Windows 10 Update

[John E]

Is there anyone here running Windows 10 who hasn't updated in the last month? If so, be afraid! Be very, very afraid!!

Yesterday I was foolish enough to open Windows Update and asked it to check for updates (having previously done so about 3 weeks ago). I was amazed to find it "checking for updates" for near enough 4 hours!! It then entered a stage saying Preparing updates which lasted another two and a half hours before I eventually had to power down and go to bed. When I booted up this morning, that stage continued for about another hour. It then asked me if I wanted to restart.

I initiated the restart sequence - only to be met with another message saying preparing to install updates. That lasted about one and a half hours (this time, without any desktop showing). Finally it rebooted - only to give me another long stream of messages, generally saying things like We'll be there soon - don't turn off your PC. That lasted another 40 minutes. It then switched to a completely blank screen which has been showing for around 15 minutes now.

This update has now been on-going for over 9 hours - and I've got broadband!! I dread to think how long an upgrade would take for someone who's unlucky enough to be still on dial-up (days probably).

Is there actually some idiot at Microsoft who thinks people appreciate this lunacy?

[Edit...] This Win10 update has been an unmitigated disaster! Whenever I try to boot into Windows 10 I just see a totally blank screen now with a cursor showing. Pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL brings up a message box which says "Failure to display security and shut-down options: The sign-in process couldn't display security and sign-in options when Ctrl+Alt+Delete was pressed. If Windows doesn't respond, press Esc or use the power switch to restart. Neither option makes any difference.

Thanks a bunch Microsoft! (anyone know of a forum where I can complain?)

[2kaud]

You do have the latest, fastest 128 core processors don't you? and a new Gb FTTP connection? then I don't get the problem?

You don't have these - oh dear, then you're not using a conforming installation and need to upgrade.

Basically Microsoft aren't releasing 'new' versions of Windows any more, they are just releasing 'feature updates' of existing Windows. However these 'feature updates' (not to be confused with ordinary monthly updates) are effectively new versions of Windows installed via the update mechanism. They 'refresh' the OS by making a copy of the existing OS, then installing the new OS keeping settings, installed programs etc. So if the 'feature update' fails it can roll-back the update to the existing version. This all takes a lot of resources, so on some systems can take a long time.

[John E]

Yes, that seems to be what's happened. At the end of the initial (4 hour) stint, Windows Update told me there were 2 x updates available:- 1 x Security Update and 1 x Feature Update. Fortunately, this particular machine can boot into multiple OS's - so I booted into Windows 7 which offered to carry out some repairs to the Win10 partition. I also noticed (from Win7) that the Win10 partition had a new folder called Windows.old (20.9 GB) as well as the normal Windows folder (21.5GB). So it looks like the entire OS must have got replaced.

The bad news is that having carried out these "repairs" and re-booted, the machine won't boot at all now! (apparently there's some problem with the MBR).

I followed the instructions here for repairing my MBR:-

bootrec.exe /fixmbr
bootsect.exe /nt60 all /force
bootrec.exe /rebuildbcd

However, that hasn't achieved anything at all. So I've now re-booted from a Win7 bootable DVD. Once again, it offered to carry out "repairs" and told me it'd take several minutes. But it's been saying Attempting repairs for almost half an hour now.

I'll leave it for another couple of hours but things don't look good.

If I do manage to reboot though, Windows 10 will definitely be getting the heave-ho! IMHO Windows 7 is the only decent OS that Microsoft ever made.

[2kaud]

So it looks like the entire OS must have got replaced.

Yep! The idea being that you can roll-back to the previous version in the event of problems.

So I've now re-booted from a Win7 bootable DVD

You need to boot from a Win10 DVD recovery DVD or installation DVD. If you haven't got a WIN10 recovery DVD you need to make one - from a working Win10 system.

Windows 10 will definitely be getting the heave-ho

but Microsoft keep telling us how great Windows 10 is! not. I haven't updated any main computers to Windows 10. They're all still Windows 7 with some Windows 10 computers just for testing etc.

IMHO Windows 7 is the only decent OS that Microsoft ever made

Along with XP!

I followed the instructions here for repairing my MBR

Also see
https://msdn.microsoft.com/windows/h...a-dual-boot-pc
https://msdn.microsoft.com/windows/h...ons-techref-di

[John E]

Eventually I managed to boot up using a bootable CD of Paragon's Drive Backup software. Windows 10 was previously on an extended partition, along with my main data partition. There were then 3 x primary partitions containing Windows 7, Windows XP and Windows 8.1. What's happened is that the extended partition has totally gone. The 3 x primary partitions are all intact - except that 2 of them were marked as Active. Having corrected that, all 3 of them can now boot.

I've lost all my data - but that's all backed up so it should be okay. The good news is that losing my extended partition has removed Windows 10 (so that's saved me a job!!) It'll be a long time before I ever install it again...

[Arjay]

Running and updated to Win10 on multiple machines. No problems here.

[2kaud]

Running and updated to Win10 on multiple machines. No problems here.

We've upgraded several 7/8/8.1 computers to 10 (for testing) with no problems. However on at least one of these, installation of the subsequent 'feature' updates have caused problems requiring a re-installation. We didn't investigate or try too hard to fix, just re-installed from a system image. We don't use multi-boot computers.

[2kaud]

IMO having Windows on an extended partition is a bad idea. We've had issues previously with Windows when it has been installed on an extended partition. My advice is always to have the OS(s) which are being used and updated on a primary partition. In this case I would have 7, 8.1 and 10 on the primary partitions and XP & data on the extended partition as XP isn't being updated so is static.

[2kaud]

PS Why not use VMs for the various OS rather than installing them into different partitions? On my PC I have many VMs for OS going right back to Windows 2000 - including desktop/server versions! This makes backup/re-installation so much easier when just dealing with one file per OS.

[John E]

Everything's back working again now - phew!

I've occasionally considered a VM - but running from a partition seems faster somehow. I do have an Apple Mac here which runs Windows 7 in a VM but it's noticeably slow & clunky compared to a genuine Windows machine. Maybe Windows would run better in a Windows VM?

[2kaud]

To use VMs you need a fast disk (SSD) and loads and loads of memory. We use vmware on workstation grade computers and the performance is fine with Windows 7 as the host OS. We even have server OS hosted in a VM which works great.

[John E]

Groan... I wish I'd seen this article before updating...

[2kaud]

After the fact, it's nice of Microsoft to now say they know what's wrong with the update!

At least with Windows 7 you had the choice to install updates or not, but in Windows 10 I don't think you have that choice? There doesn't seem to be a difference between critical security updates (install ASAP) or 'features' which could be installed as and when required after testing.

[John E]

Come back Bill Gates... all is forgiven !

[2kaud]

Come back Bill Gates... all is forgiven !

but I remember all the grief with Windows ME .....