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Microsoft Says Windows 10 Spring Creators Update Will Install in 30 Minutes (bleepingcomputer.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: Microsoft has announced that the upcoming Windows 10 major feature upgrade -- dubbed the Spring Creators Update -- will take around 30 minutes to install, unlike previous variants that took between one and two hours to complete. This boost in installation time is attributed to work engineers have done on the "Feature Update" process -- the name Microsoft uses to refer to its bi-annual major OS updates. Microsoft says that this Feature Update process actually consists of two separate phases -- the "online" and "offline" stages. During the "online" phase, the user's computer downloads the necessary update files and executes various operations in the OS' background without affecting the device's battery life or system performance.

26 of 173 comments (clear)

  1. Amazing by 110010001000 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Those are some amazing engineers. They developed a way to download data and run system operations without using any CPU or energy. Simply amazing.

    1. Re:Amazing by freeze128 · · Score: 2

      It doesn't affect the "battery life", but may affect the current battery charge. And, you can do your other operations while the computer is idle, therefore not affecting your current CPU usage.

    2. Re:Amazing by 110010001000 · · Score: 2

      Weird. What is so special about these CPU operations that they don't affect the battery (life or charge), or cause an idle computer not to change its current CPU usage? This must be some new amazing engineering stuff!

    3. Re:Amazing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The user has never had priority with Windows 10.

    4. Re:Amazing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Microsoft Says Windows 10 Spring Creators Update Will Install in 30 Minutes WHETHER YOU WANT IT OR NOT!

      FTFY

  2. Awesome! by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Insightful

    But more important: How long will the rollback to a usable system take?

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    1. Re:Awesome! by cyberchondriac · · Score: 2

      Yeah, they kinda forgot to add the "whether you want to or not" disclaimer...

      lol "forgot".. yeah, that's it.

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  3. Guess I'll have my work cut out for me then... by elgholm · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Windows 10 Fall Creators Update has so far managed to completely brick (no kidding!) 6 of my 9 computers (with genuine windows).
    Only 3 of them has not received the unfixable* blue-screen-of-death when installing the Fall Creators Update.
    (*Yes, unfixable, the update destroys the partition, and there's no way to get it back, you can fake-create it back, but the update then destroys is again, and again.)

    I've had to roll back 3 of them to Windows 7, and 3 of them is still broken, since I haven't had the time yet to complete reinstall everything on them. I'm thinking "Linux", and throwing away my Windows licenses.

    So... Now you're giving me "Spring Creators" you say?
    Lovely.

    I thought the flu season only happened once per year.

    1. Re:Guess I'll have my work cut out for me then... by omnichad · · Score: 2

      Most of the issue seems to be with the partition being in GPT, and with a special "size" of the rescue- vs. os-partition.

      Have seen this, but with earlier releases. If you could roll it back / repair and make the system partition at least 500MB using something like GParted it will usually upgrade just fine.

      Yeah, I think they just plain assumed that nobody installed Windows 7 in EFI mode because the hardware support was limited when 7 first came out. Because 7 only made something like a 100MB system reserved partition when it partitions the drive.

    2. Re:Guess I'll have my work cut out for me then... by ControlsGeek · · Score: 2

      I finally had to install Fall Creators update last night and my Start Menu is configured with garish tiles that I don't want and that I cannot delete. The database of tiles is 'corrupt' and the repair tool refuses to fix it.

      I want Windows 7 back not Spring Creators update. I want to get work done not be 'Creative'.

  4. Not worth it by WaffleMonster · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Speaking for myself all of this downtime for no tangible benefit isn't worth it nor is constantly dealing with the aftermath of what broke or changed behind your back this time. Computers are supposed to be tools.. vehicles to get shit done yet vendors seem hell bent on wasting everyone's time with nonsense.

    I must say being impressed with 30 minutes of downtime in the age when production systems can be migrated across physical systems with seconds or less of downtime is like being awarded a medal for crossing the finish line hours after everyone went home and roads re-opened to vehicle traffic.

  5. Re:other OS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As a non-Windows user, I read this headline and assumed 30 minutes was a regression, not an improvement. Previous updates took 1-2 hours? What the hell are you doing with all that time? I can go from a blank hard drive to a fully up-to-date Linux installation with all my personal applications and configurations in place in 30 minutes. An update should be considerably faster than that, and certainly shouldn't take my machine out of commission for more than a minute or two.

  6. Define 'minutes' by DickBreath · · Score: 2

    Do you mean real minutes? Or do you mean Microsoft 'minutes'? New, improved, bigger, better Microsoft minutes!

