What happens if I never update my Windows 10 laptop again?

[Glen Barrington]

I'm sick of it always updating, or not updating; let alone all the telemetry snooping.

Suppose I just never update again - switch off wifi - only use the programs that are on it now - load or save documents only via usb or SD card?

Will it work forever - or until the hard disk dies; or will it go a few weeks and demand an update which if not forthcoming will mean it shuts down?

This isn't a completely stupid scenario because I am planning on returning for a long stay at El Sherana - a place I worked years ago on a geological exploration job.

https://www.mindat.org/loc-41615.html

There's no broadband, no landline, no 2g or 3g or 4g.

There's snakes and 'roos and crocs. And there's black bass to catch in the river - they used to go for frozen oxtail bait. And I see from that article I linked - they've destroyed the base camp - which used to have a full size billiard table!

There is no direct proof, but I would remind you that every dead Windows user has stopped upgrading Windows. And there are people who have died since they stopped updating. Add those two groups together, and that's too big a sample to be a coincidence. Just sayin'

 

[Gesture]

That's one of the biggest ssues in my view. If you install certain programs, they will send out connection requests upon startup, even before you ever try to use the program for the first time. Adobe Reader, Adobe Bridge-Creative, Dropbox, any antivirus, etc.

Props to staying off line./

 

[SC489]

You will not receive security updates or virus library updates. It will also be hard to keep the programs you want up to date if you have no internet connection. Eventually the version of Windows 10 you have will no longer be supported.

You can make system images / backups using a program like Macrium Reflect Free. If an upgrade gives problems you ca easily recover from the backup.

Isn’t there a way of updating Windows 10 offline? It used to be that people slipstreamed their OS. Nobody appears to talk about it now.

 

[Mystery member]

Thanks for your replies

As I said in opening post - I'm sick of Windows 10. I foolishly allowed myself to recommend it to some friends as a result of which I've lost hours - no days, possibly weeks - sitting around whilst it tries and fails to update on my and their laptops. These were new laptops bought from PC World - not old things with no memory and old operating systems.

I moved to Win10 about a year ago and have had zero problems with four new notebooks.

I've had plenty of experience with PCs, but no special knowledge of Win10. Some of the updates required a bit of patience while I was still on DSL, but that's all it took; patience!

 

[JulesJ]

I am glad that I did not upgrade to W10. Still happily running W7 and all fine.

Jules

 

[Simon Garrett]

I'm sick of it always updating, or not updating; let alone all the telemetry snooping.

Suppose I just never update again - switch off wifi - only use the programs that are on it now - load or save documents only via usb or SD card?

Will it work forever - or until the hard disk dies; or will it go a few weeks and demand an update which if not forthcoming will mean it shuts down?

This isn't a completely stupid scenario because I am planning on returning for a long stay at El Sherana - a place I worked years ago on a geological exploration job.

https://www.mindat.org/loc-41615.html

There's no broadband, no landline, no 2g or 3g or 4g.

There's snakes and 'roos and crocs. And there's black bass to catch in the river - they used to go for frozen oxtail bait. And I see from that article I linked - they've destroyed the base camp - which used to have a full size billiard table!

If you don't update then if you ever connect to the Internet in future - however briefly - make sure you have a solid firewall in place. Preferably two (one in the PC and one in the router).

A node can be attacked within seconds of connecting to the Internet. You don't have to do anything except connect an unprotected computer to the Internet. I can recall two separate occasions (one over 5 years ago) where computers were infected with (different) viruses very rapidly. On one occasion I was trying to install AV software on a new Windows 7 build the first time it had booted, and couldn't even download AV software before the computer was infected.