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CNET Editor Rails Against Non-Consensual Windows Updates (cnet.com)
schwit1 shares this angry commentary from a CNET senior editor:
Maybe you're delivering a presentation to a huge audience. Maybe you're taking an online test. Maybe you just need to get some work done on a tight deadline.
Windows doesn't care.
Windows will take control of your computer, force-feed it updates, and flip the reset switch automatically — and there's not a damn thing you can do about it, once it gets started.
If you haven't saved your work, it's gone. Your browser tabs are toast. And don't expect to use your computer again soon; depending on the speed of your drive and the size of the update, it could be anywhere from 10 minutes to well over an hour before your PC is ready for work. As far as I'm concerned, it's the single worst thing about Windows. It's only gotten worse in Windows 10. And when I poked around Microsoft, the overarching message I received was that Microsoft has no interest in fixing it.
The editor recalls rebooting his Windows laptop while listening to a speech by Steve Jobs in 2010. (The reboot locked his computer for 20 minutes while updates were installed, "the first of three occasions that a forced Windows update would totally destroy my workflow at a critical moment.") He shares stories from other frustrated Windows users, urges readers to send him more anecdotes, and argues that Microsoft has even begun "actively getting rid of ways to keep users from disabling automatic updates."
If you haven't saved your work, it's gone. Your browser tabs are toast. And don't expect to use your computer again soon; depending on the speed of your drive and the size of the update, it could be anywhere from 10 minutes to well over an hour before your PC is ready for work. As far as I'm concerned, it's the single worst thing about Windows. It's only gotten worse in Windows 10. And when I poked around Microsoft, the overarching message I received was that Microsoft has no interest in fixing it.
The editor recalls rebooting his Windows laptop while listening to a speech by Steve Jobs in 2010. (The reboot locked his computer for 20 minutes while updates were installed, "the first of three occasions that a forced Windows update would totally destroy my workflow at a critical moment.") He shares stories from other frustrated Windows users, urges readers to send him more anecdotes, and argues that Microsoft has even begun "actively getting rid of ways to keep users from disabling automatic updates."
I've seen Windows 10 updates make a computer unusable for hours, particularly for any application where a bit of processing power it needed. Forcing actions that interfere with the owner's use of a computer is another malware trait to add to the adware and spyware that MS bundled with Win 10. It is hard to believe that MS is actually getting away with this sort of behaviour. There are real consequences for Windows users, particularly those in small business that rely on MS products to operate their business but are too small to have the extra control that MS might allow large companies.
Problems with Windows are only going to get worse. Many businesses are unwilling to give up Win 7 and put up with the shit that MS is trying to force on them with Win 10. The same customers mostly avoided Win 8 so are using a OS that MS will abandon, without supplying a functional replacement. MS seems to be completely lost and confused, with an attitude of refusing to give customers what they want but still expecting them to buy their crap.
If Linux companies are smart about this, there could be a huge jump in Linux adoption that convinces more software companies to port their products to Linux. Time will tell. I know from personal experience that it has been very easy to get Win 10 users ready to try Linux.
Windows is losing relevancy as the shift to mobile devices continues and many people no longer need a desktop OS. A sign of just how significant this has become is MS releasing several products onto Android. There are an increasing number of large developers that have little interest in Windows, preferring to focus on other platforms. If MS loses their near monopoly of the desktop OS market, their whole world could come crashing down very quickly.
I agree wholeheartedly, the fact that Windows 10 by default will just randomly reboot itself on a whim to install updates is INFURIATING. However, after some research, I found a way to stop it from automatically rebooting that has worked for me for several months so far.
:p
First, we need to disable the mechanism that actually performs the automatic reboot after installing updates...
-Open Task Scheduler (Start, type "Task" and it'll appear in the results)
-Expand Task Scheduler Library>Microsoft>Windows>WindowsUpdate
-Delete the "Reboot" task
The task that performs the reboot is now gone, but we're not done yet.
Next, we need to prevent Windows from re-creating the automatic reboot task, which has reportedly happened spontaneously on some computers, most often during build upgrades...
-Hit WinKey+R and enter %systemroot%\System32\Tasks\Microsoft\Windows\UpdateOrchestrator to open that folder
-Delete the file named "Reboot"
-Create a new FOLDER named "Reboot"
Since a folder named Reboot now exists, Windows won't be able to re-create the task file named Reboot.
As I said, doing this has worked for me for several months now, but of course YMMV applies here, especially if Microsoft ever decides to surreptitiously find a way to work around our attempts to take back ownership of our computers and crush us underfoot even harder for daring to defy them.
BS!
