Windows 10 "updates" ...... [Archive]

Octane

16th Feb 2018, 09:35

Part 1:

Microsoft is trying to hijack / screw up my laptop.
It is a Lenovo Yoga 310 and maybe 6 months old only.

Before I kept getting hassled to "update" and I finally gave in and let it do it a month ago.
The "update" nearly turned the machine into a brick. The laptop became so slow the cursor didn't respond. I couldn't open anything, it made the laptop unusable.

I had to resort to resetting the machine. After that I spent a day deleting a s@#t load of new crapware. Games, Xbox crap, gaming crap etc etc.. All microsoft related junk.
Some of the stuff I had to do DOS like commands to remove the sh%t. Even then some junk I couldn't delete completely.

I just want my laptop for surfing and emailing etc.

Part 2:

About 1 month later, now, as in today I'm getting notifications "they" need to do another update. Again, only a month later, WTF?
What do I do? I don't want another "update". I'm happy with the way it is. The laptop is fine as it is. Security updates, no problem, I can accept that. But That's not what the "updates" appear to be doing.. I'm scared about what they are going to do to my machine this time..

As I write this, I just received another prompt to update.
What on earth should I do?? Advice would be much appreciated...

(please no "go to Linux" type advice)

Thanks

Michael
:ugh::{:confused::uhoh::mad:

Buster15

16th Feb 2018, 10:18

Octane

16th Feb 2018, 11:05

So what on earth is going on? We need the internet but as long as we are connected, it seems we are at the mercy of Microsoft? Is it that bad?:sad:

MG23

16th Feb 2018, 22:07

So what on earth is going on? We need the internet but as long as we are connected, it seems we are at the mercy of Microsoft? Is it that bad?:sad:

As I understand it, Microsoft removed the ability to not install updates from consumer versions of Windows 10. So you're stuffed.

My girlfriend was complaining the other day because she plugged our Windows 10 PC into the Internet and it suddenly rebooted to install updates while she was in the middle of using it. Because installing updates is far more important than anything people might be using the computer for, apparently.

(That's a cheap box we bought just for scanning and iTunes, so it's not connected to the Internet if we don't need it to be)

(please no "go to Linux" type advice)

Come on. You know you want to...

Octane

16th Feb 2018, 23:53

Thanks for the replies. So it's confirmed I'm powerless to stop Microsoft meddling with my computer? It's not the update concept that annoys me so much as the loads of unwanted crap they insist on installing (I'm 55, I don't want gaming related ****e on my machine, nor do I suspect do millions of other users. They should offer the choice of what WE want on our machines, not what THEY want..). Add to that the chance of their updates going "wrong" and wrecking my laptop as occurred last time..
As for Linux, I have no problem with it. Many people say it's great stuff. It's just that until now I've been quite satisfied with Windows and what it does (I did prefer XP over Windows 10 however). It's just that I don't have the inclination of going through learning curve of learning a completely new operating system and all it entails...

jack11111

17th Feb 2018, 00:27

Are you sure you are allowing real Microsoft upgrades and not "real" looking upgrades?

I have MS Windows 8.1 and my upgrades contain none of the crap you describe come with your upgrades. Upgrades happen about once every month or so and nothing changes on my desktop.

Two_dogs

17th Feb 2018, 02:34

it seems we are at the mercy of Microsoft?

Which is why I recently purchased a HP ProBook G4, 17"screen, i7 processor @ 2.4Ghz, 8 Gig RAM, lovely machine. And it was the ONLY laptop in the store with the choice of Windows 8.1 or Windows 7 Pro which I chose to install and licence. When W7 support finishes in Jan 2018 I can then install 8.1. Really happy with my choice, the few times I've had to use a W10 machine were frustrating. Read (I didn't know how to make it work)

MG23

17th Feb 2018, 03:33

I bought an HP Probook last year because it was the only laptop I could find that officially supported Linux. The only downside is that it doesn't have an illuminated keyboard like my old Toshiba, so it's hard to see the keys with the crappy lighting in our living room.

rog747

17th Feb 2018, 06:24

i still use windows 8 and now refuse to allow it update any windows updates -

i tried 8.1 it was a nightmare and had to restore my laptop back to factory settings a few years ago

asus touch screen - works OK

ExSp33db1rd

17th Feb 2018, 06:38

I have MS Windows 8.1 and my upgrades contain none of the crap you describe come with your upgrades. Upgrades happen about once every month or so and nothing changes on my desktop.

