Windows 10 Anniversary Update is borking boxen everywhere

Users are reporting that upgrading to the Windows 10 Anniversary Update renders their PCs unusable. A lengthy Reddit thread explains the problem: the Anniversary Update installs just fine, but when users re-start their PCs after the upgrade … nothing happens. Users report that their PCs simply hang on restart, sometimes …

[Tom 64]

Isn't the first time

The last update (1511) borked my box badly. The start menu and task bars would lock up completely after a minute or so in a manner similar to the borks reported with this release. Probably some old cruft left over from Windows 7 I guess.

Eventually I did a clean install with 1511 and the new update to 1607 went smoothly.

[Anonymous Coward]

@Tom 64 - Re: Isn't the first time

Please don't badmouth Windows 7, your Windows 10 is totally crap, that's all. You've been suckered into it so try to show some dignity here instead of blaming an OS some of us adore.

[Tom 64]

Re: @Tom 64 - Isn't the first time

Not gonna disagree with you on that point. I've had my gaming rig bricked by W10 twice, but its got one feature I give a monkey's about, and that is DX12.

For everything else I use W7 and Linux

[Poncey McPonceface]

Re: @Tom 64 - Isn't the first time

Microsoft has always used DirectX version bumps to force gamers to upgrade their OS. Apparently it has been beyond Microsoft's power to backport said bumps. Funny that.

[nkuk]

Re: @Tom 64 - Isn't the first time

I wouldn't say that DX12 is a reason to upgrade, at least not yet. Windows 10 has been out for a year now and there are very few DX12 games, those that do support DX12 also support DX10/11 and the performance difference is negligible in many cases unless you have an AMD graphics card.

Take up of Vulkan seems to be going well, Unity, Source2, id Engine, Unreal, Serious/CroEngine and others have support for Vulkan. Frostbyte will support Vulkan on some platforms.

If you're a developer and Vulkan support is built into the engine it would seem more sensible to support Vulkan as you can target Win7/8/8.1/10, Linux, Android and possibly MacOS, while with DX12 you only get the ~20% of Windows users with Windows 10 and Xbox one which is losing to the PS4. The Nintendo NX is also rumoured to support Vulkan.

Linux gaming has been accelerating fast since Valve started working on SteamOS and contributing to Vulkan, I think it will continue to a point where even EA, Activision and Ubi will start to include Vulkan/Linux support in their games.

[Chika]

Re: @Tom 64 - Isn't the first time

I wouldn't say that DX12 is a reason to upgrade...

Perhaps not. The problem is that there are a lot of gamers out there that see a shiny new version and will do whatever it takes to get it, no matter what.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: @Tom 64 - Isn't the first time

The gamers are a group in a good position to switch OSs at will. Tower cases are more amenable to swapping boot HDDs, g\amers are used to tweaking stuff, SSDs make system image restores less of a pain, games can be safely deleted from HDDs because they can just be downloaded again from an online account etc. I mean, if I were a gamer and tweaked my system just so to get maximum FPS from my chief time-sink, I'd create a system image back of it.

[psychonaut]

Re: @Tom 64 - Isn't the first time

if you are going to upgrade an OS, do it properly, wipe and fresh install, you are just piling up potential problems for the future otherwise.

[ecofeco]

Re: @Tom 64 - Isn't the first time

if you are going to upgrade an OS, do it properly, wipe and fresh install, you are just piling up potential problems for the future otherwise.

What is this, still the 20th century?

[WolfFan]

Re: @Tom 64 - Isn't the first time

if you are going to upgrade an OS, do it properly, wipe and fresh install, you are just piling up potential problems for the future otherwise.

If you're going to upgrade a Microsoft OS, do it properly, wipe and fresh install, you are just piling up potential problems for the future otherwise. I have in front of me a nice shiny Apple iMac. It is running OS X 10.11.6. It shipped with 10.8.something. I have done nothing but update installs. No significant problems. Elsewhere is an ancient Apple PowerMac G4 tower. That machine shipped with 10.2 or 10.3 on it and went to 10.6 and only stopped there because 10.7 requires an Intel processor and it has a PPC processor. I'm sure that there are other non-MS systems around here which were also updated without a wipe and which also don't give trouble.

[Michael Sanders]

Re: @Tom 64 - Isn't the first time

That's my experience as well. I worried for the first few weeks until I made a USB installer...I've never used it.

[psychonaut]

Re: @Tom 64 - Isn't the first time

I see the macs that have problems...not many but some. El capitan was fun. ..I run a repair shop. ..most of them dont have problems but some of them do...nowhere near as many as windows of course but then they have a much smaller hardware Base to deal with and maybe apple take more care. Still stand by my comment...and I was referring to ms stuff obviously

[Prst. V.Jeltz]

re "an OS some of us adore."

@ac re win7

"an OS some of us adore."

awwww Thats the nicest thing anybodys ever said about Microsoft

[Carl D]

Same thing happens most of the time with every (forced) monthly update as well.

Welcome to the Wonderful World Of Windows 10.

Where every customer is a perpetual unpaid beta tester.

Seriously - you'd have to be either insane or a masochist to use W10 for any considerable length of time.

Hint to MS: We want a stable operating system with just monthly security and minor updates with a major service pack every year or two. Like we used to have with previous versions. Not this W10 constantly mutating joke of an OS which keeps breaking things almost weekly.

Oh - and if you could put in a big TELEMETRY OFF button (that actually really works) for home users, that would be nice too.

[AlexS]

"Where every customer is a perpetual unpaid beta tester."

Not every customer. I set group policy in Pro 10 to delay these updates by six months. In my world I won't be seeing this update for quite a little while, so thanks to the rest of you who are beta testing this for me!!

[dan1980]

Re: "Where every customer is a perpetual unpaid beta tester."

@AlexS

. . . until a future update (once you get it) removes that policy from Pro, making it available only on Enterprise.

[Duncan Macdonald]

Re: "Where every customer is a perpetual unpaid beta tester."

When a major "update" like this one is due - stop and disable the Windows Update Service - wait until there has been at least 2 further updates to correct the worst of the problems before re-enabling the service. (Disabling the Windows Update Service works on Home and Pro.)

[AlexS]

Re: "Where every customer is a perpetual unpaid beta tester."

Oh I see. Silly me I should disable group policy immediately and get on with complaining, beta testing and down voting like the rest of you, even though the facility is there. My bad. It's working for me just fine but somehow I must be mistaken or wrong.

[bombastic bob]

Re: "Where every customer is a perpetual unpaid beta tester."

"Not every customer. I set group policy in Pro 10 to delay these updates by six months."

yeah, you USED to be able to do that, huh? Well, it's been "fixed" from what I've read.

When Micro-shaft LAID OFF all of their testing staff, they started relying on "insiders" to do their beta (read: alpha) testing. Now your average "insider" (who didn't unofficially *LEAVE* the program) is a fanboi sycophantic SUCK UP to anything Micro-shaft. So you can expect LOTS of ass-kissing approval of anything, and testing ONLY on the most limited range of computer hardware available (like Surface laptops and things that came WITH Windows 8.x or Win-10-nic pre-installed).

THAT would have been the "alpha" test.

THEN, it's released for Home (and now, Pro) users, and it becomes the new BETA test.

Oops, they did it again. They nuked your machine. etc. [sounds best of sung by Brittney, heh].

And _I_ thought that maybe the anniversary release was like "SP1", after which you MIGHT be able to assume some actual STABILITY. But then again, I remembered: Win-10-nic!

[a_yank_lurker]

@Carl D - Are you sure about beta tester, this is acting more like alpha testing.

[Ropewash]

@a_yank_lurker

I'd always drawn my own personal distinction as;

A beta will shit the bed and break itself.

An alpha will shit everyone's bed, break itself and everything around it.

So yeah, this is wandering into alpha-testing territory.

Sorry. All your data, programs and settings are gone. Please wipe your partitions and re-install. Every damned time we force an upgrade on you. SaaS... More like Crash course in creating boot drives and doing full installations as a Service.

Paris. Because even she's wondering what the hell is wrong with Microsoft these days.

[P. Lee]

Re: @a_yank_lurker

>SaaS... More like Crash course in creating boot drives and doing full installations as a Service.

