A Rant: Win Updates and their frustrations.

Greetings everyone.

Installing the Fall update.
Took me the whole day, about.
I hoped, that MicroSoft had learned by now, or changed their point of view on a few topics, but no...

I made sure, before the update, that my system was as clean as possible, and updated to the last drivers/software.

The download went very smooth, for which my thanks, and I must concur: NEVER had an issue in this regard.

Installation took bloody long, odd since I have quite a beast as system.

Upon being installed, and entering the OS, I am greeted by a blinking screen, and a message that one app is causing trouble due to being incompatible.
I uninstalled StartIsBack (the Windows 7 Taskbar mod for Windows 10).
Frankly, the Metro System and the Metro Taskbar are absolutely NOT what I like, au contraire.
I cannot grasp the fact, that the BEST idea ever in the Windows history (and I am around since version 1.01 I think it was, in 1985, which worked under MS-DOS), the "Windows 7 Taskbar" as many call it, was removed and replaced by this new.... thing...
I hoped, they would at least give us the choice/option to either go for the old taskbar, or this new horror.
After uninstalling the StartIsBack app and restarting, I come to the conclusion that the Metro horror does not work as it should be working, half the options are simply dead (such as menu options, the taskbar button, ...).
So, I am forced to reload my Acronis backup.

Did this, entered Windows, uninstall StartIsBack, reboot, upgrade...
Upgrade done, entering Windows, which promptly asks for DotNet 3.5.
No matter what I tried, I could not install DotNet 3.5, due to error 0x800f9something, which I could not get fixed.
None of the fixes helped.
Redeploying Acronis, remove StartIsBack, install DotNet 3.5, upgrading, restart and enter Windows.

Now I come to the conclusion... that my Realtek sound driver isn't working.
Reboot into Safe Mode, deactivate Auto-Driver install, deactivate and uninstall driver, reboot into Safe Mode, install THE SAME DRIVER... and voila, it works.
Odd, that the driver was corrupted over this upgrade, as it 'was incompatible'.
If it actually was incompatible, then why does it accept and run the same driver, clean installed?

Create Acronis Backup, restart into windows, as experiment I install the SAME version of StartIsBack, restart system... it works.

Wait, why was Windows Fall Upgrade being so extreme on this program?
Especially as it seems 100% compatible with the Fall Upgrade???

I have a few files, which Windows Defender seems to see as a 'virus', worms to be precisely, files that belong to simple games.
I open Defender, tell Defender that these files are allowed, then tell Defender to restore these (which Defender every so often refuses), only to have them removed again when Defender feels like doing this (it is very random thus).
How come, when I exclude a folder or file, Defender seems to either forget this, or ignore this?

Windows Explorer: I removed Quick Access on each new upgrade, only to have it staring back at me after yet another upgrade.
I made this register key, only to figure out the register key in the register is secured, and refuses to be overwritten.
Fun.
But not really.
It is quite a tedious task to manually remove this Quick Annoyance.
Why this is so protected, only the Windows god knows.
Quite silly to overkill this register part in this way, especially since it is such a non-important, not valuable something.

Other settings too are undone, makes me wondering, is MS that disrespecting it's customers?
I mean: why blocking or removing parts 'for incompatibility reasons' while in fact these things are not at all incompatible?
In StartIsBack's case, why be so hard on this program?
They only brought back what you, Microsoft, took away from us, never even asking if we wanted that.
You forced things on us, shoving some through our throat with no option to undo this, in the name of evolution, of progress, but to me personally it truly feels more like a de-evolution, a deminishment, where, to me, Windows 7 was THE best ever windows version so far.

I truly hope that some of these annoyances will be dealt with in your next 'seasonal upgrade' (option for decent taskbar, fixes for several errors, like the one I had, ...).

Thank you,
A frustrated Xog.

Win10 seems solid under the hood but I’m not understanding the need for this rolling release nonsense. There just isn’t enough difference between releases to justify it.

It looks like all they’re doing is updating apps that come with the OS. Why does it take an in-place upgrade to add some frosted glass effects to your theme and apps? Seems like the feature updates exist only to push this “Windows as a service” model and to drop support for whatever hardware they feel like at the time.

It’s an Operating system that exists for the purpose of managing any applications and hardware the user wants to use, not a damn cable tv station or a mobile phone App Store/launcher.

You can attach fancy names to your updates all you want but it doesn’t gloss over the fact that all you’re really doing is annoying people that simply want to get **** done. In-place upgrades twice a year, forced non security related driver updates, rearranging stuff for the sake of change, no QA beyond the volunteer community and a CEO that believes app advertising and auto installing apps you might like without your consent is ethical, alienating businesses with a mobile mindset in a desktop OS are going to hurt MS at some point down the road.

vram said:

Win10 seems solid under the hood but I’m not understanding the need for this rolling release nonsense. There just isn’t enough difference between releases to justify it.

Apparently that is the justification - small bite-sized changes from one release to the next. A continuous evolution instead of the 'culture shock' of shifting from 7 to 8, and then 8 to 10.

Microsoft said:

Prior to Windows 10, Microsoft released new versions of Windows every few years. This traditional deployment schedule imposed a training burden on users because the feature revisions were often significant. That schedule also meant waiting long periods without new features — a scenario that doesn’t work in today’s rapidly changing world, a world in which new security, management, and deployment capabilities are necessary to address challenges. Windows as a service will deliver smaller feature updates two times per year, around March and September, to help address these issues.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/win.../waas-overview

@Bree

Name one “culture shock” during a major release of Windows that impacted users for months after release.

“Windows 8!”

Why was that release such a shock?

“The Start screen!”

Make a case for the reason the Start menu. How has your work flow been positively impacted by it? How were you less productive on previous versions of Windows?

I’m not against change except change for the sake of change. They don’t need to push an in place upgrade twice per year. They’re doing it because they feel it makes them look nimble, which is all the rage these days.

You asked why Microsoft changed their service model - I provided Microsoft's reasons (I didn't say I necessarily agreed with them :))

Actually I avoided 8 precisely because I couldn't be bothered with the steep learning curve. I made an emergency purchase of a used Win7 instead of a new Win8 when my faithful XP box died a sudden death.

We're now more than two years into Windows 10. Have you actually run an RTM 10240 recently? I do, I have all versions available on my test machine (system two in my specs). 1709 is very different from the original 1507, but can you say you have noticed the changes? Lots of small changes add up to a major shift, but it's been so gradual you don't notice unless you can step back in time.

I noticed changes but none of them have added much value IMO.

Sorry if I came off like a troll. I just get irritated with some of the stuff companies pull these days.

Getting old :)

Windows 10 is getting increasingly hard to swallow lately,
it's not an operating system anymore, it's a friggin Toy Store!

(Had to throw my 2¢ in there!)