Yes. I've kept Windows H'eight point one, too, but it is OK for now, will resist W.10 as long as possible.

Octane

17th Feb 2018, 08:48

Jack,
I think Windows 8 is a completely different animal compared to Win 10..
(I was very happy with XP but the screen died on that laptop some months ago, Win 10 is the only option for a new Windows machine now as far as I know)

PDR1

17th Feb 2018, 09:06

I'm typing this on a ~6 year old bog standard HP pavilion g6 (i5, 6Gb) which originally came with W7 and was updated to W10 a month after it came out. It just works. I accept all the updates and it still just works. I did bypass W8 because it was such a pile of wombat ****e, but W10 works fine.

Trying to avoid the updates is a "bad idea"[tm] because most of them are there to address security vulnerabilities which are either newly emergent or newly identified. Your call.

PDR

Capn Bloggs

17th Feb 2018, 10:32

When W7 support finishes in Jan 2018
Don't scare me! Win 7 support ends in 2020.

Heathrow Harry

17th Feb 2018, 11:47

MS automated updates because, like the OP , a lot of people never did it and they were opening themselves to all sorts of evil folk

perhaps the auto update is a bit nannyish but it does work

THE problem is that it waits until you are closing down and just about to run for the train/plane to launch........ I therefore update manually once a week - which reduces the inevitable auto update to a few seconds

As for the MS crap - that comes with the territory with any computer service thse days I'm afraid

Octane

18th Feb 2018, 01:33

Heathrow Harry,

I hear you, and quite understand the need for regular security updates. No problem with that. Even the crapware I can tolerate albeit having to take the time and effort to delete the junk. (I only have a 64 Gb ssd drive, so not much space..).
What I don't get is why I'm being pushed for another update only a month after the last disastrous update that nearly ruined my laptop. To be honest, I'm fearful the same thing might happen again, there's no guarantee it won't. Maybe it's a Lenovo thing, I don't know...

G0ULI

18th Feb 2018, 03:33

Updates are issued frequently to address newly discovered security issues and to accomodate new hardware and software coming onto the market. Windows 10 is supposed to be a one size fits all operating system so everybody has to update whether it is necessary for their particular machine or not.

If you never connect a computer to the internet or update any of the components, it could quite happily run with the initially supplied installed software forever, never needing an update.

Even Linux software needs to be updated, although the user has rather more control over what gets updated and when. That assumes the user has the necessary knowledge to recognise security risks and how to avoid them. Otherwise Linux can present even greater security risks to your data. The most common mistake being users using a root access password for normal day to day tasks, because it gives instant access to all the features of the computer and operating system.

For all their proprietory systems and expense, Apple seem to have got the concept of turn key computing with a decent level of security down to a fine art.

If all you want to do is browse the Internet and send emails, a tablet computer such as the iPad is all most people need. They too get regular updates, but because the hardware and software is controlled by a single company, there are far fewer problems than with any other type of computer as far as my personal experience is concerned.

dogsridewith

18th Feb 2018, 16:51

An option is to enable automatic updates, but do a manual Windows Update upon each connection to the internet. Then let that finish before doing anything else. Usually it just produces a definitions update. Sometimes that is considerably larger. Then you see the big monthly update. That goes faster if nothing else is being done. And it might be a good time to do a full browsing history delete.

bizdev

18th Feb 2018, 17:59

I’ve been using Windows machines for a long long time. But when W10 came along I experienced no end of problems including very slow start ups. Then kept on getting ‘cannot connect to the internet’ for no apparent reason which would clear with a restart. Ahhhhhhh another ten minutes wasted. In my frustration I decided to buy a Mac. My god what a difference. Took me a while to get used to it but a year on I could not go back to a Windows machine. So rapid and able to be used within 30 seconds of hitting the start button. I know they are more expensive but you get what you pay for. Everyone I know has now moved over - the revolution has started 😀😀

Mac the Knife

21st Feb 2018, 09:12

I have 2 Win10 machines. One a bit elderly (rather slow, but stable) and the other spiffy new with a Ryzen5 1600.

