Windows update clobbers Daz Studio

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Comments

  • Dim ReaperDim Reaper Posts: 687

    Mattymanx said:

    I use a microsoft program called WUShowhide.  Googling "wushowhide download" will allow anyone to find a link.

    The program allows you to hide Microsoft updates, which stops them from installing.  They will eventually appear again, and can be hidden again, but it does give some breathing space from Windows 10 installing new and buggy releases.

    I use this on Windows 10 Pro, so not certain how effective it is on other Win 10 versions, but as it is free, it is definitely worth a go.

    If you are on Pro then you should not need it.  Go to the Update and Security page, choose Advanced Options and set it to the Semi Annual Branch (formally know as the business branch).  This will stop MS from upgrading you to the latest and greatest and instead lets you stay on one version while only giving you security updates until that version is no longer supported.  I only recently went from 1703 to 1709 because of this.  You can also pause updates for a month.

    Thank you for the advice, but those are the settings that I already have.  Maybe Windows 10 is ignoring those settings on my machine but Microsoft are determined to keep pushing updates at my machine, so WUshowhide gives me a bit more control over what is happening.

  • nicsttnicstt Posts: 11,715

    I had something like this happen after a recent Windows update.

    Before your update did you not have a user account that was registered with Microsoft that you used to log into your system?

    If so, did you have to create an account or log into an account to access Windows?

    I have got one of those Microsoft online accounts but I don't use it. I am in the UK but I have an account with an American audiobook company and if I log in with my microsoft account it keeps sending me to the their British branch and I can't authorise the player. I have switched to using local login on all my Windows PCs.

    I've blocked windows from updating as the most recent feature update makes the computer un-useable. I've tried 3 times. I'm going to try a fresh install to see how that goes, but that is going to suck.

  • Ron KnightsRon Knights Posts: 2,338

    I find it hard to believe that Windows would delete your data like that. However, I agree with others. I always place my data on a separate external hard drive. I backup my data drives as well.

  • Peter WadePeter Wade Posts: 1,675

    One final update. Things were working but I had to re-enter my serial number for Studio and several other applications on each restart and re-enter a lot of settings. So I went into windows settings and told it to go back to the previous verion of Windows. This seems to have fixed the problems, I've even got my bookmarks back in Chrome. I've also set the option to defer feature updates up to it's maximum of 365 days. So now I can try and forget this whole mess and go back to actually using my computer, for a year at least.

  • Takeo.KenseiTakeo.Kensei Posts: 1,303
    ebergerly said:

    Try googling "Windows Fonts to Linux" and tell us how much time it took. Many things like that have already been covered since a long time and copying fonts isn't exactely difficult

    Absolutely true. Well, assuming you knew in advance that the reason why your Powerpoint turned to unrecognizable, garbled mush in Linux Libre Office was related to fonts. Which I had no clue about, nor would 99.99% of people who tried it. And chasing the source of the problem took forever. And no, I found no way to merely add the correct fonts. After a long search I learned those fonts not only don't exist for use in Libre Office, they are not licensed, which means you are not even allowed to use them. Which means I had to totally re-write my presentation from scratch.

    In any case, this is just one of many issues I had with Linux before I totally banned it from any of my networked computers. 

    Yes, having an alternative to Windows 10 is a very nice idea. But when you finally realize all you have to go thru, and all the stuff that doesn't work, and all the things you have to re-learn, moving over to a new OS can be a huge pain. I just caution folks to really consider what they may be facing if they jump to a new OS.

    So while "20/20 hindsight" sounds wonderful, it can be pretty much irrelevant.  

     

    There are many lists of "Things to do after installing...". Some of them do have the MS Fonts installation in it. Ex https://fossbytes.com/things-to-do-after-installing-linux-mint/

    Such list could be found for any major Linux distribution. These are a good starting point to get a better experience

    I know we all have our habits and we will try to get the same software accross different OS to get back our little comfort but that's not always the best way to get a better user experience.

    I don't do the same thing in Linux and don't use the same tools as in Windows. I don't get frustrated this way because I don't seek a 1 to 1 replacement.

     

    One final update. Things were working but I had to re-enter my serial number for Studio and several other applications on each restart and re-enter a lot of settings. So I went into windows settings and told it to go back to the previous verion of Windows. This seems to have fixed the problems, I've even got my bookmarks back in Chrome. I've also set the option to defer feature updates up to it's maximum of 365 days. So now I can try and forget this whole mess and go back to actually using my computer, for a year at least.