In SaaS solutions, the provider manages the stack right up to the application software layer.

W10 isn't SaaS - I'm not sure what it is, but a managed solution it isn't.

All those enterprise outsourcers who have difficulty managing their clients' OS estates? That's what MS is trying to do, for "free." How well do we think that will end?

[Chika]

Re: @a_yank_lurker

W10 isn't SaaS

Depends on how you translate it. If you mean "Software as a Service", then probably not.

If you mean "Shits all available Systems" then...

[Chika]

Re: @a_yank_lurker

Oooo! One thumb down already! The M$UK folk are being vigilant today!

[Soruk]

Re: @a_yank_lurker

"Software as a Service" works, for agricultural values of "service".

(As in, the way the bull services a cow.)

[cybersaur]

Re: @a_yank_lurker

Windows 10 is FYaaS!

[dajames]

Re: @a_yank_lurker

Windows 10 is FYaaS!

Windows 10 is just SaaD (Software as a Disservice).

[a_yank_lurker]

Re: @a_yank_lurker

The reports make the rolling release distro Arch Linux and derivatives look like paragons for ease of updating and stability for any user. Linux rolling release distros are only recommend for the stout of heart who are willing to occasionally go fix problems by Distrowatch.com. The funny part is I use an Arch derivative (Antergos) as my main distro and have less problems than Winbloat 10 users are reporting.

[Skymonrie]

Re: @a_yank_lurker

Upvoted as I also use arch linux as my everyday workhorse and find it very stable.

I feel a lot less pain for the only minor (and generally easy to debug / fix) glitches I have come across compared to this windows affair.

Here was me thinking I lived on the bleeding edge with my OS, MS spoil everything...i can't even enjoy the pain...

[Anonymous Coward]

"We want a stable operating system with just monthly security and minor updates with a major service pack every year or two."

Have you tried any Linux distro?

Ubuntu: easy install and update

Mint: Great for Windows escapees

etc...

[anonymous boring coward]

"Where every customer is a perpetual unpaid beta tester."

Seems MS only want gamers as customers then.

Only gamers take pride in reinstalling periodically. And only gamers are conditioned to put up with any sh*t that happens when those shiny new nVidia or AMD drivers inevitably crash, so are well positioned to take a good ramming from MS too.

[Pirate Dave]

"Oh - and if you could put in a big TELEMETRY OFF button (that actually really works) for home users"

And don't forget a similar button to turn off Cortana. It totally irks me that there's no (reasonable) way to completely kill that software and prevent it from chewing 25 Megs of RAM for no reason whatsoever.

[Howard Hanek]

Data Glut

...I suspect all the data that Redmond 'acquires' does cause network bottlenecks that halts systems.

[Sampler]

Schrödinger's Laptop

So, I came in to my work box performing "updates" this morning, ten minutes later (on a top line i7/32GB RAM/512GB SSD) I saw I had Anniversary, so, now I've not yet rebooted since the upgrade, my computer could be in a quantum state of being fucked and not fucked.

And some people spent billions on quantum computing.

Well, might as well hit the reboot now and see which way the waveform collapses...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Schrödinger's Laptop

Nooooo! You need to get a cat to do it!

[Grade%]

Re: Schrödinger's Laptop

"Nooooo! You need to get a cat to do it!"

You can tape sticks to its paws so it will look like it's doing it itself!

Video and post it on YouTube!

I smell a viral winner!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Schrödinger's Laptop

You can't force the cat to push the button, then it's really you doing it.

Has to be the cat's idea.

[Roq D. Kasba]

Re: Schrödinger's Laptop

Should be independent. Cats walking on keyboard is a good randomiser, but not if you're trying to work, at which point the fact the keyboard is getting all the attention will guarantee a keyboard trampling

[Prst. V.Jeltz]

Re: Schrödinger's Laptop

"Cats walking on keyboard is a good randomiser"

not at my house - the cat hits a function key for "Load previous save" every time

[CrazyOldCatMan]

Re: Schrödinger's Laptop

> Nooooo! You need to get a cat to do it!

Is that for paws on the keyboard (doing the secret random known-only-to-cats keystrokes that freezes the box)? Or the "lets vomit partly-digested mouse-and-catfood over the keyboard"?

Either are available from your local cat empawioum.

[CanadianMacFan]

Re: Schrödinger's Laptop

It reminds me of servers before they became commodity boxes (the old Suns, DECs, etc) where they would keep on running almost no matter what and when you rebooted them you would find out if there was a hardware problem or not.

Back around 2006 I had a couple of DEC Alphas still running in the data centre. (Yes, they were from Digital!) The last of the applications had just ported over to Linux but they were running just for a backup in case something went wrong with the conversion. But our annual data centre shut down weekend for maintenance (don't ask) was coming up and I really wanted to get the permission to turn them off before that weekend. They had been up for another year and I didn't really want to worry if they were going to come back up.

[Down not across]

Re: Schrödinger's Laptop

Back around 2006 I had a couple of DEC Alphas still running in the data centre. (Yes, they were from Digital!) The last of the applications had just ported over to Linux but they were running just for a backup in case something went wrong with the conversion. But our annual data centre shut down weekend for maintenance (don't ask) was coming up and I really wanted to get the permission to turn them off before that weekend. They had been up for another year and I didn't really want to worry if they were going to come back up.

Disappointing. I was expecting, when the power came back on, the Alphas would've been the only ones booting up successfully.

[CanadianMacFan]

Re: Schrödinger's Laptop

No, everything came up fine but it just took a long time to do it because there were a lot of dependencies (web server needs the application server which needs the database etc). However shutting them down was very fast. The dependencies were still there but while the rest of the group where up in the data centre logging onto each machine one at a time to turn it off, earlier in the day I had scheduled 70+ servers to turn off in groups with the "at" command. I just went up to manually turn off switches and power supplies and unplug the power strips that were in the racks holding my servers since they were messing around with the power distribution units. They had nothing else for me to do so I was out of there in a half hour while everyone else was just getting started.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Schrödinger's Laptop

You bastard....

I just laughed out my sandwich over my laptop reading this. Now I have to clean it.

[ChubbyBehemoth]

Re: Schrödinger's Laptop

No sillies,.. you have to put the computer in a cardboard box and as long as you don't open the box and take a peek, you don know whether it is still working or not. As soon as you take a peek (i.e. turn it on and wait for boot) you know for sure it is bricked. Until that moment you may have an inkling of hope MS Marketing has calculated the correct outcome although any independent scientific research has already proven beyond reasonable doubt that their methods suck.

[Anonymous Coward]

Boot scoot

So you have Windows, and yet another update borks your machine.

You know the drill: Clean install!

You say you're afraid you have a virus? Clean install!

You have a txt file that won't open? Clean bloody install!

Why do they always stall instead of coming clean?

[Innocent-Bystander*]

Re: Boot scoot

So you have Windows, and yet another update borks your machine.

You know the drill: Clean install!

You say you're afraid you have a virus? Clean install!

You have a txt file that won't open? Clean bloody install!

Why do they always stall instead of coming clean?

Weird. On my end, I installed it once, updated it with the second major release, then swapped motherboard/CPU/GPU combo and it just kept on trucking, no problems. I've yet to do a clean install of W10 since it released.

Probably famous last words, you never know what tomorrow brings.

[Steve Davies 3]

Re: Boot scoot

I think you may be 'speaking too soon'.

I get the feeling that there is some Evil Genius sorry, Madman somewhere inside Microsoft who has set out to bork every Windows 10 system in existence.

As he strokes his white cat he chuckles to himself and mentally ticks off another million borks of upgraded systems.

His motto is 'the day ain't done until all updated systems don't run'.

come back Balmer, all is forgiven.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Boot scoot

Probably famous last words, you never know what tomorrow brings.

And that is exactly why I abandoned Windows. I have too much work to do to worry about what Microsoft is going to screw up next.

"Update" isn't a word in the Microsoft world, it's a sentence.

[fidodogbreath]

Re: Boot scoot

"Update" isn't a word in the Microsoft world, it's a sentence.

And you don't get time off for good behavior.

[phuzz]

Re: Boot scoot

"Why do they always stall instead of coming clean?"

