Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Rereleases Windows 10 October 2018 Update, Fixes Data Deletion Bug (theverge.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Microsoft is re-releasing its Windows 10 October 2018 Update today, following the company pulling it offline due to data deletion issues over the weekend. The software giant says there were only a few reports of data loss, at a rate of one one-hundredth of one percent. "We have fully investigated all reports of data loss, identified and fixed all known issues in the update, and conducted internal validation," says Microsoft's John Cable, director of program management for Windows Servicing and Delivery. Microsoft is now re-releasing the Windows 10 October 2018 Update to Windows Insiders, before rolling it out more broadly to consumers. "We will carefully study the results, feedback, and diagnostic data from our Insiders before taking additional steps towards re-releasing more broadly," explains Cable.
It appears the bug that caused file deletion was related to Windows 10 users who had enabled Known Folder Redirection to redirect folders like desktop, documents, pictures, and screenshots from the default location. Microsoft introduced code in its latest update to delete the empty and duplicate known folders, but it appears they weren't always empty. Microsoft has developed fixes to address a variety of problems related to these folder moves, and these fixes are now being tested with Windows Insiders.
It appears the bug that caused file deletion was related to Windows 10 users who had enabled Known Folder Redirection to redirect folders like desktop, documents, pictures, and screenshots from the default location. Microsoft introduced code in its latest update to delete the empty and duplicate known folders, but it appears they weren't always empty. Microsoft has developed fixes to address a variety of problems related to these folder moves, and these fixes are now being tested with Windows Insiders.
We recently had an article that Windows 10 passed the 700 million install mark.
700,000,000 installations. 0.01% of that is 'only' 70,000 installs that lost data.
Doesn't fill me with confidence, especially after seeing the reason. It's not like hard drive space is costly these days, Windows should NOT take the initiative to do some spring cleaning without clear and explicit permission.
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
Now they should fix the problem where it can't rewrite the non-standard OEM BCD/boot loader partitions because there's not enough room because they were forced into the free upgrade from 7 and there's a 400MB different, minimum, and that doesn't work. Then it rolls back and tries it again because it's too stupid to have checked it in the first place or know why it's failing. Oh and I have another idea. Tell HP and Dell and Lenovo and literally every single OEM to STOP DOING CUSTOM BOOT LOADERS WITH LIKE 9 PARTITIONS!!!!!!
If you have a process, follow the process.
The process was supposed to be to hunt for bugs (the data munching bug was reported by insiders).
Even if they missed those reports, as well as the intel audio bug,they would have had a second opportunity to catch it, because the process was to release to "Windows Insider Release Preview" ring before general availability.
But they decided to NOT follow procedure and just skip that... ... and here we are.
If you have a process follow it. If you feel the need to change the process, announce the change, change it, and then follow the changed process. Do not just arbitrarily d things in a diufferent way "just because"...
Is ISO-9000 101 for dummies Satya...
*** Suerte a todos y Feliz dia!
...Releasing a "service pack" which has any capability of wiping user files is fucking clown shoes. And, I am frankly fucking fed up with Microsoft forcing these monolithic updates twice a year. They haven't gotten one right yet.
You can't just release a fix to such a disastrous update with just three days testing. Microsoft needs to go back to the drawing board, formally revoke 1809 and focus on fixing bugs properly and release after a few months proper testing. This also affected the LTSC and Server versions of Windows, which are now officially not fit for purpose. Deletiongate means Microsoft will have a lot people and companies (especially mission critical ones) on Windows 7 well into the 2020s.
It seems to me that Microsoft has insufficient management, and many poor managers.
My favorite trick is recursively calling rd for all folders. Only the empty ones get deleted, because "directory not empty".
They literally wrote the code to do it safely, but duplicated it elsewhere incorrectly.
Microsoft, where reusing code is harder than one might think.
And people scold me because I have Auto-update turned off. Mistakes like what Microsoft did this past weekend are precisely why. I'll update when I know it's safe.
- This bug also reminds me of the "Save with Replace" bug on my ancient Commodore 64 (and its 1541 floppy drive). It would overwrite the previous file with a new file, except the new file was sometimes unreadable garbage. It was even documented in the manual saying "Save your file first. Then erase the old one. Do not use the save-with-replace option as it generates corrupted files."
That was back in the days when nobody had time to fix hardware errors, so they just shipped the computer as is. (And fixed the error in the user documentation.)
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Yes, of course I am aware that they fired most of the QA department.
What I wanted to emphasize was that:
If on top of firing most (if not all) of the QA department, they do not follow their own procedures and jump over their own defined user testing rings (internal own dog food ring, ultra fast insider user ring, normal insider user ring, slow insider user ring, general release, pro with defered updates, enterprise), then things like this are bound to keep happening....
*** Suerte a todos y Feliz dia!
if (oldUserFolderEmpty==true )
deleteFolder()
Seems they forgot the first line.
What baffles me the most is that a user supposedly requested Microsoft to delete the old folder on install. Wonder if he got bit with the bug. I would love the irony.
Open Source Java Web Forum with LDAP authentication
One hundredth of a percent, with some 256 million PC's shipped in 2018, 50% of which probably come with windows 10 (128 million windows 10 PCs), that's probably some 12800 people who bought a new computer in 2018 that lost their files! And there's more win10 users from years before 2018...
Is is really that evil done on large enough scale becomes just statistics?
Fun fact: You are as likely to lose your files in windows 10 upgrade as to die in a skydiving accident!
Microsoft, you know, QA, the thing you thought you don't need anymore? You still need it!
For the record, Bill Gates was repeatedly infuriated by Windows as CEO. Updates requiring restart was a big one. I'm sure he has strong opinions on Windows 10, and not in a good way.
The shareholders know what's going on. They only care about whether this makes someone jump ship. Which it won't.
More like too many managers, not enough management.
The best thing to do before committing to an new update is to either test on another Windows 10 machine "if available", or wait for reviews with how the new update works with other user upgrades/tests. This allows a user to review before commit.
Why so my computer could get fucked by MS latest update? Bullshit. (Also living in fear of malware is as ridiculous as living in fear some mass murdere will drop by & kill you. The probability of both tragedies are very low.)
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Same thing still happens if you roll back to Win 7 from a "free" upgrade to Win 10.
Store anything in that "Documents" folder, during your stay?
Boom--it's gone.
I mean, they do warn you that files "might" get blown away, but it's still bad
practice to treat space you've explicitly set aside for the user in the same way
you do system files.
EOP
That sounds as though it could be correct.
I'm reading the inappropriately named book, Marissa Mayer and the Fight to Save Yahoo!. (Half the book is about other poor management, before Marissa Mayer worked there.)
As you said about Microsoft, many, many managers at Yahoo, not much clear thinking.