Windows 10: Horrors of the Anniversary Update

I have 2 laptops and 1 desktop and I had problems with the update on all of them and went back to Windows 10 and would really like to go back to Windows 7. The first thing I noticed with the update on the laptops was the touchpad started acting different. Like just moving the mouse would select text, pages would change automatically. The update really slowed the desktop to the point it was difficult to navigate because it was so slow. It was like there was a lot of things going on in the background by how much the working indicator light was on. Reverting back took care of that problem on the desktop and now it is a pleasure to use. I spent several days searching the web and trying different things I found that were supposed to help, but no success.
I also use Linux and like how simple their systems are. Not a bunch of crap you don't want. They give you a choice and if you don't like a program, you can easily remove it.

:)

 

Horrors of the latest Windows 10 Anniversary update.

Since the latest anniversary upgrade last week my computers freeze constantly, reboot web sites or pages constantly, crash my video card and lock up my computers, prevent my fingerprint reader working, loses parts of documents before saving or during
saving.



I have found a solution to the ongoing problems with Microsoft Edge, Cortana and many other currently altered programs, simply delete the software and use internet explorer or any other preferred browser.



It is sad to see a company the size of Microsoft never listens to customer complaints of enquiries and rather than improve things they are just shortcutting things that worked for years so they can simplify them so they can be used as phone or tablet
apps.



I was fortunately able to block 3 of my pc's from ever updating to windows 10 and remain with windows 7 pro. but 3 of my laptops automatically updated even though I had disabled updates on them, having tried to roll back to windows 7, the original
program was so corrupted with irreversible changes left me having to totally reformat my hard drives and install a new Windows 7 pro and all my other software.



My lovely lightweight Acer laptop has had to be scrapped as it would no longer run windows 7 pro or windows 10 since it upgraded on its own.



I have wasted hours of my time at the end of a working day by no longer being able to shut down my laptops and schedule updates for a later more convenient time as that is yet another feature that has been removed, which also means delays and time
wasted waiting for the upgrades that downloaded at the end of your day having to be installed at the beginning of the next day.



If they want to concentrate on tablet and phone apps, do so but leave the rest of the professional software alone.



As with the initial version of Windows 10, the upgrade has dozens of incompatibility issues with both their own office software as well as other proprietary software I use daily.

 

Should I download the anniversary edition to Windows 10?

I've heard/read some horror stories about the anniversary edition to Windows 10. Should I download the update or not?

***Subject edited for clarity by the moderator.***

 

Occasionally, there are issues after an Update is installed, due to residual files, old drivers, etc. Whenever an update doesn't go smooth, a reinstall fixes the issue.

Linux may not come with a bunch of pre-loaded crap, but that isn't what causes these issues. Linux is far from simple in general.

 

You will admit Windows is loaded with bloatware? I spent way too much time trying to make W10AU work and I am not going back to AU! Search the web on AU, there are many many issues. If I had the latest and fastest computer, it may have worked. I have just come to dislike all the junk MS forces on its users.

 

400 million computers are running Windows 10, with 400 bazillion combinations of hardware and software. Yes, there will be some issues, but people don't run to forum groups to say everything is working fine. It's just common sense. We've had to go over this hundreds of times, but if the Update was broken, we would all have issues. A clean install solves the performance issues, and then most things that are on the system can easily be removed if you don't want them. Again, it's a blatantly common sense reason why any apps are shipped with the OS.

I won't admit that it is bloated, or else I wouldn't have be rolling out to my user base.

 

Well I did consider a clean install but did not want to re-install all of my software again. At some point I will probably have no choice but to do that. I am not smart enough to find out and understand what all Windows has running in the background that is not necessary and and spying on me to really make it a lean and functional OS for my needs. Sorry, but I do not trust MS.

 

That's a ridiculously overblown myth. You are clearly on the internet, as you have been answering on this forum, so your biggest worries lies out on the internet...not with your OS. If you think Microsoft is the top worry, you may want to cancel your internet service right away. I'm not saying that to be smartassy, I'm just being honest. Microsoft isn't the worry that some small few make them out to be.