Maybe they just never came across the issue in their testing?

Nah! That would imply that there's many more copies installed in the real world than they were able to test in-house, and we don't want to let logic get in the way of a good bit of microsoft bashing eh?

(But yes, it did kill my home PC in interesting ways. Perhaps upgrading it from Win7>8>8.1>10 was a bit much. In a minute I get to find out what it does to my work PC!)

[Roo]

Re: Boot scoot

"You know the drill: Clean install!

You say you're afraid you have a virus? Clean install!

You have a txt file that won't open? Clean bloody install!"

The has been the norm since day one - including DOS, the question I have is : Why do MS still store user data on the same partition as the system guff given that users are expected to rebuild their OS as a matter of routine ?

[Stoneshop]

Re: Boot scoot

Why do MS still store user data on the same partition as the system guff given that users are expected to rebuild their OS as a matter of routine ?

Until recently, just "the way it's been done since forever, people would be confused by things changing, backwards compatibility, yadda, yadda", but now they offer you an (ever-shrinking) OneDrive to copy your stuff onto as a 'backup', simultaneously enabling MS to rifle through your data.

[Yes Me]

Black Screen of Oblivion

Had this problem (black screen, but machine can be pinged on the network) after installing W10 on my wif'e's PC (her idea, not mine). One or another of the tips at http://www.thewindowsclub.com/windows-10-black-screen-problems worked.

[Youngone]

Re: Black Screen of Oblivion

Thanks for the tip, that website looks interesting but I can't use it.

The toolbar on the left with the social media logos on it keeps scrolling over the text I would like to read.

That's not a very clever bit of design.

[Ropewash]

Re:Re: Black Screen of Oblivion

Ah NoScript, my ever faithful old friend...

How many sites have you forced to render in a readable manner I may never know. Unless someone points it out for me like this.

[Tony4554]

Re: Black Screen of Oblivion

Move your cursor over the social strip and look above and below it. You will see arrows there. The top one exposes the strip and the bottom one hide it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Windows Aniversary Update

Enjoy!

[P. Lee]

Re: Windows Editions

Windows 10 Anniversary Edition

Windows 10 Millennium Edition?

... Just as popular...

[james 68]

It aint just this upgrade

Every damned update that changes the version number also changes my language settings to Japanese. It's a right pain in the arse.

Win10 was installed using English (UK) for language and Japan as location, Microsoft somehow sees that as a valid reason to change my language settings EVERY. DAMNED. TIME.

I'd call them a pack of incompetent clowns but that'd be a slur on pennywise.

[Diogenes]

Re: It aint just this upgrade

Location Australia, Keyboard layout US. Every 2nd freaking update decides to change my keyboard to UK layout - not a problem unless you don't realise before entering your p@ssword.

Or which happened on the weekend, logged on fine with the US keyboard layout, and in mid browser it session changes to UK , and I lock myself out of a few sites. I don't have nor have I ever had a UK KB layout and delete it every single freaking time (not happy I had again get rid of a whole pile of unwanted apps..

Happens on my big box, and SP3 as well

[Jon B]

Re: It aint just this upgrade

At least it's not just me that happens to then..

[Paul Shirley]

Re: It aint just this upgrade

Used to switch to the US layout on my GB machine at random until i realised you need to change both locale and input settings. Buggy pos

[VinceH]

Re: It aint just this upgrade

"Used to switch to the US layout on my GB machine at random until i realised you need to change both locale and input settings. Buggy pos"

Hmm... I'd say more than half of the Windows 10 computers I've looked at have had a similar issue - in this case, computers in the UK which, after Windows 10 was forced on them, had the locale set incorrectly to US, which was affecting things like the keyboard layout. There's one user I can think of in particular, though, who didn't come to me with that problem.

However, I've just joined two random dots in my head. He does seem to have another issue; whenever he uses Google Docs, his spreadsheets default to US currency, and I have to keep showing him how to change it. I now wonder if this is related. (And I wonder if he does have the keyboard layout problem and has never mentioned it).

[Sampler]

Re: It aint just this upgrade

Ha, I have the opposite, machine location Australia, Keyboard and Language English (UK) being a pomme expat enjoying the sun and not enjoying randomly the keyboard layout changing back to US (or Australian as they like to call it, but, it's simply US renamed, sorry Aussies).

Hell, I even prefer the UK layout so much more I've paid extra to import keyboards with the right keys (mostly because I work with data and ¬ is a lifesaver to use as a delimiter, knowing that US don't even have the key on the board it's unlikely to have been used in free text entry fields = ) )

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: It aint just this upgrade

" Every 2nd freaking update decides to change my keyboard to UK layout"

Reminds me of a big networking box about 20 years ago. They had two development teams in different offices - each responsible for alternate releases of software. The problem was that they each preset different async speeds and bit settings for the main console "glass teletype".

Going back even further to a 1970s mainframe OS it was not unusual for some bugs to reappear about every two releases. We eventually worked out that it was due to the promotion cycle in the development division. Every year or so the experienced technical people were promoted to managerial posts. The new intake of programmers then "corrected" what looked like an "obvious" error in the code.

[Primus Secundus Tertius]

Language shortsightedness

@Diogenes

I have had a Windows 7 lappie since 2010, but only recently decided to try out its voice recognition software.

It begins by telling me that my voice must be British English to match the windows locale and language.

But then it insists I speak American English with a British voice. So the '#' key is not the 'hash key' but the 'number key' or the 'pound key'. The '£' key is the 'pound sterling' key. To select text I utter 'first through last', not 'from first to last'.

Finally, if I create a wordpad document from the keyboard, it is a British document. But if I create it by voice, it is an American document: 'favorable maneuver' rather then 'favourable manoeuvre'.

I hope they did a better language job with the French and other truly alien versions.

[Jonathan 27]

Yeah...

"Every 2nd freaking update decides to change my keyboard to UK layout"

Mine keeps trying to change the layout to the Canadian Multilingual layout, a layout that no one uses anywhere. 90% of Canada uses the US layout and the other 10% uses the Canadian French keyboard layout. I keep going in to the control panel and deleting it and it keeps coming back.

[Darryl]

Re: Yeah...

You can blame HP for the "Canadian Multilingual" shit. For a while, you couldn't order an HP laptop for delivery in Canada without that useless 'worst of both worlds' layout.

The other problem is, if you tell Windows to use 'English (Canada)' as your language, then some large software packages (especially DTP) will refuse to work properly.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: It aint just this upgrade

That would be an insult to incompetent clowns

[AIBailey]

Re: It aint just this upgrade

What's the collective name for a bunch of clowns?

A circus of clowns?

[PaulR79]

Re: It aint just this upgrade

@AlBailey

"What's the collective name for a bunch of clowns?

A circus of clowns?"

Isn't it obvious? Microsoft.

[hplasm]

Re: It aint just this upgrade

"What's the collective name for a bunch of clowns?"

Microsoft.

edit- oo, too slow!

[slv138]

Re: It aint just this upgrade

"What's the collective name for a bunch of clowns?"

Government.

[Hans 1]

Re: It aint just this upgrade

>Win10 was installed using English (UK) for language and Japan as location

Same here, win10 in France ... merci, but NOOOOOO, I DO NOT HAVE AN AZERTY keyboard you f*ing twats, so stop changing it, merci!

[james 68]

Re: It aint just this upgrade

It's not so much the keyboard change that F's me up (Japan uses a similar layout to UK keyboard), it's that it changes the bloody system language every time.

Thank you Microsoft but I set it to English because I can't read F'ing Japanese, and I have to keep the location set to Japan or the Windows store, Office 365 etc all don't work (Oh, and thanks for making those bloody difficult also, ensuring that the online parts only show in the language of my location as opposed to the chosen system language).

Luckily "muscle" memory gets me to where I need to be to change the language settings back, but it would be tremendously difficult for anyone who neither reads Kanji nor can get to the language settings from memory.

[VinceH]

Re: It aint just this upgrade

The only problem with having to rely on muscle memory is that Microsoft has a habit of making unnecessary UI changes, and like moving things around to keep everyone on their toes.

