back to article BONK! BONK! Windows 10 whack-a-mole – Microsoft still fixing bugs

Microsoft is still trying to crush the remaining bugs in its latest and supposedly greatest operating system. Build 10240, which was released to the Windows Insider program two weeks ago, is widely considered to be the "release to manufacturing" (RTM) build, even though Redmond itself says the RTM concept doesn't apply in its …

Page:

  1. P. Lee
    Meh

    Meh!

    I'm used to new Linux installs wanting to download patches.

    This is no different. In fact, it's so un-different I'm not going to bother with it for the foreseeable future.

    1. asdf

      Re: Meh!

      Yeah nothing beats an EA game on release day where you end up downloading a patch nearly the size of the whole game to fix only some of the show stoppers. That is if their servers haven't already face planted for the first week. At least someone has set the bar very low for Microsoft.

    2. TheVogon

      Re: Meh!

      The people who are getting Windows 10 updates right now are those that signed up to get alpha and beta code via the Windows Insider process.

      i.e. they agreed to test potentially buggy software.

      We therefore can't draw any conclusions as to what might be released to production Windows 10 systems from what such early test users see.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Meh!

        >We therefore can't draw any conclusions as to what might be released to production Windows 10 systems from what such early test users see.

        How many days until release? Maybe it will be fine is probably what a lot of middle managers are saying in Redmond right now. Still this whole thing reeks of apeing Apple (the bad parts like pushing out service packs pretending to be new half ass OS releases every year) and doing that originally is a lot of what caused the whole Vista fiasco (lets go all bloaty like Mac OS at the time).

      2. Roland6 Silver badge

        Re: Meh!

        >We therefore can't draw any conclusions as to what might be released to production Windows 10 systems from what such early test users see.

        We can, because MS have to have released software to "the channel", so that they can actually sell Win 10 systems on the day. So we can be confident that Build 10240 is apart from some cosmetic version number changes, the "Release to Manufacturing" version of Win10.

        What is open to question is what will be in the first "Release to Market" update. Given the number of major bugs discovered and the amount of dev work reportedly still in progress, I would not be surprised to find that the first update is a 3.5GB image download ie. a completely new build, that completely replaces Build 10240...

      3. CmdrX3

        Re: Meh!

        Are you taking the piss... this is a supposedly RTM version and at this point in the release schedule, testers should not be finding these kind of bugs in something that will be released on a wide scale to the general public. It's not the testing that is the problem, it's what they are finding two days before general release that's the problem.

  2. Cirdan
    Linux

    Risk vs reward

    The reward to risk ratio leads me to AVOID Win10.

    At least the kids' Win 8.1 game machines are stable.

    ...Cirdan...

    (And I'm on Linux Mint and Android)

    1. Mark 85

      Re: Risk vs reward

      I quite agree... Win7 stays put on my machines. What happens at work might be a different story depending on what Sales Dweeb gets to what C-Suite type. I think permanent retirement is becoming a viable option for me.

  3. Neoc

    I got a spare HP laptop that's constantly crashing due to a graphics driver problem. It's the sacrificial lamb.

  4. Syntax Error

    Seems Microsoft with its new CEO has learnt nothing. The culture of send it out bugs and all still remains. Some government or big company should sue Microsoft for supplying faulty goods/services. Cotowing to "Software Licenses" needs to end especially with OSs. They need to be challenged.

    I'm surprised know one is getting excited over SP1 yet.

    1. Roland6 Silver badge

      >Seems Microsoft with its new CEO has learnt nothing.

      On the contrary!

      We're just seeing what some in MS have known for sometime, MS have lost the ability to launch a new product to market, hence why they've been saying this will be the last version of Windows...

    2. PNGuinn
      Trollface

      "I'm surprised know one is getting excited over SP1 yet"

      Nah - if you're really that bored get excited over service pack 3.

      1. Pookietoo

        Re: get excited over service pack 3

        Why are people still talking about service packs? There's no such thing in MSFT's new strategy of rolling updates.

