Windows 10: Network Protocols

I forgot to mention in my previous post that if the currently installed drivers are Windows 10 from Microsoft or from OEM, they are usually retained after an upgrade to the next version. But if anyone has an older machine with Windows 7 or 8 drivers installed, these older drivers are ALWAYS messed after an upgrade to the newer build. So this issue concerns the majority of us that use Windows 10 on older hardware. For the others that use Windows 10 on a new computer (not older than 2 years), they don't see this issue. So don't be surprised if you never had issues while others have.

Also stating that Windows 7 and 8 drivers should not be installed in Windows 10 is completely wrong! Most of the times we have the choice of either installing a generic Microsoft Windows 10 driver (if any) which is limited to functionality, or install latest OEM Windows 7 or 8 driver which is working perfectly enabling all device's features. In this case I always recommend to install the latest OEM driver for best compatibility and performance. And of course there are too many cases that user has no other choice than install Windows 7 or 8 (sometimes even Vista or XP) drivers for the device as there is no other driver available. And yes, I suggest doing that to keep the device usable in Windows 10 and avoid buying a newer device. Of course if for a device there is a Windows 10 driver (OEM not Microsoft), it should be preferred, provided it works properly without issues (there are Windows 10 drivers that do not work properly or have limited functionality compared to Windows 7 or 8 versions).

 

I'm not sure where you're getting that information from, as it's factually inaccurate, and the factually inaccurate understanding you have is why 90% of the users having issues on Windows 10 are having issues.

If an OEM no longer supports a device by no longer offering newer drivers, then:

• the only drivers that should be installed from the OEM are CPU chipset and IMEI drivers. It doesn't matter what OS these two were originally built for, they must be installed.
• all other drivers should be pulled from their respective component manufacturers.

System critical drivers [any component attached to motherboard] for prior Windows versions are not compatible with Windows 10 and should not be installed or utilized on Windows 10. This is why a clean install is required...

• Whenever a driver is installed, two places it's copied to are:
  • %SystemRoot%\INF, renamed to oemxx.inf
    
  • %SystemRoot%\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository, saved in a folder whose name includes the inf name and a hex code

• The problem with running an upgraded OS is it's about 75% new OS, 25% old OS.
  • All the Windows 7/8 system critical drivers, their sys files, and dll's are copied from the Windows 8 %SystemRoot% directory to the Windows 10 %SystemRoot% directory.
    • It's inefficient to track them down since most have been renamed to oemXX (where XX is representative of numbers).
• All users running upgraded Windows 10 installs are running Windows 10 with incompatible Windows 8 drivers installed, of which is the cause of majority of the issues end users are having with Windows 10.

While you can manually uninstall all Windows 8 system critical drivers, you're now left with a conundrum since the Windows 10 versions of those drivers not only must be installed in a very specific order, they must be installed prior to installing Windows Updates or other applications. Even if this wasn't an issue, it would take several hours, making it impractical and inefficient, to track down every system critical driver file for the previous OS.

• Drivers must also be installed in a very specific order prior to anything else being installed, including Windows Updates.
  • Failing to install chipset, followed by IMEI, drivers first will result in having to reinstall. Upgrading to Windows 10 and then re-installing drivers in the proper order, as you stated in a previous post, will solve very little and the underlying problems will still be present since the previous OS's system critical drivers are still present.

Sequence of events should be:

• Upgrade to Windows 10
  • Verify Windows 10 is Activated
    • Backup all data to be saved from System partition
    • If UEFI firmware, and HDD is not formatted GPT, backup all data to be saved on HDD
• Boot Windows 10 Setup DVD
  • Skip Product Key
    • If UEFI firmware, use diskpart to convert to GPT
  • Format system partition via GUI
  • Install Windows 10
    • Disconnect LAN cable
• Once booted to Windows 10
  • Do not connect to wireless or plug in LAN cable
  • Install System Critical Drivers in proper order, rebooting after each install
    • Proper install order is:
      • CPU Chipset -> IMEI -> Intel RST [if Intel CPU has integrated graphics, even if not utilizing RAID] -> Any other CPU related drivers, such as thermal mgmt -> Integrated Graphics [CPU] -> Discrete GraphIcs [GPU] -> Audio -> LAN -> WiFi -> BT -> TP [laptop] -> Random system drivers, such as Free Fall Sensor, Webcam [laptop], etc.
  • Connect to internet and run Windows Update
  • Once WU finishes, install Applications and Peripheral drivers, rebooting after each install

 

To avoid upgrade issues see the show/hide tool to exclude ALL driver updates before running the first Windows Update. This will make sure Windows Update will only install useful patches and won't screw your working drivers, even if these drivers might be as old as Vista or even XP. Yes, I have installed Windows 10 32-bit to a few old Vista era laptops with Vista drivers (no newer available) and they work FINE. So unless you have done it yourself and have your own experience, please DON'T SCARE OTHERS!