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    1. Re:Define 'minutes' by iampiti · · Score: 3, Funny

      It's minutes as estimated by the Windows file copying dialog :P

  7. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  8. Windows 10 Fall Creators Update by mystik · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I had a machine I serviced that would not install the fall creator's update, with a non-specific error message.

    I was both impressed and horrified to learn that that fall creators update would searched the *ENTIRE* hard drive for incompatible software. It was failing because it located an old copy of the Netware client Installer, in "C:\Old_Computer\Documents and Settings\User\Downloads\Novell". This software wasn't even installed on the computer; just present in that directory. The built-in updater failed w/ a general error, and the downloaded copy of the update claimed "You must uninstall this incompatible software", which, again, was not actually installed, just present on the hard drive.

    Now I know *why* Windows takes forever to install updates :(

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    1. Re:Windows 10 Fall Creators Update by DRJlaw · · Score: 2

      I was both impressed and horrified to learn that that fall creators update would searched the *ENTIRE* hard drive for incompatible software.

      Well, you can't trust the "Programs and Features" listing to include all of the software operable on the machine, much less that some software hasn't been installed with a slight error in its registry entries for installation/uninstallation that gets blown out by a "cleaner" program, so if you want to avoid the corner case of some user crying to the world that you've broken their software setup you have to treat every executable/application as if it is used.

      The general error nonsense is maddening and stupid, but the refusal to upgrade makes reasonable sense.

    2. Re:Windows 10 Fall Creators Update by UnknowingFool · · Score: 2

      Well, you can't trust the "Programs and Features" listing to include all of the software operable on the machine . . .

      Well maybe Microsoft should fix that since they created the OS.

      The general error nonsense is maddening and stupid, but the refusal to upgrade makes reasonable sense.

      It makes it less reasonable in my opinion. It means I can't update a current Windows computer to 10 that is being used as a network drive for other software because MS finds incompatible even though none of the software is actually installed.

      --
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  9. Re:Hard Links? by DarkRookie · · Score: 2

    10 is no better than 7

    10 is worse than 7 for even reason you listed above.
    There is no point installing 10 unless its force upon you.

    --
    The millennial that doesn't like most of the stuff designed for millennials.
  10. Whether you want it to or not. by hoggoth · · Score: 4, Insightful

    > Microsoft Says Windows 10 Spring Creators Update Will Install in 30 Minutes

    Whether you want it to or not.

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  11. So... by TheOuterLinux · · Score: 2

    About as long as it takes to install an entire Linux distribution such as "Linux Mint" without updating as it goes? Ummm..k. "A" for effort good buddy.

  12. Credit where it's due by Voyager529 · · Score: 2

    Look, I'll be the first one to say that Windows Update in Win10 is basically indistinguishable from malware at this point. The forced updates are written with the assumption that the user wants them, that the software is an improvement over the old, and that the user's time is better spent waiting for the update to complete than whatever it is they would otherwise be doing with their computer.

    All of these problems need to be solved. However, I will acknowledge the intermediate step being taken here. The amount of time an update takes to install is a major part of the problem here. If the monthly updates took five minutes and the semi-annual updates took 30, instead of the hours they currently take, I think it would go a long way to solving the other issues.

    The massive question mark here is the hardware being used to make these claims. "a current-gen i7 with 32GB of RAM and a high end Intel SSD" taking half an hour? That's crap. "a six year old Celeron with a 5400RPM, 250GB laptop drive and 4GB of RAM" taking half an hour, on the other hand, is pretty impressive.

  13. False headline by mcl630 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Microsoft Says Windows 10 Spring Creators Update Will Install in 30 Minutes

    No, they did not say that. They said the "offline" part of installation will take 30 minutes (down from 82 minutes for the Creators Update and 51 minutes for the Fall Creators Update). They are just moving more of the install to the "online" phase. Total time should be about the same. The only advantage is that you can still use your computer during the "online" phase.

    1. Re:False headline by Malizar · · Score: 2

      That's debatable, it generally takes me 1-2 hours to get my computer back on the internet after a major update from them. I am sure this update will be no different.

  14. Babysitting the updates by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So when is Microsoft going to fix the problem of having to sit through the hours-long update process and answer wizard questions HALF-WAY-FUCKING-THROUGH it? Put the stupid questions at the beginning of the process so I can answer them and go home and have the update finish on its own overnight.

    Or better yet, stop making Windows version updates a separate process from Windows Update.

  15. Well whoop-de-doo by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It'll be a story when they let me decide which 30 minutes.

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