Hehe, none of this update suff bothers me because I shall upgrade to Win 10 on 2 of my machines.  The 3rd will stay as a Win 8.1 machine... unless Win 10 is so compelling it makes me want to do otherwise.

However, the butt ugly UI and sys icons will remain very briefly.  That fechen awful start menu with those ghastly looking tiles will have to go  I mean, what would be the point of setting a u-beaut wallpaper, just to have that gaudy looking thing pop up when required?  And the icons, will last just a few seconds longer.

Microsoft has never ever put out an OS with an acceptable GUI.  Vista and Win 7 were vast improvements on XP, which was nauseating to look at to say the least, so one would hope that the trend to improve on previous iterations would continue, but alas, the trend has gone into reverse and the UIs since Win 7 by far have been worse than XP ever was.... what with flat everything and multi-coloured tiles to spoil yer day fer fech sake. 

Quite frankly, if it were not for the under-the-hood improvements I likely wouldn't bother.  Thank goodness for Stardock apps, hey!

Windows 10 may end up being the only reason I buy a Win8 machine before it's too late.  Big if, there, though.

It'd be a Win 8.1 machine if new - maybe even 2nd-hand - and honestly, with Start8, WB and IP installed, the only day to day difference to Win 7 you'd notice is it is faster.

 Thing is, if you already have a decent machine, just get the Win 8.1 installation disc and save a few pennies.

For future reference;

get-hotfix -id KB3035583,KB2952664,KB2976978,KB3021917,KB3044374,KB2990214

KB2952664/KB2976978 are diagnostics and compatibility tracker and reporter
KB3021917 is a performance and power tracker
KB2990214/KB3044374 are updates for the WU client to deliver Windows 10
KB3035583 is Windows 10 promoter

I don't want MS changing my OS to 10....not until I'm well and truly ready....and not before 10 itself is actually proven to work.

Oh....and I have a 'cute' [read fucking ugly] icon in my systray....it's a flat pathetic win10 style shit-piece that 'invites' me to 'Get Windows 10'.

It's FUCKING ADWARE.

Microsoft's new and improved commercial model.

I'd rather buy the bloody OS for a decent price and avoid the invasive commercialism.

Why wouldn't I 'jump'...........MS says so........

Besides, while all of the naysayers, nervous nellies and whatnot others.....got left behind I was running Win 8, later 8.1 with nothing but fantastic results (even installed and ran it with the best results of an MS OS ever on much much older desktops/notebooks just for kicks).  Well lest I bore the hell out of you folks with my latest 'yes of course I am going to be running Win 10 on all devices' and 'ooooo  I can't wait for the HoloLens gimmick' I'll be moving on now..........hehe

Why don't you just use a few expletives to demonstrate how you really feel and be done with it !!! 

I've got the 'get Windows 10' icon - I thought it was a virus.

It will have to go...

fuzzy logic, you WERE right, it IS a virus from the place that released the FIRST computer virus, and from what I have seen it will COMPLETELY TAKE OVER your computers and make them no longer work the way you were used to

harpo, the ghost NON-subscriber

Oh dear, things aren't exactly as we may expect them to be, thus it must be a virus and/or spmething we must distrust.

Every time there is a new OS we heart/read the same bullshit about how it isn't for us, yet every time it is just opinions without any kind of substantial backup and data to verify anything.  No, the mistakes of times past keep getting repeated and we keep cocking up because we refuse to believe we too are responsible for the mess that's been created through apathy.

OK....this time you're just plain nuts.  The issue with this is NOT whether you wish one day to upgrade to 10 or not.  I couldn't give a rat's arse either way what anyone wants to do.

What I DO care about is the 'subtle' misrepresentation of certain 'essential updates' as important to the OS/stability of the OS/protection of the OS.... when all they are is nag-ware to coerce you into Microsoft's next computer business model which apparently is not....buy it...and you get it....but....get it and then we have got YOU.

Then your life will be whatever commercial pay-per-use....pay-to-stay-working....whatever they care for.

This is the beginning of the 'NEW ORDER'.

Assimilate or die.

Those are all in the recommended list, not the critical updates.  They should be in the optional of course, but they're recommending you install adware, not telling you it's really important to do so for the security of your system.

Oh, no they are not...

KB2990214 claims to be 'important'.