Download GWX Control Panel 1.7.3.1

Version 1.7.3.1 of GWX Control Panel has been released. This program is intended for Windows 7 and 8 users who cannot or do not want to upgrade to Windows 10. GWX Control Panel does not just remove KB3035583, which disables the pop-up screen and associated services, also removes scheduled tasks and registry keys. The same goes for the Windows 10 installation files if they have already been downloaded. The software is available as a separate executable program or if installation file. The following changes and improvements have been made in this release:

Changes:

• You can now block the Microsoft Get Windows 10 icon app even if it isn’t currently installed. Previous versions of the program disabled the “Disable Get Windows 10 App” button if the app couldn’t be found. But now you can preemptively disable it in the event that the KB3035583 patch gets installed on your PC subsequent to running GWX Control Panel. The text changes to “Prevent Get Windows 10 app” in this case.
• For users of the GWX Control Panel installer (versus stand-alone), the Check for Updates feature now checks with UltimateOutsider.com to see if a new version is available and downloads/installs the new version at user’s request. Stand-alone users will still just have a button that takes you to the Downloads page. (I don’t know a reliable/elegant way to upgrade a stand-alone copy, while upgrading is easy with the installer.) Note: For about a half hour there was a version posted that didn’t give any “You’re already running the most recent version” indication if that turns out to be the case. That was confusing, and I fixed it immediately. So basically if you check for updates and nothing seems to happen, it might mean you’re running the 1.7.3.0 version that was up temporarily, and you might have to do a manual download. Sorry!
• Note: The Enable/Disable Monitor Mode and Display the User Guide buttons have moved. (Making room for an upcoming feature.)
• Fixed some unexpected behavior that could occur if a user chose not to allow GWX Control Panel admin rights if required to perform an action.
• Some optimizations in all recursive file operations (hopefully improving performance and success rate of massive delete operations).
• No longer displays “Change Windows Update Preferences” dialog on computers where users have not yet configured their Windows Update settings; instructs them to set up Windows Update first instead.
• Improved internal performance or diagnostic logging.
• Program no longer crashes when run on Windows Vista. (Note: GWX Control Panel serves no purpose on Vista; Microsoft does not target that OS for Windows 10 upgrades. I just didn’t want my program crashing when Vista users tried to run it.)
• To eliminate some odd timing issues caused by users having Monitor Mode enabled for both All Users and Current User at the same time, the installer now makes sure that only “All Users” is enabled. (This only applies to upgrades, and only where Monitor Mode was already enabled.)
• For debugging purposes, installer now saves a log file in the install directory, named install_log.txt.
• The installer is now based on NSIS 2.5, which has some security improvements over previous versions.
• LOTS of under-the-hood refactoring and optimizations in preparation for some future plans.