    3. asdf

      hmm

      >The culture of send it out bugs and all still remains

      I am hardly some MS fanboi (check my post history lol) but they do to tend to spend more on software Q&A than probably anyone else. They unlike Apple have to support a ton more different combinations of hardware and software and in the last half decade or so have done a better job. I have definitely seen more of Mac OS shitting itself on my home computer than I have seen blue screens on my Win7 computers at work (but have yet to make FreeBSD shit the bed on my Mac which is why its my daily driver). That said that was Win7. Probably premature to defend Win10 as it may end up being a tire fire on release.

      1. Michael Sanders

        Re: hmm

        I don't know. Apple is a much more mature unix. The Linux world has pretty much been sitting on it's ass. RPM vs. installing on a Mac is a huge difference. Running Linux means "being" a developer. I've finally been impressed with Mac enough to buy one. If Apple sold it's OS to the masses with a bundled motherboard or some other scheme. They just might kick windows in the nuts pretty hard.

        1. asdf

          Re: hmm

          >Apple is a much more mature unix

          Yes the POSIX parts are great what tends to be the problem is Apple's non POSIX eye candy bloat.

          >The Linux world has pretty much been sitting on it's ass.

          If anything Red Hat with the cataclysmic systemd changes that are rapidly changing everything (I wish they were sitting on their ass) is turning Linux into Windows lite. Now the desktop/laptop seems to be all that matters in that ecosystem.

          >RPM vs. installing on a Mac is a huge difference.

          RPM eh? That's the whole Linux world eh? You haven't looked in 10 years have you? That said not only Linux (and *BSD) but even Windows will support your Mac hardware with security updates longer than Apple will.

  5. Winkypop Silver badge
    Stop

    This "Get Windows 10" widget...

    Can it be turned off any harder?

    1. Bert 1
      WTF?

      Re: This "Get Windows 10" widget...

      Oh, I hope so.

      I turned it off (stopped relevant updates downloading, etc).

      Fscking things come back! I can't be arsed spending any more time on it. I am hoping it will disappear tomorrow, but it might just get bigger :-(

      1. VBF

        Re: This "Get Windows 10" widget...

        If you have the following updates installed:

        KB 3035583

        KB 2952664

        KB 3065987

        Uninstall them and "Get Windows 10" goes away. If you want it later - reinstall those updates. I've followed that exact procedure on 2 test PCs.

        Unfortunately the updates will try and reinstall as they themselves get updated - best you can do is hide them and be wary. That's assuming that you don't allow Windows to automatically download / install updates - I never have!

        1. Dan 55 Silver badge
          Flame

          Re: This "Get Windows 10" widget...

          Yes, MS pushed them out again a week or so ago so they install again even after uninstalling and hiding them and I imagine it won't be the last time this happens over the next year. So now they're using Windows Update as Coupon bloody Monkey.

      2. Stevie

        Re: This "Get Windows 10" widget...

        I stopped deleting the patches and hacked the registry to hide the clicky. Now the updates download automatically but the annoying too-easy-to-click icon is nowhere to be seen.

  6. Mystic Megabyte
    Linux

    Epic or epoch?

    It's strange to think that in 2015 a Raspberry Pi running some version of GNU/Linux is a more stable platform than Windows on a more powerful device. I certainly will not be buying anything with Windows pre-loaded.

    1. Steve Cooper

      Re: Epic or epoch?

      How about a Raspberry Pi running Windows 10?

      1. DJV Silver badge
        Devil

        "How about a Raspberry Pi running Windows 10?"

        Go wash your mouth out with soap and hydrochloric acid!

      2. PNGuinn
        Mushroom

        "How about a Raspberry Pi running Windows 10?"

        See Icon. That is all

      3. Anonymous Coward
        WTF?

        Re: Epic or epoch?

        Nope. How about a first gen Intel Galileo running Windows 10 IoT? I have both so WTF? Should be very painful but it'll distract me from the physical pain. Onward!

    2. sabroni Silver badge

      Re: Epic or epoch?

      Is it really surprising that targeting a single device is easier than targeting all pcs made in the last 5 years and a load of tablets?

