10.html

The laptop may have an incompatibility, or the active hours could be set, or one of several other things.

LINUX is fine, but takes some getting used to.  I will say that you'll probably find it more difficult to use.  Some things do not interoperate between OSs.  Then you have to get a good distribution.  Not all distributions are suitable.  On workstations, i have used Debian, SUSE, and ubuntu.  I tried a few others, but went with ubuntu.  I can run some Windows applications. 

[MikeMac]

Install stopupdates10.  Use it to disable updates.

http://m.majorgeeks.com/files/details/stopupdates10.html

The laptop may have an incompatibility, or the active hours could be set, or one of several other things.

LINUX is fine, but takes some getting used to.  I will say that you'll probably find it more difficult to use.  Some things do not interoperate between OSs.  Then you have to get a good distribution.  Not all distributions are suitable.  On workstations, i have used Debian, SUSE, and ubuntu.  I tried a few others, but went with ubuntu.  I can run some Windows applications.

That last paragraph was way over my head. However, I did have ubuntu 1 time but antibiotics cleared it up.

[GTRS Fiero]

The important thing is to regain control of your computer.  It belongs to you.  Not Microsoft.  They can keep their grubby hands out of my stuff.  The stop updates program will turn off updates.  Uou should also disable telemetry, and all options offered when you set up the computer or create an account.

[TopNotch]

The only trouble with disabling all updates is that some of them address vulnerabilities that could let bad guys into your system.
At work we sometimes use Ubuntu, Fedora, and the paid version of Fedora, Red Hat. I personally have worked a lot with Tiny Core Linux for a customer. Tiny Core is pretty impressive for it's size. I have a complete development system with compilers, libraries, etc., and even a few games on a 4GB thumb drive with plenty of room left over.

[GTRS Fiero]

I used to use Red Hat on servers, but moved away from that distro several years ago.

You can click the button to enable at any time, but it is difficult to pick and choose updates.  That was the reason that we paid for Enterprise edition.  It only gets security updates.  Those are bad enough, but usually easier to remove.

Anyway, the manifest can be changed to indicate updates that you don't want are already installed.  This has its own set of problems.

[Fierofool]

Who would have ever thunk it?  I downloaded BlockWindows10Updates and when I tried to install it, I get a popup that says Windows has detected that this file will be harmful to your computer and has blocked access to it.  Not May Be Harmful but Will Be Harmful. 

[TopNotch]

Try this: Right-click on the installer, and click on "Run as administrator" from the  menu that pops up.

[GTRS Fiero]

If you used the link I provided to Major Geeks, the file is clean.  It effectively is harmful, in that it blocks updates.  It is also colored very suspiciously.

[Fierofool]

I did.  I just clicked on it, went straight to MajorGeeks and downloaded it. 

[GTRS Fiero]

Then it should be good.  When you run it, you just click the big button to disable ipdates.

[Fierofool]

That's just it.  Windows won't let me install it.  It blocks installation.  No option to get around it.