Windows Update borks PowerShell – Microsoft won't fix it for a week You'd be forgiven for thinking Microsoft is actively trying to stop people using Windows 10 Anniversary Edition. A patch this week broke one of the key features of the OS: PowerShell. KB 3176934, released on Tuesday as an automatic update, addresses a good number of bugs and other oddities in the operating system, including …
"And Redmond wonders why people are leaving its products for open-source alternatives."
As of yet they don't seem to be. Windows Server market share is still growing as are most of Microsoft's core application platforms such as SQL Server, Exchange, Office 365, Azure, etc, and Linux isn't making any impact on the desktop so far at <2% share - whereas Windows market share is stable at > 90%...
"As of yet they don't seem to be. Windows Server market share is still growing as are most of Microsoft's core application platforms such as SQL Server, Exchange, Office 365, Azure, etc, and Linux isn't making any impact on the desktop so far at <2% share - whereas Windows market share is stable at > 90%..."
I was at a site the other day to fix a desktop. One of the other staff, in conversation, mentioned that her PC didn't always switch on first time and she had to keep pressing the on switch multiple times before it would boot. An obvious hardware fault. Turns out it;s been doing it for months. She never thought of reporting the "fault" to IT "because these things are always having problems, it's just, like, computers, innit".
Users are so used to Windows crapping out on them that they just resignedly put up with it, even when it's a fixable hardware fault. Not helped by actual Windows faults being "fixed" by their IT support either telling them to switch it off and on again or just re-imaging the HDD.
Where as tablet and mobile sales on Android and iOS have been going north since 2008...sales of desktops (mainly running Windows) started to tank nearly a decade ago.
Last I checked Android was Linux.
Next you'll be telling us virtually all desktops use Intel processors. There were more ARM processors shipped last year than Intel shipped processors...in its entire history.
Times have already changed, Microsoft is where it was, Android is where it's at and RasberryPi's are growing the next generation of techs on Linux in schools.
Might be time for me to get in on the computer repair business.
The number of borked W10 machines out there at any given time must be in the millions. I don't know how Joe Average manages to deal with it. Probably thinking about buying Apple or Android... or changing their PC to Linux.
And, I've seen posts on forums lately from people who know their computers and operating systems inside out who are now getting tired of constantly fighting with W10 - the never ending forced updates that break things and reset everything to MS's default settings, etc.
But, I'm sure we'll be getting another canned response from a MS 'mouthpiece' soon reminding us (once again) that "Windows 10 continues to have the highest customer satisfaction of any version of Windows". lol... hilarious stuff.
Very, very, very few people relish constantly tweaking an OS. Once the usual tweaks are done they want to be stable this includes most boffins/nerds/geeks so they can do what they want. Fighting the OS is not something people want to do on a very regular basis.
I use an Arch Linux derivative (Antergos) as my primary OS. Distrowatch says users of Arch and derivatives should expect to occasionally have to do some TLC on the OS. I have found that this TLC is mostly when updating the OS, sometimes one has to do updates in a couple of steps. If one has packages from the AUR, sometimes one has to do a little more work. But I have not seen any issues like those that plague 'bloat 10.
Mr Redmond can I have a word in your shell like?
I just don't get it W7/8 works fine after updates, they know their OS don't they and test changes before they subject users to it?
Like and still use Windows but I'm keeping 7 till it's no longer supported if this is the shape of things to come.
The one I use (Zorin) has been on a rolling update for over 3 years now, minimal restarts on updates and no borking or loss of functionality, installed the latest version for a friend and it's identical to my install.
and giving MS the Finger.
I did that for my own personal use back in 2009. I just got fed up with the annual OS re-install and product load you had to go through as your machine craweled to a stop.
Bought myself a MacBook to run Photshop. That MacBook is still running today. Not had to do an OS re-install on it either. Runs with an SSD and thanks to TimeMachine moving from spinning rust to SSD was easy.
MS simply does not listen to users. It goes on its merry was towards self desctuction.
Sadly, I have to use Windows (W7) for work but as that job is comintg to an end in 5 weeks it might be that I can say goodbye to MS once and for all and you know what, I won't regret it one little bit.
@ Steve Davies 3 "Bought myself a MacBook to run Photshop. [...] Runs with an SSD and thanks to TimeMachine moving from spinning rust to SSD was easy."
