Windows 10

I insist all the problems with Win10 stem from users not learning anything about the devices they use. It reminds me of a blind guy complaining about the Chevy Impala when he crashes a car.

I use Win10 from a clean install, updated regularly. I run a good quality MS compliant workstation. Use Chrome with Ad-blocker. I don't run widgets or other do-dads, never install software from an unknown source, use no anti-virus other than Defender, and have turned off all the Win10 telemetry. I never use social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc) on mission critical computers. I also use a physical firewall in addition to the Windows Firewall.

I have zero problems with Win10 and it's updates (which I do manually). Zero! In fact, I have had many more problems with previous versions of Windows, especially XP and Win7 (albeit less).

If you have problems with updates it most likely due to your ISP (speed and reliability of connection) and not with Windows Updater. The number of devices in use on your LAN can also be a factor during updates. WiFi can be very unreliable depending on the quality of the router and the distance of the computer from it. I use shielded Ethernet hard-wire exclusively. Again, these factors have nothing to do with Windows Updater.

If you have no understanding of how computers function or refuse to learn what is required to know, you're a blind guy driving a Chevy. Don't blame GM or the car model. Blame yourself.

 

I have administrative control over 4 Windows 10 Professional machines here, including one of my personal laptops. All are on the "Business track" for updates. Phone home stuff disabled, and Microsoft add-ons likewise. I don't allow the Spring and Fall feature updates until the issues are fixed by Microsoft. I did an update from 1709 to 1803 on my laptop over the weekend by downloading the ISO and burning it to a thumb drive. No drama, and no files missing, as far as I can tell. Of course, I imaged the Windows partitions with Macrium Reflect first before the upgrade.

Ted, KX4OM

 

Users continue to to complain about the updates, but they haven't looked into how the update process has changed.

I run Windows 10 Home on three of my computers. All have the latest updates. When I first upgraded one of my laptops to Windows 10 (3 years ago ?), MS was very strict with their updating policies. W10 Home users had a 12 hour "Active Hours" setting. If you had your computer on during that time, you were fair game for a reboot. Even if you put the computer to sleep, MS would wake up the computer and install the update.

But now, several years down the line, updates have changed. MS stopped waking up computers to install updated. If I had put my computer to sleep, it stayed that way. When I woke it up, it would tell me that a update was available. And it is always my choice whether I install it now, or wait till later. The "Active Hours" settings have also changed. Now, the "Active Hours" setting can be 18 hours. For me, that is more acceptable. I may be active in the morning and then later in the evening. The 18 hour span seems to cover that just fine. I have found that I can put off a update for over a week, until I time to reboot everything.

In the several years that I have been using W10, I only had a problem with one update. And, as W2WDX indicated, I could not really blame it on MS. It was just a faulty download. All I did was back out the update and download it again. The second time, there were no issues. It took about 30 minutes to an hour to fix it.

 

You know.... that sentiment is often heard, even from folks who swear by the OS. Essentially, what everyone seems to agree on is that Win X is bloated with unwanted marketing crap, and appears to be designed as much to gather data about it's users as it is to actually function. To do what it does, it uses a LOT of "services" which eat up tons of memory, and do nothing of benefit for the end users.

Yes, one can turn off much of the bloat-ware, spyware, and etc.... but why should we have to? It should never have been put in the system to begin with. Why should we have to put up with such BS when other, less intrusive OS's are available?

 

The first operating system I used was the windows.

Then eventually migrated to Linux, been an avid Linux fanboy for two years. I loved building my system. Customizing it, everything was great.

Except, when you want to actually do something, some issue with a new update happens and my system would break. Then you need to go and fix it up before starting your work (inventory management software) again.

Still, I stuck to Linux, because I loved the feel of it. Plus I hated windows 10, it was really buggy.

Then one day, I just decided to install windows 8.1 to play some game. Of course, 8.1 was full of the update to Windows 10 banners. So I thought why not, and gave it a try.

This time booting into windows, things changed. The boot was so fast, unlike before. My whole system was running incredibly.

Then came the anniversary update.

Suffice to say. I no longer have Linux on my laptop.

I have fallen in love with windows all over again.

 

Agreed and I spent a lot of time doing this but after the first major update, most of it had been re-enabled again.
I was suddenly locked out of my own computer for some 90 minutes whilst it did the updates, after which, a non-certified USB driver which I had painstaking installed was gone!
That was the end for me.

But if you think Windows is bad, how about Android?
That whole system seems to have been built with the prime purpose being to collect information and push advertising onto its user. This is so deeply ingrained that is is impossible to turn off.

Frank

 

That is your service provider, Not Android.

A Android does what it is told to do.

 

Google doesn't give away an OS and an application marketplace ecosystem because they are swell people. By default, it is a metadata collection machine that steers the user toward Google services, which are more of the same.

Turning all that off is not easy and often makes the device less useful.

To date, I think Google's stewardship of the data they collect is among the best of its peers. They could do a far better job updating Android and cleaning up its app marketplace. But I also think they're starting to get shady. For example, on OS X, Chrome now detects if you use dark mode and makes Chrome look just like the browser in incognito mode. And their relentless attempts to keep you logged in, cache login data and using OAUTH to tie all your accounts to them, is getting fatiguing.

 

that is my assessment too.... of Google, Microsoft, and most of the cell-phone and Internet providers. However, the data-gathering is not just geared toward advertising.... it's far more intrusive than that. Advertising is simply the justifyable face of a huge system that compiles, buys, sells, and misuses intimately personal data for all sorts of neffarious purposes.... many of which are illegal. So illegal in fact that the FBI was caught instructing Police Officers to lie under oath in court and/or withhold evidence from defense attorneys to hide what they were doing.

I won't go in to a lot of details here, but I urge you to read:

No Place to Hide by Glen Greenwald
and
Data and Goliath by Bruce Schneier

Both books thoroughly demonstrate (with full references and documentation) how / why these organizations routinely spy on citizens without their permission, and /or without any warrants or legal oversight.... and actively work to hide what they are doing. If you don't believe me or the books, then you can also prove it to yourself: buy a copy of your own data from a data broker. You will be shocked to see what info they have, and are willing to sell to anyone.

 

The same applies to Chrome. I purchased a Chromebook, a glorified tablet, and the OS does not seem to have been adapted properly to a notebook environment. Also, the Google store should separate Chromebook from smartphone/tablet apps, if they are not compatible with the Chrome platform.