[Anonymouse]

Micro$oft are doing away with this - they intend to force users to use a Microsoft account. I've found a way around this. There's a Registry hack you can use to pause updates for a given length of time - years, if necessary.

Con: this is risky because your system isn't updated.

Pros: You're not forced to use a Microsoft account. You're not hassled by AI. Or ads. Your computer still (mostly) works the way you want it to. I don't want and, having read some horror stories, don't need updates - particularly not ones which, so I've read, break your system. Norton provides security anyway. I don't want anything to change, so I'm not letting it.

I have a laptop running 8.1 - I got a new one because I got sick and tired of Chrome warning me it wasn't running 10 or later. That one has NEVER been updated - and works as well as it did on day one. With the right AV software most of these "critical" security updates are nothing of the damn kind. Now, of course, it can't be updated (though it still pleads that there are "important" updates - seems their definition of 'important' is a bit different from mine).

I suspect that at some point they'll force people like me onto nonlocal accounts anyway. The moment they do, I will install Linux, and f*** Microsoft with a blunt, burning stick!