      1. Tomato42
        Linux

        Re: Epic or epoch?

        one was "cobbled" together by "amateurs" and is given out for free while the other hikes a price of a kidney in worse parts of the globe and was "perfected" by "professionals" over a course of a decade and a half

  7. Kracula
    Meh

    As always, wait it out

    Not sure "Microsoft is delivering a faulty new OS" still qualifies as news these days. It seems that this kind of launches have become the industry standard - either were speaking OS, games, consoles etc. I guess the economic forces at work say that it's more efficient to work out bugs as you also record sales, rather than spend millions on closed testing environments.

  8. Len Goddard

    Business as usual

    Is anyone silly enough to upgrade to a new MS OS before SP1 at the earliest?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Business as usual

      Dear god, how times are we going to have to repeat, there will be NO SPs for windows 10. Its all on a rolling upgrade schedule. You get them (updates) whether you want them or not unless you run the Enterprise edition.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Business as usual

        I think you missed the point of the rolling update schedule. That just means that they're going to issue consumer patches on any damn day of the month they please; instead of waiting till the second Tuesday of each month. I haven't seen anything that said there wouldn't be service packs, or at least "patch rollups."

        The point of waiting for SP1 (regardless of what it's called) is that most of the major bugs have been found and worked out (or at least around) by that time.

    2. peakyblinder

      Re: Business as usual

      Considering there won't be any SPs for Windows 10, people would have a long wait...

      1. king of foo

        Re: Business as usual

        Or... was that his/her point???

  9. hplasm
    Devil

    Bring it- bugs and all...

    It's all grist to the The Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal.

    From the FructiferousBugwriter Beast of Redmond!

  10. nematoad

    ?

    OK off-topic I know, but surely the animal pictured in the heading is a prairie-dog not a mole.

    1. frank ly

      Re: ?

      It might be a subtle joke about not being able to get things right. (?)

    2. Kubla Cant

      Re: ?

      The first para says Microsoft are "beavering away", but it's not a beaver, either. According to the image filename, it's a gopher (which I think is the same as a prairie dog).

    3. Zippy's Sausage Factory
      Thumb Up

      Re: ?

      Yes, it's a subtle joke. And quite a clever one. Very very clever.

      I had to look up prairie dogging on urban dictionary in order to understand it...

  11. 0laf

    I probably will have a go. But not for a little while and not until I've got a proper backup of the current Win7 install.

    1. Boothy

      Same here.

      I have a Laptop that will act as the sacrificial lamb guinea pig, for initial testing, see if it breaks access to my network shares (BSD box), or anything else first.

      My main PC, a desktop (i7 gaming rig, Steam etc), will remain on Win 7 64 bit for the time being, at least until I've seen a few 'all clear' type forum and blog posts etc.

  12. peakyblinder

    I've used the 'uninstall' option from within the control panel many times and have had no problems (ironically uninstalling the Office 2016 preview).

  13. Charles Manning

    How bad is it?

    I've heard it said before that you can tell how bad things are in a product by seeing how many people are working overtime.

    I bet tonight there's a long queue of pizza delivery trucks outside One Microsoft Way.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Meh

    Nah, not yet

    If I had an expendable Win7 or Win8.1 license I'd give it a whirl - the bugs so far haven't caused me too much pain.

    But I won't upgrade any machine that I rely on for general purpose stuff until it becomes clear how many of the privacy-invading / telemetry sending features of the preview have been turned off or made deselectable (preferably by default) in the commercial release.

    And also how useful it is when it has never been connected to a Microsoft Account.

  15. Tromos
    Joke

    There are no service packs for Win10

    An excellent reason to wait for SP1

    1. Avatar of They
      Happy

      Re: There are no service packs for Win10

      Darn!, you beat me to it.

    2. johnwerneken

      Re: There are no service packs for Win10

      exactly

  16. Efros

    Meh I'll upgrade my laptop

    Just to see how bad things can be. I ghosted the boot drive last week just in case it's a complete can of worms.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    OS have shipped with bugs since forever.

    1. PNGuinn
      FAIL

      "OS have shipped with bugs since forever."

      But this may be the first time the bugs have shipped with an os....

Page:

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like