For windows users, renaming app-update.yml (located in C:\Users\<YourUsername>\AppData\Local\Programs\Evernote\resources) to something else, eg app-update.yml.old, seems to do the trick.
Just avoid to use help menu command "Check for updates", as this will initiate the update procedure anyway.
Tested on Windows 7 (x64), Evernote version 10.56.8, as this is the last version working on win7.