You might need to look into FSX....it's quite an 'extensive' program.  You can fly your plane amongst actual air traffic.  The only thing you can't do is look out your window and see BOTH planes flying overhead.  Hooking into realtime ATC is just part of it...it also hooks into [or can do] realtime weather.  BTW....11 is now 'happy' with FSX....I expect another associated update fixed the anomaly.

The only thing I do about Win updates is MAKE those bastards ask me first before they screw with that which they clearly do not understand.

Once upon a time good old Norton AV 2003 decided to update itself and PERMANENTLY disabled the BITS service.

Look it up....it was 'entertaining'....and might even have coincided with your 'IT for 15 years'.

I was still on dial-up and had to download XP's service pack 1 .... as part of the 'cure'.... it was either that or buy a second XP with it on.

I guess the upside was....MS wasn't going to also be fucking with the machine....as BITS was disabled....

 

I'm entirely up-to-date with updates [on all 6 machines, though there's probably another 6 or 8 on VM that need revisions]...but I don't install them immediately they are available...preferring others to be the idiot guinea pigs.

Fools rush in....

It's not that extraneous 'harmless' stuff (not needed) gets included in updates, it's that updates that ARE important get effed up and hose systems.  If automatic forced updates were the bee's knees, they would apply to enterprise, too.  MS admits as much by creating a tiered update architecture.  It's actually a much bigger problem for home users, nearly all of whom lack the expertise that an IT team can bring to bear on a glitched update, the very users who will have no choice.

IT are not mysterious gods of technology....

Good series while it lasted.

didn't i read that you can still disable update? that is.. disable the update service somewhere under the hood

It burns space on your disk.

Absolutely. The reason they offer 'delays' for Enterprise (that they're NOT telling you) is that if a business gets data truly screwed, they'll sue for damages.

That didn't actually answer the question/address the point.  Most games these days have online connectivity to varying degrees.  Admittedly FSX is probably one of the most extensive.  But they aren't using IE to do that.  My point is IE should have absolutely nothing to do with FSX.  The fact that an IE update broke the game is as much the games fault as the updates.

LOL, that's the best you can come up with?  So does surfing the internet, saving pictures, and playing games.  But I'm guessing you do all of that.

It's not because enterprises are playing the waiting game, it's because Enterprises prefer to run a set scheduled update cycle.  I help support 122 different banking organizations at this point in time.  The only ones that aren't installing updates on a regular, preset, schedule are the ones that are also still running XP, Office 2003, Server 2003, ESX 4.0, etc (against our recommendations) and they are the ones having constant problems.

My point was trying to play the waiting game on updates causes more problems than it's worth.  We've seen half a dozen organizations get hit by Cryptoware attacks in the last month that could have been prevented by having properly updated systems.  That caused far more of an impact then rolling back a bad update would have.

That's the best you can do? (just to quote)...and seriously, that's temporary memory...and CCleaner (as well as many others) removes that very quickly. As for pictures? That's something you actually choose to save. 

MS won't be asking you what you want. They're telling you what you're getting and you have no choice. If you knew anything about me, you'd know I don't play games.

Yes, and BOTH are made by Microsoft.  If they cannot manage their own products to behave with each other then God help any third party's.

It was just as silly as "it burns disk space" as a reason not to use updates.  This isn't the 90's.  Storage is dirt cheap these days.  If you're so pressed for space that you can't afford the space used by Windows Updates you're doing something wrong.  A bunch of the servers I manage are running on 20Gb vDisks and they manage to "squeeze in" Windows updates.  I mean are YOU serious right now?  $50 will get you a 1TB hard drive.  You sound like my uncle who's still running around with XP SP1 because "they can't make me upgrade".  Jafo at least has a semi-reasonable reason.  If you're that concerned about disk space, you shouldn't be running Windows at all.  There's oodles of Linux distros that are far more compact than Windows.

If you simply want to voice outrage about a perceived violation of your freedom because it's the trendy thing you have to be able to find a better target than this.