You don't even have to bother with Timemachine. I moved my MBP to SSD last year without it: Plug SSD into MBP using a USB adaptor, Reboot Mac into Startup Manager in the EFI, Use Disk Manager in that to clone one drive to the other, power off and swap SSD into Mac (or do what I did and boot from the SSD via the USB adaptor until you are happy all is running fine).
No, average people still aren't contemplating changing their PC to Linux, no matter how much people here might wish that was true.
The most realistic scenario would be finding someone able to install Windows 7 on their PC. Word to the wise, use NTLite to integrate XHCI drivers into your Windows 7 install and you'll have a much easier time on Skylake or future hardware. You need it to automatically integrate DAZ Loader anyway (I don't care what Microsoft says, no one should have to pay for a license to downgrade their PC because the OS it shipped with isn't fit for purpose, or worse that Microsoft malware fooled you into installing Windows 10)
Now that Microsoft isn't trying to push the free Windows 10 upgrades anymore, Windows 7 can go back to just quietly working without requiring you to mess with it.
"No, average people still aren't contemplating changing their PC to Linux, no matter how much people here might wish that was true."
Neither are average people who've been forcibly updated to W10 reloading their own W7 nor installing NTLite or DAZ Loader (which I'd never heard of).
Getting back to a nice stable (as far as these things go), spyware-free W7 is going to be every bit an esoteric art as installing Linux or Unix. And with the arrival of monolithic patches from this autumn avoiding spyware whilst remaining current in other respects might be a bit of a problem.
"Getting back to a nice stable (as far as these things go), spyware-free W7 is going to be every bit an esoteric art as installing Linux or Unix."
1) Your agenda (your emplyer's agenda) is showing. Installing a modern Linux (plenty to choose from) is not an esoteric art, and has not been for a very long time.
2) Replacing a W10 installation with an upgrade to Win7 is tedious rather than esoteric. I've done it several times for several different people, and it involves lots of guesswork and "wait and see" because there's no single reliable document showing how to get from an MS DVD to working and up to date (ish) Win7 installation.
Assuming the hardware is all supported by Win7 (MS seem to have a cunning plan on that front) a fresh Win7 install nowadays has various hiccups like expired certificates and update downloads from out of date places and similar. It can be done, a consolidated HOWTO would be great, for those unfortunate folks that are still tied to legacy Windows systems.
" Your agenda (your emplyer's agenda) is showing."
Fair cop.
a) I'm retired, I have no employer to have an employer's agenda but
b) I realised when I came back to it that I'd worded it very badly. Of course Linux installs aren't esoteric (except maybe to the Windows habituated who probably assume there must have been something wrong & they haven't spotted it).
Nevertheless my next OS will be a BSD - Linux is looking less Unix-like than I'm happy with these days.
As to installing W7, over the last few weeks I've had the task of bringing a new W7 laptop up to current, avoiding the undesirable stuff. Trying to find the appropriate patch that would allow the rest of the updates to run before the heat death of the universe (this patch fixes it; no, this patch supersedes that patch; no this new patch supersedes the superseding patch) plus the stuff in the post I was replying to seems reasonably esoteric.
Neither are average people who've been forcibly updated to W10 reloading their own W7 nor installing NTLite or DAZ Loader (which I'd never heard of).
Which I why I said "find someone to install Windows 7 for them". They won't do it themselves, because they likely won't have a Windows 7 disc. But they will probably know someone who would be able to install Windows 7 for them.
"average people still aren't contemplating changing their PC to Linux,"
Indeed not, the average non-IT home use types I know are contemplating (or have already implemented) a change to something other than a Window box, e.g. getting a Mac or something Android-based for day to day use.
Others will be making that change for day to day use while retaining Windows for whatever legacy reasons continue to tie them to it.
"Windows 7 can go back to just quietly working without requiring you to mess with it."
Suits many people, including me. One small wish: it'd be great if there was a single reliable HOWTO somewhere on how to make a Win7 install from MS DVD actually work in today's environment (e.g. with Windows Update actually doing something). Each time I try it, it takes days to sort, involving numerous HotFixes and stuff, and I don't bother saving the relevant details because "I won't be doing this again, not for me nor for anyone else.". Then something happens to someone (e.g. someone's webcams stop working) and I once again end up doing a Win7 reinstall from scratch, with all the pain it brings...
