back to article Microsoft flings untested Windows 10 updates to users! (Oh no it doesn't!)

As Microsoft's Xmas elves toiled long into the night on Santa's Windows 10 upgrade, the software giant found time to unleash static Azure websites and an unfortunately worded blog in this week's Microsoft round-up. Windows Update – a special Insider Ring of its own? (oh no isn’t) Sometimes it is hard not to feel sorry for …

  1. Artem S Tashkinov

    There are only three decent supported Windows releases which are safe to use:

    7, 8.1 and 10 Enterprise LTSC and their usability and stability decrease from left to right.

    1. MJI Silver badge

      Take two off and

      Only 7 is suitable, oh and out of support of course XP

      10 is a support nightmare

      Removal of network discovery.

      Changing of printer drivers breaking reports written years ago.

      The happiness to kill of a working network installed executable simply because of a fraction of a second drop out despite being idle.

      Only 11 years to go!

      1. bombastic bob Silver badge
        Devil

        Re: Take two off and

        "Only 11 years to go!"

        and you think Micro-shaft is done shoving their mediocre-ware at us 11 years from now? By then they will have been able to eradicate the Win32 API by forcing developers to use UWP and whatever other 'new, shiny' they excrete from the Halls of Redmond...

        and of course, this:

        Jngle Bells, Something Smells, Must be Win Update!

        Computer's on the fritz again, 'New Windows' ain't so great!

        (I'm waiting for 'Windows Classic' but looks like ReactOS and Wine may be the only alternatives for legacy windows applications at some point in the future...)

        1. MJI Silver badge

          Re: Take two off and

          11 years is retirement!

    2. Waseem Alkurdi

      I'm seriously contemplating Vista on my Haswell tablet. Even if it was "for fun". Even if it was slow. At least, it won't be a ~2004 box huffing and puffing under the pressure.

  2. tiggity Silver badge

    Firefox

    "Windows 10 users will be pleased to see the arrival of native sharing in this release"

    Not really

    I quite like my browser just to be a fairly simple browser, and add functionality via "addons" (addon, extension who cares about terminology) - Firefox has too many needless bells and whistles "baked in" but they keep removing useful core functionality (e.g. you now have to use "addons" for decent cookie control) meanwhile Firefox have killed the most useful browser "addons" by limiting what they now have access to with the switch to less flexible & powerful webextension model

    Each new version I like Firefox less and less

    1. joed

      Re: Firefox

      Have they indeed removed smart bookmarks/rss support in 64.x? Really a deal breaker for me.

      1. Cavehomme_

        Re: Firefox

        As they relentlessly try and copy Chrome, more and people see the lack of differentiation and will simply use Chrome instead.

        I am just hanging on to FF for old times sake, but I'm not going to hang on much longer if they keep up this aping of Chrome.

        1. ivan5

          Re: Firefox

          more and people see the lack of differentiation and will simply use Chrome instead.

          which only works if there is a version of Chrome available for your OS.

        2. JohnFen

          Re: Firefox

          "As they relentlessly try and copy Chrome, more and people see the lack of differentiation and will simply use Chrome instead."

          Or, for those of us who dislike Chrome, some other browser.

          1. bombastic bob Silver badge
            Devil

            Re: Firefox

            "Or, for those of us who dislike Chrome, some other browser."

            I'm considering forking 52-LTS or ESR or whatever they call it. If I had more time... and could get paid to maintain it. At least you can build it on FreeBSD without mega-downloads or stupid build environments.

            I'm considering a proper port of midori without the hamburger menu crap. Maybe a fork of an older version of it... one that still had a menu.

            1. Mage Silver badge

              Re: Firefox

              52 ESR was recently replaced automatically by some new horrible ESR, hence my move to Waterfox.

    2. Cavehomme_
      FAIL

      Re: Firefox

      Mozilla has something in common with Hard Brexiteers, they are determined to self-destruct what was once a great achievement.

      1. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge
        Coat

        Re: Firefox

        Mozilla has something in common with Hard Brexiteers, they are determined to self-destruct what was once a great achievement.

        No, that's more like the folks who are determined to turn a working common market into a centrally-controlled union that staggers from one crisis to the next. Brexiteers are more like the people suggesting that you fix the problem by reformatting the hard disk and installing Linux...

        1. Semtex451
          Thumb Up

          @Phil O'Sophical

          Upvote 10 pack for you Sir.

          I would only change "centrally-controlled union" to 'Franco-German controlled Socialist Federation'

          Otherwise perfect.

