I noticed my disk usage on my SSD suddenly went up by nearly 6 gigs. I have also seen many windows 7 machines complaining about failing to install important updates. I dug around and found this huge BT hidden folder on my machine. My machine is connected to Active Directory which is supposed to NOT be Windows 10 eligible. So now Microsoft is putting this huge 6 gig OKS image on ALL machine even if you have not “reserved” our copy. How many gigabytes or terabytes depending on network size is this chewing up? For limited life ssd’s writing 6 gigs is pretty stupid.
MICROSOFT HAS CONFIRMED that Windows 10 is being downloaded to computers whether or not users have opted in.
An INQUIRER reader pointed out to us that, despite not having ‘reserved’ a copy of Windows 10, he had found that the ~BT folder, which has been the home of images of the new operating system since before rollout began, had appeared on his system. He had no plans to upgrade and had not put in a reservation request.
He told us: “The symptoms are repeated failed ‘Upgrade to Windows 10’ in the WU update history and a huge 3.5GB to 6GB hidden folder labelled ‘$Windows.~BT’. I thought Microsoft [said] this ‘upgrade’ was optional. If so, why is it being pushed out to so many computers where it wasn’t reserved, and why does it try to install over and over again?
“I know of two instances where people on metered connections went over their data cap for August because of this unwanted download. My own internet (slow DSL) was crawling for a week or so until I discovered this problem. In fact, that’s what led me to it. Not only does it download, it tries to install every time the computer is booted.”
We asked Microsoft to comment on whether it was downloading Windows 10 anyway as the company rushes to build on the 75 million machines with the new OS installed in its first month, putting it in fourth place behind Window 7, 8.1 and the erstwhile XP.
Microsoft told us: “For individuals who have chosen to receive automatic updates through Windows Update, we help upgradable devices get ready for Windows 10 by downloading the files they’ll need if they decide to upgrade.
“When the upgrade is ready, the customer will be prompted to install Windows 10 on the device.”
In other words, if you are patching via Patch Tuesday, as you should of course be, then you are going to get a big hefty folder on your hard drive ready so you can update to Windows 10 on demand.