As Windows 10 lands on 900m devices, Microsoft shows us the shape of clunk to come (again)

Microsoft dropped a fresh build of 2020's Windows 10 last night as the company trumpeted 900 million devices running the operating system. Build 18990, also known as 20H1, was passed around to Windows Insiders on the Fast Ring and continued the recent trend of minor tweaks coupled with enhancements to the Windows Subsystem for …

[JetSetJim]

Just give me a Windows based OS that doesn't need to be online, doesn't phone home, and isn't a pain in the arse (more than 2 clicks) to configure without an Microsoft Online account.

Oh, and doesn't have any gaping holes in security :)

Linux is all well and good, but SWMBO doesn't get on with it

[Charlie Clark]

I found out the other day that my S10e has Dex. Cue HDMI adapter and foldable keyboard and you have, to intent and purpose a desktop, including MS Office if you want.

Kind of disappointing to see Google putting less support into this, so go Samsung!

[Anonymous Coward]

Windows 10 doesn't need to be online and it takes one extra click on setup to use a local account.

You can choose not to enable the phone home data during setup too.

[Timmy B]

"Windows 10 doesn't need to be online and it takes one extra click on setup to use a local account.

You can choose not to enable the phone home data during setup too."

Hush - that kind of heritical talk will get you nowhere on the Reg!

[JetSetJim]

I'd been under the impression that the phone home data was merely minimised, not turned off

[Anonymous Coward]

I always thought Nadella looks like a Grinch...

... more even so this year when he will take away my Windows 7 for Xmas....

[beast666]

Bleeding eyeballs

When does The Reg get a dark mode?

[Tom 35]

Re: Bleeding eyeballs

BOFH has a tutorial on setting that up, note that it requires access to a sub-basement.

[Charlie Clark]

Re: Bleeding eyeballs

Aren't you thinking of the Dark Room?

[N2]

For those toiling within bowels of the software giant

here comes the next dollop of...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: For those toiling within bowels of the software giant

Isn't that a "mushroom" culture?

[NoneSuch]

It's Now One Less

I had a Win10 workstation generating videos for a time sensitive project due the next day. I had previously disabled the Windows Update service so it would run unimpeded.

Came back the next morning to find WU had turned itself on, installed updates and rebooted. That cost me money and was the last straw. I'm now using a Linux based OS with Open Source video encoder. It's faster to process video, I can uninstall what I don't want and I choose when to update it.

In the immortal words of Father Jack, Microsoft can feck off.

[ivan5]

Re: It's Now One Less

You are not the only one, I finally converted the last windows machine in the place to Zorin linux with some relief - no more messing about trying to find out what windows has done to mess things up again.

[andy 103]

Re: It's Now One Less

The only way you can properly turn Windows Update off is via Run > services.msc

Go to Windows Update and click Properties. Then set Startup Type to "Disabled". Then go to the Recovery Tab. Then set First Failure to "Take no action".

Yeah, I've stopped using Windows too. Because of bullshit like this ;)

[Morphius]

Re: It's Now One Less

That doesn't work now.... but if you mark your internet connection as metered it stops it completely :-)

[andy 103]

Re: It's Now One Less

@Morphius oh really? It's been a long time I've used it, but precisely for these reasons! Good to know though, cheers.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: It's Now One Less

To windows, metered connections mean "the user will probably notice if we download shitloads of updates and torrent them around from here" It's a setting that's well worth using.

[Dave K]

Re: It's Now One Less

I seem to recall that's not a solid guarantee any more. If memory serves, Windows will still download what MS considers critical fixes even over a metered connection.

[Richard 12]

Re: It's Now One Less

Correct, it only reduces the frequency of updates, it doesn't stop them entirely.

I've also had WU force a reboot during a process that was using 100% CPU time across all cores and continuous disk access.

I'd really like to know how they decided the PC was "idle".

Fortunately I only lost a couple of hours, unlike the entire day I lose almost every time macOS updates - though at least it hasn't yet triggered itself.

Yet my Linux boxes manage the same thing in maybe 5 minutes, including a reboot to upgrade the kernel.

[The Oncoming Scorn]

Re: It's Now One Less

Having been caught like that with a 3D print job stopped:

Two fixes - Set connection as "metered" or run a looping batch file running shutdown /a every 10 seconds or whatever time setting you decide.

[Tom 35]

Re: It's Now One Less

Set connection to metered will not work for a wired connection. And they broke the reg hack.

You can setup task scheduler to trigger when the update service starts and run a script that kills it again.

You can pause updates before you do something important. I do that before going to a convention so I don't have it deciding to install updates in the middle of an event.

[Timmy B]

Re: It's Now One Less

There are a good half a dozen options to stop this. Defer updates until a specific date, defer for a set number of days, show notification when reboot required, etc.

Anyone who has this happen simply hasn't configured it right. I have never had Windows install updates when I didn't want it to.

[LeahroyNake]

Restarting

'Microsoft has added support for automatically restarting Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps upon login.'

How about not having the bloody UWP apps installed by default in the first place?

Or giving us the option to disable them all completely? That bloody news one on the start menu always winds me up!

[Timmy B]

Re: Restarting

"That bloody news one on the start menu always winds me up!"

erm.. Uninstall it then?

[Elledan]

On my current laptop I was forced to use Windows 10 on account of its UEFI BIOS no longer providing a VGA driver for the Windows 7 installer. Still hackable, but with the increasing lack of compatibility in such matters I decided I should bite the bullet and use Windows 10 on that laptop. After some tweaking and hacking I managed to get Aero Glass re-enabled on it, with rounded corners and everything. It now basically looks like Windows 7 with a few ugly warts where the Win10 UI still peeks through.

The only thing I really like about Windows 10 is probably WSL, as it saves me from the kludge of running Linux VMs all the time. That's why on my desktop PC I still run Windows 7, with no real inclination to 'upgrade'. My desktop PC is 2015-era hardware, so it'll take a while before I'm in any way forced to run Windows 10 on it. Maybe when I do a full upgrade in another few years from now :)

[Anonymous Coward]

My W7 PCs are older than that. Have a few spare motherboards in the cupboard - and a W7 retail licence - and several W7 OEM licences. That will cover the things that need to run on Windows - for everything else there's Linux Mint.

[Anonymous Coward]

"there continues to be some debate as to the point of UWP nowadays"

I thought that UWP was supposed to be the future for Windows apps and Microsoft was strongly discouraging developers from using the Win32 APIs. Has this changed?

[Anonymous Coward]

Has this changed?

Yes.

https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/30/18645609/microsofts-universal-windows-app-dead-microsoft-store-windows-store

https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-wants-to-close-the-uwp-win32-divide-with-windows-apps/

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Has this changed?

Thanks. I obviously wasn't paying attention.

[Richard Plinston]

restart them after I sign in

Every developer will now be creating UWPs that will have that setting forced on somehow in a rerun of Javascript pop-up heaven.

[Anonymous Coward]

Windows 10 is the only OS software where you have to disconnect from the internet during install to get a sane system. I don't want my OS as a front for a failed store.

[MrKrotos]

900 million devices running the operating system

Hmmm, me thinks this is the total of installs, not the active count.

I have seen a good 30 ish macine re-installs just because Shitdows 10 bricked itself.