    I use my notebook as a guinea pig for Windows 10. It didn't pass the 1709 and 1809 update smoothly. I had to do a fresh install. You may have to do the same

    One advice I can give is to get a cheap spare HDD, clone your OS on it, then launch the update process to verify if the update is successfull or not

  • SixDsSixDs Posts: 2,384

    Further to the question of cloning your boot drive/Windows installation, the two major hard drive manufacturers, Seagate and Western Digital, offer disk utilities for free that are based upon Acronis True Image. That will allow you to create a clone of your boot drive that will contain a complete duplicate of the original and will preserve your registration/validation. The only catch is, you must use the software to create a boot disk in order to create the clone. The reason for the latter is that Windows has always had a tendency to protect files that are in use from being copied, and that includes a whole lot of system files that are considered "in use" by the operating system. By using a boot disk you are able to create a complete disk image without the operating system itself interferring. I have drives from both those manufacturers and have created iso disk images using their software, and it works.

  • ebergerlyebergerly Posts: 3,255
    edited March 2019

    One thing to consider about backups:

    You don't need an exact encoded image of your system drives, which is what you get with stuff like Acronis. And IMO, you don't WANT an encoded image. You need your un-encoded important files, including the unencoded downloads of all your important software so you can quickly go down the list and re-install. And you don't need "incremental backups". You generally only want the latest version. 

    Last time I had a system hard drive failure, I merely took a new drive, plugged it in, and since Windows 10 is tied to the hardware it was a simple task to re-download Windows. I then went down my list of software downloads on my backup drive and re-installed them all (which goes surprisingly fast), and I'm done.

    And what's far more important, IMO, is that if your system drive just before it failed had some terrible bug or virus or whatever that CAUSED the crash, the last thing you want is to revive a copy of it. And since you have no clue when the virus appeared, you don't know how far to go back to grab a backup. IMO it's far better to start from scratch, and have non-encoded versions of all your files available so you don't need special software to recover your system. Because your system is crashed. The last thing you need is to try to figure what additional software you need and what the backup image includes and so on, since it's all encoded and you can't actually see it unless you have the software.  

    Post edited by ebergerly on
  • Takeo.KenseiTakeo.Kensei Posts: 1,303
    SixDs said:

    Further to the question of cloning your boot drive/Windows installation, the two major hard drive manufacturers, Seagate and Western Digital, offer disk utilities for free that are based upon Acronis True Image. That will allow you to create a clone of your boot drive that will contain a complete duplicate of the original and will preserve your registration/validation. The only catch is, you must use the software to create a boot disk in order to create the clone. The reason for the latter is that Windows has always had a tendency to protect files that are in use from being copied, and that includes a whole lot of system files that are considered "in use" by the operating system. By using a boot disk you are able to create a complete disk image without the operating system itself interferring. I have drives from both those manufacturers and have created iso disk images using their software, and it works.

    I didn't use Acronis since forever but I did advise a friend who knows nothing about IT to use the seagate free tool which is indeed a free Acronis version

    I don't think he needed to create a boot disk and he directly cloned on the new HDD as I told him to do

    There shouldn't be problem of system files in use if the cloning software uses Windows VSS which I believe is used by Acronis

  • ebergerlyebergerly Posts: 3,255

     

    There are many lists of "Things to do after installing...". Some of them do have the MS Fonts installation in it. Ex https://fossbytes.com/things-to-do-after-installing-linux-mint/

    Awesome. Thanks. "22 Important Things To Do After Installing Linux Mint 19". Twenty Two.

    And many of them require you to type out strings of command line commands.

    That's my point. For those who are thinking of switching to Linux, I encourage you to really consider stuff like this. Stuff you'd never think you need to do, and never needed to do with Windows. As annoying as Windows 10 might be for some, Linux can be FAR more annoying. For those who have conquered Linux, I think it's more of a badge of honor for all the work they put in and figured it out. For those who aren't interested in a badge of honor, it's a whole lot of work and frustration, IMO.  