[Not That Andrew]

Re: It aint just this upgrade

In my case I updated 2 machines running 7 to 10. Both were set to eng-GB for system locale and all related settings. Not only did Win 10 set both to eng-US for keyboard and locale, it didn't even bother to install the eng-GB locale, although it installed Japanese on one machine.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: It aint just this upgrade

Win10 was installed using English (UK) for language and Japan as location, Microsoft somehow sees that as a valid reason to change my language settings EVERY. DAMNED. TIME.

I was going to say "that's a US product for you" but OSX seems to manage just fine. It's done that once, but that was when I was changing laptop and keyboard language. Using Windows I'd been in real trouble as it would amplify the disadvantage of speaking and working in multiple languages.

Linux generally comes out well in that aspect too, but that has a mixed heritage to start with.

[Sebastian A]

Thankfully you can fully control the update channel on all versions of W10. Just turn off all updates until Microsft sort it out.

Oh wait...

[Geoffrey W]

I know you is joking but...and I cannot test this coz don't have win10...but can you just disable the update service in the services applet? Been told you can but dont know for sure. If so then just stop it until all calms down.

[Dan 55]

Forced updates combined with crappy testing brought about by Nutella disbanding the Trustworthy Computing team.

What's Windows 10 going to be other than a crock of shit?

[gobaskof]

It is good that microsoft is on hand with excellent advice

Just wipe your machine and re-install.

Luckily most of your average Windows users are completely backed up, and those who are not can easily get the files back with a linux live CD.

Luckily all their personalised settings are simply in a few plain text (hidden) files in their home directory so after the reinstall all personalised settings can be restored.

And most Windows users pick Windows due to the speed of the install and their love of making their own bootable disks. Not just because it comes as standard.

Personally, I feel I am missing out on the fun here. None of my Kubuntu installs have ever kerploded on me like this.

[Ropewash]

Re: It is good that microsoft is on hand with excellent advice

My Manjaro installs have done it to me a few times. That's the downside of a rolling release.

However!! none of those breakages required a re-installation. The very worst of the lot only required me to swap video output to the onboard Intel to rollback the nvidia driver. Why they don't have "downgrade" as a default installed program is a mystery to me, it's extremely useful for those of us who sometimes let 5 months of patches happen all at once.

Actually, all the worst breakages that have ever happened to my Linux machines have happened because a Windows re-install overwrote the boot record. Those needed a CD boot and a chroot.

Any dual-booting Win10'ers out there? Does it still completely trash your MBR every time you do an install?

Actually if I recall correctly, some of these newest issues happen because it manages to trash it's own version of the MBR and renders itself unbootable. That takes skill.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: It is good that microsoft is on hand with excellent advice

"renders itself unbootable. That takes skill."

I think that's in Microsoft's training manual for new hires.

[Ropewash]

Re: It is good that microsoft is on hand with excellent advice

Not sure there is a manual anymore.

I suspect that high over each of 1000 desks hidden deep within the confines of a Redmond coding sweatshop hangs a banana. For every 10 lines of code entered in a way that could actually compile the bananas lower by one inch.

[Antron Argaiv]

Re: It is good that microsoft is on hand with excellent advice

...hangs a banana.

Pray for Mojo...

[keithpeter]

Re: It is good that microsoft is on hand with excellent advice

"...it's extremely useful for those of us who sometimes let 5 months of patches happen all at once."

@Ropewash...

Would a distribution with a definite release date and point releases not provide more stability under those circumstances? (I don't use a rolling distribution so genuine question).

Coat: not my thread, so off out.

[Ropewash]

Re: It is good that microsoft is on hand with excellent advice

@keithpeter:

I got pretty sick of the usual point release guys (read - Ubuntu based) not keeping up with a few programs I actually had a need for the newest version of. After adding a few ppa's and doing a few compiles of other things and eventually getting to do it all over again after a dist-upgrade I just decided it was easier to go rolling and then I can do individual upgrades when an update I know I want comes out.

Laziness grips me though, and when a bunch of packages plus dependencies need updating I'll skip going through the Arch forums and just let everything go at once.

It's not always fatal. :)

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: It is good that microsoft is on hand with excellent advice

"That's the downside of a rolling release."

...which is what Windows seems to have become.

[hplasm]

Re: It is good that microsoft is on hand with excellent advice

' "That's the downside of a rolling release."

...which is what Windows seems to have become.'

As in ' Released, it rolls down the pan, into the water...'

[Stoneshop]

Re: It is good that microsoft is on hand with excellent advice

"That's the downside of a rolling release."

...which is what Windows seems to have become.

A rolling disease, that is. Cure: see icon.

[ro55mo]

Re: It is good that microsoft is on hand with excellent advice

I do run Windows 10 and Linux on the same PC but with the following caveat.

Separate SSDs. Install Windows 10 on one with the other unplugged. Plug in the latter and unplug the former. Install Linux. Plug both in.

Swap between OS's in the UEFI boot order. A faff yes but it works.

[CFWhitman]

Re: It is good that microsoft is on hand with excellent advice

"Any dual-booting Win10'ers out there? Does it still completely trash your MBR every time you do an install?"

It's hard for me to consider myself a dual booter because I sometimes go for a year without booting into Windows on my personal desktop (at work I run Windows in a virtual machine). However, I currently have a Windows installation because my brother plays a certain game that wouldn't work correctly under wine the last I looked. This makes it so I boot Windows more often just to maintain it than to actually use it.

What I decided about dual booting quite a while ago is that, if possible, you should just use a separate hard drive for the Windows installation. That way, you can just install it as normal and then let Linux take care of the boot selection process while Windows remains blissfully ignorant of the fact that it is not the primary OS. Of course, on a laptop, this may not be an option, depending on whether it has interfaces for multiple disks (I haven't done this on my laptop, but my current one actually has three drive interfaces, though two of them are for NGFF drives, but you can get a 512 GB NGFF drive these days).

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: It is good that microsoft is on hand with excellent advice

"and those who are not can easily get the files back with a linux live CD."

After which they can just install from the Linux CD.

In the midst of reading these comments I had an alert pop up about 4 updates (to fontconfig stuff). They were downloaded in less than a second and released 105 K of disk.

[anonymous boring coward]

Re: It is good that microsoft is on hand with excellent advice

"And most Windows users pick Windows due to the speed of the install"

Exactly! A typical install takes less than an hour, and the subsequent updates shouldn't take more than a day or two. Not much downtime at all.

And at the end of it all the same faulty update is installed rendering the machine unbootable.

Well, with some luck the update time is long enough for MS to have time to pull any bad updates!

[Anonymous Coward]

A bad workman always blames his tools

A few machine out of 100s of millions. Probably lusers who have Norton, Avast, and the like all installed on top of each other for 'safety'.

[Ropewash]

Re: A bad workman always blames his tools

A few machines out of 0.3 billion. Probably lusers who have Windows10, and it's own applications all installed on top of each other for 'some reason'.

FTFY.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: A bad workman always blames his tools

And those who bought the tools he made blame the bad workman.

[anonymous boring coward]

Re: A bad workman always blames his tools

While some are tools...

[Destroy All Monsters]

I laugh

Not helped by the fact that Microsoft still haven't been able to ship an adequate bootloader not written by in-house people with brain developmental problems. They can have for free from the grub site.

[Anonymous Coward]

PCs to a useful state

"One method that restores PCs to a useful state is to roll back to a previous version of Windows"

Another potential option is presumably to get a decent Linux DVD and let it do a dual-boot install, leaving the Windows user's data intact, and then use the Linux (either to move the data to something more trustworthy, or just use the Linux instead of Windows 10).

Thanks to Microsoft, the year of Linux on the desktop is approaching ever closer.

Or am I missing something?

[Teiwaz]

Re: PCs to a useful state

"Thanks to Microsoft, the year of Linux on the desktop is approaching ever closer.

Or am I missing something?"

- A decent AD campaign. This would have been a ggod time for IBM to run a Linux advert campaign not last decade like they did.

[Chika]

Re: PCs to a useful state

"Thanks to Microsoft, the year of Linux on the desktop is approaching ever closer.

Or am I missing something?"

- A decent AD campaign. This would have been a ggod time for IBM to run a Linux advert campaign not last decade like they did.