          1. Teiwaz

            Re: @Phil O'Sophical

            I would only change "centrally-controlled union" to 'Franco-German controlled Socialist Federation'

            Well if it is Franco-German controlled, it's because the UK has abrogated it's historical leadership by voting in total headcases that would rather run around in a career oriented willy-waving contest and trying to fob off any non-simple modern problem by scapegoating and disappearing into hazy dreams of simple back to basics yesteryear and nebulous puritan values.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: @Phil O'Sophical

              Little surprise as they are the first two economies and with 140 millions people combined - especially since the third and fourth - UK and Italy (120 millions) - always looked at EU as something to use as needed only - without getting really involved and sending there lame politicians who needed to keep on living at taxpayers expenses doing nothing - and thereby become feeble voices without much power. The lack of allies among the other members - while France and especially Germany have them - because of being too much focused on internal matters only - does not help too to counterbalance France and Germany.

            2. caffeine addict

              Re: @Phil O'Sophical

              Well if it is Franco-German controlled, it's because...

              No, it's Franco German controlled because it always has been and they understand how it works. The Germans implement the rules they want and the French ignore the rules they don't want. Everyone else gets towed along. That's not a "woe is UK" - it's the same for everyone. To be honest, I'm surprised we were ever allowed to join the then EEC because France was always against our membership.

          2. HKmk23

            Re: @Phil O'Sophical

            Nah..its third time lucky for Germany.

            WW1 - lost

            WW2 - lost

            WW3 - the political war - WON! Sieg heil!

        2. Tom 35

          Re: Firefox

          " installing Linux..."

          A magic Linux that can run windows software, needs no patches, and cooks toast with Jebus in every slice.

      2. bombastic bob Silver badge
        Stop

        Re: Firefox

        "something in common with Hard Brexiteers"

        Uh, no... [I would've compared them to 'globalists', or even 'socialists', actually, more in line with Mozilla's 'Silly Valley' politics... but I digress]

        had it not been pandering to the perception, and was actually based on reality, I would've laughed at that.

      3. James Anderson

        Re: Firefox

        Junkers corollary to Godwin's Law!

        Any Register Forum will de-generate into a Brexit argument within 50 posts.

        1. aqk
          Holmes

          Re: Firefox.... Godwin.... Balloune

          Not just Godwin's Law... but Balloune's Law also!

      4. dajames
        Headmaster

        Re: Firefox

        ...they are determined to self-destruct what was once a great achievement.

        Methinks I've never sees "self-destruct" used as a transitive verb, before. It rather defies common sense, and doesn't seem to mean quite what the writer probably intended.

        [Unless it was a Fascinating Aida reference, of course]

    3. Mage Silver badge

      Re: Firefox

      There is still Waterfox. A little more sane. I don't understand Mozilla's obsessions with GUI, it should just be the same as the host OS. Or why the desktop version is mutating to be like the version for a pocket screen. Or why 3rd party cookies not blocked by default, no scripting black & white lists etc.

  3. DJV Silver badge

    Trill

    Ah yes, Trill, so they're feeding us budgie food as well now!

  4. johnnyblaze

    Yes, I'm laughing...

    Having read Fortin's overview of how MS go about their patch validation process and which patches people get, it just strikes me that MS are in full damage mitigation mode. Having to release documents like this, where they hope everyone understands how difficult things are for them and that they only want to do their best for you just makes you laugh. Let's be clear, while Windows is no longer Microsoft's poster boy, they WANT you to run it. They NEED you to run it. It's their primary conduit to the subscription services they provide, their data harvesting, their app store (where they hope you spend money) and all manner of other ad driven revenue. If people lose trust in Windows they may switch to alternatives, and once that tide turns, it could get real bad real quick for MS.

    1. Cavehomme_

      Re: Yes, I'm laughing...

      The tide is turning already.

      MS would already be in deep poo if Apple hadn't stopped making decent pro machines, servers, and didn't gouge our eyes out with 50% profit margins.

    2. a_yank_lurker

      Re: Yes, I'm laughing...

      After gagging on Fortin's bullshit and buzzword bingo, I wonder how long Slurp is going to survive period. Not like Itty Bitty Morons who are still lingering but actual DOA. Slurp needs to get their QA act together very soon or they will be facing an exodus of users, small at first but growing into a tsunami. Bloat is the linchpin of the whole ecosystem, without Bloat their cloudy garbage has much less appeal. About the only cloudy offering that would be popular is Orifice 3??.

  5. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
    Joke

    "production quality"?

    That is precisely what I fear

    1. Waseem Alkurdi
      Devil

      Re: "production quality"?

      Production quality, but they didn't tell you that it was "production of headaches" they're talking about ...

    2. Highinthemountains

      Re: "production quality"?