  • Peter WadePeter Wade Posts: 1,675
    ebergerly said:

    Try googling "Windows Fonts to Linux" and tell us how much time it took. Many things like that have already been covered since a long time and copying fonts isn't exactely difficult

    Absolutely true. Well, assuming you knew in advance that the reason why your Powerpoint turned to unrecognizable, garbled mush in Linux Libre Office was related to fonts. Which I had no clue about, nor would 99.99% of people who tried it. And chasing the source of the problem took forever. And no, I found no way to merely add the correct fonts. After a long search I learned those fonts not only don't exist for use in Libre Office, they are not licensed, which means you are not even allowed to use them. Which means I had to totally re-write my presentation from scratch.

    In any case, this is just one of many issues I had with Linux before I totally banned it from any of my networked computers. 

    Yes, having an alternative to Windows 10 is a very nice idea. But when you finally realize all you have to go thru, and all the stuff that doesn't work, and all the things you have to re-learn, moving over to a new OS can be a huge pain. I just caution folks to really consider what they may be facing if they jump to a new OS.

    So while "20/20 hindsight" sounds wonderful, it can be pretty much irrelevant.  

     

    There are many lists of "Things to do after installing...". Some of them do have the MS Fonts installation in it. Ex https://fossbytes.com/things-to-do-after-installing-linux-mint/

    Such list could be found for any major Linux distribution. These are a good starting point to get a better experience

    I know we all have our habits and we will try to get the same software accross different OS to get back our little comfort but that's not always the best way to get a better user experience.

    I don't do the same thing in Linux and don't use the same tools as in Windows. I don't get frustrated this way because I don't seek a 1 to 1 replacement.

     

    One final update. Things were working but I had to re-enter my serial number for Studio and several other applications on each restart and re-enter a lot of settings. So I went into windows settings and told it to go back to the previous verion of Windows. This seems to have fixed the problems, I've even got my bookmarks back in Chrome. I've also set the option to defer feature updates up to it's maximum of 365 days. So now I can try and forget this whole mess and go back to actually using my computer, for a year at least.

    I use my notebook as a guinea pig for Windows 10. It didn't pass the 1709 and 1809 update smoothly. I had to do a fresh install. You may have to do the same

    One advice I can give is to get a cheap spare HDD, clone your OS on it, then launch the update process to verify if the update is successfull or not

    I think I'll have to get another USB drive to make a backup, I haven't got enough free space on the drives I currently have. I haven't tried this cloneing thing before, I assume it creates an image of the entire partition including the system files and lets you put it back later? It's a bit annoying that Maplin have gone out of business. I used to be able to just go to the shop and buy a 4TB drive, now I'll have to order it online and have it delivered.

    My plan for now is not to run tests on the update but to put it off as long as possible, permanently if I can.

  • ebergerly said:

     

    My plan for now is not to run tests on the update but to put it off as long as possible, permanently if I can.

    You can stop updates forever by using several different utilities. I used a program called "Update Blocker". Run it, tick a couple of boxes, hit apply, and forget about it. Of course, then you get no security updates at all. In my case, the only time I ever connect my rendering PC to the internet is to download new purchases either through DIM or from Renderosity, then I immediately disconnect it again.

    Not everyone is going to be able to keep their machine offline all the time. If you're not doing much browsing, downloading random stuff, or checking emails on that PC, you might feel that it's worth the small risk to avoid having Microsoft leave you tearing your hair out trying to fix stuff that their updates broke. You can still update the defender virus definitions manually even with updating turned off.

  • Takeo.KenseiTakeo.Kensei Posts: 1,303
    ebergerly said:

     

    There are many lists of "Things to do after installing...". Some of them do have the MS Fonts installation in it. Ex https://fossbytes.com/things-to-do-after-installing-linux-mint/

    Awesome. Thanks. "22 Important Things To Do After Installing Linux Mint 19". Twenty Two.

    And many of them require you to type out strings of command line commands.

    That's my point. For those who are thinking of switching to Linux, I encourage you to really consider stuff like this. Stuff you'd never think you need to do, and never needed to do with Windows. As annoying as Windows 10 might be for some, Linux can be FAR more annoying. For those who have conquered Linux, I think it's more of a badge of honor for all the work they put in and figured it out. For those who aren't interested in a badge of honor, it's a whole lot of work and frustration, IMO.  

