The pre-loading of the WIN10 operating system on some WIN7 and WIN8 users required extensive disk space and performed in a silent mode. While this was transparent on newer machines, it sometimes impacted WIN7 users who desired stay on the older O/S.  Originally, this made it easy for user to move to WIN10 expediently. It worked well for those on modern equipment & for those with unlimited bandwidth. Future Windows upgrades will require user consent and will not pre-load — even during promotional campaigns.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-10-forced-downloads-we-wont-do-them-again-pledges-microsoft/

Microsoft’s German subsidiary has promised never again to forcibly download the installation files for new operating systems onto PCs, following a lawsuit from a consumer-protection authority.  Between mid-2015 and mid-2016, as it was giving people a free upgrade to Windows 10, that’s precisely what Microsoft did, dumping 6GB of data onto people’s hard drives without giving them an easy way to opt out.

Thanks to Microsoft’s pledge, the watchdog said, the company is “obliged to avoid placing installation data for new operating systems on Windows users’ hard drives without their permission”.  Microsoft has of course long since stopped pushing out the free Windows 10 update, and now charges for it. Nowadays, the company is using a new delivery system for its software, called the Unified Update Platform (UUP). This system allows for more lightweight releases, by only pushing out bits that have been added since the last update.