I've told both when I'm working and to update when I'm asleep.

I have NO love for Microsoft (I'm a Linux and BSD man really), but neither machine has given me any problems with updates (unlike Win7).

Sorry 'bout that…

Mac

[I don't even notice the updates on my REAL Mac, a souped-up MacMini, the Linux box (Mint) periodically asks me if I want to update and since I don't keep it on the bleeding edge, has never given me problems. Neither has the FreeBSD box, though I update it manually]

:cool:

Maoraigh1

2nd Mar 2018, 20:42

I've had an Acer Aspire 5720 with Vista for over 10 years. No problems.
When I got warnings about it not being supported, I bought an Acer Aspire E17 with W10. It's slower, it tells me there's no internet connection after visiting several sites, although my Nexus still connects.
I seldom use it, using the old Vista, but mainly my Nexus7.
PS I've used W95, W98SE, W2000, WME, WXP, as well as Vista, on several desktops and laptops. This is the worst combination

Saab Dastard

2nd Mar 2018, 20:46

Vista has been out of support and vulnerable since April 2017. You really should not be using it any longer, it's a liability for you and potentially many others.

b1lanc

2nd Mar 2018, 22:27

I too have found that the latest W10 update, which took hours to install has significantly slowed the start up of my laptop (also a Lenovo but older than yours). Once it starts it is not too bad but to be honest I now tend to use my phone as it is so much quicker.
Not an IT person so I can not give you any advice.
That was probably the Meltdown/Spectre patch - mine took hours to install. The older the CPU, the worse the performance hit will be.

b1lanc

2nd Mar 2018, 22:42

Thanks for the replies. So it's confirmed I'm powerless to stop Microsoft meddling with my computer?
Not entirely. You can set a Group Policy to block if you have W10 Pro. There is also a MS utility called Wushowhide that you can use to prevent installation of MS driver updates (which has caused me all kinds of problems and re-installs on multiple occasions). I was able to fend off the 1703 Creator's Update for 6 months until the Meltdown patches. Below are a couple of links which you might find useful.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3073930/how-to-temporarily-prevent-a-driver-update-from-reinstalling-in-window

https://www.howtogeek.com/224471/how-to-prevent-windows-10-from-automatically-downloading-updates/

Highway1

3rd Mar 2018, 14:10

(please no "go to Linux" type advice)

Have a rethink - you can get Linux distros which look and perform almost identically to Windows if that is what you feel comfortable with. Personally I hate Microsoft products with a passion specifically for the update sagas that you highlight and rather than fight against the tide perhaps you should consider just changing your OS.

You can then spend your time using your PC for work and play rather than fighting Bill Gates.

FullOppositeRudder

4th Mar 2018, 09:28

Have a rethink - you can get Linux distros which look and perform almost identically to Windows if that is what you feel comfortable with. Personally I hate Microsoft products with a passion specifically for the update sagas that you highlight and rather than fight against the tide perhaps you should consider just changing your OS.

You can then spend your time using your PC for work and play rather than fighting Bill Gates.

I'm afraid that hasn't been my experience. Mr brief flirtations with the penguin have pretty well all been cursed with recurring updates. Sometimes the "updates" quarrel with the current kernel version. Sometimes the updates required a different driver than the one in use - wireless cards are usually singled out - not to mention bluetooth. Eventually after some months one is advised that this version of Linux is no longer supported and one needs to update to the latest version, only to discover that it's a complete rehash of the interface and nothing one used previously can be found.

