Slashdot Mirror
The Upcoming Windows 8.1 Apocalypse
arglebargle_xiv (2212710) writes "As most people will have heard, Microsoft will end support for anyone who hasn't upgraded to Win8.1 Update 1 on May 8. What fewer people have heard is that large numbers of users can't install the 8.1 Update, with over a thousand messages in this one thread alone, and that's for tech geeks rather than home users who won't find out about this until their PC becomes orphaned on May 8. Check your Windows Update log, if you've got a "Failed" entry next to KB2919355 then your PC will also become orphaned after May 8."
As far as apocalypses go, that's one lame-sounding apocalypse.
"Love heals scars love left." -- Henry Rollins
Doesn't this happen every time they come out with a major update?
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
First you end support for XP, which is a good thing, then you end support for Windows 7 in 2020, now you are ending support for Windows 8 on May 8. Why? the bog standard Windows 8 still has newer software than Windows 7, the only thing holding it back is the retarded Modern UI interface. But this is a pretty lame apocalypse. I am perfectly happy with Windows 7 in a qemu KVM hypervisor running on a Linux laptop. This way I can run Windows in a window and use MS Office for those tasks that require it and still have access to the superior Linux command line tools. I just wish I still had my XP Pro VM. Now that was fun. Why is everything an apocalypse these days?
liberare massarum ex ignorantia, clausa descendit molestie.
Page 101 has the notice that the update was re-issued with a fix and the rest of the posts are all "worked for me" posts. Problem Solved.
Would you care to read the summary and try again?
It's very interesting what kind of circus the Windows 8 major updates have become. Instead of Service Packs, you now have Windows 8, Windows 8.1, and Windows 8.1 Update 1. Now, the support carpet is suddenly pulled for anything before W8.1U1. Along the way, various platform changes in the UI front have been introduced: start button goes away, start button comes back, ability to snap Modern apps, Modern apps get a title bar, Modern apps can appear in the taskbar, start menu is coming back. Also the settings are still wonkily spread across the classic Control Panel and the Modern UI "PC settings" application, not to speak about the "charms bar" which integrates really badly with the paradigms of the normal desktop, which the user is using at the same time.
It's interesting because in the past Microsoft planned these things very carefully beforehand, and after the release of OS was very careful to not change core functionality. Maybe this is the future, then.
No, it's microsoft having a different minimum spec for 8.0 and 8.1. It's a cpu issue. Version n.x software should alway run on the same hardware n.x-1 ran on.
What does Microsoft suggest people do about this? Buy new hardware? Live without the security fixes after just a year or so? Downgrade to 7?
In some countries this would possibly enter consumer protection territory. In the UK possibly the 1979 Sale Of Goods Act.
Are there still people running windows ?
Many more than all other platform combined, at least on the desktop.
Write boring code, not shiny code!
Looking at page 100, it looks like this really affects about a dozen people and they just keep posting. Let me know when there's 1000 unique people saying there's a problem.
(and it appears that there's a fix of sorts)
>Freshly minted account
>Only posts on this thread - no other posts on anything ever
>Friends: dingl_ (3643599) is all alone in the world.
>Blaming the user
>Blaming the OEM
>Blaming anyone but Microsoft
Oh look, a new Microsoft shill account.
--
BMO
You may want to read up on the issue. The problem is people CAN'T update.
There is a particular update that can fail and then it blocks all the other automatic updates from happening. So without even touching the machine and automatic updates turned on you get a computer that does not get any updates. The machine won't even notify you in the store that 8.1 is available until you get that one particular update cleaned up.
This is through no fault of the end user, its completely a Microsoft issue.
As they say, truth is stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense.
It's true. If you are running 8.1, update 1 is mandatory to keep getting support: http://www.infoworld.com/t/mic...
Microsoft said it themselves here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/gla...
Originally they only gave 30 days to install it, but then they upped that to 120 because of all the compatibility and installation problems (and the few companies running Windows 8 screaming).
Bizzarely, Windows 8.0 users aren't affected in the same way. This affects 8.1 users only. As usual, Windows 7 users can ignore this ongoing fiasco and keep doing productive work.
-- "So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated." - Bill Gates
Shill or not, he does has a valid point (I have not looked at the other comments).
As much as I personally hate automatic updates, as I decide when I want to update shit, for the vast unwashed masses, it is not a bad idea. Too many of my friends and family (I no longer play tech support except for direct family.. aka my wife) have had machines with years of missing patches, and they wonder why their machines are up shits creek.
I on the other hand, have a windows 8.1 slate I used for my car (runs vehicle diagnostic software, not the std odb reader crap), I cannot get update 1, I get the failure many others are getting. I cannot go back to Windows 7 because too many missing drivers, and very unreliable touchscreen experience. I have tried the windows 8 drivers on 7 with no luck. So for me, I will no longer have support (I do not need technical support, I would like security updates at least).
Good thing I do not use that for anything other than car diagnostics... At least my car won't give my computer herpes :P
I came, I conquered, I coredumped
I'm not sure what the issue is. Both times I've tried to install it I end up with a black screen with no error message, no hard drive activity, nothing at all. Both times I've had to use my 8 disk to revert to regular Win8.
If some users can't update it sounds like an OEM issue to me, or other conflicting software/ driver or firmware problem.. Not much Microsoft can do, its an OEM problem
If you even bothered to look into it at all you'd see that your statement is false. It *is* a Microsoft issue, but then again looking at your details I wouldn't be surprised if you're just using a sockpuppet account to astroturf for MS>
I run Windows 8 in a VM on Vista. It's like a layer cake of failure.
