AKA, the update that lets Windows 8 update to Windows 8.1 without your permission! How great is that?

I got a nice, inviting pop-up on my computer today telling me that I have 4 hours to restart my computer to "finish" installing Windows 8.1. Well, that's just dandy, since I never OKed installing it in the first place, for a couple of reasons, mainly that my antivirus doesn't work on it. So, a little investigating and I found out that Microsoft rolled out an update a couple of months ago (the aforementioned KB2973544) and has been slowly leaking it out to Windows 8 machines to slowly update the population of computers (often against the will of the consumer!).

I happen to know as a fact that this update supersedes the System Restore function, since my sister's computer updated during a System Restore (and 8.1 happens to erase all System Restore points). As of right now, I've uninstalled the update, but I have no clue what'll happen if I restart the computer. I'd estimate I have about 3 hours before the forced restart of my computer, so I guess I'm gonna have to restart my computer either way. Updates to come (?)

I like 8.1 marginally better than 8, but this isn't a very nice thing for Microsoft to do

I like 8.1 more than both 7 and 8 as well...when it doesn't mess up my drivers. (Maybe they've fixed that? I do have an 8.1 install DVD, so maybe I should try a fresh 8.1 installation on my laptop.) I hope they allow you to retain the Start Screen in 10.

Without reading any articles, my first assumption is that they want to drop support for straight 8 and focus more on the updated platform, sort of like how XP SP1 was dropped not long after SP2 was released. Now how long until they replace RT with a flavor of Windows Phone for tablets (or full-fledged 8.1 on x86 tablets)? Google has been doing well with Android on both phones and tablets, but you can't say they've also been devoid of parallel OS problems. (Chrome OS is such a useless OS compared to Android. When will they get rid of their equivalent of Windows RT?)

Of course, if Microsoft gets its act together with Windows 10, 8 and its ilk might become the next ME/Vista blip on their radar. I have high hopes for Microsoft under Nadella.

After using 8.1 for a while, it doesn't seem all that different from 8. I don't know why people are complaining that it's slower. I don't think it's right that they're forcing an update on people, but it certainly isn't something negative in my opinion.

I just checked my laptop's update history and noticed it:

1 attached image

I haven't downloaded 8.1 because everytime it pops up, I'm busy. I haven't had to be made download it yet.