Actually I had the opportunity of seeing some of the latest W10 adverts last week when I visited my mother. They struck me as deeply corporate written - you know the type:

"You must push the product, emphasise the compatibility and above all you must trash-talk the opposition".

So they pushed the product and how it looks, emphasised the compatibility with a few of the better known applications (of which a few were cloud based anyway) and included the line "I couldn't do this on a Mac" at some prominent point.

I think that Microsoft will be sorry for that...

[Not That Andrew]

Re: PCs to a useful state

Aah yes, I've seen a couple of those, and each of them my reaction has been "But you can do that on a Mac", or "It actually works better on a Mac you daft idiot". I'm tempted to report them to the ASA

[lglethal]

Oh come now its all in the name...

This is the anniversary edition. Did you happen to forget it was the anniversary? Did you buy it a present? Did you take it out for dinner? What's that? You forgot?

Then is it any wonder your machine was borked. Be happy that's all it was! Geez you would think people had never been in a relationship before...

:P

[Pascal Monett]

Re: a relationship ?

Ah, right, you mean Stockholm Syndrome. Got it.

[Linker3000]

Plan ahead

All of my home and work machines dual boot Windows 10 and Debian 8, and live in Debian most of the time. I forsee some liberal use of Clonezilla coming up before doing anything with Windows.

[Neil Alexander]

Re: Plan ahead

That would absolutely be wise, given that some Windows 10 users have seen such updates nuking their Linux partitions too.

[Linker3000]

Re: Plan ahead

One thumb down when I checked at 10:27 - SOOO...someone disagrees that a quick image backup before applying the update is worth the time.

Jean Luc Picard facepalms in your general direction.

[James O'Shea]

Re: Plan ahead

it seems that you have a little friend who downvotes you, no matter what you post.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Plan ahead

it seems that you have a little friend who downvotes you, no matter what you post.

Judging from what gets downvoted it's actually a few marketing noobs at Redmond or its UK subsidiary site - also because they seem to be less active during the holidays and weekends which suggests corporate involvement. I've seen it before.

Their problems:

1 - the sheer volume of comments is no match for their feeble efforts

2 - votes don't change the facts (but that's precisely why they have to beat the messengers instead).

[james 68]

Re: Plan ahead

"it seems that you have a little friend who downvotes you, no matter what you post."

I have several of those, they make me feel all warm and fuzzy, safe in the knowledge that I will never be lonely because I will always have a stalky downvoting chum nearby for friendship and giggles.

[Chika]

Re: Plan ahead

Sorry! Clicked the wrong button! ;)

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Plan ahead

same here. One that won't go away (like the clap)

A pox on them. WTF do they downvote posts that are not even controversial or slagging off the article or anything else. Oh yes, it is because the don't like the poster.

Posting AC just so that the little beggar won't do you know what...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Plan ahead

Sorry, but the temptation to downvote that is ... argh. I've done it. It's stronger than me.

:)

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Plan ahead

Sorry, but the temptation to downvote that is ... argh. I've done it. It's stronger than me

The challenge is now to work out if the downvotes to this are people without a sense of humour, people WITH a sense of humour, or Microsoft marketing staff. I'll need more downvotes so it can be either :).

[DonL]

Re: Plan ahead

"The challenge is now to work out if the downvotes to this are people without a sense of humour, people WITH a sense of humour, or Microsoft marketing staff."

You're not posting on the register to receive only upvotes are you? :) Downvoter is probably a guy that lost his data and thinks backups shouldn't be necessary if the updates were of higher quality.

The articles bite, the comments bite and the feedback bites as well. If you're not collecting downvotes as well you're not really participating in the conversation ;)

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Plan ahead

The articles bite, the comments bite and the feedback bites as well. If you're not collecting downvotes as well you're not really participating in the conversation ;)

I'd go further: if you care about upvotes and downvotes, are you saying what you really think or just pandering to the voting system?

(by the way, thanks for the downvotes as I now have the ambiguity I wanted :) )

[Captain Badmouth]

I'm waiting

for the inevitable phone calls : " my friend's computer is broken, she updated to windows 10 and it was o/k, then last week....."

[Tomato42]

Re: I'm waiting

ain't that a good thing? after that you can say "oh, win 10? I'm afraid that is double my usual rate"

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I'm waiting

""oh, win 10? I'm afraid that is double my usual rate"

I just say "Sorry - can't help - it's not in my competence" - and under my breath "I did warn you of the potential dangers".

[Anonymous Coward]

I will wager all those installations that have failed are upgrades. Clean installation every time with every version of Windows (yes, even XP and 7 which seem to get some kind of love). Maybe some of the others that failed are FUD installations with bits stripped out, turned off or blocked by 3rd party fiddling.

The tools are better than ever, just before the update I migrated hard drive to SSD using System Image. File History works. Why would you proceed with an update without a backup?

The only issue I have with W10 is the Start Menu and I have replaced it with SIB because it gives me the Windows 7 Start Menu functionality in a nice visual style.

Only forward steps.

Been using Edge since AU and I can't install some extensions on my laptop whereas I can on my desktop. Thought that extensions (particularly plug-ins) are not an area where you would expect flawless operation so as long as it's ironed out soon it'll be nothing untoward.

[Doctor Syntax]

"The only issue I have with W10 is the Start Menu"

You haven't read the T&Cs then? Not all the comments about "telemetry"?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Why would you proceed with an update without a backup?

Why would you proceed with an update with only a Microsoft backup, which may or may not be complete, and may or may not be correctly restoreable?

[Anonymous Coward]

Whew!

I was in the process of downloading updates to my copy of Win10, when I saw this article. I don't think I'm going to chance it. Thanks, ElReg!

Having a local WSUS server has meant that I don't get the updates until I say to. But, since explorer.exe died today, and refused to restart without a complete reboot, I figured I might as well update the OS while I'm rebooting the machine anyway. I hadn't heard anything bad (well, worse than usual for Win10) about SP1 (Anniversary Edition) yet, so I figured it should be ok. Seems I was wrong, guess I'll just leave the Windows Update service disabled for another month, until they can patch their patch .

[Andy Non]

My only Win 10 laptop is now borked too

I've got a cheap but fairly new Lenovo Windows 10 laptop for the few things I can't do on my Linux Mint boxes such as update my TomTom. The laptop only gets used a few hours use a month. It actually spends more time applying Windows updates than being used. Anyway, after the anniversary update, which seemed to work OK after several hours of updating and rebooting, now refuses to boot up. It just sits there showing one of those busy rotating circles, no message or anything else. Left it like that overnight and it still hadn't moved on. Powered off, rebooted and same again. The computer is now effectively dead. Thanks Microsoft.

[Captain Badmouth]

Re: My only Win 10 laptop is now borked too

It's bad enough when people have "upgraded", but on a brand new machine ?

All your reboots are belong to us....

[Pan_Handle]

Re: My only Win 10 laptop is now borked too

Same here! Yoga 3 'Pro'. Lenovo logo, then blue screen (completely blank).

Tried to 'reset' (reinstall Windows, keep data) - no effect.

Grrr.

[Dave Lawton]

Re: My only Win 10 laptop is now borked too

@Andy Non

Can't help with your W10 issue, but as far as updating your TomTom goes,

install Virtualbox on your Mint machine, and run a minimalist guest of XP, or

W7, no need for W10 then. Works for me.

HTH

[WolfFan]

Re: My only Win 10 laptop is now borked too

I have Win 10 in a VM (Parallels) on a Mac. It's borked, as soon as I let it update. I have a backup of the VM. Deleting the borked VM file and replacing it with the backup worked... until I allowed the update again. Deleting the borked file one more time and replacing it with the backup is working, so long as I don't allow the system to connect to the internet. If I do, Microsoft attempts to install the update, which I'm fairly sure will bork it again. The VM is of somewhat limited utility if it can't see the Internet.

I also have Win 10 on a laptop. Given the way that the VM blew up, I'm performing a complete system backup (a complete volume image using Acronis to an external drive) and will try to keep the laptop away from the internet for as long as possible. Again, the laptop is of somewhat limited utility if it can't see the internet.

Thank you so much, Microsoft.

[alain williams]

Re: My only Win 10 laptop is now borked too

The computer is now effectively dead. Thanks Microsoft.

