Peter Blaise, they used to put that in the readme.txt file but it was missing for this giveaway... in fact doing that is one way to find out what happens in the demo install and that it is only a 10 day demo SO when the the 6 month trial expires the 10 day demo will also have expired and the program will cease to operate as it will be an expired demo. The giveaway installer is bit for bit identical with thier downloadable demo. The only difference is the name of the file plus "_pt1" which the custom compiled.bin in the installer checks and offers the custom initial get free activation key button and will not proceed to installing without a valid activation key being input and submitted sucessfully.

TK, we troubleshoot as one!
.

Dave Baker, you wrote: "....meantime I hope my computer is more secure."
It has nothing to do with security, it is designed to disable some features.
But all those disabling is for your own ego, those features are hard wired to the windows OS internally, they can not be removed, they are just temporary disabled. I had this software before, uninstalled it, it made mess out of windows registries and some software started to crash on start up and made some software to hang for hours before starting.

Dave Baker, where are the popup ads coming from? This is not supposed to be adware!

Itsjustme, the license is displayed on developers web site when you put in your name and country of origin

alan, the license code is displayed on developers website? ARE YOU SURE? They don't normally dispay the license code but just inform you the license code has been sent to email address provided!

Itsjustme, that URL looks to me as just the THANK YOU for installing page not the get free key address! You did read the readme.txt fully?

alan, you puut just an email address in the get free activation key button, then on submitting the email address to get the activation key now you are greeted with a page stating :

"Activate account - Please check your emails now

To activate your new account please click on the activation link which we have just sent to your email address" your@email.address

So no activation code NOW but if their email arrives it has a link in it that has to be clicked to confirm your account creation and then you have to do what ever is required on that page to hopefully finally get the key...

Yes- I want to stop the updates (and I did it in different way).

I want the old feature- to notify me about new updates, but to let ME chose when to install them.

I was on the airport- waiting to call the passengers for the flight. I was doing something on my computer. They called us, I tried to shut down the computer.

Microsoft decided other though. Exactly now- they decided to apply some updates. And- on the screen : "Do not turn off your computer".

Really? I decide when and what to do with MY computer. Period!

So I blocked the updates, and from time to time I unblock it, do the updates, and block them again. Up to me, not up to Microsoft.

Now- since Microsoft don't let the user to chose when to install updates- I use some kind of crack. They forced me to do it!

In conclusion- again- yes- I want to stop the auto updates!

cld, WIndows 10 does NOT send all typed data back to MS! You did say no to all the privacy choice questions when you first ran windows 10 didn't you? I know my Windows 10 sends nothing back to MS... since I disabled all the bells and whistles and blocked the automated outlook and Office telemetry executables (easy to spot those when you don't have Outlook.exe or any MS Office applications on the machine let alone activated) and blocked customer experience executables from accessing the internet... Only a paranoid fool or a malware distributer/designer would suggest users should disable automatic microsoft updates. Windows 10 has even more security hotfixes than Windows Vista/Server 2008 has most months! They are more cruicial than they ever were. If you really believe MS are spying on you via Windows 10 and using Windows Update to undo every privacy choice you make then switch to MAC or Linux! Since all updates are bundled and monthly rollups of dozens of hotfixes you cannot choose one hotfix and not another... it's all or nothing each month. Makes it easier for MS to hide potentially hundreds of hotfixes in a month inside there.

Kura mi, Under Control Panel> Windows update gives you that option ... to download updates automatically but choose when to install them. Really, Windows 10 gives you options for just about everything. If there is ever anything you are unsure about or have issues with, just Google it and someone somewhere has already asked that question and received an expert answer.

Remember: Windows 10 is the last full release of the Microsoft operating system. From here on in it will just be incremental updates and bug fixes via the Update Service, similar to Apple. You will just have to jump into the pool or go over to Linux and put up with the lack of hardware drivers.

Don't believe all this conspiracy theory about spying. Why would any corporation or government care about what you are doing online? Dedicating pricey resources to read your private email? I hardly think so!

In response to [ PaulB ] who wrote "... why would you care about Microsoft spying ..."

We bought an operating system to operate our system, NOT to do anything else on it's own whimsey, so we want to find and turn off anything else, because our computer and our activity is ours to control.

