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Windows 10 Upgrade from Hell
I emerged from my workshop about 6 p.m. yesterday and pressed the power button on my laptop. A blank screen appeared, and the word “HI” in 36-point type appeared in the middle. It sat there for a moment, then spelled out “We have some updates for you.” “Do not turn off your computer” appeared at the bottom in a smaller size of the same font, and the message in the middle of the screen morphed into “This may take a few minutes.”
The font didn’t look like Windows, and I stared at a while wondering if I had a virus. The screen color slowly changed. Four minutes later the screen cleared, and “HI” appeared in the center again. It went through the whole sequence a second time, this time sitting on the final screen for almost half an hour, with no action other than the color change. Then, “It’s taking longer than we thought” appeared. I left it alone for two hours.
When I came back to it, I had what looked like a Windows desktop. However, there were a whole lot of unlabeled icons stacked on top of the six labeled icons I had on my original desktop, and the taskbar had only the Search bar on it. All the icons were the generic white file, not specific. Clicking an icon did nothing. The start menu did nothing. I decided to leave it overnight to give it an unreasonable amount of time to finish.
This morning nothing had changed. I did the three-finger salute, Control-Alt-Delete, and the task menu showed nothing running. I looked at the processes and didn’t see anything unusual. So I logged out of my account, and at the login screen used the power icon to perform a restart. The restart was normal and started my usual desktop upon entering my password. All now seems well.
Computer-savvy friends tell me that this is a Windows 10 upgrade. They agree with me that it is incredibly stupid. For one thing, at no time did I get any indication that what was happening was connected to Windows or sent to me by Microsoft. There was no branding whatsoever, and nothing felt familiar (and I have used every version of Windows since 3.1).
Most important to me, I never had an option to wait until a time that was more convenient for me to do the upgrade. What if I had really needed the laptop at that moment? I never had an “Upgrade now, ask me again in an hour” or whatever message, like I am accustomed to seeing on various apps like the Kindle reader. I had no option other than letting whatever was happening happen.
What if there was a life-threatening situation that required the computer? Not hard to imagine. What if I was somewhere where I had to shut off the computer and move? Would that have bricked it? I wouldn’t have wanted to leave it at Starbucks overnight. What if I hadn’t known that I could restart the system when I got the useless desktop after the upgrade?
No one at a company the size of Microsoft considered these things?
I’m moving my retirement accounts out of Microsoft stock. Any company so arrogant and ignorant as to pull this sort of trick on their customer base is doomed. I may go with Oracle. Sure, the Java upgrade notices are annoying, but at least I have the option of ignoring them. Microsoft just reminded me that I don’t own this machine, but use it only at their whim. Apple is just as bad. I guess I have to learn Linux.
Published in Technology
Not a bad idea.
At my age, I’m really not interested in new challenges…but anger is my best motivator, and I’m angry.
I have an old Compaq laptop (that tells you how old…) on which I was running Windows 7. When I saw they were discontinuing support for Win 7, I tried a couple different Linux installs. They do not require a lot of know how. You don’t actually have to use Linux commands.
One of the downloads actually turns the machine into a Chromebook. Sort of. But 2 gig memory was not sufficient. Settled on Fedora. Slow as all get out, but an acceptable backup for when Mrs. E is planted on our Windows 10 machine.
Windows 7 is my last Windows OS. When it dies I either go all Mac, or will do Linux .
Windows is now a service. That means you are now Microsoft’s servant.
I’d probably try doing a system restore after a backup here, or back it up and then do a full restore to original settings if the system restore doesn’t get the computer back to looking something like what you had prior to the update. Pretty much every big computer operator is going to to the automatic software download model, where they really don’t want you having a choice about what you put on your computer. You have to overtly go in and change the settings to block downloads (although with Apple, there’s always the hope your computer will suffer from the company’s earlier-than-Microsoft planned obsolescence, and they’ll stop updating the OS because they want to force you to buy a new computer).
That is scary, annoying and scary! Thanks for the heads up.
Microsoft keeps changing its game, but one thing I did at one point was identify my home wireless network connection as a metered connection. (Microsoft’s customers have been known to get angry at big updates that are downloaded on expensive metered connections without their knowledge or permission.) Then it will put off updates until you’re on a non-metered connection. It still isn’t wonderful, because then anytime you check into a hotel and use their wifi, you have to identify it as a metered connection, or else.
Ditched MS for all personal stuff over a decade ago. I do not miss it.
I have had no issues with Apple upgrades, until the last one. It installed and worked just fine, except there is some software that still hasn’t been upgraded to work with Catalina. I went to the site of the affected software and signed up to receive email notification when they have a version to work with Catalina, but I am still bereft, without my Print Shop. There are so many things I do with that software, and I miss it every day.