2 days to install w7? Apps aside (they take the same on w10 or w7) from sp1 there are 1.5gig of updates on w7 on w10 i have 350mb. W7 takes about 2.5 hours start to finish. 1.5 hours updating. W10 takes about 2 hours with most of the time fucking about with powershell disabling stuff
I was updating our W10 image. Do you know how many screens there are to make sure the default language stays as UK over US? 12. Twelve fucking screens. In W7 you went into control panel, went to language and there were 3 tabs to change from US to UK. In W10 you have two control panels to contend with, the old control panel sorts the language AND the advanced screen AND the account defaults AND the options for the default language AND the updates to default language pack. Then you have the new control features that sorts out the text to speech and all the shite that comes with that.
and that is supposed to be usability? You would think that you could set this as default on GPO wouldn't you? Nope. It wont work for new accounts on their first logon - new roaming profile accounts on first logon will take the default options from the machine, subsequent logons will take their options from the GPO.
Righto MS.
re: win 7 install from dvd.
might be easier to make an image (including your faviourite programs) then sysprep it. then you can install it on any hardware and it will be up to date (well, the date of the image anyway). its pretty easy to do. there are any number of guides out there. then you can get your drivers from wherever and off you go. my win 7 image takes 7 mins to restore via usb 3 cradle.
for win updates on 7 taking days, ive found something recently that has made a massive difference.
check task manager - run it as an admin / select "show processes for all users"
if svchost has massive memory usage, and when you click "goto services” on svchost it shows wuausrv as being one of the culprits, do the following.
goto services, and stop wuausrv (windows update service)
install these two updates
KB3050265
KB3102810
this will stop the high memory usage of wuausrv from killing the machine (ive seen it eat 4gb ram and upwards recently)
then restart wuauasrv then reboot
then you should get the updates a lot quicker.
you can also then use wsus offline (google it) which is also very fast, although ive had a few issues with it hanging.
I had good luck with WSUS offline the first time I used it, but not last time. WSUS offline requires a CAB file that it downloads from Microsoft and each version of said file that I was able to get my hands on at the time was corrupt. I found a form on which people were talking about the issue and one of the posters had managed to get a functional copy of the CAB file by...downloading it 30 times. It seems that almost all, but not quite all, of MS's mirrors have a corrupt version of the file.
I find it really hard to escape the conclusion that MS is actively sabotaging Windows 7 update. If I ever get WSUS offline to run successfully again I'll definitely be saving its install directory (and backing it up).
hmm...maybe thats why its hanging. its done it many times on kb3138612 in fact i have one im doing now with the problem.
ive just googled it and there are a number of people with the same issue.....manually install is the answer apparently. i'll try it...
as for MS doing it deliberately....yeah, i reckon you might be onto something there.
to computer repair? I'd advise against that, as there will be so few Win 10 users left before long that you won't have a sustainable business.
Seriously, just how many consecutive cock-ups can you make in quick succession and still have a viable business at all? Why on earth are MS so keen to earn the "toxic brand" label? How to wreck a once great business....
You weren't using their software for anything important anyway, right?
Nah, I was just trying to run a business, and because it was getting larger I started to use automation. Not a big problem.
(no, not me, I abandoned that ship a long time ago so I can watch it all with a level of smugness previously only reserved for Prius owners - but mine's more justified, of course :) )
I have always said "if the answer is Microsoft then you have misunderstood the question".
Windows 10, hmmm, how about, just locking it down and turning off the updates or failing that defer them.
No problems here, updates on those laptops are not coming through. Mint, MacOS, Win 7 etc. all fine here as well.
Gee, they let all of their testers go, and ...
this is an improvement?
Ok, I'll admit that there was a lot of dead weight in the test section. A. Lot. But testing does have to be done. How do you motivate devs to get their act together, especially with a lack of people testing the software? Arrogance and hubris is an understatement to what I saw there. I called it "blue badge disease." You got a blue badge, and then your brains went to sh**. Sort of a variation of Alzheimer's or JKD.
Supposedly, an organization learns from its mistakes. But this stuff just keeps getting repeated, no break in that loop. Oh, yeah: "Goto Considered Harmful." Back in 1968.
Stupid:;
goto Stupid;
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