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Microsoft's Fall Creators Update Already on More Than Half of All Windows 10 PCs (betanews.com)
Wayne Williams, writing for BetaNews: Microsoft releases two big feature updates a year for Windows 10. 2017 saw the arrival of the Creators Update in April, followed by the Fall Creators Update in October. The Creators Update was a slow and at times problematic release. A quarter of Windows 10 users still didn't have it by the time its successor rolled out. Thankfully, Microsoft seems to have learned some important lessons, and the Fall Creators Update is being installed at a much faster rate. According to the latest figures from AdDuplex, a mere two months after it launched, the Fall Creators Update (1709) is already on more than half of the Windows 10 PCs in use -- 53.6 percent to be precise. That's up from 20.5 percent a mere month ago.
I think I'll wait and let everyone else take the brunt of the damage.
Microsoft's new strategy: Crowdsourced bug testers!
I remember it telling me it was going to update. I spent a half hour trying to figure out where to disable it before turning to the web where I spent another wasted two hours before I just gave up. I feel very violated.
When you force people to update their systems, regardless if it destroys their configurations or mangles their programs, machines get the update.
It's almost as if not giving people a choice whether to upgrade means they're going to get the update.
Microsoft add/changes features too often in Windows 10. This has caused some really strange behavior on my Windows 10 machines. Some things it has done:
- I have specifically set my lock screen background image to "image 1". Sometimes when I boot my machine, the lock screen background has been changed to "image 2". Often, another reboot sets it back to "image 1". What's the point in having a setting if the system doesn't always honor it?
- When the Creator's Update was installed, I noticed that it looked like one of my desktop icons was missing. Upon further inspection, it just looked like some (but not all) of my desktop icons were moved around a little, and a gap left at the top.
- I have never joined any of my home machines to a Windows domain or workgroup, but on some reboots, there is an icon on my desktop called HOMEGROUP. It cannot be moved or deleted. Only stopping the "Homegroup Provider" service causes the icon to vanish, and then it stays away until some other random time.
It must be wonderful to get a new version of Windows packed with great new features.
When you have some time in your busy schedule waiting for updates to finish installing, interrupting boot loops, reinstalling software Microsoft doesn't want you to use, dodging regressions and restoring all of your settings (again) send me a postcard of all those amazing new features that makes Windows 10 so much better.
Microsoft is shady as shit and despite disabling the Windows Update service on my Pro machines I find it re-enables and demanding restarts, even restarting in violation of the "no auto-restart with logged on user" group policy, so here's a solution to blocking Windows 10 updates that works.
.reg file somewhere, open an admin command prompt and "net stop wuauserv" and then DELETE that key. This disables and deletes the entire Windows Update service from the system. If you want to update, import that .reg file you saved and update. "net stop wuauserv" and delete it again when finished (you don't even need it once the settings panel indicates it needs a restart, the post-update work is done by internal Windows components.)
.reg file with these contents as a companion to your "install wuauserv.reg" and call it "delete wuauserv.reg":
Go to regedit, find HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\wuauserv, export that key to a
Make a
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\wuauserv]
No, it's not a pretty solution and won't work for your mom and dad, but it keeps Microsoft from shooting update torpedoes up your computer's buttpipes.