1 - it's internet connection activity hogging data transmission, leaking,

2 - it's marketing used to change my search and purchasing results to target me and deny me awareness of alternative opportunities,

3 - it's enabling snooping and invasion by Microsoft employees, especially aggravated former Microsoft employees and employees wanting to make extra money by selling access, and an open port for hackers/crackers.

OF COURSE Microsoft and others are trying to find ways to cash in on my data and activity, and even my gear by using my computer as a robot without me knowing.

If you do not believe the daily news about hacking/cracking ( NOT "conspiracy theories" ), then you either don't read, or are lucky to be behind one heck of a firewall, or don't mind or notice being manipulated.
.

James, I assure you I have likely done far more research ON windows 10 itself, not sky is falling consipiricy "theorists" and othe nuts on the internet, than most that voice any opinion on Windows 10 so called spying... ALL the telemetary is either to target windows app store suggestions and ads from MS partners better or to improve OR provide cloud based functions like Cortana and hand-writing recognition and so forth. Customer experience default on with no user interface for OFF setting is just so they get a heads up of what users find useful and what is slowing things down or breaking things, and windows defender membership level is to get statistics of malware threats in the wild that trigger heuristics detection so MS can get a copy of such files to see if they are bad or it's just a legit program doing something it is known to do but rings bells if it was not expected behaviour. It would not be fair on me and the vast majority of users for me to spell out my entire knowledge about Windows 10 Telemetary and how to disable it and what are the consiquences of disabling it i.e. what bells and whistles you will have to do without if you disable the telemetry. This not MY blog or my IT class room to teach everyone beyond the basics they may need to get a giveaway working or what to avoid in a giveaway that is causing trouble. It is quite doable to prevent any communication beyond the bare necesities to get windows updates and those settings to stick from one feature update to the next. I know because I've done it and I can and do packet sniff to prove it. By default if you say YES to all the feature options windows HAS to transmit lots of personal data for those features to function, MS is not spying on you it is providing cloud based computing over SSL/TLS1.2 secure connections like it should. Those that did not understand it and weren't expecting it and were a little paranoid decided to try and make a name for themselves and start scaremongering the uneducated masses and spawn a new class of software like this to address a problem that only ever exists if A: you blindly clicked YES on first run of windows and read none of the text or B: are a paranoid narcacist that thinks there is something so valuable to a multi-national multi-billion $ company that they would break international laws and risk upto 5% of their value or turnover (I forget which it is exactly)in fines under GDPR legislation! Even MS are not that stupid!

Steve,

Some of it can be turned off by the user and then you can simply use a free with free updates program O&O Shutup10 and remove the other aspects you prefer, likely as good or better than what is being offered here.

Steve,
You are not forced to upgrade. You can still use Win7 without support and without Microsoft's espionage. Or better still, downgrade to XP, which millions of us are still using happily. Another alternative is to tell Microsoft what to do and switch to Linux, which I am sure millions will do to escape the espionage. Anyway, where does it say the licence is for 6 months? See also dirkje's comment (#9).

Steve, Just because Win7, or even XP, are no longer supported, you do not have to upgrade, you just won't receive updates any longer (which is no bad thing since they sometimes screw-up). If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

Steve, I think you'll find you will be able to update Win 7 manually each month by going to https://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-us/security-guidance and choosing Windows Server 2008 R2 in your systems bit width, 32 or 64 and downloading the monthly rollup and opening the .msu file the links eventually end up at. In a simailar manner to how I get Vista momthly rollups using the Windows Server 2008 monthly updates. Vista = Windows Server 2008. WIndows 7 = Windows Server 2008 R2.

TK

Problem solved! Creation of restore points was disabled on my machine. Now sorted.

Rob,
Your email was added by you to the block list. Please note that our download letter includes two links - one to download the program and another to unsubscribe from our emails in case you received it accidentally.

Looks like you clicked the wrong one some time before.
Now your email is restored and you should have no problems with getting the download.

GOTD team

Helen, this is not the first time I have noticed this happening. Perhaps it would help if your emails did not have two tiny links close together at the bottom which yield such drastically different results. Making a clearer separation could save both your supporters and yourselves some trouble.

benasp, it can happen without you ever clicking an unsubscribe link on ANY of their emails! either database corruption, scripting errors or admin tampering I'll leave you to guess which!