Trolling is a art,
Did you even read TFS? Apparently, for a lot of people, Update 1 simply won't install for some reason. How are these people supposed to apply OS updates when the OS won't allow it?
I got a brand new Windows 7 Lenovo machine for my folks' small business (to avert the imminent XPocalypse that I told them about two years ago, and eighteen months ago, and twelve months ago ... .) and I was shocked how a new-out-of-box Windows 7 machine not only needed about eight reboots to update itself, but that out of 147 updates there were like 24 that failed to apply. Reboot-re-run was needed about five times to just get through all those failed applies.
I'm more used to lazily installing a CentOS 6.0 DVD and running yum update and getting 959 updates which all apply in one smooth transaction. And that stuff was just written by a few part-time guys at Duke (of course credit to RHAT hackers for making it faster).
I wasn't surprised by XP's crummy updater, but by time Windows 7 came out they should have had this nailed with a team of pros working on it, and that this stuff is still broken in 8.1 is ridiculous. And to add insult to injury, they charge money for this junk!
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
As someone else posted in a sub-comment somewhere, http://blogs.technet.com/b/gla...
-SaNo
Do regular users even know what and where the "update log" is?
I don't blame Microsoft for orphaning 8.1 early -- it's a mess and a corporate embarrassment, and the sooner they get people off it the better. My copy of 8 went back on the shelf, and it'll stay there until I'm comfortable that Microsoft understands that most of their customers don't have touch screens and they have to provide for that.
Geekly early adopters will figure out how to upgrade. Although they may be more vocal, they'll be less affected than the regular users, the people who buy computers to do stuff and not to manage operating systems, will be.
From a marketing standpoint, Microsoft really needs to get the name "windows 8" out of the public mindshare. It tastes like failure.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
I ordered my parents a Windows 8 laptop to replace their old xp laptop, thinking, "Well, windows 8 can't be THAT bad." It was.
The thing would not download updates. It would just say "Downloading updates..." and stall for hours at a time. I searched as much as I could online and only found barely any help. Most of it involved stopping the windows update agent service, and then deleting cached update files. But then it would just freeze again when I started it again. After a whole bunch of attempts, I noticed it was filling up the cache folder again after every time I restarted the update service, and that if I waited a bit, and then rebooted the computer, it would apply a few patches. So... that's ultimately how I ended up getting the thing all patched up. Stop update service, delete all cached patches, start update service, wait a few hours while they download in the background with no fucking mention of what is going on, reboot machine. I guess running the windows update must have been causing some sort of deadlock with the background updater or something... What a fucking mess. How in the world did they ship an OS with a non functioning update manager... And to top it all off, I couldn't just download win 8.1 separately, like how you could download the xp service packs separately. If I could have just done that... it would have been a hell of a lot simpler to get everything working. Instead they want you to download it through the microsoft store in metro... which won't show up unless, you guessed it, you already have fully updated through windows update.
On the plus side, everything works fine now that it is fully updated.
Not so much with OSX. Might happen once a month or so if that. Linux, sure. Lots of components seems to get updated frequently. When I run Windows, it seems like every time I boot there is some sort of update. But not really my point. If Microsoft is going to brick the machine because an earlier update failed, that's bad.
I don't know, I installed Mint for my Mom to replace XP. Her and her husband actually seem more comfortable installing updates. They get notified on their desktop as regular users and I showed them how to switch user to an sudoer account and install the updates. When the updates are complete they just switch back to their regular account.
It's only been a couple of months and these are by no means power users with complex app requirements or the need to play games but that said, for their simple needs, everything they expect to be there is there and to them the maintenance piece is easier for them to understand. Especially since more than the OS gets updated with aptitude - no more updating Windows, and flash, and Java, and AV and, well you get the idea...
Creationist Textbook Stickers Declared Unconstitutional by CowboyNeal
Windows 8.0 will continue to be supported.
Windows 8.1 will be supported if you have Update 1 installed.
Its only Windows 8.1 that doesn't have Update 1 that is losing support.
I'm not a fan of that, but don't make it out to be more than it is. Its certainly not the end of the world.
Hey, bleh... I assume you are happy with the software you are using. I'd be interested in something like that. What's it called?
... i'm still on windows 8. before you laugh... this box is purely for steam and 8 was easy to install. yes the UI is a pig. tried upgrading to 8.1, it just caused compatibility problems and random 100% io spikes (for 45+ minutes at a time, only fix = hard power cycle. no virus no hardware failure. have gone back to 8 and it has been fine since).
I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
You seem to have missed his point entirely; Windows 7 is unaffected by this current silliness, which cuts productivity by forcing people to comply with update requirements.
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
I don't get confronted with an EULA when I order a laptop from Amazon. And once I've bought it I don't care what appears on the screen because I didn't have the opportunity to read that when I was making the purchase (the SALE part of Sale Of Goods Act).
What will those 3 people do??
On the contrary, my clients and I have been using Linux for business and personal use in a variety of applications, for over ten years. Your impression is common, but ignorant. It is true that it takes some competence to set it up correctly, but that's actually true with Windows or OS X, as well. I've worked with each of them and Linux actually makes the most sense in how it's laid out and works. Linux, and the software which runs on it, will do the great majority of jobs as well or better than the other two, and, if it is properly configured for the use case, it is as easy to use as anything out there.