    Look at this thread and count the workaround suggested just to prevent W10 update mess that you'd never have to think or to do in Linux. There are many tweaks for Windows too

    And it seems you didn't even read what's in the 22 things to do because most points are things you'd already do with windows. You may not like Linux; but your arguments are weak and without substance

    And btw copy paste few command line is not exactely difficult and if you really hate that, you can learn to use the package manager like you must have learned to use windows software manager

  • ShelLuserShelLuser Posts: 749

    I also applied the update to 1809 quite recently but never ran into any problems. Sorry to say but I can't help but be convinced that there might have been more issues with that installation which eventually surfaced after the update was applied. It's easy to blame tne updating process because this was probably the last major change on your system, but chances are high that it was merely a symptom.

     

  • ShelLuserShelLuser Posts: 749

    I also applied the update to 1809 quite recently but never ran into any problems. Sorry to say but I can't help but be convinced that there might have been more issues with that installation which eventually surfaced after the update was applied. It's easy to blame the updater but chances are high that this was merely a symptom.

     

  • ebergerlyebergerly Posts: 3,255

    Takeo.Kensei,

    I'm not totally biased against Linux, in fact it definitely has some very nice aspects. For example I have a Debian version on my Raspberry Pi "desktop you can hold in your hand", and without a very lightweight OS like this Debian version this PC (with only 1GB of RAM) wouldn't be possible.

    And I also used to run Mint Mate on a VNC virtual machine on my W10 machine for a long time until I got so upset at it and uninstalled it. And that was after I was unable to get the Cinammon version working for some reason I never figured out and nobody had any clue what was going on. And I kept tossing a coin to try to find out which of the 1,000+ Linux versions were easiest to use. And I gave up on Ubuntu after realizing the one I downloaded required constant use of command line commands, which required tons of constant research. And I found that too many of my important Windows apps didn't have a Linux version. And it was far too much hassle to get Wine installed and working when those apps worked fine in Windows, so why bother? 

    But when I feel like tinkering it's great. In fact just this morning I hooked up a data acquisition device via USB to my Raspberry PI and installed the Linux drivers and software and actually got it talking to the data acquisition device. Though that was after a list of about 12 command line commands, which is the only way to install these drivers. Unfortunately, this device is FAR easier to use in Windows since the drivers install easily, and it also comes with tons of nice, pre-made Windows software apps to access the device that don't exist in the Linux version. And I can't program it directly using my favorite C# development environment (MS Visual Studio) because of course it doesn't exist on Linux, and there's nothing close in Linux. So I'd have to learn Python to program it in Linux, which I have no interest in doing.

    Clearly every OS has pros and cons. There's a ton I dislike about Windows 10, though I think some take their dislike a bit overboard. It's not really that bad, IMO. And in my history since Windows first came out I can't recall really having any major issues, just a ton of annoyances. And the skeptic in me tends to assume that those with major issues also have some other stuff going on that might be contributing. Because usually I never experience those things.

    And for those who just want a simple OS to do web browsing and maybe watch videos and Facebook and such, once Linux is running it's fine as long as you don't have to monkey with much under the hood. Or deal with trying to get your specialized software to work. 

    So again I just caution folks to not assume Linux is a magic bullet that will solve all your problems. It has its own problems. Especially for new users who have no clue what "sudo" is smiley

    So while my arguments are weak and without substance, I hope I can help folks to be cautious at least. 

  • kyoto kidkyoto kid Posts: 42,047

    ...as I mentioned, the basic function of an OS should primarily be to support your software, not tell you when to change your socks, that the kettle is about to boil, let you know its raining outside, etc..  That is what applications are for if you want that all that rubbish on your system.   You also shouldn't have to deal with the interruptions of, and potential failures caused by automated updating.

  • ebergerlyebergerly Posts: 3,255
    edited March 2019

    Coincidentally, I was looking at some stuff online regarding doing some audio effects in my favorite video editing software on the planet (Davinci Resolve) and ran across this interesting set of conclusions from Puget Systems after they tested Resolve's performance in Windows vs. Linux. I think they summarize it pretty well, and echo much of what I've been saying:

    From a pure performance standpoint, we surprisingly have to give a slight edge to Windows 10. Frankly, however, the difference is small enough that you probably shouldn't base your OS selection on performance alone. If you already have a firm reason for using Linux, then your decision is likely already made for you. However, for those that have not used it before we do want to point out some major considerations that you should take into account if you are considering Linux:

    1: Linux has a high learning curve

    If you have not used Linux much in the past, be prepared for a lot of Googling and banging your head against the wall. Even something as seemingly simple as installing software usually requires the use of the terminal (similar to Window's command line) and commands that may look like a random string of characters. In addition, if drivers are not installed in the proper manner you can run into issues as serious as the OS no longer booting if you run software updates. The nice thing with Linux is that it's open nature means almost anything can be fixed but we highly recommend only considering Linux if you or someone on your IT staff has extensive experience with it.

