Ramblings of an old Doc

 

“Microsoft has confirmed that Windows 10 users will be able to block or undo some updates to the system. It's a minor exception to the recently-instated policy that all updates are mandatory. In previous editions of Windows, users have always had the choice of whether or not to download a new feature or security update, including whether or not it was installed automatically, or manually.” – infopackets

Also, new features will be released sooner than on a fixed schedule…not sure if this won’t cause problems like their last security update fiasco.

so, MS has released a new “troubleshooter” which allows you to block a particular update if it’s causing problems. It’s far from perfect, and users can’t stop it from downloading (is it me, or are they going from bad to worse?). Users have to manually unistall the update, then use the tool to block the update from being reinstalled. You can read about it here: http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-releases-tool-to-hide-or-block-unwanted-windows-10-updates/ (not normally a great source, but it’s quite accurate in this case).

So, it’s going to be more work than the current Windows update used in W7. That’s progress!

What can I say? This just isn’t for me until a whole load of changes come about.

Sources:

http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-releases-tool-to-hide-or-block-unwanted-windows-10-updates/

https://www.infopackets.com/news/9641/microsoft-relaxes-windows-10-mandatory-updates

http://www.ghacks.net/2015/07/27/microsoft-releases-tool-to-block-windows-10-updates/?_m=3n%2e0038%2e1682%2ehj0ao01hy5%2e1qxh


Comments
on Jul 28, 2015

Agreed.

I suspect the overwhelming majority of purchasers of consumer rigs will never know what's going on so MS isn't going to make things easy for those of us in the minority who pay attention to these things.  They'll just go about their business of making computing more "human". 

on Jul 28, 2015

I've been running all the Win 10 previews on my 6 year old Dell XPS with no problems so far but I'm not happy about mandatory updates as far as Drivers go.

I refused the last video driver update because how far can a 6 year old Radeon 5450 go?  Many older machines will have problems with new drivers.

on Jul 28, 2015

Unless I'm missing something, even now, on Windows 8.1, if you're using the modern version of windows updates, there's no way to hide an update. Sux.

on Jul 28, 2015

A couple years ago, I became suspicious when my system seemed to slow down every time I would install the latest security patch updates from Microsoft. Since I had invested in a very good Anti-virus program that I was extremely happy with, I suspected that the patches were actually causing conflicts with my anti-virus. As an experiment, I uninstalled most all of the security patches that I could and just trusted my own security. I found that my system returned to it's fast and snappy self again and I've not experienced any virus or performance issues since then. I share this story here as an example of why I believe forced updates are not only a bad thing for consumers , but may potentially degrade performance of our rigs, with no easy fix.      --Ace--

on Jul 28, 2015

Ace, you can easily check out what each dl is in the security tech blog: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/bulletin/

So that you can know what each patch is for...

on Jul 28, 2015

i don't think antivirus helps any if you don't patch holes.

on Jul 28, 2015

Things will need to be 'relaxed' a whole lot more before I am convinced Win 10 is a good proposition.  Tools to 'fix' borked updates fall well short of being satisfactory in my book.  No, there needs to be a 100% backtrack on this or MS will not meet its target of Win 10 0n a billion machines by 2018.

While I have 3 machines that are eligible to upgrade to Win 10 Pro, thus allowing an 8 month 'reprieve', I also have two machines that would only qualify for the Home Premium Edition, and these will remain as they are [Win 8.1] because I don't have the patience to be messed about if forced updates eff either of them up.  Even so, I'm still not convinced that I should upgrade the 3 Pro machines to Win 10 Pro

I've read there's many under-the-hood improvements in Win 10, but it is the ugliest edition MS has ever produced, and I'm still not certain that I want to mess up 3 stable installs of Win 8.1.  I have an old AMD 1150T machine stashed away and still in good working order.  I'll likely use it with my spare copy of Win 8 Pro to do an upgrade.

on Jul 31, 2015

I'm with starkers, the restore point type feature to un-do the 'patch' needs to be there.  It should be user friendly, not a process that requires user to be an 'under the hood' person.