How new is it ? Under EU law anything electrical has to work for 2 years:

* first 6 months: the supplier has to prove that you broke it

* next 18 months: you need to show that you did not break it ... however all that you did was to leave it on & it updated itself, how much did you have to do with that ? Indeed you can do nothing about i!?

We need to see some law suits - MS (or the manufacturer [HP/Dell/...]) sued ...

[Captain Badmouth]

Re: Under EU law anything electrical has to work for 2 years:

UK law is actually better in this case : you have up to 6 years to bring a case.

[anonymous boring coward]

Re: Under EU law anything electrical has to work for 2 years:

"UK law is actually better in this case : you have up to 6 years to bring a case."

In theory. In practice everything has a "one year warranty", and I have yet to hear of anyone who has even bothered to dispute this. I'm sure it has happened, but it seems to be very rare.

[Mikel]

You Windows fans

You sure put up with a lot of garbage.

[WolfFan]

Re: You Windows fans

Who's a fan?

[alain williams]

Re: You Windows fans

Who's a fan?

Those are the ones fanning themselves as hard as possible so that they keep their cool and don't have steam coming out of their ears because of the latest MS f**k up.

[Paul Shirley]

this is how they'll force us to their cloud

...by ensuring settings and registry wiping clean installs every few updates. Looks like stage 2 has kicked off, wipe other partitions to encourage use of the ms store for easier app recovery.

Mine the one taking a differential drive image every night.

[gregthecanuck]

Bork bork bork

A while back Microsoft laid off a large number of experienced testing/QA staff in USA. I believe a lot of that was 'outsourced' to overseas locations (if at all).

This is the obvious result. Save a few pennies, pay out another penny in dividends, but in the long term you fu@!#! the product.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Bork bork bork

"I believe a lot of that was 'outsourced' to overseas locations"

Not entirely overseas. They have users testers everywhere.

[fnusnu]

SSD maxes out every minutes for several seconds

Look like the Search process is running wild when when it finds a big file and that causes the whole machine to lock up.

Not even sure why it needs to re-index everything...

[james 68]

Re: SSD maxes out every minutes for several seconds

If your running on an SSD then indexing shouldn't be running anyway.....

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: SSD maxes out every minutes for several seconds

"running on an SSD then indexing shouldn't be running anyway...."

Further reading most welcome, e.g. is Windows supposed to work this out for itself, do I have to do something to make it (not) happen, what happens to my SSD if indexing is running, etc.

[fnusnu]

Re: SSD maxes out every minutes for several seconds

http://www.howtogeek.com/256859/dont-waste-time-optimizing-your-ssd-windows-knows-what-its-doing/

[Mikel]

In completely unrelated news...

If you got suckered into W10 more than 10 days ago, you can forget about rolling back. They got you, they're keeping you.

http://www.computerworld.com/article/3104927/microsoft-windows/microsoft-reduces-windows-10-roll-back-grace-period.html

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: In completely unrelated news...

not really... if you upgraded from 7 then DAZ is your friend ;-)

[Chika]

Re: In completely unrelated news...

And there is the reason why I always do some form of backup before an update gets anywhere near my systems, Windows or Linux.

[Sporkinum]

Re: In completely unrelated news...

Thanks for the info. I tried 10 on my laptop just before the 29th. It ran poorly, even after a bunch of tweaks were applied, so I reverted back to 7. I just threw AU on over the weekend to see if it ran better, and it does, but still doesn't seem as responsive as 7. Maybe with a week or so of dicking around with it I could get it to run as well as 7, but now that it appears that I have 10 days or less to roll back, they are forcing my hand. I'll be rolling back tonight once I get home. I tried it on my home desktop PC a month ago, but had to roll back as it wouldn't work with my company's VPN. That machine has been imaged, and I'll need to image the laptop as well since there is no roll-back any longer. If I want to "try" it again in the future, at least I'll have a way out.

[Efros]

Only issue

was a recalcitrant Synaptics touchpad v clickpad driver clash. This is not a new issue and has dogged HP laptops (and other manufacturers I believe) since windows 8.0. Essentially every new Windows update/release identifies the touchpad as a clickpad and installs the driver assigning the most used gestures to fixed functions. I use the three finger left and right swipe to go back and forth on webpages etc and this effing driver uses it to alt tab. I have to disable the driver update in the group policy editor. 4 machines and this is the only issue so far, fingers crossed.

[cambsukguy]

Re: Only issue

And I found the 3-finger alt-tab thing accidentally and though 'useful'.

I like the idea of back/forward too, not sure if I would prefer it because a swipe on the touch screen does the forward/back thing anyway.

I have an HP and it has set the device to be a clickpad, which it is according to the HP website.

I note that the synaptics device control I see is supposed to enhance the 3-finger task control but I can't make it do what it says it can do (switch between apps in task mode). It also can't assign that action to any operation (which ISTR used to be possible). The HP web page discusses in-app control for 3-finger operation.

TBH, I find it quicker to either just touch the window I want or move the pointer and tap rather than drag a finger along to have the highlight move and then select.

If I need a lot of control and do real work, I use the wireless mouse anyway so the click/touch pad matters a lot less to me.

[ntevanza]

Re: Only issue

I ran the Anniversary update on the nettop I use as a dumb terminal and print server. Things went downhill from there, but not, so far, subterranean.

Windows changed a bunch of UI and locale settings. The WIA driver grabbed one core and wouldn't let go. Reinstalled the latest Canon drivers, but they don't do anything.

Old Win10 problems with USB drivers not recovering from sleep have not been fixed.

This hardware combo has been working OK since Win7, via Win 8 and 8.1. So if you use USB, it is, conservatively, the worst update in five years. That said, MS set the bar high. I hope this is an outler.

No Linux because I need a proper RDP client and Canon drivers, please don't start.

Clients running Pro seem to allow me to 'defer upgrades'. A VM running Home does not.

[2fast748]

I'm still running an insider preview build that is set to Release Preview updates and it's upgraded itself to 1607 with no problems.

Admittedly it isn't my everyday machine and is running BOINC and not much else but it does update and keep running.

[Anonymous Coward]

BOINC

Thanks for that.

[Anonymous Coward]

Windows 10 1607 is the road to corrupted Files.

Windows 10 Anniversary Update will allow a user to shutdown the machine even while basic copying commands are taking place...and break them.

(Windows 10 is also corrupting files to/from Linux Based NAS devices)

Try It:

Select a few files, drag the to an external USB Flash Drive, start copying and then, shutdown the machine.

You'll get no notification, the machine will shutdown and the files won't continue to copy until complete, it will break the process and leave corrupted half copied files on the USB.

Given Windows 10 can also schedule a restart by itself, its the road to corrupted Files.

This is basic stuff Microsoft - Utter Shite.

[anonymous boring coward]

Re: Windows 10 1607 is the road to corrupted Files.

Looks like the real programmers have left the sinking ship..

Perhaps this is due to a "fix" for some buggy process hanging on a never ending file system call, indefinitely suspending reboots.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Windows 10 1607 is the road to corrupted Files.

Looks like the real programmers have left the sinking ship..

I'm not sure you're allowed defamatory posts, such as alleging Microsoft had any real programmers in the first place..

:)

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Windows 10 1607 is the road to corrupted Files.

I'm not sure you're allowed defamatory posts, such as alleging Microsoft had any real programmers in the first place..

They have been hired to a Galaxy Far Away to be sharpshooting stormtroopers and fine Death Star designers.

[Bod]

Re: Windows 10 1607 is the road to corrupted Files.

"Select a few files, drag the to an external USB Flash Drive, start copying and then, shutdown the machine."

Suggest you try that on a few other operating systems too.

A 'sudo shutdown -h now' isn't going to wait. You told it now, so does it now.

Proper use if you have multiple users would not be the 'now' however and schedule a shutdown with notification. Funny enough, Windows has that exact functionality and on server versions you are required to specify a reason for shutdown and can give users a chance to log off or even force a log off which will initiate the log off process per user (waiting for certain tasks to complete).

Desktop Windows shutdown has never waited for such things to complete by default.

Still, I think you should blame Microsoft for also corrupting the files when you pull the power lead out of the computer.