    2: DaVinci Resolve has very limited audio support in Linux

    If you want to use the audio built into your system or even an external DAC, you are most likely going to be out of luck. At the moment, DaVinci Resolve is only able to output audio in Linux through something like a Blackmagic DeckLink or Intensity card. This will send the audio through HDMI or SDI, however, so you also need a grading monitor that supports audio out - hopefully in the form of an audio jack so you can use speakers or a headset rather than any built-in monitor speakers. We do want to note that even with a DeckLink Studio 4K we have had some audio issues in Resolve. At times, the audio would be just fine in the Edit tab, but in the Color tab it was garbled and filled with static. So if audio is something you need, Linux is likely not the right OS for you.

    3: Not all related software works in Linux

    In particular, we want to point out that Adobe applications like Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Photoshop do not work natively in Linux. Due to this, be sure to double check that any applications you use in addition to DaVinci Resolve support Linux.

    4: Not all hardware has Linux support

    This could be anything from external devices to hardware integrated into your motherboard. As an example, the Thunderbolt 3 controller built into the X299 system we used in this testing does not currently work in CentOS and actually causes the OS to hang for 10-15 minutes during startup.

    This may sound overly critical of Linux, but the truth is that while Linux is not at all bad and in some situations is completely the right choice, for most DaVinci Resolve users Windows is the better option. If there was a significant performance benefit it may be different, but given that Windows is actually slightly better for performance overall, Linux and CentOS in particular is something we are not going to recommend for most of our customers at this time.

    Post edited by ebergerly on
  • NotAnArtistNotAnArtist Posts: 411
    Taoz said:

    There are some free cloners out there though I've never used them. I stick to Image for DOS, been creating and restoring system images for over 15 years hundreds of times on several PCs and never had a problem or a corrupted image/restore. But I guess it's mostly for nerds, it has is a ton of advanced settings (and a very good manual covering these). One thing I like is that it can validate the image after creation as well as byte-for-byte validate the restored partition (compare it with the image). This way you can be certain that the restored system is 100% identical to the one the image was created from.

    Thanks for the response. That's a bit too hard-core for me, especially while I'm overwhelmed studying 3D imaging. There are a few inexpensive cloners available that I need to read up on. Or, just keep what I'm doing. Thanks again!

  • vwranglervwrangler Posts: 4,984
    kyoto kid said:

    ...in my case ""free" would not have been a very good price as I'd have W10 Home Edition which would have given MS almost total control over what goes on your my system and myself, little to none.

    Still weighing out W10 LTSB.  Yeah, about 100$ more than 10 Pro, but with none of the useless feature fluff or interruptions.every six months.

    Unless you're a business doing volume license purchasing, you can't get LTSB as an individual user. You have to purchase Windows 10 Enterprise, not Pro, and then you have to purchase at least 10 copies (or possibly five; I've seen both numbers around). Paying an extra $1000 (the $100 LTSB fee) plus the cost of the extra 9 Windows 10 licenses, plus whatever the difference between Pro and Enterprise is, seems like it might be a costly way to avoid this mess.

    Very technically, there's an evaluation ISO you can install and run for 90 days, with one or two renewals. After 90 days, it starts nagging you to get a "real" Windows license, and after the first or second renewal (unclear), it locks your computer.

  • SixDsSixDs Posts: 2,384
    edited March 2019

    Can we please put all the Linux FUDD to rest. I get it. Some people don't like Linux. Fine. Move on. This thread is about a borked Windows update, not how scary Linux is. (P.S. As a Windows user that has used every version of Windows since 3, not to mention MS-DOS (Ewww, scary command line - Boo!), I have no axe to grind about Linux. But I do grow tired of hearing the same old, lame sorry, worn out arguments against Linux that have been used for years by those who seem to have some vested interested in frightening people like a parent frightening their children with stories of the boogieman. I may be a Windows user, but I know that there are a myriad of Linux distributions out there that offer the user the option of deciding for themselves how much complexity they wish to deal with, including some that are every bit as easy to use as Windows. Just not Windows.)