I liked the idea of Linux and I tried. I really tried, but in the end it became an endless source of frustration. I won't expand upon the frequent times one has to resort to the command line and it's totally foreign, nay alien language.

Mind you, I'll admit to qualifying as a grumpy old sod these days, and over the past 35 years or so, I've had to wrestle with quite a few different operating systems starting with TRS-80 cassette (CLOAD - any remember what that was like?).

But Linux beat me. These days I sit here as a total slave to whatever Micro$oft throws at me. Most of the time it works. Even Windows 10. (I can hardly believe I wrote that) :bored:

FOR

wrenchalot

5th Mar 2018, 18:47

I was told by a computer salesman, that you must uninstall whatever you're using, THEN, install W10 from scratch; "updating" to W10 is a nightmare; if that's what you're talking about, it's worth a try...

tescoapp

6th Mar 2018, 06:16

There is a huge difference between an OEM Microsoft distro of win 10 and one you get when buying a PC from a name. Its faster and no bloatware.

Now some claim that it its illegal to kill the installation that comes with a PC because the "price" reflects the bloat wear and advertising income.

And if you want to control when the updates download turn your internet connections to metered then it will tell you when they are available but won't download them. You won't have control over what it downloads when you trigger it but at least you can trigger it before you go to bed and its done its thing by the time you wake up.

HowardB

6th Mar 2018, 07:37

I'm afraid that hasn't been my experience. Mr brief flirtations with the penguin have pretty well all been cursed with recurring updates. Sometimes the "updates" quarrel with the current kernel version. Sometimes the updates required a different driver than the one in use - wireless cards are usually singled out - not to mention bluetooth. Eventually after some months one is advised that this version of Linux is no longer supported and one needs to update to the latest version, only to discover that it's a complete rehash of the interface and nothing one used previously can be found.

I liked the idea of Linux and I tried. I really tried, but in the end it became an endless source of frustration. I won't expand upon the frequent times one has to resort to the command line and it's totally foreign, nay alien language.

Mind you, I'll admit to qualifying as a grumpy old sod these days, and over the past 35 years or so, I've had to wrestle with quite a few different operating systems starting with TRS-80 cassette (CLOAD - any remember what that was like?).

But Linux beat me. These days I sit here as a total slave to whatever Micro$oft throws at me. Most of the time it works. Even Windows 10. (I can hardly believe I wrote that) :bored:

FOR

I suggest you try Linux Mint 18 Cinnamon. The interface is quite similar to Win 7 & Office 2007-13 for day to day use & you can load and test drive it from a CD or USB memory stick (the better option). However you may have to tweak your BIOS to allow booting from a CD or USB memory.

It updates cleanly between releases with no major changes to the interface & I have not experienced the problems you are having with kernels & drivers, however generally if there is an issue googling it will find a solution.

Win 10 was installed on one of my laptops and after repeated fights to get it to load as part of the free upgrade from 8.1 I was successful, but since then it hasn't been used. However I also have a legal copy of Win 7 installed as a virtual machine in Linux Mint to allow me to use the few essential programs & communicate with hardware that insist on Windows (e.g. Garmin Base Camp).

Mac the Knife

8th Mar 2018, 10:18

Heathrow Harry

8th Mar 2018, 13:16

" it'll pretty much look after itself if you're not computer smart"

You know that "pretty much" isn't exactly reassuring.......

MG23

8th Mar 2018, 15:43

You know that "pretty much" isn't exactly reassuring.......

I believe that translates into 'less likely to screw up your computer with a random update than Windows 10 is'.

The only real issue I've had with updates to our Linux PCs at home was when a kernel change made it incompatible with the onboard-chipset video driver that AMD hadn't updated in over five years. But if the driver had come from the distribution rather than AMD, it would have been fixed before the update was pushed out (AFAIR the fix was a one line change to the code).

