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Windows 10 Will Soon Let You Opt-Out of Automatic Driver Updates (pcworld.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the oppressive-regimes dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from PCWorld: Microsoft is giving users some more control over Windows 10 updates, with a new beta build of its operating system released Monday. The build allows folks with the Windows 10 Professional, Education, and Enterprise versions to defer new updates for up to 35 days. In addition, the company will allow those users to decide whether or not they want to include driver updates when they want to update Windows. It's a move that helps respond to one of the key criticisms of Windows 10: that Microsoft's regime of forced, cumulative updates has caused problems for users with some configurations. This way, users can steer clear of updates they don't want to install yet and dodge problematic driver updates. The newly-minted update changes are just one part of the improvements added to Windows 10 with the build released Monday. Microsoft is also working on making the initial Windows 10 setup more accessible using Cortana. The company's virtual assistant can ask users questions at setup -- when they speak languages that it can understand -- and use those answers to configure devices. A small number of beta users will also begin to see a battery life experiment pop up on their devices. Microsoft is also giving users an easier way to connect to a virtual private network. Once Windows 10 has a user's VPN settings loaded, it's possible to activate the connection with the tap of a button without opening up VPN settings.

15 of 156 comments (clear)

  1. I Already Opted Out by sexconker · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I already opted out of ALL updates in Windows 10 by opting out of Windows 10!

    1. Re:I Already Opted Out by freeze128 · · Score: 5, Informative

      "DEFER" is not "OPT-OUT".

  2. About letting us choose everything? by ls671 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What about letting us choose everything we want to update?

    --
    Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
    1. Re:About letting us choose everything? by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 5, Funny

      What about letting us choose everything we want to update?

      Fuck you, you filthy child-molesting communist!!

      Signed, Satya Nadella
      Benevolent Dictator, Microsoft Corp.

      --
      Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
    2. Re:About letting us choose everything? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Windows 10 has been nothing but issues, failed updates, lost work, and totally ludicrous privacy settings from the start. Whatever their excuse is, it's a bad one. Whatever your apology for it is, it's a shit one.

  3. Consoles with keyboards by jxander · · Score: 4, Insightful

    When will MS just up and admit that they aren't in the business of desktop computer software anymore?

    Windows 10 is just an XBox with a keyboard and mouse. You have the same amount of control over the OS (basically none) and they're used for the same purpose (playing games and watching TV)

    --
    This signature is false.
  4. Mmmm by nospam007 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'd prefer an opt-out of the UI 'improvements'.

  5. OH THANK YOU by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 5, Funny

    OH THANK YOU my benevolent overlords from Redmond!

    Please, let me lick your boots for granting me this unprecedented freedom!!

    --
    Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
  6. Sorry, but this is not enough by guacamole · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Nearly every home computer is running Windows 10 Home. So this means that most of non-education non-enterprise users still don't have the ability to turn off the automatic forced updates, and reboots. Jebuz, Microsoft, why can it be so hard to the way it used to be in Windows 8?

  7. "Improvements" by ewhac · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The newly-minted update changes are just one part of the improvements added to Windows 10 with the build released Monday.

    Nice Newspeak(TM) spin there.

    It's not an improvement. It's a fix, to a facility they broke in Windows 10 -- namely, the ability to control the update system.

    And if we're being perfectly honest here, it's not even a fix. It's a workaround to a facility that never fscking worked in the first place , i.e. installing device drivers through Windows Update. Never. Worked.

    And deploying this workaround serves as tacit admission by Microsoft that they they haven't the remotest clue how to fix it. Even after locking out those terribly pesky, annoying users and arrogating all administrative control to themselves with Windows 10, it STILL. DOESN'T. WORK.

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    Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
  8. Why were the updates problematic? by HalAtWork · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Were they untested or something? Years of automatically accepting updates on Linux (kernel and otherwise) across varying hardware and it's been extremely rare that I've experienced any issues at all...

    Is all the software/drivers on Windows considered bleeding edge? Is the hardware not abstracted such that it would cause a complete meltdown with no user interaction possible? Are recovery options insanely complex for the user?