I hope this is crystal clear now. Upgrade is not a disaster, as you try to prove! And a clean-install should not be necessary if your previous Windows installation is not a mess and you do a proper upgrade. Period. I am a Computer Technician, so please let me be more experienced than the average user. I know exactly what I'm doing and suggesting. I have done it myself numerous times.

 

I'm a bit lost as to what the purpose of your post was? Half the information was a repeat of exactly what I've said in previous posts, as to the other half... I'm not sure why you keep repeating, in capitals mind you, not to scare others... whom do you claim I'm scaring? Simply because you've always done things one way does not mean it's the right way...

You seem to have overlooked the fact a Windows 7/8/8.1 install upgraded to Windows 10 will result in the previous versions of drivers remaining installed in %SystemRoot%. By all means, you could go through the %SystemRoot$\INF folder, manually searching for and matching oemxx.inf drivers to their respective driver installs, then manually clearing the file repository; However, before you'd be able to complete both, Windows 10 could have been clean installed and all drivers installed in the proper order. So yes, technically speaking an upgrade is not required, much the same way as a car tire can be mounted to a rim without using a mounting machine; however, most care about not only doing something the right way the first time, but also doing it in the most efficient, least time consuming way possible.

Here's a rhetorical question for you... If, as you claim, a clean install is not the right way to go, why is it 90%+ of the end users who've clean installed, installing their drivers in the proper order, don't have issues when compared to the 90% of end users who did not clean install and have loads of issues?

I believe that rhetorical question concludes this discussion.

 

dear JW0914,

• most software bugs show their incorrect behaviour when some environmental conditions exists; in the case of this particular network issue, the fact that 90% of users did not experienced the problem is not a prove that the bug does not exists
• you claim that this is not a bug as with a clean install the problem does not show; I agree with you that many OS issues are related to problems during the upgrade procedure and that a clean install will prevent many problem from happening; however, if my OS is prompting me to upgrade from an older version to Win10, it means that the upgrade us considered to be a standard feature of the OS, as such, is expected to work properly

Cordially

 

To reply your rhetorical question, yes, you should not experience any bugs with a clean installation. That's the whole purpose of doing that, to have a nice clean installation without any issues (if done properly). But you forget the purpose of the upgrade. The only purpose of doing an upgrade is to keep your data and your applications without having to waste too many hours (in most cases a week) to do it all over again! Otherwise, we would simply do a clean install every time there is a new version of Windows released. Why bother with the upgrade? Before you say to have the digital entitlement, I say you don't have to upgrade, you can go straight to the clean-install as described in this tutorial.

So once and for all, the whole and only purpose of doing an upgrade is to avoid reinstalling everything from scratch. And if done properly, there are no issues and there is no reason to do a clean-install afterwards, provided your previous OS was working properly without issues. If all these conditions are met, go for the upgrade without a second thought. If your current OS is already a mess, I suggest the hard way, backup everything and do a clean install. But if and only if you experience issues. Otherwise the common and most logical procedure is to upgrade (unless your current system has only Windows and Office which can be easily reinstalled). Unfortunately, the majority of Windows users have tons of applications and data and a clean-install would take a week! So it is the LAST resort, not panacea!

 

That's a fundamental misconception too many users have... It seems a specific subset of end users have gotten used to how Android and Windows Phone OS upgrades occur, as your statement would apply to those two OSes specifically. With smartphones, each individual model receives it's own custom OS image and kernel, tailored specifically to that model and containing drivers only for that model. Windows OS for PCs has never been like that and never will be like that.

If you look only at Windows and remove hardware from the equation, then yes, an upgrade to a newer version, like Windows 10, would not only be expected to work properly, it would work properly, as the issue at play here has nothing to do with the OS and everything to do with drivers. As I explained in my previous post, provided the end user removes all system critical drivers (excl. Chipset and IMEI) prior to the upgrade, it will upgrade fine and result in no issues... which now becomes a matter of practicality: it would take an end user several hours to ensure they've removed all traces of system critical drivers prior to upgrading, and inexperienced users would almost surely end up deleting something they shouldn't within %SystemRoot%. Considering it only takes ~90 - 120min or so to clean install, reinstall all drivers in the proper order, and run Windows Updates, it's simply far more practical and efficient to do so. To use an analogy, simply because a person can remove a car tire from its rim without a mounting machine does not mean it's practical or efficient to do so.