So I'm thoroughly puzzled by all the people who report that they had zillions of problems getting Linux to work. Unless they're installing random software from source code and expecting not to have to keep it up-to-date.

Meanwhile, my VR headset is currently dead because the manufacturer apparently let their driver-signing certificate expire and Windows won't let the driver run.

FullOppositeRudder

9th Mar 2018, 06:45

Thank you HowardB for your well considered word of encouragement, and apologies for the delay in getting back.

I did give that combination an honest try a little while back, and yes it was appealing in a far more attractive way than the (mostly) Ubuntu variations previously tried.

What it did prove to me was that I was locked into several Windoze applications which I needed to perform first up every time without having to either fiddle with settings or learn to do things in a completely new way. Most of these were Amateur Radio programs and this was also the computer which drives the Canon scanner - that didn't look like an adventure I would enjoy.

I think it boils down to the rather cruel fact that one is wired to work either with Linux or with something else. My age probably is an influencing factor here - something about an old dog learning new tricks. As mentioned earlier, I've had to learn quite a few operating systems since I first sat down in from of my very own computer somewhere around 25 years ago. Perhaps NOSF (New Operating System Fatigue) has well and truly set in.

I did set up a new W10 system this morning for long term connection to the WW in an Amateur Radio role. My old Win XP machine still did it all, but .... well ... you know the rest.

So thank you again; clearly for those who both understand and type the language Linux uses, it's an excellent and versatile alternative to those mainstream alternatives.

Long may it be so.

FOR

PDR1

9th Mar 2018, 07:41

I believe that translates into 'less likely to screw up your computer with a random update than Windows 10 is'.

Again, for the overwhelming majority this is not what they experience. The overwhelming majority upgraded using the free upgrade (not a fresh install) which just loaded and installed in 1-3 hours (depending on particular machine hardware and available internet speed). They then found it just worked. Over the succeeding years they've had updates, and while some of these may have taken a while they were warned that it would happen and offered the choice of postponing it, and once installed it (again) just worked.

Certainly in my case the 8(ish) assorted PCs and laptops we have in this house did the update/install without missing a beat, and installing their various updates since has been the same - the machine just gets on with it without any drama. After the W10 upgrade all the existing applications were available for use afterwards (a big improvement over previous upgrades One of the laptops hadn't been used for a year or so and was rather behind on its W7 updates, so the W10 install decided to do the "full install" rather than the "upgrade". This took a bit longer, but the result was identical to the others.

I'm not saying the claimed problems didn't happen - I'm just saying that in everything I've observed (my own and those of friends and colleagues) they must be a lot rarer that some like to suggest.

So I'm thoroughly puzzled by all the people who report that they had zillions of problems getting Linux to work.

I'm not. In my experience even the so-called "non-geek" distros often require "under the hood" knowledge to either install or keep running. And there is still the issue that it can often take months of searching to find drivers for new hardware because the equipment OEMs see no business case for writing and maintaining drivers for such a small userbase. And when you find it that driver is often one written by some random enthusiast - often from a russian, chinese, korean or similar. You may be happy to install random code of unknown origin on your machines, but I'm not!

PDR

treadigraph

9th Mar 2018, 12:21

I "own" four laptops, I have two and have passed two on to a friend; two are six or seven years old and are now "reserves" for each of us, one is four years old, the other a year. I successfully upgraded three of them to W10, the newest W10 came as standard.

I've rebuilt the newer two, stepped on one (oops) and knackered the HD (rebuilt this is now my friend's primary laptop), on my newest one W10 committed digital suicide at Christmas. It's now working great again...

For some reason one of the original pair (my friend's) won't now accept updates - a particular one just hangs and has done so since late last year - and nor can I find any way to repair or reinstall W10. Looking on Google, it seems to be widespread problem which MS have not resolved. The other one works just fine.

As it should be more or less identical to my spare, plan is to swap the HDs when I have some time and see if it works; if so then copy good HD to the other. No idea if that's a workable solution...

