Updates for 10 are putting me off installing it

[John Devalle]

I have an Advent laptop with Windows 7, and downloaded 10 last year, intending to install it in July. Microsoft informed me, and keeps reminding me, that my PC is suitable for 10, but I'm beginning to wonder.
It's the updates for 10, they are a pain! When updating CPU usage is 100%, sometimes the PC slows, and the fan is at full pelt, making a lot of noise. Increasingly the fan is working hard most of the time, which makes me fear that 10 being on the PC, even if not installed yet, is shortening the life of my PC.
If I decide to stick with 7 is deleting 10, including all its bit and pieces, straight forward?

 

[Trouble]

When updating CPU usage is 100%, sometimes the PC slows, and the fan is at full pelt, making a lot of noise. Increasingly the fan is working hard most of the time

That sounds a bit like you may have a temperature issue currently with the laptop.
I don't know how easily accessible the internals of the laptop are to get at but I would consider a cleaning of the inside might be in order.
You can try a little do it yourself with a can of compressed air, however sometimes, depending on the nature of any obstruction it can make things worse.
IF you don't feel that you have the requisite skills necessary then you might seek the assistance of a tech to properly disassemble the laptop to a stage where a comprehensive cleaning and perhaps the re-application of thermal paste to any heatsink components might be performed.

which makes me fear that 10 being on the PC, even if not installed yet, is shortening the life of my PC.

That is not a likely scenario. The Windows 10 upgrade is just a folder containing various sub-folders and files to facilitate the upgrade and as such is much like any other folder on your computer, idle until accessed or called upon to perform the upgrade.

If I decide to stick with 7 is deleting 10, including all its bit and pieces, straight forward?

As mentioned above the upgrade is just a folder on your computer, typically named something like $windows.~BT and located in the root of C:\. Deleting it may require you to take ownership of the folder and perhaps even taking the further step of granting you user account full control (explicitly) of the folder and child objects.
Getting rid of the GWX nagging might involve some additional steps or employing a third party programs such as GWX Control Panel http://ultimateoutsider.com/downloads/

downloaded 10 last year

The upgrade media has been updated a couple times since then, and is likely to be upgraded again when the latest Redstone (Anniversary Edition) is released shortly. I would recommend that you consider waiting for the latest release or at least minimally re-download something more current (Win10_1511_2_English_x64.iso or Win10_1511_2_English_x32.iso) seems to be the most recent available today.

NOTE: No matter how you decide to proceed, I would strongly suggest creating a disk image of the entire hard drive before moving forward.
https://www.windows10forums.com/threads/please-for-your-own-peace-of-mind.794/

 

[John Devalle]

Thanks for replying Trouble, I should explain a bit more.
My laptop is 6 years old, and the fan going full blast only began when I downloaded 10. The first big update, last August, crashed the PC, the first, and so far only, time that's happened. Every update for 10 has caused the fan to go bonkers, and with big updates for anything up to 3 hours. Until recently this only occurred when 10 was updating, but now happens at some other times. The coincidence of the fan going full blast and 10 updates makes me think these events are connected. I note that some who've installed 10 have had problems with over heating. My PC has 2mb of ram, which MS say is ample for 10, but I wonder.