"This is basic stuff Microsoft - Utter Shite."

Basic stuff is don't shut down the computer while copying files to USB.

[a_yank_lurker]

Re: Windows 10 1607 is the road to corrupted Files.

"Basic stuff is don't shut down the computer while copying files to USB." - I think we can all say at some point we have tried to shutdown a computer while a critical background task was running that should be interrupted. The complaint is 'bloat is not bulletproof against typical user errors not that this is good practice. Good program design assumes that users will make mistakes and tries to minimize the system damage caused by them. But then this is Slurp we are talking about who has never exhibited good software design.

[Jess]

I tried edge after the update and it went direct to malware.

It was completely locked with the standard popup (and a nice BSOD within a window).

The fix was to launch a new window immediately on starting the browser, then the exploited window could be closed.

Presumably it must have remembered an old page, which was subsequently hacked. (I don't use edge often, it will be even less often, now).

It took me a while to be happy that system wasn't compromised elsewhere.

[Destroy All Monsters]

Re: I tried edge after the update and it went direct to malware.

Thats' WEIRD!

http://www.digitalcitizen.life/

"9 features that make Microsoft Edge a better browser than others"

"How to enable and use Cortana straight from the Windows 10 lock screen"

"15 reasons why you should get the Windows 10 Anniversary Update today"

You seem to be missing out.....

[Bronek Kozicki]

Re: I tried edge after the update and it went direct to malware.

Have one upvote from me, but I think you would have more if you remembered to put in "Joke Alert" icon

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I tried edge after the update and it went direct to malware.

Yes, such articles always amuse me. I'm glad El Reg doesn't contain that many advertorials yet.

*cough* DevOps *cough*

:)

[Tringle]

But . . but . . but . .

I forced the update on my PC and . . nothing to see here. It works just fine, thank you very much.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: But . . but . . but . .

You're right, actually, any update to Linux seems to work fine, no problem.

Oh, you meant Win 10? No, no, we call that a DOWNgrade. Get it right (and in that case I don't believe you as the probability of a successful upgrade is less likely than winning anything in the lottery).

[Steve 114]

Only failure I've had 'upgrading' cousins via TeamViewer (yes, it works for that, with patience) was when they left their USB stick plugged in at reboot, so it blackscreened. Phoned to say 'USB out and try again'; normal service resumed.

[Anonymous Coward]

Does installing Linux help?

That might make broken PCs useful again.

[IGnatius T Foobar]

This is the Windows with Linux in it

I installed this one because it's got the "Windows Subsystem for Linux" that lets you run most of Ubuntu Linux inside a window (and by the way, if you run it inside MobaXterm instead of Microsoft's crappy terminal window, you get a usable terminal and the ability to run X11 programs). As much as I'd rather be on a native Linux OS, this beats having to run virtual machines to get both environments up and running on the same screen.

Of course, with the Linux userland running on Windows pretending to be a Linux kernel, I'm sure Richard Stallman will have an autistic tantrum until we start calling it "GNU/Windows."

As for the installer breaking my computer ... I had to disconnect my external monitor and most USB peripherals before the installer would stop locking up.

[anonymous boring coward]

Re: This is the Windows with Linux in it

"As for the installer breaking my computer ... I had to disconnect my external monitor and most USB peripherals before the installer would stop locking up."

That's quality, right there, Gov!

[DonL]

Re: This is the Windows with Linux in it

If you like the idea of WSL, check out Babun (based on Cygwin) as well. It has a large repository of additional software as well which can be easily installed using "pact".

[cambsukguy]

Newish laptop, hi-def screen, i5, TV attached, upgraded fine.

Ditto laptop, no extras except fan/games cooler stand thing, also fine.

Older laptop, lo-def screen, i7 proc, also fine.

old, old Netbook, Atom, was Win7, worked ok, Win10 flies by comparison, also upgraded fine.

Lucky us, apparently.

[Chika]

Similar to how it was with Vista. That was a pretty dire system overall when considered as the direct upgrade from Windows XP and many people had problems with it but not everyone did. Same thing with W8. I suspect that the same may be said of W10 in the future.

Personally, however, I'm happy to leave all my W7 boxen as they are. By 2020 all of them will have probably reached EOL and even if they haven't I'm more likely to drop Windows altogether by then as I do more on Linux than anything else, and the more that Microsoft attempts to bully their way into making me upgrade, the more likely I'll be to shift the remaining bits to Linux.

Are you Microsoft shills reading this?

[PickledAardvark]

"Similar to how it was with Vista. That was a pretty dire system overall when considered as the direct upgrade from Windows XP and many people had problems with it but not everyone did."

Vista was not a direct upgrade from Windows XP. The installation engine, for a starter, was completely different from NT4/2000/XP. The audio system was new. Basic concepts -- standard limited users versus admins everywhere -- were challenged. Vista was the first truly new version (Jan 2007) for seven years.

I worked on a trial Vista deployment. We dropped it quickly -- not because Windows had changed (there were changes we sought) but it was too buggy for us. Windows 7 was less buggy, and usable enough. Having explored Windows Vista in a test environment, we had ideas how we would make Windows 7 work for us.

[anthonyhegedus]

What the fuck do we expect from this joke company?

Honestly, it's the same thing over and over. We are just guinea pigs either for untested user interfaces, like Windows 8 and 8.1, or untested code, like Windows 10. It's no longer an OS, it's a revenue-generating system.

Since upgrading to Windows 10, I've had "messages" telling me that my microsoft office is out of date, and to click to upgrade it (i.e. spend some money) and today I had to get someone's machine to (yet again) switch the the default browser to Chrome, and guess what? I got a little popup message saying that why not use the new, fast, Edge browser instead!

Other things that are untested include "fast start". Yes, it starts and shuts down faster, but all it is, effectively is a log-off followed by a hibernate. It causes more problems than it ever solves: if a user has problems with Windows (I mean WHEN, not IF), and shuts down, this doesn't often fix the problem on startup. They need to do a restart, not a shutdown-and-turn-on-again... but who knows this? not the users, that's for sure. And every fucking time there's a major update, this sodding setting gets set again!!!

The whole thing stinks. It's not so much an OS, it's a platform for selling stuff. This company surely deserves to crash and burn.

[Bod]

Re: What the fuck do we expect from this joke company?

"The whole thing stinks. It's not so much an OS, it's a platform for selling stuff. This company surely deserves to crash and burn."

Damn them for being a commercial business trying to make money.

[Destroy All Monsters]

Re: What the fuck do we expect from this joke company?

I buy an OS, I want an OS.

Not a sales-and-addy platform that knows best...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I buy an OS, I want an OS.

OK, but bear in mind that YOU (the end user) are not MS's customer in this picture.

MS's primary customers for Windows are the system builders shipping pre-installed Windows in volume.

Another group of customers used to be the software developers and some IT people, though as time goes by I think many have realised MS are no longer on their side. Mr Pott seems to have, for example.

End users don't count for much in MS's decision process.

[Ropewash]

Re: What the fuck do we expect from this joke company?

That was something new to me on my Surface3pro. At one point it got buggered and wouldn't initialize the screen. "re-boots" on the surface via the power button are those "quickstart" reboots and it took a little googling to get the button combo for a hard reboot. <hold the power-button & volume-up until it shuts off for real>

That's come in handy a lot of times since.

So is <After shutdown, hold volume-up and click the power button. hold the volume-up until the UEFI menu shows up> When booting from USB this allows you to select boot order and to turn off secureboot if you need to.

[PickledAardvark]

Unusual usage of a collective pronoun

Microsoft Support: "We need to do a clean install of Windows 10 Anniversary Update."

We? Is Microsoft sending somebody with a USB flash drive to install the update? Should I be preparing a pot of tea?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Unusual usage of a collective pronoun

The Microsoftman always rings twice!

[Tom Jasper]

Wireless keyboard, Webroot, kbdclass.sys and the blue screen of despair

If you're experiencing an unfriendly Driver Irql not less or equal kbdclass.sys triggered by the first keyboard stroke, plug in a USB keyboard that's been gathering dust, reboot and either uninstall (hump) webroot or follow the instructions here:

https://www5.nohold.net/Webroot/ukp.aspx?solutionid=2544&donelr=1

I believe that it only applies to MS Keyboards (like my Comfort 5000).