    --
    Twinstiq, game news
    1. Re:Why were the updates problematic? by Mashiki · · Score: 4, Informative

      Easy. Because device drivers can include bugs in bleeding edge releases especially for new games and hardware. An example you're running solid on say the 6mo old nvidia or AMD video drivers, a new game comes out. The new drivers are "optimized" for that game. So, windows decides to install those new drivers and breaks all your old games in the process. Because there were fundamental changes in the drivers. Now you get to have the fun and enjoyable part where you: Uninstall the driver, run the special MS 'deferment' upgrade for the driver they have in the standard release channel. Then install the old driver that was working fine, but shaved off a few FPS for that new game. It gets even worse when Windows will install an older driver over top of a new one. One of my friends had a problem where Windows 10 would install the 15.6 or 15.6 AMD catalyst drivers over top of the 16.xx drivers on every update and not even their "deferment tool" would stop it from happening.

      The real problem is that windows has been able to botch driver upgrades since ye olde days of windows 98 and the first gen of PnP(or plug and pray as it used to be called) and brick a windows install to the point where a format and wipe is the only solution. That's either the problem of the hardware manufacture, or something going wrong with windows. That's not even touching on the clusterfucks with minor hardware revisions from companies like Realtek(most motherboards use their chipsets for audio or network connections). And one driver release can work, and another completely breaks the device to the point where you need to remove every single backup instance as well.

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      Om, nomnomnom...
  9. How 'bout opting out of data harvesting? by QuietLagoon · · Score: 5, Interesting

    When will Microsoft allow me to opt out of the egregious data harvesting?

    1. Re:How 'bout opting out of data harvesting? by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Funny

      You know, this starts to remind me of an old GDR joke. You have to know that toilet paper was in short supply back then and politicians promised anything and everything but never once mentioned toilet paper with but a word.

      Speaker: Comrades! In only 5 years, everyone will have his own three-room flat!
      Man in the crowd: Yeah, but what about the toilet paper?
      Speaker: And comrades! In only 10 years, everyone will have his very own car!
      Man: Ok, but the toilet paper?
      Speaker (enraged): Kiss my ass (literally: Lick my ass!)
      Man: Typical, they have a solution for party members but what about us?

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  10. Re:Use Windows 10 LTSB by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    http://www.howtogeek.com/273824/windows-10-without-the-cruft-windows-10-ltsb-explained/
    Did you know thereâ(TM)s a version of Windows 10 that doesnâ(TM)t get big feature updates, and doesnâ(TM)t even have the Windows Store or Microsoft Edge browser? Itâ(TM)s called Windows 10 LTSB, short for Long Term Servicing Branch.

    Did you know there are other editions of Windows that give the exact same feature list you provided?
    It's called Windows 7, or XP, or 2000.

    And you know what those also have in common with Windows 10 LTSB?
    You can't fucking buy any of them!

    I included your linked article in the above quote, purely to copy/paste from your own helpfully provided article:

    Unfortunately, thereâ(TM)s no legitimate way for the average Windows user to get it. Thatâ(TM)s no surpriseâ"Microsoft doesnâ(TM)t even want businesses using Windows 10 LTSB for most of their PCs

    Even the enterprising company I work for is a couple hundred employees shy of the 1000 minimum employee requirement to qualify for enterprise licensing.

    Not to mention the $2k/month fees and the $200/user account charges that come with enterprise licencing even if you qualify.

    But have fun with the yearly audits by Microsoft lawyers that threaten to sue you for buying licenses and then using your software exactly as the licence dictates!

    (From a different company I worked for before, I have a scanned letter from a court where Microsoft tried to sue us for having 12 users authorized on a SQL server that had 40 user CALs with receipts from their own "Open Licencing" store, and another letter a month later dropping the lawsuit. They did the exact same thing two years later. It cost us an additional $60k in legal fees each of those years for following the law!)

    Enterprise licencing can and does cost you over a million dollars a year for the smallest of networks and user bases possible once you include the yearly legal fees.