Having been a software buyer in a former job, I despise Microsoft, and hate having to use Windows at work.
Get the Winaero Tweaker. It allows you to turn off all updates. I do a manual update, usually once a week, but I’m with you. There are times I want to hit the ground running when I crank up my machine.
The tweaker also allows you to do a lot of other things as well, things Redmond won’t put in their product.
FWIW, I’ve been a self-employed computer support guy for the past decade. (Currently unemployed, and looking for a new job.) Windows 10 is fine, and will do the job. The fall update last year introduced a option to pause updates for a week or more at a time. It’s in the settings, and you can use this feature to manually trigger an update on your own schedule. With that said, I suspect that sometimes it may just decide to update on its own regardless of what you tell it, but that’s rare. I like this option because it reduces that chance of an update being installed in the middle of something important. (We once had a update triggered on the presentation system in the middle of a church service.)
One other thing I usually do is disable the ‘fast startup’ option. It’s buried in the power options in the old control panel; look for a place to ‘change what the power buttons do.’ This option will theoretically make the computer boot up faster when you power it up, but I’ve seen this introduce some weird memory errors.
I’m strongly tempted to move to Linux. I do prefer Microsoft for now over say, Google and Apple, because I like my giant soulless invasive corporations to be mildly incompetent. It’s only worse if they care about me.
Apple’s never been good about backwards comparability, though the problem isn’t as bad as 15-18 years ago, with the move from OS 9 to OS 10, or the shift from Motorola to Intel-based chips, which also affected the OS and the programs running on it. With their portable devices, the latest iOS update Xes out anything older than the newest iPhone 6 and second gen iPad Air devices, so anyone owning something older than that (raises hand) is probably facing the prospect of having his apps start ‘winking out’ about 12-18 months from now, as the latest upgrades end up bricking the apps on older portable devices.
This laptop’s primary purpose is exactly that, running the Powerpoint during church services. If this had happened Sunday morning I would have been using my backup on a thumb drive (I’m anal-retentive about such things). Always have a Plan B, preferably down to Plan Q.
Fast startup is terrible for laptops because it depletes the battery even after the computer is shut down (I don’t keep mine plugged in when I’m not using it). Fast Startup came with my laptop default on, and I almost sent the thing back thinking it had a bad battery.
Don’t, unless you want to grow a beard, use suspenders, and wear a bowtie . . .
I have the same issue with my HP multifunction printer. It prints fine but the scanner has no software upgrade. I think there may be a new driver but it was not working two weeks ago. My wife decided to give me a new printer for Christmas. We bought a new HP inkjet multifunction at Costco. I took it home and tried to install the drivers. It was a nightmare. There is no manual and the software is supposed to install itself.
After hours of trying to get it to work, I returned it to Costco and hooked up my old printer. I have an older MacBookPro that still works the scanner. I think HP finally has a driver for Catalina but haven’t really used it yet.
I went to Mac when I was at Dartmouth for a year in 1995 and have not regretted it.
We know he already has a beard. He’s on the heavy side, so probably does wear suspenders. We just don’t know about the bowtie.
I have learned the hard way to always wait for a good long time before doing a Mac system upgrade. Give 3rd party developers time to get cozy with the new system.
This Microsoft forced-update thing is actually entirely manageable.
See? Piece of cake.
Also factory restore your computer daily to keep it smelling fresh and new.
I’ve let my beard grow out since the start of November, and it’s getting downright biblical now. But it’ll get trimmed down to normal this weekend. Now, suspenders. Hmmmm…
The hair is tied back and goes down to my beltline. No bowtie required.
Well, sometimes.
One of the things that really annoys me is software developers who insist that they know better than I how I want to use their products. Sometimes updates from Microsoft will reset options that I’d turned off, or a software patch will change a program’s operation. It’s all to help me, but it just gets on my nerves.
That describes half the men in our community orchestra when we dress for concerts. Somehow I don’t think they’re all Linux users. . .
One time an update replaced my hosts file without even saving the old version. The only thing I had in it at the time was a gazillion Facebook domains so I could block them. I’ve now saved a copy in a place where Microsoft can’t get at it, but the latest updates have left it alone.
Wow, that sequence of events would have had me convinced that my computer had a virus. Yeah, pretty ridiculous that Microsoft didn’t think that many people would make that assumption.
One out of three.
I have not usually had a problem with Apple upgrades, but my attempt to update one of my computers to the Catalina operating system did render the computer completely inoperative. Fortunately, the Geek Squad guys at Best Buy were able to get the thing back, but it took them two iterations of trying. I therefore haven’t had the nerve to update the other computer to Catalina.
Precisely. It essentially says, you’re too dumb to decide for yourself whether or not you need this.