New win 7 install, update question/help

[alidan]

-- edit -- A new issue potentially reared its head, and that is installing windows at all. I have an nvme drive, I want to install through usb 3, both of which seem to be a nightmare to make work if everything I am reading is correct. scroll down to my most recent post and I have ideas -- end edit --

Ok, Im installing windows 7 again, on an 'unsupported' cpu so that a whole other issue in and of itself i'll have to deal with or just not care about, however I have an issue that I could use help with.

My main problem with going to windows 10 is telemetry (the biggest issue is windows pushing updates that would break hardware and not being able to tell it no) that microsoft takes, the fact they didn't tell you what it was for so long, and once you got the list, it was damning in its own right to top it off, no way to disable it and when looking at the servers they connect to on fresh clean installs, they obscure it so damn much you can't just block every microsoft server. some time while windows 10 was in its pre release state microsoft decided to put telemetry on win 7 and 8.

I have a copy of windows 7 ultimate sp1 ready to go, but i'm kind of questioning updating at all if I can't get around the telemetry.

Is there an easy to download torrent or something with all the updates sans the telemetry and windows 10 'upgrade now' ones that I could get? the task of updating windows manually is a bit daunting, from what I know microsoft pushed the telemetry from optional to security to force it on people, and the fact microsoft does everything in their power to obscure the names of patches and what they do kind of make me seriously consider just leaving it as default when I get it working. I would love to have an updated windows, but damnit they aren't making it easy.

on a side note, any telemetry blocking application is non functional, as even with them, microsoft still phones home.

 

[alidan]

I think that I figured out what to do, I found a list of updates to uninstall, and from it I got the list of at the very least questionable updates.

kb971033
kb2952664
kb2976978
kb2990214
kb3021917
kb3022345
kb3035583
kb3044374
kb3068708
kb3075249
kb3080149
kb3123862
kb3075853
kb3065987
kb3050265
kb2902907
kb2976987
kb3102810
kb3112343
kb3135445
kb3081954
kb3139929
kb3138612
kb3138615
kb3150513
kb3133977
kb3139923
kb3173040

I made an exclusion list for the offline updater, so this is round one
I have a list of all the updates and I am going to compare it to the list of culled ones so I can see if there is any difference at all in number or file size.

this should at the very worst give me something.
After everything is done, I will then run the uninstall command line, in case anything got on that should remove it,

anyone got ideas on more?

 

[alidan]

Ok, so here is my thinking, I have a new hdd, I have a new nvme, and I have a bluray drive, I can install win 7 almost regardless of circumstance, however I want it to install to the nvme, but I am not sure I can make it do that.

So, could I install windows on the hdd, use some disc migration tools, move the files to the nvme once I get everything set up and working then boot the nvme and circumvent all the bs that I am looking at or is that not doable?

 

[BonzaiDuck]

OK -- you posted 41 minutes ago. I'm not too late.

There was a procedure in some 5 steps to follow as of last summer 2016 to expedite all the updates. After that -- immediately after that was even necessary -- MS changed the paradigm or model for Win 7 Updates so that every month was a "roll-up" month.

I can look through some notes I took when I did that last year, and I can get back with a clearer statement of the 5 steps. But it involved first installing a Windows Update Agent revision, then a Roll-Up and after that another medley of updates (forgot what they called it). Once you got to that point, everything was ready for the new monthly update downloads.

 

[alidan]

OK -- you posted 41 minutes ago. I'm not too late.

There was a procedure in some 5 steps to follow as of last summer 2016 to expedite all the updates. After that -- immediately after that was even necessary -- MS changed the paradigm or model for Win 7 Updates so that every month was a "roll-up" month.

I can look through some notes I took when I did that last year, and I can get back with a clearer statement of the 5 steps. But it involved first installing a Windows Update Agent revision, then a Roll-Up and after that another medley of updates (forgot what they called it). Once you got to that point, everything was ready for the new monthly update downloads.

go for it, my main concern is being able to remove all the telemetry crap, I trust none of the telemetry blockers as windows, at least on 10, when you set bing to google in hosts, it still goes to bing, my concern there is even if you use those blockers, windows just wont respect it at all.

if the motherboard comes tomorrow, i'm likely going to be doing massive amounts of prep work, installing windows on its own, cloning to the nvme ssd, good chance I won't even bet to the updating windows aspect till a day after I start.

granted if msi gets my gpu back tomorrow, I may make getting that up and running 100% a priority.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Ok, so here is my thinking, I have a new hdd, I have a new nvme, and I have a bluray drive, I can install win 7 almost regardless of circumstance, however I want it to install to the nvme, but I am not sure I can make it do that.

So, could I install windows on the hdd, use some disc migration tools, move the files to the nvme once I get everything set up and working then boot the nvme and circumvent all the bs that I am looking at or is that not doable?

[And acknowledging your subsequent post to my last one.]

The only thing that will give you trouble with Windows 7 SP1 installation is a "latest chipset." I had to make a special slipstream install-disc with an ASUS utility before I could get Win 7 to install under a Z170 chipset to an SATA SSD. And it would be no different for an HDD.

Unless you can slipstream the native MS NVMe driver to Windows 7 (there are two downloads -- the second one is supposed to stabilize the first), my first inclination is to advise installing the OS on an SATA SSD. And like I said -- that was enough trouble for me, and I never want to go through it again. At that point, with a successful install to a GPT-initialized SATA SSD (you could go the MBR route, but I suggest GPT), you would add the NVMe drive to your system and install the driver for it.

Then, clone the drive with Macrium, Mini Tool, EaseUS, etc. to the NVMe drive. Your choice as to whether you want to tackle the Windows Updates before or after. But I would try to get that done before.