At this point, I've spent over an hour typing up replies in this thread alone, all stating the same things... I personally couldn't care less how you or spakanos choose to go about doing things on your PCs, but I am done repeating myself and wasting my time. Continue to believe 1+1=11, continue to have problems because of a failure to adhere to power users all stating the same thing... Clearly the end users having issue after issue know far more about how to do things properly that us users who've done things properly and not encountered any issues. It comes down to basic common sense... either teach yourselves about why drivers matter and how drivers affect Windows when it's upgraded from one version to another or continue to be ignorant and waste hours troubleshooting your failures not to, blindly being led by the blind... it's really your choice, but I'm done wasting my time trying to help you and others fix your own failures to educate yourselves. Cheers =]

 

Then please stop replying and telling untruthful statements. You CANNOT remove chipset drivers, or Windows will give you a nice BSOD. All, you can do is make sure chipset and other devices are updated after the upgrade to Windows 10 to eliminate issues. Most issues are about outdated or generic (not OEM) drivers. Once you make sure your drivers are updated, there is little or nothing to fear about.

I'll tell it once more since you probably cannot understand it: People upgrade their Windows to avoid reinstalling everything from scratch. That's the whole purpose of the upgrade. To AVOID reinstalling everything one-by-one once again. Unlike you, others have a complex Windows installation with many applications, games, settings, data, whatever. It would take many hours (days) to redo everything again and it will not likely be on the same state as before. They are bound to forget one or two things. So they upgrade their Windows to avoid this hassle. It is your own right to do all this trouble if you want, but we don't want. Please stop trying to persuade us. Mind your own business!

Thank you and have a nice day.

 

I am portuguese speaker and I could not understand everything. I am having this same problem on Windows 10 (1511). A notebook with windows 10 (10240) works perfectly well. When I downgrade to Windows 8.1, my network come back. Why Microsfot is not pay atention to this???? Anyone could help?

 

@JW

No offense, but No one is going to deal with having to clean install Win10 after each major update Microsoft releases. I believe they plan on two major updates per year. Even if it was just one, it would be unreasonable. I've seen upgrades go badly, requiring clean installs and I've seen them go well, no problems. The determining factor is how clean and maintained the system was prior to the upgrade attempt. If your OS has been through a couple of upgrades, I'd probably clean install. If you're going from 7 or 8 straight to 10, upgrade and see how it goes. Back your stuff up prior, uninstall security suites, run a malware scan and then proceed with the upgrade.

I ran into the missing protocol error after clean installing Win10 on a toshiba laptop. I performed an in-place upgrade and the problem was fixed from that point on. Something is corrupt within the 1586 install process that is triggering this for some users.

 

I just had the "One or more network protocols are missing on this computer" issue again. It doesn't happen when I use Defender but only happens when I use a antivirus other than Defender. This is a desktop computer and unplugging the computer and all routers, modems ... and waiting 5 minutes to re-plug everything back in seems to resolve the issue. Do I need to reset my router's security settings after unplugging it ? Is this only a Window's 10 issue ?

 

One or more network protocols are missing from this computer error.
12/29 my problem with no Internet, Network Sharing & freezing Start Menu began. Uninstalling Avast, fixes it.

Looking for another Anti Virus application that will work? Any luck anyone?
If problem re produces, stuck with Microsoft spying with their Windows Defender.

I also needed a clean wipe as the only way to upgrade from 10240 to 10586.
Microsoft plans are three Threshold upgrades a year. Soon in March you wipe clean again.

 

If Avast or anything else is the problem, then have a look at its advanced settings. Something changed there should fix your issues. If possible control only internet access and relax intranet (local) access rules.

 

Tried so many offered solutions - but finally found
Run “netcfg -d” from an admin command prompt, then reboot and reconfigure networking.
Networking not working after Windows 10 Update (version 1511, build 10586.3) VirtualRick

Ethernet now working!!!

 

I found a solution to this, we have 2 wireless routers and a vonage one, i unplugged the linksys router after a restart for 30 secs plugged back in and internet came back. But this happened after installing the update so im not sure why it did that.