Fortunately, the article lists the exact KB numbers for the updates in question, so if you don't want this "feature" to be backported to your OS, you can go ahe

Fortunately, the article lists the exact KB numbers for the updates in question, so if you don't want this "feature" to be backported to your OS, you can go ahead and disable those updates. At least for the time being, you can opt out of specific updates on Windows 7. My Linux migration is almost complete... I only have a couple of apps that I need Windows for anymore, and I'm planning to build a new PC early next year that will be powerful enough to run them in a VM without discomfort. Five years ago, I told myself that Windows 7 would be the last proprietary OS that I'd ever use on bare metal. It looks like I'll be able to keep that vow :)