If you plan ahead to have drivers and software on a flash drive, or at the ready, a clean install can be done, start to finish, in two hours or so. It leaves the system running at it's most efficient.

 

I realize MS is not the only one checking on me. It just irritates me that they install an OS with all that extra junk. Could they not just install a bare bones OS and let me choose what to add?

I would like to know more about installing all of my software on a flash drive for re-installation. I saw that I can do a clean install without losing my files.

 

I too have given up on attempting to install the AU and will either wait for a new updated or until I feel I have the time and patience to do a clean install and reinstall/reconfigure all my software.

I have collected all my software installation files in one place and It is just a fairly tedious process to go through re-installing all of them. The real issue is reconfiguring them to have all the same settings, default values, etc. Some of them have easily identified/copied settings files (like the good old Windows 3.1 INI files), but most do not and therefor have to be manually reconfigured. This usually takes more time that actually doing the reinstall.

It is nice when something like the AU installs successfully, but when it doesn't, woe is us.

 

I'm using Win10AU on a laptop that came with a freshly released Vista. And Win10AU is still working faster than Vista ever did. *Smile Windows 7 also worked fine on this laptop, as did 8 and so on.

The thing I noticed, is that when something went wrong with any of the OS systems, I needed to use the drivers that came with the laptop, or use those that worked perfectly with Windows 8.

It's not because you are using Windows 10 that you can't use older drivers with it. The Synaptic software I use on this laptop, is very old, but works perfectly with Windows 10. The drivers and software for the touchpad that came with Windows 10, doesn't work on this laptop. I just guess that the new touchpads are different from the old ones. That's why the new Synaptic software/drivers don't work correctly.

And the video drivers I use, are still those from Vista. The manufacturer never made new drivers for it.

Even with all those old drivers that I use, the laptop is working fine with Windows 10AU. Maybe I'm lucky, but this is something I have always done with my systems. If something doesn't work properly, but did work with a previous version of the OS, I just go back to the old drivers and they often work with the new OS as well. I had only one external scanner that I couldn't make to work with a new OS. But that was also when I upgraded from XP to Windows 7, and those two were really different.

Well, I just wanted to share this with you, because this is the way how I often make very old systems work with the new OS from Microsoft. *Smile

 

DeaconFrost
I decided to do a fresh install of Windows 10 on one of my laptops to see if the end result is any better. Looked at the tutorial on the forum. Is there any other tips that would help me? I made an Acronis backup so I can go back if I don't like it or probably would sooner go back to the Windows 7 backup I have.

 

You can save a bit of time with your drivers by exporting and importing them. For example to a USB drive mounted as E...

Before your clean install: Dism /Online /Export-Driver /Destination:E:\Drivers will put all your drivers called "Drivers" on your E drive.

After installation you can go to Device manage > select the unknown device > point to your Driver folder..

Alternatively you can restore all drivers with Dism /online /Add-Driver /Driver:E:\Drivers /Recurse

 

I did a fresh install on my Dell D630. Took some time to find a touchpad driver that would work about half. Never did scroll very well at any settings. W10 bogged my laptop way too much for my liking. It just has way too much going on. I am going back to Windows 7 on the D630 and have gone back to pre-AU on my other laptop and desktop. Both had issues with being slow and the laptop had touchpad issues. Both machines run Linux GREAT. In fact both laptops worked better as far as the touchpad goes on Linux. It is amazing at all the junk MS has installed on W10! I spent hours removing and disabling that junk. I will most likely end up running Linux on the laptop for browsing the web. After all I don't have all the extras to deal with and everything just works as it should!

 

I don't follow the logic there. If you have a user base that uses Windows and needs to stay relatively current, you have to roll out Win10 regardless of bloat. (Or you get and roll out a stripped down Enterprise version.) Obviously, everybody has his or her own definition of "bloat". I consider every one of the Apps that came with Win10 bloatware.