Highway1

9th Mar 2018, 14:53

Another vote for Mint Cinnamon - smooth as a tomcat pissing on glass…

Great description :ok:

I actually prefer the look and feel of Mint KDE but have stuck with Cinnamon as it just fells that everything operates 'sharper'

le Pingouin

9th Mar 2018, 15:04

Boot from a Win10 installation DVD or USB flash drive and you'll be able to reinstall. Just make sure you use the same language, type (as in Home or Pro) and bit-ness (32- or 64-bit) as you have installed.

Your plan to copy drives may work provided the installations were the same types as above - Win10 activation relies on "digital entitlement" stored on MS servers, not serial numbers/keys so the fact the hardware has had Win10 previously installed means it's "entitled" and doesn't care that the drive is from another laptop. FWIW I've successfully transferred a Win10 drive from HP to Lenovo.

MG23

9th Mar 2018, 15:46

Again, for the overwhelming majority this is not what they experience.

Tell that to all the people whose scanners stopped working when Microsoft disabled them in a compulsory update. Or my Windows 7 PC where 'Windows Update' started permanently sucking up the whole of one core to do... some kind of stuff... until I downloaded a magic fix from Microsoft to make it work properly again.

I'm constantly being asked to help people fix their broken Windows PCs. Fortunately, since I mostly use Linux these days, I can just tell most of them 'sorry, I don't know about Windows'.

In my experience even the so-called "non-geek" distros often require "under the hood" knowledge to either install or keep running.

Weird. I put an M.2 SSD into my laptop to replace the hard drive, put the Ubuntu DVD in the DVD drive, booted up, clicked 'install' and it was done in half an hour.

b1lanc

10th Mar 2018, 00:24

Another vote for Mint Cinnamon - smooth as a tomcat pissing on glass…

As with most of the mainline Linux distros, it'll pretty much look after itself if you're not computer smart, while (of course) letting you tinker to your heart's content if you are.

[still trying to get my head round systemd, but that's MY problem…]

Mac
And another. I dual boot my desktop with Serena and Win 7 and my laptop with Win 10 and Sylvia. Extremely easy to use and so far, all the sound and video utilities I want (for free) as opposed to what I had to pay to add to Windows.

Heathrow Harry

10th Mar 2018, 08:57

I'm with PDR here - I know a lot of people like "working under the hood" and I'm willing to believe they may get a better product than vanilla W10 - but the same applies to cars

I COULD spend hours and have fun tweaking my motor - but I choose to get my kicks elsewhere and all I want is for it to start every morning. Not exciting but it works 99.9999% of the time

Same with computer systems - and I go back to ALGOL..................

PDR1

10th Mar 2018, 09:43

I'm with PDR here

Damn, I'm not used to people agreeing with me. Can I have another go at it?

:E

I know a lot of people like "working under the hood" and I'm willing to believe they may get a better product than vanilla W10 - but the same applies to cars

I COULD spend hours and have fun tweaking my motor - but I choose to get my kicks elsewhere and all I want is for it to start every morning. Not exciting but it works 99.9999% of the time

That's an excellent analogy. When I went to uni I had all the usual young man's aspirations - fame, fortune, fast cars and hot babes. But as I was an engineer by temperament as well as by education choices the fame, fortune and hot babes weren't an option so I was left with just the cars. I modified cars (ever seen what a Mk4 Triumph Spit is like with 200bhp? I still have the scars to prove it!), I had "special" cars (lotus elan S4SE with the 26R back end), and I built kit cars with moronically high power-weight ratios. I had a machine shop and used to get withdrawal symptoms if I spent more than 24 hours away from it. I always modified the engines of any car I owned, and usually had at least one spare engine so I could have one in the car, one being modified and (ideally) one rebuilt and ready for installation. There was the occasion when I dropped a valve on the way home, got towed in by the AA and did an engine swap in under 45 minutes making me only 15 minutes late picking up my blind date (she wasn't impressed) - that's a different story altogether.