    Post edited by SixDs on
  • kyoto kidkyoto kid Posts: 42,047
    vwrangler said:
    kyoto kid said:

    ...in my case ""free" would not have been a very good price as I'd have W10 Home Edition which would have given MS almost total control over what goes on your my system and myself, little to none.

    Still weighing out W10 LTSB.  Yeah, about 100$ more than 10 Pro, but with none of the useless feature fluff or interruptions.every six months.

    Unless you're a business doing volume license purchasing, you can't get LTSB as an individual user. You have to purchase Windows 10 Enterprise, not Pro, and then you have to purchase at least 10 copies (or possibly five; I've seen both numbers around). Paying an extra $1000 (the $100 LTSB fee) plus the cost of the extra 9 Windows 10 licenses, plus whatever the difference between Pro and Enterprise is, seems like it might be a costly way to avoid this mess.

    Very technically, there's an evaluation ISO you can install and run for 90 days, with one or two renewals. After 90 days, it starts nagging you to get a "real" Windows license, and after the first or second renewal (unclear), it locks your computer.

    ..actually not.  Windows 10 LSTB sells of about 295$. 

    https://www.trustedtechteam.com/products/microsoft-windows-10-enterprise-ltsb?dfw_tracker=22777-8694630776923&gclid=CjwKCAiAiJPkBRAuEiwAEDXZZWSAYX8G-6U9h2K3HmUCCFH-SGbCWaVRG6g5kphDItRwhVIFVttMDBoCHVQQAvD_BwE

  • ebergerlyebergerly Posts: 3,255
    edited March 2019

    FWIW, here's the link to the actual Microsoft statement on this:

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4482887/windows-10-update-kb4482887

    And here's their summary:

     

    Symptom Workaround

    After installing this update, Internet Explorer 11 may have authentication issues. This occurs when two or more people use the same user account for multiple, concurrent login sessions on the same Windows Server machine, including Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) and Terminal Server logons. Symptoms reported by customers include, but may not be limited to:

    • Cache size and location show zero or empty.

    • Keyboard shortcuts may not work properly.

    • Webpages may intermittently fail to load or render correctly.

    • Issues with credential prompts.

    • Issues when downloading files.

    Create unique user accounts so that two people don’t share the same user account when logging on to a Windows Server machine. Additionally, disable multiple RDP sessions for a single user account for a specific Windows Server.

    Microsoft is working on a resolution and will provide an update in an upcoming release.

    After installing this update, users may receive “Error 1309” while installing or uninstalling certain types of MSI and MSP files.

    Ignore the error.

    Microsoft is working on a resolution and will provide an update in an upcoming release.

    After installing KB4482887, users may notice graphics and mouse performance degradation with desktop gaming when playing certain games, such as Destiny 2.

     

    Sounds like there are some Explorer issues and degraded gaming performance. Nothing about file deletion. 

    Post edited by ebergerly on
  • ebergerlyebergerly Posts: 3,255
    edited March 2019

    BTW, I keep hearing about difficulties in turning off automatic updates. I checked my update history, and I never received this update, which apparently went out on March 1. I don't recall, but I think I long ago turned off automatic updates in my W10 Home edition. I haven't received a "feature" update since Oct. of last year (I think I manually did that after 1809 came out...). However, I do get daily antivirus updates and Windows 10 cumulative upates as well as some MS and other software updates. 

    Though I'm not sure what I did, probably a registry tweak or group policy thing. And honestly the only problem I recall having with W10 in recent years was the issue where 1803 messed up network sharing visibility (ie, you couldn't see shared computers on the network). But other than that, none of the cumulative updates, etc., have been a problem. 

    There's an old saying: "Correlation does not imply causation". Just because two things seem to happen together doesn't mean one caused the other. But anyway, there are ways to turn this stuff off if you're willing to spend a few minutes doing some tweaks, like this one posted a few weeks ago on windowscentral. I'm guessing I did something like this long ago:

    https://www.windowscentral.com/how-stop-updates-installing-automatically-windows-10

     

    Post edited by ebergerly on
  • edited March 2019

    @Peter Wade:

    People need to understand that those "feature updates" (such as updating from 1803 to 1809 or soon from 1809 to 1903) are a FULL OS REINSTALL.

