I think that popup is specifically a Windows 10 upgrade notice that you'd get on Windows 7 or 8, so that wouldn't be a problem on a new laptop.

10 does have its own obnoxious behaviors, but many/most of them can be turned off in settings. The one I'm thinking of specifically is the Action Center that lives in the far-right part of the system tray, right next to the minimize all windows bar. Those notifications can be triggered by a bunch of different things, even certain websites. I recently went to the Washington Post website in Chrome and approved notifications, which gave me a pop up for breaking news. I turned that off because it's annoying and I also desperately need to control when I expose myself to the horrible things going on in the world.

Anyway, those notifications can be turned off:

Settings > System > Notifications & Actions > Turn off every last thing (although most of it will go when you toggle the first item)

As a bonus, I've seen performance improve when this is turned off.

I just turned it off again myself (could have sworn I did that), so I'm not positive how/when/if Windows Update will alert me. I still have the problem of it restarting on me automatically sometimes.