If anyone from MS is reading these comments let me give the parent poster and my opinion on this. Since you feel you need to make Windows a cell phone and cell phones automatically receive updates, I say to hell with the update due to using the wrong implementation!
I own a Google phone. A nexus 6P which ALWAYS gets updates! Do I loose calls? No. Does my phone ever randomly restart? No. Does it get malware? No.
Here is how everyone else on the planet handles updates. We have this thing called a notification. You should analyze your competitors more? I get a widget alert silently for about a week. Then it eventually turns to a notification about an update. Last it gives me amonth before it even offers a schedule to update. After 3 months it installs when I reboot my phone.
Why is this so hard MS? Also why can't you patch a live system like Oracle Linux or Red hat? You could greatly reduce the need to reboot while keeping your users secure. Last, you think the XP apocalypse was bad with stubborn older users afraid of change refusing to upgrade? Ha!
Keep up this shit and everyone will keep using 7 forever after 2020!! Gee why is Windows 10 adoption slow after the forced upgrades? Perhaps it's because of things like this that scare people.
People use PCs for work. ANY interrupted update IS UnACCEPTABLE PERIOD! Some feel getting malware once or twice a year is preferable with less downtime than getting hit once or twice a month scaringly
http://saveie6.com/
When those viruses were running rampant, i was running Linux.. The only annoyance was the constant scans from machines infected with such malware that only served to waste my bandwidth.
Back then i could apply updates to anything but the kernel in the background, and then restarted the affected software at a time of my choosing. Same with the kernel, i could install the update in the background and reboot at my convenience to run the new kernel. Rebooting or restarting applications was quick because the actual update had already been applied so the system only had to boot the new version. If i decided to turn the machine off at night or for the weekend, then the updates would already have been installed so when i next booted it i would get the latest version of everything automatically.
I was able to strip out useless software from my machine, so the number and frequency of updates was reduced.
Nowadays you can even patch the kernel without rebooting...
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Hello,
I guess it was a slow day at CBS Interactive's CNet web site, or perhaps they are not very familiar with using Windows. This behavior can easily be disabled by a simple registry tweak. Here's a .REG file which does exactly that:
If you would rather script it using a .CMD file, that's easy enough, too. You can even do it in one line:
Or, for the PowerShell-inclined, here's a three-line version:
As always, you are responsible for your computer and should make a backup before making any changes to it.
Yes, Windows can be difficult to use at times, and the learning curve can be quite high. But these days that's pretty true of any operating system if you're coming to it for the first time. You can find the answers to a lot of questions by searching the web, and in case you can't (or you still have questions), you can go to a web site with an active Windows user forum like BleepingComputer. GeeksToGo, Neowin, Scot's Newsletter,Sysnative, WindowsForums or even Microsoft's own Microsoft Answers forum and someone will help you. Those are just a few off the top of my head, there are plenty of others, although you should probably avoid CBS Interactive's own CNet forums.
Regards
Aryeh Goretsky
Dexter is a good dog.
This technique stopped working after the Windows 10 Anniversary Update.
(sigh) Not and option for all of us you smug dink. Lots of us are forced to use software not available on Linux or even OS X.
Wow, all this Sturm and Drang about a company screwing over its customers. Didn't you read the license agreements? ?
The PC revolution is going fine, thank you. It's called "Linux". And YES, it works FINE on the desktop as soon as you realize that you CAN find effective and useful alternatives to all those "Windows-specific" applications.
Sometimes the "writing on the wall" is blood spatter...
Then run it in a Windows VM under Linux, and at least you'll be able to carry on with other work while the VM is updating and rebooting.
not true, my iphone updates itself without my consent now, and changes the UI whenever Apple wants.
Alternate truths, eh? I've used iphones for 5+ years now, and have to approve every update.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
There are times that users just can't have resource grabbing happen, such as 3D printing. The latency from even checking for updates, can ruin a studio recording. Windows 10 rebooting options are poorly thought out. What if you cannot have your computer reboot anytime in the near future?
https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM
Lol, as if getting hosed by a failed VM is so much worse than being hosed by a failed Windows update... ROFL
I love little idiots like you, who thinks the world is falling if someone uses something you don't understand, but from where you can recover from failures - like the Linux command prompt. Doing so is apparently something infinitely inferior to failure in Windows which you basically never can recover from sans grabbing the install disks and starting over, which apparently is something every granny in the world is capable of. Humour.
Perhaps he's only just switched to a Win10 system as his primary machine recently. There's a big difference between poking around on a system for review purposes, to learn about its features, its design, its limitations, etc, and relying on it every day to be productive. I can attest, I was upset by the loss of control in Windows Update from day 1, but it wasn't until it ate one of my documents in-progress that I became furiously vocal about it.