    It will make a Windows.old folder on your C:\ drive and move Users and Windows folders there then install from scratch which means it will also nuke all your drivers.

    Microsoft is doing their best to hide that fact so as not to dissuade people from upgrading and saying it's an update like any other which then leads to issues like the one you just had.

    Yes, this "feature update" will try to get your applications and files imported back but it will not always succeed in that.

    Therefore, before doing feature update it is a good practice to backup important things. Sadly, Microsoft won't tell you that.

    As for settings changing on their own, it is on purpose -- Microsoft thinks they own your computer and as such are entitled to experimenting with it. To stop that open administrative command prompt and run the following command:

    REG ADD HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PolicyManager\current\device\System /v AllowExperimentation /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

    That will prevent Microsoft from messing with your settings (at least until the next "feature update" when they will delete this key and you will have to run the command again).

    There is also a bunch of registry keys you can set to stop Windows from installing those junk applications, not to mention zillions of keys you need to set to stop it from sending all your personal data to Redmond but this is not the right place for such discussions so I am just going to link you to https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10.

    Making backups are the absolute best advice people can EVER hear.

    With all due respect (and you obviously understand what you are talking about), however, making registry changes is terrible advice to offer to the typical computer user on websites like these.  An average user has little knowledge of what the computer software registry even does, and telling them to go in and modify the settings is an invitation for disaster.

    Post edited by davidwski_16294691f0 on
  • ebergerlyebergerly Posts: 3,255

    With all due respect (and you obviously understand what you are talking about), however, making registry changes is terrible advice to offer to the typical computer user on websites like these.  An average user has little knowledge of what the computer software registry even does, and telling them to go in and modify the settings is an invitation for disaster.

    True, but a word of caution when cautioning others. You might hear something like:

    "I do grow tired of hearing the same old, lame sorry, worn out arguments against registry changes that have been used for years by those who seem to have some vested interested in frightening people like a parent frightening their children with stories of the boogieman." smiley

    Just sayin'....

  • I thought you can only disable updates in the pro version of Win 10 and that it can't be done in the home version of Win 10?

  • ebergerlyebergerly Posts: 3,255
    edited March 2019

    I thought you can only disable updates in the pro version of Win 10 and that it can't be done in the home version of Win 10?

    I know, right? My world is exploding. Can't imagine finding myth and misinformation on the internet. surprise

    BTW, they also have a link explaining how to delay, defer, or block the major updates, like 1809:

    https://www.windowscentral.com/how-delay-windows-10-redstone-5-update-update-while-still-getting-updates

    And of course they recognize the importance of updates, and that it's probably smarter to delay major feature updates like I do for a few months until users identify and work out the bugs, not block them totally forever:

    "Updates are an important part of Windows 10, and they keep your device running smoothly, protect your data from hackers and malware, and twice a year, updates also introduce new features and changes to improve the experience.

    The only drawback is that during the early days of new feature updates unknown issues and compatibility problems could negatively affect your experience."

    Post edited by ebergerly on
  • Ron KnightsRon Knights Posts: 2,338

    I switched to Macs for my main computers in 2007. I had painful memories of Windows computers with problems. Windows 7 was the last version I had used. Over recent years, I got tired of complaining how Apple doesn't give me hardware flexibility. I recently received an HP 17" notebook with Windows 10. I've had absolutely no problems. Eventually I'll get a desktop Windows PC for DAZ Studio. But I'll save my data on a separate hard drive!

  • kaotkblisskaotkbliss Posts: 2,918

    I usually don't reply once a thread gets a few pages in, since by that time poeple have stopped reading and just started skimming.

    What I do. First, I tend to move stuff I want to keep to another drive (I have a couple in my pc)

    Then for backup, I simply have windows file history turned on which saves to a seperate internal drive. I then got 500GB lifetime online storage from zoolz for real cheap. So I have zoolz set to copy the file history backup to it's cloud storage.

    Without me even thinking or worying about it, my computer automatically has 2 backups (1 being accessible from any computer anywhere) at all times.

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