The 'Get Windows 10' app is finally being removed from Windows 7 and 8.1

By John Callaham
published

Microsoft is rolling out an update today to Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 PC users, which finally gets rid of the "Get Windows 10" app that was encouraging those people to download the free update to the OS until July 29.

Get Windows 10

While the notifications from that app finally stopped after the official "free upgrade" deadline passed on July 29, Microsoft pushed out an update today to Windows 7 and 8.1 PCs with the support number KB3184143 (opens in new tab) (via ZDNet). The description states:

This update removes the Get Windows 10 app and other software related to the Windows 10 free upgrade offer that expired on July 29, 2016.

The "Get Windows 10" app has been the source of some controversy for Microsoft, with many Windows 7 and 8.1 users complaining that the app was trying too hard to make them upgrade to Windows 10.

While officially, the free upgrade offer has ended, there is evidence that people with valid Windows 7 and 8.1 keys can still get Windows 10 for free, which could mean Microsoft is giving those users a bit longer to make their decision. Also, Microsoft is giving people who use assistive technology on their PCs a way to get the free upgrade to Windows 10 for an indefinite period of time.

John Callaham
John Callaham
39 Comments
  • Time to start the conspiracy machine - Microsoft is removing software from my machine! How could they do that? That is my software and I didn't give them permission to do that! 
  • Ha! You know there will be that one person. "I liked the icon in my taskbar! Microsoft is screwing everything up! Moving to Mac now"
  • Lol
  • And also the "hey, I still want my free upgrade! Now how do I get it?"
  • Get a time machine and go back two months lol
  • LMAO! How dare they try to make me upgrade for a year and then stop trying to make me upgrade!!!
  • The software is not yours, you only have a license to use it. Read the EULA. ;)
  • Yep, finally but, we already removed the Microsoft "AD-WARE" updates a long time ago on machines we didn't want 10 on... and on my Home theater PC, Windows updates are completely disabled... Sick of Microsoft breaking Windows Media Center with updates... 4th time so far...
  • :(
  • I had a Win10 upgrade message telling me I only had a couple of days to upgrade for free even though I had secured my copy months earlier and then rolled back to 8.1. The ironic thing is that the message interrupted the upgrade to Windows 10 that was in progress! LOL
  • Did Microsoft already give up on upgrading all PCs?
  • We had a year. A whole year. That's not their fault
  • And they are even giving the procrastinators more time to upgrade for free even after this.
  • Well, used a windows 7 key to activate my copy of 10 last week... Unactivated keys still work on clean installs of 10
  • Good move, let those who want to live in the past stay there. We are moving to more productive times. #Redstone2
  • Productive? If you mean more of Ms spying on you then yes I suppose for MS it is productive.  
  • What phone do you have?
  • see reply to modwheel below
  • But it's ok for google to drive a combine harvester straight over u and everyone else on the internet?
  • see reply to modwheel below
  • I hope you are not an Android user talking this smack because you obviously have no idea what spying means lol. I'll keep my 950 over any Droid
  • i will say this for all three of yoiu above, a cxomputer is different to a phone, I do not do any work on a phone it is something I use for calls and sending text, I may do the odd bit of browsing  on it and that is it, I do jnot write letters or do anything that is improtant. Also when I got my Android phone I knew at the time how Google use the data, but when I got my Windows machine it was nothing like that and yet now Ms expect us all to take the change lying down. Sorry Ms, but here is one person who is not, if I have to change to Windows 10, I will make sure i find a way to block the telemetry, block updates unless I want it to update and shut cortana off for good.    
  • Funny, no one complained about the removal of this from their PC's yet the fanboys are out in force creating complaints where there are none, just like they all proclaimed people would be up in arms when the free upgrade ended. That kool aid must be good......
  • Yes, it is.=P
  • Funny indeed. Why so rile up we fanboys making some insider jokes in a windows website?
  • FINALLY!!!
  • I wasn't getting that thing automatically so I manually downloaded the GWX "update". But then never upgraded to 10. Still on 7 and love it. (Ps. Don't tell me I'm missing so much because I'm not)
  • Well, you are. :)
  • Have a hard job to get rid of it from my computer since I got rid of it last year and never allowed the update again. I have also now disabled updates on my Windows 8.1 anyway due to this new updates rol;l up system that Ms is doing, I want to know what is in my updates,   
  • Well the majority of gamers went to win 10 based on Steam survey
  • Let the ones who refused to upgrade live in the past. But they can't complain when Windows 7 and 8.1 lose support
  • dude i upgraded to 10 - CPU usage went to 40% RAM usage to 55% on 8.1 CPU around 0% - 5%, RAM 38% i used Mozzila 48 with 6 tabs + Edge 5 tabs without background software - same scenario on W8.1. EDGE consumes more CPU and RAM on same tasks and W10 has many many and many more active background services
  • Yes, I know that some PCs may not be able to handle Windows 10, but all I was saying that I don't think that the people who do complain about support shouldn't when it comes to Windows 7 and 8.1. Sorry for the confusion :)
  • In case you haven't noticed, NO ONE actually complains when that happens. Which is why there are still people on Windows XP. Eventually OS fanboys (of any OS, mind you) will understand the average consumer doesn't give a sh*t about the OS, its updates or its features. They don't even know which version they use. As long as it does what they want it to do, they couldn't care less.
  • Well, some people do complain about those things. I just was stating that
  • Are you kidding me? Of course people complained when XP support ended. You are correct however that the average person barely knows what version they have.
  • I haven't seen that thing in two months on my 8.1
  • I wonder how Windows 7 would have done in comparision with a one-year free upgrade period....PC's only of course.
  • It pretty much should have been considering Vista was practically a Beta for 7 anyway. =P