      Not even close to production quality for their updates and the lack of support when the forced update jacks up the computer isn’t production quality either. I had a customer who was force updated to 1809 on December 14th, when the PC finished booting up all of the customer’s data was missing. I had thought that problem was “fixed” back in October.

      I called up support and was told by the first rep, too bad so sad, Microslop is not responsible for your data loss even though our update caused it. I did manage to get a case number before she hung up on me. I called back, gave the case number to the rep and was immediately disconnected, twice. I called back again, gave the case number and the rep said that they’d have to set up a level 2 support call to get my issue resolved. We set it up for 8 am local time on December 17th.

      I get into work early on the 17th waiting for the support call that never comes. At 1045 I call into support and give the rep the case number and ask about the level 2 support call that I was supposed to have gotten. She told me that there wasn’t one scheduled. Huh?! I asked if she was sure and she said yes. I then asked her if the last rep I talked to lied to me about escalating the problem just to get me off the phone, and she said ummm. Crickets chirping. I then explained my previous experience on this issue and how displeased I was with Microslop‘s forced updates borking people’s computers. I then went on to explain how I am subjected to the wrath of angry customers when something like this happens, like it’s all my fault windows decided to do an update.

      She did offer to do a remote session (which the other reps never asked to do) and we found that the update had somehow corrupted the user profile and when the user logged in it was using a temp profile and their data was missing. At no time was I notified that a temp profile was being used.

      Once I knew what was going on, I thanked her for her time and said that I was looking forward to receiving the email with the customer quality survey in it. I created a new ID and moved the data from the corrupted profile to the new profile. I have further found out that all of the data that should have been in the corrupted profile was not there. Most of it had to do with the Mail and Edge apps. There still seems to be some quality issues that need to be addressed in 1809.

      I’m now dreading the next customer’s PC forced to do the 1809 update. I think I’m going to warn my customers to back up early and to back up often and to put off Microslop’s updates for as long as possible. Production quality indeed. Uh huh, sure it is.

  6. RangerFish

    The main problem is there's no clear guidance for users about what the different release levels mean and the UI isn't very good making it clear how to choose which release level you want.

    Of course even if they had one called "absolutely will contain bugs and you should only choose this option if enjoy things not working" people would still choose it then complain about bugs (not, y'know, raise them in a useful way) because people are people.

    But at least then they'd be doing everything possible.

  7. Craig100

    Chrome the Brave

    The Brave browser has finally come of age for me. I'd been using it very occasionally over the last year but have just switched it to be my default browser. Must say, I'm quite impressed. Chromium based browser, X platform, good privacy and cookie controls. Using it on Linux Mint and Win 10.

  8. Version 1.0 Silver badge
    Paris Hilton

    Maybe it's time for a Hard W10exit?

    Windows has been around for a while, perhaps it's time to pull the chain, flush the whole thing away and start again?

    On the plus side, it's an operating system with a lot of baggage and an infinite number of developers independently writing drivers, TSR's and apps - given the lack of control over the hardware and the operating environment, I'm impressed that it works as well as it does ... see icon.

  9. HKmk23

    An opening is here

    For the next Steve Jobs (RIP) or William Gates of long ago to market a new operating system that works. Please do not suggest Linux of any current variant thats a little like saying a coal fired steam turbine is a better way of making electricity.

    My network is now air gapped and happily running on Windows 7pro with just this one W10 pro laptop connected to the outside waiting for Mshite to screw it over in a compulsory update sometime soon......

    1. Waseem Alkurdi

      Re: An opening is here

      For the next Steve Jobs (RIP) or William Gates of long ago to market a new operating system that works.

      I've thought about this long and deep.

      You have a very small problem: Computers aren't the fancy calculators that MS-DOS (aka CP/M clone) / Apple I OS ran on.

      They're much more complex.

      On the upside, you have Google's Fuchsia, An operating system with really nice underpinnings, to power smartwatch and smart PC equally.

      But that's a whole damn company working on it. And not any company. It's Google.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: An opening is here

        I agree an opening is here.

        @Waseem - Not really, computers are still the fancy calculators those old OS ran on, what has changed is seemingly the definition of Operating System.

        Whereas an OS used to do nought but manage access to the hardware in those heady days, it now does a plethora of other things that are not OS related. A new operating system that was just that, an operating system with a Hardware API and an execution environment. There is definitely an opening for that. Everything else could be plug-in modules, not tied to the OS. There is definitely an opening.

    2. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Devil

      Re: An opening is here

      "Please do not suggest Linux of any current variant thats a little like saying a coal fired steam turbine is a better way of making electricity."