Whether the Reg edit / Compatibility Flag solution compromises the security of your system isn't referenced.

I think I found other references to Logitech keyboards when I was removing hair.

[Anonymous Coward]

Bored linux

See from the comments a lot of bored Linux users

[ro55mo]

Re: Bored linux

Linux gives us lots of free time due to its reliability.

[Florida1920]

"Free" Windows upgrade

Microsoft knew what Windows 10 was worth.

[yossarianuk]

Surely easy to fix...

Can't you just load a live CD and recover your OS from there ?

Or enable boot messages in grub so you can actually see what your computer is doing ?

Oh, no of course not its an OS where ultimately you cannot control unlike say Linux.

[cwmbran15]

windows 10 anniversary update (no it didn't)

just wasted 4 days of my life, off and on, attempting to apply windows 10 anniversary update

ie. v1607 over win10 pro v1511 os10586.494, on an acer travelmate p253.

got to '99% complete' (after about 9 hours) then 'hung'

- even after leaving overnight (3 {+1 more for luck!} attempts).

had to remove battery from laptop to allow shut down/restart.

wonder how many other people...

[Anonymous Coward]

Kind of worried that my updated windows 10 will fail soon... Took a while to actually get it to update. I had to unplug the ethernet cable after it verified the download using the updater or it failed with an error. I only found this solution after a couple of hours searching online because the error code didn't relate to the failure and 'sorry something went wrong' wasn't very helpful either.... My other windows 10 failed the update with 'not enough space' even though there was and had to be installed via dvd.

Now it appears that even if by some miracle it does update it can still bork itself. Genius. Are they actually testing this anymore ? Its more of an alpha - except in alpha developers accept feedback and in the case of microsoft they ignore it.

[Shane McCarrick]

Work arounds

I updated 4 laptops- 2 Acers and 2 HPs this afternoon.

I burnt an ISO image and upgraded from a DVD- specifying no updates to be downloaded during the install/upgrade.

All 4 are working perfectly fine this evening- including the antique 8930G that I'm currently typing this on.

[CFWhitman]

Fast Start

I didn't realize that this "feature" existed in Windows 10 until recently (there was only one machine before that in my control that had Windows 10, and I don't use it for anything but testing). Now, with Fast Start, is there a reliable way to get to your BIOS/UEFI settings? Apparently not. If you restart your machine, at least some machines seem to skip over the BIOS stage. Now, with Fast Start, even if you shut your machine down some machines will skip over the BIOS stage. So how do you get to the BIOS or UEFI? You play roulette and hope that one of the times that you shut down, you will really shut down, or you hard reset it during startup (always a good idea!). Thanks for the "feature," Microsoft!

[Chloe Cresswell]

Re: Fast Start

My older lenovo netbook (s20 series) actually came with 2 power buttons for this: one on the keyboard for turning it on, and one on the side you press with a finger nail, that powers on to a boot menu!

Having to fix software in hardware?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Fast Start

"2 power buttons for this: one for turning it on, and one that powers on to a boot menu!"

My Compaq Armada E500s from over a decade and a half ago similarly had two power buttons.

One of the E500s even had a 1400x1050 screen (15"). And they all ran NT while it was still NT, before it had been seriously wrecked by MS.

Happy days.

[Michael Sanders]

So...no change then.

[Anonymous Coward]

What better way

to celebrate Windows' Anniversary than a broken system?

[Bod]

reddit hype

So how many really are having problems out of the 300 million or so users vs a thread on reddit that's being picked up by the online "news" sites as obvious evidence that it's "borking" everyone?

[sikejsudjek]

Re: reddit hype

Its clearly not borking everybody. A lot of people never actually get it to install in the first place....

[Call me Trav]

Boxen

I hate to ask, but is this a reference to the comedian Brian Regan's story about grade school?

In the story he states that he was asked what the plural of 'ox' was. He didn't know, but this kid, Erwin, who knew everything informed the teacher that the plural of 'ox' is 'oxen'. She then turns back to Brian and asks the plural of 'box', to which, he replies, "Boxen... I bought two boxen of doghnuts"

I always think of that routine when I hear boxen...

[Uncle Slacky]

Re: Boxen

It's quite old hacker slang, similar to the use of VAXen as a humorous plural for VAX machines:

http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/B/boxen.html

[Rick Leeming]

"Lost" drives.

I lost both my storage drives after Anniversary installed. One I got back by just assigning a drive letter, the other had a corrupted MFT. When that was "fixed" all the files seemed to be missing content, and I had to use some recovery software to actually get the data.

Not a show stopper, but somewhat annoying.

[Fenton]

What is it with Windows and MacOs

In Both OSs, standard apps (photos, music, film, etc) have been replaced with new ones with less functionality.

Otherwise win 10 anniversary addition has not caused any issues. But what does piss me off is Cortana. When issuing voice commands, eg play jimi Hendrix it always looks for groove music subscription service and complains I'm not a subscriber, but if I type the same phrase it launches groove music and plays local content.

[yossarianuk]

Re: What is it with Windows and MacOs

This is why you should try Linux out.

You have Windows10/Mac like desktops (Gnome3/Unity) if you want, but you also have actual real desktops you can do work with such as KDE (i'd recommend this), cinnamon (XP like), Budgie (nice and minimal)

[cookieMonster]

I just love these

reports, seriously. Nothing in the tech press make me laugh more these days (apologies to those of you who have no choice).

[TheOneBalance]

Compensation

Given how frequently Windows causes pain with seemingly random problems and Microsoft do something cataclysmic to destroy days of our lives perhaps it is time they pay compensation. I saw an article only yesterday explaining that the reason we pay for a Windows license is that it is a "premuum" product so it is time the business treated it's customers appropriately.

[Destroy All Monsters]

Re: Cortana in furs!

Well, you are treated ... with disdain! So be grateful! Here are some vouchers to attend a Microsoft course on SharePoint and an exclusive presentation of the upcoming roadmap, more interesting than a trip through Khazad-dum while being waylaid by one-armed bandits.

[Someone Else]

Users are reporting that upgrading to the Windows 10 Anniversary Update renders their PCs unusable.

And this surprises you how, again?

[Kev99]

"do a clean install" - Oh, PUH-LEEZ! How many people want to wipe out who know how many gigabytes or even terabytes of data & programs because Redmond can't design and code a decent installer? And, PUH-LEEZ, don't suggest you should back up your data first. What good is that is you've lost all of your programs?

In my opinion, the install should simply overwrite the previous versions and not start with fresh rust.

[Anonymous Coward]

My data point

Phenom 2 quad core running on Toshiba C650D

Did over-install on fresh 7 Home Premium x64 with a single update.

Seemed to work, found most of the drivers but since the Anniversary Update I've had two (!) random restarts with no apparent cause.

CPU temperature at the time was well within AMD's spec and this has the latest BIOS and chipset/fan/hotkey drivers but was reporting before the update an athbtx related problem on each boot or recovery from sleep/standby.

[Blacklight]

The upgrade has had some fun with my machine.

a) Restart after updating - well, no, it powered the machine off

b) ICMP (inbound) ping/response was disabled, after I'd explicitly enabled it

c) Jumbo Frame support magically got disabled

d) System Restore - also magically turned off - I created a Restore Point FIRST, and when I ran some diags/checks afterwards, System Restore on C: was disabled.

I'd advise you to check all your settings, just in case...

[Captain Badmouth]

Interesting reading

http://www.infoworld.com/article/3104999/microsoft-windows/windows-10-anniversary-update-woes-continue.html

[Captain Badmouth]

xbox problems too

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/08/xbox-one-controllers-and-windows-10-pcs-its-all-a-mess-right-now/

Obligatory backing track :

"Bork that funky x-box fanboy......"

[Floating Sinker]

So we've come full circle

Format C:\ re-installations to fix OS weirdness. So Windows 10 is really Windows 95/98/(Heaven Forbid)ME reincarnate?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sadism as a Standard

n/t

[hovis]

Both my Windows 10 pcs refused to update...

Having automatically downloaded and attempted to install the update, neither computer finished the job and reverted to the old Windows 10 version - thank goodness...