In those days I was very familiar with the under-the-hood stuff with DOS and Windows. Part of my job was creating automated PC-based test and measurement systems for the NC machines, so I was writing low-level code in C and ASM86. The last one I was fully familiar with was WFWG3.11 - I could look at, tinker with and actually understand all those curious statements in the WIN.INI and SYS.INI, seeing a memory exclusion statement and thinking "Yes, of course it needs that".

But the arrival of Win95 coincided with my meeting a hot babe who was a particularly poor judge of character, and at that point the enthusiasm to learn a new OS and even the workshop withdrawal symptoms faded, and when we moved into a larger house to provide room for ensprogment the machine tools and car spares were sold off. Now that said sprogs have reached uni-stage I have re-established the workshop, but I'm no longer that interested on building cars or in computers as a hobby - they are just tools which I use. But I still have a life, and I don't feel the urge to waste any of it doing pointless under-the-hood messing about any more. YMMV.

Same with computer systems - and I go back to ALGOL..................

I go back to commodore PETs, but I do remember at Uni the more complex assignments were done by punching a pile of cards and taking them over the the data-processing building to put them in the queue for running. And I amd still very much of the view that all proper engineers can write Fortran in ANY language...

PDR

Heathrow Harry

10th Mar 2018, 11:54

"When I went to uni I had all the usual young man's aspirations - fame, fortune, fast cars and hot babes. But as I was an engineer by temperament"

:{:{:{:{:{:{:{

PDR1

10th Mar 2018, 12:35

I said engineer, not aerial bus driver...

:}:}:}

PDR

BEagle

10th Mar 2018, 12:35

Like everything else at QMC in 1969-73, very little was actually taught to Aero Eng students - we spent our days copying down notes and trying to work out what the heck it all meant...:confused: Flying Chipmunks at ULAS was much more fun, so my 3 year course became a 4 year course...

...which was about the time computers began to appear. No-one taught us how to use them either.

I do remember at Uni the more complex assignments were done by punching a pile of cards and taking them over the the data-processing building to put them in the queue for running.

Even our simple ones! I recall collecting a huge pile of tractor-feed paper when a program didn't work. But the realisation was that this was an excellent source of free scrap paper. Thus every so often I handed over my Fortran cards to the lovely Linda, then came back a few days later to collect my free paper!

Then in 1973 a Thing appeared known as a 'VDU' - like a little TV with a keyboard attached. I avoided computers for the next 12 years until the squadron acquired a BBC Master, on which I taught myself to write programs for interception procedures using co-ordinate geometry and trigonometry, then the revised figures for tanker rendezvous procedures when the SOP overtake and roll-out values were amended. The RAF was going to pay around £25K for Queera to do that - instead they gave me £0.... The RV values are still in use today.

But programming? Someone else can do that as far as I'm concerned. I just want my laptops to run as I need them to. No childish rubbish like that Cortina thing either!

As for Linux, when I was working for a company in Germany, the resident geek started some message and data store thing which ran on that. The MD asked "What is this bloody penguin nonsense?" and we soon reverted back to Windows!

PDR1

10th Mar 2018, 12:40

Tell that to all the people whose scanners stopped working when Microsoft disabled them in a compulsory update.

Well if you give me their contact details I will. I say that because I don't know a single person that this happened to.

PDR

Heathrow Harry

10th Mar 2018, 16:07

A Canon Problem rather than a W10 one .....

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-update-winpc/last-win-10-update-disabled-my-scanner/a03e4c6b-2187-4251-9035-67c630795159

Last Win 10 update disabled my scanner https://answers.microsoft.com/static/images/rsp-content-status-locked.png?ver=18.3.9.1

I had two scanners and two printers which worked fine with Windows 10 -- until that ghastly update in September, 2016, which disabled almost all of my peripherals, including the scanners and printers. I had to buy a new printer.

After Microsoft hastily issued a fix for that update, my Canon scanner worked again -- until the last update last week. Now Win 10 doesn't recognize the scanner any more. Or should I say again?