      Your lack of knowledge of steam plants, in particular coal-fired plants, is blatant. Believe it or not, a well designed coal-burner is efficient, clean, and relatively inexpensive to operate. Having operated a nuclear steam plant in the past, and understanding basic thermodynamics and engineering and physics, it's pretty obvious to me that, yes, compared to MANY ways of generating electricity, a coal-fired steam plant is a tried and true method, that with modern technology, can be made efficient, clean, and cost effective.

      Oh, and Linux - good OS. I prefer FreeBSD but Linux gets more love and hardware support, so it might make a better OS for end-users than FreeBSD would. And, of course BETTER THAN WINDOWS, I say, if the devs would get OFF OF THEIR ASSES and make LINUX versions of their applications.

      1. HKmk23

        Re: An opening is here

        I rest my case!

    3. Teiwaz

      Re: An opening is here - but not 'Linux?

      a little like saying a coal fired steam turbine is a better way of making electricity.

      My network is now air gapped and happily running on Windows 7pro

      That's your not steam age solution?

      Sounds a lot like 'let's turn back the clock, give me my software on 8" Floppy disk or reel tape please.

    4. Peter2 Silver badge

      Re: An opening is here

      Firstly, there is only one method of generating electricity and that is turning a turbine. The substantial majority of our existing generation is done by creating steam to drive that turbine, by pushing water over something very hot, be that a nuclear reaction or a furnace burning gas, coal or trees (the latter is bizarrely the reliable "green" contribution to the grid)

      Some further generation is provided by wind pushing a turbine around. This has never, ever produced 50% of the boilerplate figures for what is supposed to have been generated, and as such is a waste of time and money that requires conventional power sources to do the majority of the power generation.

      The sensible thing to do IMO would have been to stick water turbines on every fast flowing stream in the country in addition to rebuilding every heritage watermill with a turbine. That would at least have had the effect of producing consistently useful amounts of electricity as long as the water keeps flowing.

      When it comes to operating systems, your screwed. The only reason windows is still alive is the creative incompatibilities crafted in windows applications when you try and run them on something that's not windows. Linux is technically speaking a perfectly viable OS. It's widely used for servers, and has successfully exterminated the windows smartphone. The Mac is based on BSD, which is a development from Unix so presumably this is blocked from being suggested to you as you want something binary compatible, leaving only ReactOS which does work quite nicely on an Alpha basis. Even the developers say that it's not ready for deployment.

      So about the only chance you have is somebody doing something like Mark Shuttleworth did with Ubuntu with ReactOS tomorrow, and releasing a supported version of ReactOS (binary compatible with Server 2003) in about 2025.

  10. Mage Silver badge
    Facepalm

    gained the tools necessary for hosting a static website back in 2011.

    Like my 2nd ISP offered for free back in 1998 and is still there today unlike Geocities. My earlier ISP (1994) is long gone. Explain to me why Geocities was scrapped?

    Or like every hosting company ever has offered as well as the usual LAMP stack or Windows Equivalent (about $100 p.a. for so called "unlimited".)

    Exactly what are these tools? I used to use a text editor and FTP, then I had a WYSIWYG HTML + CSS + Templates with built in FTP sync about 17 years ago.

    What am I misunderstanding?

    1. Waseem Alkurdi
      Trollface

      Re: gained the tools necessary for hosting a static website back in 2011.

      But it's in the cloud!

      1. HKmk23

        Re: gained the tools necessary for hosting a static website back in 2011.

        Only ex (seeking new employment) double glazing salesmen are allowed to use that statement "it's in the cloud".......

      2. Mage Silver badge

        Re: gained the tools necessary for hosting a static website back in 2011.

        Websites have ALWAYS been "the Cloud" unless you were barking mad and tried to host via DSL in your own small office or bedroom. It's practically the only Cloud application I agree with (Web commerce front end included, but not back end, though co-lo might be fine).

        1. JohnFen

          Re: gained the tools necessary for hosting a static website back in 2011.

          I'll confess that I'm barking mad, but I run a couple of websites out of my home. Admittedly, they aren't intended for the general public and have low usage rates (the ones intended for public use are hosted on a cheap ($60/yr) commercial host), but still...

          Both hosting in your home closet and on a commercial provider have their place. It depends on what the site is for.

        2. bombastic bob Silver badge
          Devil

          Re: gained the tools necessary for hosting a static website back in 2011.

          "unless you were barking mad and tried to host via DSL in your own small office or bedroom."

          I am _NOT_ barking mad! bark! Bark! BARK!

          heh

  11. yankiisboy

    My laptop got locked since the update was pushed off. It keeps saying password is wrong! pls fix this, M$

    1. Caskkeasy

      Maybe you have entered the wrong password.

  12. cam
    Facepalm

    So disable updates

    I did. And Cortana and every other little insidious change from Windows 7 to 10. Runs fine with about a Gig of RAM on boot up.

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