Windows 10: Update hell & goodbye MS

Hi folks
This is more of a report than a query.When Windows 10 insisted itself on to our PCs we were given to understandthat updates would be forced rather than optional.All well & good if greater security & stability is the payoff.
But it didn't work out quite like that because the forced update system was/is badly problematic. Numerous reports spread across the web of frozen PCs, various funtions no longer working, restart loops, etc, etc.Take my Dell laptop as an example. Purchased with Windows 7 just prior to when the nightmare began. The initial update failed & it took many days to fix. I didn't notice in the T & Cs that in order to be able to use the laptop afterwards I would have to trawl through endless technical shite, sit and watch it saying Please wait/updating/do not turn off the PC etc, before I could continue with the work that I'd purchased the laptop to facilitate. (One time I was away for the weekend so I left the machine resarting (3 days) & when I returned nothing had changed!)
Well, the world isn't a perfect place & eventually, having torn out most of my hair I finally got the machine working again. Phew!Not long afterwards numerous other forced updates failed & once again I had to jump through a variety of flaming hoops before I could get some work done.I won't go through the whole shebang of subsequant update failures, lock ups & all round bad experiences & I'll especially avoid the aniversary update as I'm attempting to wipe those weeks from my mind in to preserve my sanity.After that & more failures I decided never to restart the laptop again, prefering to simply hibernate it and ignore further updates - just the opposite of the main purpose of forced nightmares.
This morning, due to a major AV update I unfortunately had to restart the machine. I knew I was stepping into quicksand at the outset but sometimes you just have to go for it.That was at about 10am. It is now 8.30 pm and have only just got the laptop back to the Desktop. Casting a glance into the update status I discover 65 failed updates!
Can anyone here blame me for vowing never, ever, even at the point of a gun, to use a Microsoft OS again? OK, so a Mac will cost significantly more to purchase but considering the work/time/money I have lost with Windows 10 I should have gone the Mac route in the first place.Whilst I'm here I may as well ask: Is there some magic fix to clear out the failed updates without having to struggle through endless technical shrubbery? I only ask because no-one will buy my laptop in the broken state it's in. If no easy fix exists I will take great pleasure in smashing the thing into as many pieces it takes to vent my spleen.

:)

 

How can I record my phone conversations on Nokia Lumia 920?

Not working I try all available recording programs

Nokia for me was the best mobile for the last 15 years & now when ms move in its goodbye

 

Windows 10 - IE 11 freezes often

So tired of unending freezes in IE11 & W10 - loaded Firefox and it's working without a hitch.

Goodbye IE11, I would love to say goodbye to W10 also - not putting it on my other machines - drives me crazy with performance issues and time wasting.

MS take note - you are losing credibility - you're global indifference is being noted on a very personal basis.

 

Clean install Windows 10 from the latest version available for download from Microsoft.

 

And rather than trash the Dell and not wanting Windows you should consider Linux, in addition to Win10 on a few Desktops and Notebooks without serious problems I use Linux Mint 17.3 on a Dell Desktop and Linux Mint 18 on an HP Notebook. Both are comfortable enough within a few minutes. Both versions have the built-in Update Manager or Software Manager to assure good results. Most versions of Linux come with Firefox for the browser and LibreOffice for working with documents, compatible with Microsoft Office and Works formats. All the above is free. And can download an .iso file to create a bootable LiveDVD to test using Linux. DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD.

 

Nothing much changes - when I started in PC support, training and systems installation in 1992, people and their businesses were getting PCs and avoiding Macs because of the cost. MSDOS 5 and Windows 3.1, and this new networking thingy meant that the whole office could work on the same documents and use a single printer, but there just wasn't the in-house technical skill to get it all to work, so blokes like my boss and I got called in to make things work.

I would suggest you find someone who understands both Windows 10 and your requirements, to help you understand how to get up and keep running, and realize your investment in the kit you have, and the not so "free upgrades" may start to be of real benefit to you.

Like it or not, that's the way the worlds most used PC OS manufacturer has chosen to work, so we have to get with it, or choose some more obscure or expensive alternative.

Most of the members here spend a lot of time just wrapping their brains around the almost daily changes to Windows 10 that have been happening since 2015 (and a bit before) when the OS was released to the general public. It's enough for even the geekiest ones of us to wonder what's going on at times, so we are never surprised that users without the special interest we hold, feel extreme frustration with the pace of change, and the problems that arise.

It's also difficult to explain stuff if you don't have the terminology, and have to make your own problem descriptions to a forum such as this, and then get a geeky reply to have to get your head around, because they do know the proper terms.

That's why having your own support person is useful, because not only can the problems be fixed without risk to your own follicles, you won't make the mistake of adopting an equally problematic computer system instead, discarding the investment you have made already.

 

I haven't experienced much trouble at all with Windows 10. Updates have been just fine for me.

 

Been there, done it, several times. Will it prevent future update problems? My experience tells me no.

 

I’ve tried various flavours of Linux over the years. It’s just another pile of problems: incompatible hardware drivers, plenty of software not built for it – it’s worse.

Now that’s a very geeky remark showing that messing around with computer problems is enjoyable for you. Personally I don’t consider that fun as my post surely illustrates.

 

You're so very lucky.

 

Yes I am frustrated that after 2 years the Windows 10 update problem has yet to be sorted

 

Like the other person that posted, I have not had any "real" issues with Win 10. However, I have hardware that is fully Win 10 compatible. I use my PC for my recording studio and Win 10 has Audio Latency advantages over older Windows versions.

Even an old Vista hardware device I have for recording (Frontier Tranzport) works in Win 10.

 

Windows Update has pretty much failed on this machine. The only thing I really changed is the Defer Upgrades option was set, but that should have expired by now in any case. You can see it's given up even trying to update now - they don't even fail now.





If I click on Check for Updates it whirs away for a long time then fails.

Edit: 30 mins later here's the error I get:




I've tried this tutorial:
Windows Update - Reset in Windows 10

And the MS Windows Update Troubleshooter:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/...troubleshooter

But neither have worked for me. (@DavidA23 they may be worth trying if you haven't already though.)

In the end I'll Clean Install it as NavyLCDR suggests, but this machine has a lot of software and things like multiple email accounts to configure when I reinstall, so it's going to be time-consuming and has been waiting for me to have a clear weekend with nothing better to do.

 

I've got a dozen computers at my house with 4 different users. All of the computers here update with no problem. I had a 5th user in my house (who as since passed away) who had the most horrible internet surfing habits imaginable and he managed to break Windows Update but a clean install fixed that computer. It was no wonder his Windows update broke, though, because his Windows was also a "transplant" - a hard drive moved from an older computer to an upgraded computer.

Windows 10 has been rock solid here. If it breaks, it's because I tinkered with it. Windows 10, especially Windows Update, is less tolerant of user tinkering than previous versions have been. But, Microsoft has to design it to fit the standard user in today's society. Remember the days of setting up the memory settings in DOS, manually de-conflicting IRQ's, and all the manual configuration that had to be done to get Windows NT 4.0 to run? Most of today's modern computer users only wants to push the power button and have everything else happen in the background with no user intervention. Then add to that the users like my father-in-law who used to click on anything shiny and moving that appeared on a webpage...

 

I think a contributory factor for my issues is that I have the box ticked to 'Give me updates for other Microsoft Products' which means issues outside of Windows 10 itself can get in the way and (I strongly suspect) snarl things up.