Sort of.  They may have the same parent company, but Windows and Games are two entirely separate parts of the organization.  The studio responsible for FSX (Aces) doesn't even exist any more.  You're still missing my point though.  There's ZERO reason FSX should be using IE for anything.  Be reasonable and think about this for a second.  If it was your job to update IE, at any point in time would you go "I wonder if this breaks FSX"?  Personally I wouldn't because that's ridiculous that it depends on IE.  That's like replacing your toaster and finding out your microwave no longer works.  Plus you have to keep in mind the age of the game too.  This would be like Stardock updating Fences and me complaining it broke GalCiv2 so I'm never going to trust Stardock's updates again.  Those programs shouldn't have anything to do with each other.

I'm sorry but in both of these cases it seems like you guys are making mountains out of mole hills.  I like bashing Microsoft as much as the next person.  I'm still pissed about the shrink and then elimination of Technet software licenses.  But do you realize the sheer quantity of Windows updates that get released and you guys are making a fuss about a couple of unneeded but harmless updates and one update that caused a conflict with an application that shouldn't have been related in the first place?  I've got Louis CK stuck in my head right now.  Everything is amazing and nobody's happy.  I don't recall the last time I recall a Windows Update that caused a major issue at the home level?  What if we were talking about a car instead of a computer...

You bought a new car and the dealer tells you that it includes free maintenance for the next 10 years.  Even better, you don't even have to bring it in, they do it in your driveway while it's not in use.  They change the oil, put air in the tires, check all the belts, and make sure the alarm works.  But one time, years down the road, they left the oil cap off and put some air in your spare even though you don't use it.  So you call the dealer and angrily tell them you don't want them to ever come out and maintain your car again.  So you're going to throw out years of hassle free maintenance because ONE time out of literally hundreds or even thousands caused you a slight inconvenience.  That doesn't sound like overkill to you?

Before you burn me at the stake for being a Microsoft white knight/apologist, let me say for the record that I've got more FreeBSD based systems at home right now than Windows based.  Updates on them are a far bigger hassle than any of my Windows boxes.  Linux isn't a magical OS where everything just works, you never have to update, and angels greet you every time you turn on your computer.

Then there's also the fact this is largely how Apple has been doing OSX for a while now and frankly I don't recall hearing of any fire and brimstone resulting from it.

I'm sorry, I just don't see where the problem is.

 

 

XavierMace....I really don't know where to start with regards to all the tripe you posted.

Reality is fact.  IE updates broke my system. End of.

Cars?  You want cars?  Now, exactly how many are currently being recalled because a 'life saver' has actually killed people?  If you have no idea google 'air-bag recall'.

Apple 'doing it'? Like perchance installing catch nets to solve the worker suicide issue?

And yes....I, too am conversant with computers and also lament the watering down of TechNet.

'years of hassle free' is quite wrong. Any time you like....google for update issues....you'll find tomes.  For me the FSX issue was not the first problem with an MS update...and definitely not the first time with updates in general.

They [updates] break things with monotonous regularity.  Anyone conversant with computers disables 'auto update' just so the computer can be sure to be still on and functioning in the morning.  Leave it to MS [and others] entirely and I can absolutely guarantee that sooner or later you will be booting into safe mode to find out what they screwed with THIS TIME.

Meanwhile....enjoy your new [uninvited] icon in your systray that says "Get Windows 10" ...

 

So I just woke up this morning to my Windows offering me a "Free Upgrade" from Win 7 64 Pro to Windows 10. This seems fishy to me? Is this something I should do or not?

No...it's not 'fishy'...it's a genuine MS adware .... go for it if you want to [though it isn't available yet anyway].

The issue is whether it denotes the beginning of the end for 'normal' OS purchase and use....

It's Microsoft, it's always "fishy" hehe

I did some digging to make sure it's legit, you're right it is, and it is free . I went ahead and signed up for the upgrade.

Thing I'm wondering when the time comes is what will happen after it comes out. What if I need to re-install Windows for whatever reason after I've upgraded to 10 Pro, but won't have a disk? Will my OEM from my store bought Win 7 Pro 64 still be good or will it be marked as dead and moved to Win 10, and will I have to buy a re-install disk?

I'm wary of doing a whole OS install this way. I don't have hundreds of dollars on hand if something goes wrong or they try to milk me with this and I can't afford to screw my-self out of my very expensive (when I got it) Win 7 Pro 64.

Good to see you again, Jafo