I'm getting really tired of MS's arbitrarily disabling my equipment at what seems to be their whim.

Canon has not issued a driver update for whatever happens to be the latest configuration of Win 10, and I can't say I blame them. The point is, the scanner worked fine until MS started "updating". As far as I can tell, they haven't updated anything except my blood pressure.

I'm a small business -- I don't have an IT department with unlimited funds at my disposal. I just want to get my equipment working reliably.

Does anybody have any idea how I can get my scanner working again?

Senior Paper Monitor

11th Mar 2018, 10:10

Try vuescan software - we have used this exclusively in place of any manufacturer software/drives for circa 5 years. There is a free trial available.

It seems to cope with the various maginations of Windows, provides much better quality, control and functionality than manufacturer software and supports an unbelievable range of devices.

cattletruck

11th Mar 2018, 13:06

Windows updates can be so big that sometimes they seem to arrive as "This time I think we got it right". Sometimes they arrive as "I think we just broke something, sorry but too bad". I guess there is just so much baggage in Windows that it constantly needs the patch treatment constantly.

Not a fan of mandatory updates. Had a battle with the latest Google Chrome on MacOSX to disable it (It's not my preferred browser but it's the only thing that works for reading my ISP usage). Why, when I only use Google Chrome a couple of times a month to check a site I care very little about.

still trying to get my head round systemd, but that's MY problem
Once you start developing in it you will be converted.

BEagle

19th Mar 2018, 08:35

I gather that there's a 'Spring Creators Update' coming next month....:ugh:

More childish toys which grown ups neither want nor need, I expect.

Will Office 365 ever include a 'single Inbox' or 'single Deleted Items' option in Outlook? Something users have been asking for in their hundreds. I doubt it; there'll just be more rubbish like 'Cortana', I expect....:rolleyes:

Mac the Knife

20th Mar 2018, 18:59

Another vote for Hamrick's "VueScan"

Buy it once - lifetime licence. Windows, Mac and Linux.

Understands thousands of scanners, some of which so old that you wonder whether anyone is still using 'em. Regular updates for newer hardware as it appears. Brilliant customer service for problems (so I'm told, never had problems).

Interface is functional rather than beautiful and hasn't changed much, but boy do you get a lot of choices when it comes to control over your scanner!

One of really neat things about it is that you can scan multiple pages with PDF output and, if you want, VueScan will just tack the last scan onto the first so you end up with a single multipage PDF.

One of the best and solidest pieces of pieces of software I ever bought - I never bother to install the lousy crapware-infested proprietary software that you get with a new scanner.

Mac

:ok:

The Old Fat One

20th Mar 2018, 22:38

FYI

If you start your Windows 10 PC over a wifi connection which you have set up as a "metered" connection (settings-network&internet-wifi- toggle "metered") automatic update is inhibited.

I have to do this all the time with my wee Acer SSHD laptop as it only has a 32 GB SSHD and it cannot buffer a Windows 10 update.

There is probably some geek fix for this but I cannot be arsed. I only use if for cloud-based apps on the go, so it gets the job done, and there is zero data ever on the device so vulnerability is like w/e.

jimjim1

21st Mar 2018, 08:34

it cannot buffer a Windows 10 update.

There is probably some geek fix for this but I cannot be arsed.

WSUS Offline Update - Update Microsoft Windows and Office without an Internet connection (http://www.wsusoffline.net/docs/)

This is a freeware third party magic update tool for windows.

Of course you need to run non-microsoft sowtware and give it unfettered access to your system !!

You can have all of the files on a USB stick and it whacks the updates in somehow. I can't now recall the size of the update files, 5GB?

Much faster than MS update process and seems to work when the normal update process fails.

It looks a bit complex but the only decision you need to make is which updates to download Win 7/8/10 and 32/64bit. It gets the updates from MS.

You usually need to run the UpdateInstaller.exe more than once. You need to read the output to see if it is asking you to "reboot and recall" and if it does ReBoot and run it again.

Just accept all the defaults and press "Start".