What Fresh Hell Is This Re: MS Version 1709??

It might be a bit of bother for you folks with brand name machines, specially laptops and tablets, but W10 is getting better with every build/upgrade. My "Skippy" Insider build works like a charm on two home made, off the shelf parts machines. Even better than on regular ones.

jimbo45 said:

Hi there.

I'm not a huge Windows lover or Hater --it's a mechanism for performing tasks and it usually does what it has to do perfectly OK (apart from some Networking issues which seem to randomly pop up after some upgrades - Windows Networking though has always been a dog).

I'm saying this again to the point of excruciating boredom - but why don't (some) people ever take a backup of their system(s) regularly -- with decent FREE products like Macrium there is no reason for NOT taking them.

These would also solve a lot of problems with Viruses, PUP's, etc as well and if you install 3rd party software which doesn't uninstall or work properly a backup restore fixes that too.

I have to say though Windows 10 seems to have the least problems with any Windows system (apart from W2003 Server - and a server is really in a different category to a desktop OS) that I've ever had - and I've been using windows since floppy disk days and Windows 3.11 !!!!!.

I sometimes wonder what are people actually doing to their machines that they get into so much trouble. Windows 10 will even run on quite old hardware and if you have really old legacy hardware Windows 10 runs previous versions of Windows as Virtual machines also with minimal problems.

Cheers
jimbo

What they are doing ?
Well, mostly "killing" and otherwise disabling/restricting updates which MS (or any other OS developer) wouldn't bother with if not absolutely necessary.
"Killing" telemetry and "spying" in ways they were not envisioned by OS makers.
Installing obscure AVs and antimalware resident programs while even major AV developers have problems conforming to OS and changes/updates to it.
Running all kinds of "Speedup and system optimizing" programs which are in large majority of cases just snake oil.
Installing highly questionable programs and applications without verifying their validity and safety.
Not making full system and data backups.
Just some things that more often than not are sure to ruin everything.

CountMike said:

What they are doing ?
Well, mostly "killing" and otherwise disabling/restricting updates which MS (or any other OS developer) wouldn't bother with if not absolutely necessary ... some things that more often than not are sure to ruin everything.

The saving grace of the 'tweak it till it breaks' approach is that sooner or later they'll have to do a clean install just to get a working system again. At least then they'll have a pristine system :)

My main machine on the other hand is 'tweak free' - probably why it can trace its ancestry back to its original OEM Windows 7, upgraded to 10 in Aug. 2015. All subsequent Features Updates (1511, 1607, 1703 and 1709) have installed without a hitch, as have the cumulative updates.

Bree said:

The saving grace of the 'tweak it till it breaks' approach is that sooner or later they'll have to do a clean install just to get a working system again. At least then they'll have a pristine system :)

My main machine on the other hand is 'tweak free' - probably why it can trace its ancestry back to its original OEM Windows 7, upgraded to 10 in Aug. 2015. All subsequent Features Updates (1511, 1607, 1703 and 1709) have installed without a hitch, as have the cumulative updates.

Like everything else, you take care of it and it will take care of you.
I have only one clean install since W7 and even that is because at first I was updating to W8/8.1. About 1 year ago I did a clean install and all of mine were insider builds.

Bree said:

I note that Ghacks doesn't know (or at least, doesn't say) how easy it is to remove the Upgrade Assistant and prevent it from reinstalling itself every time you uninstall it.

Easy for you or I, but the "Average User" is apparently unable to even create folders to store their documents in.

Uninstalling an App should uninstall it.
"Average Users" shouldn't have to manually delete Windows folders or Tasks.

These users foolishly believed MS, they used the defer updates/upgrade settings that MS provided and they still got "bent over".

With previous versions of Windows (XP, Vista, W7 & the W8 series) uninstalling most programs actually uninstalled them.
If a program reinstalled itself the next time you booted your PC it was called malware.

jimbo45 said:

I'm saying this again to the point of excruciating boredom - but why don't (some) people ever take a backup of their system(s) regularly -- with decent FREE products like Macrium there is no reason for NOT taking them.

Average users never create Backup Images.

According Cloud fanatics, all users are supposed to store their stuff on OneDrive, so why would they need Backup Images?

CountMike said:

What they are doing ?
Well, mostly "killing" and otherwise disabling/restricting updates which MS (or any other OS developer) wouldn't bother with if not absolutely necessary.

MS provided Settings to delay updates/upgrades and then sent out updates to bypass those MS approved tools.

With proper versions of Windows (XP, Vista, W7 & the W8 series) I often saw post from users who had trashed their own installs.
"I deleted/edited some dlls and now Windows doesn't work."

W10 regularly craps itself (on vanilla installs) when it receives supposedly working updates/upgrades.
The dodgy updates that MS regularly releases are just "icing on the cake".

Windows Update is more of a threat to W10 PCs, than surfing the Internet without any protection (no AV, no Script Blocker).

When I upgraded my W10 Pro VM from 1607 to 1703, the upgrade destroyed the graphics driver.
The machine would boot and it was even possible to login, but there was no display (black screen).
An "Average User" wouldn't have been able to fix the issue themselves (even though the fix was simple enough).

My W10 Home and W10 Pro VM both crapped themselves when trying to install 1709.
They:

• Don't have 3rd party AVs
• Have Settings modified using the sliders built into the GUI provided by MS
• Have a 3rd party browser and media player installed

These days I laugh when I see people claim, that unless you're a "Terminal Jockey", it's impossible to keep Linux running.

Linux is great to run "As it is" just choose right distro and there's tons of them. Mild customizing is within everybody's reach but anything more advanced requires some knowledge specific to Linux or even particular distro. People that started with Linux are at advantage there, coming from Windows, not so much. I get so many questions about installing drivers for instance, even side loading APPs. "Where the heck is that .exe to install a program" is most asked question.
With windows it's much easier, run setup.exe and (hopefully) it will install and run. Drivers (mostly) like that too. There's no milk and honey with Linux either.