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.

Comments

0.01%

[Calydor]

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.

Re:0.01%

[Hognoxious]

MS thinks of everything... :)

Apart from testing, apparently
.

Re:0.01%

[Anonymous Coward]

Change management 101:

In any change where a step involves data deletion, ensure a backup exists, or do not proceed.

Re:0.01%

[Anonymous Coward]

Then again...I also don't log-in or use OneDrive.

Here is my Win10 wish list.

1. Have an easy setup option that lets me turn off onedrive, cortana, junk applications, advertisements, and any telemetry. It can be multiple options as long as i can just change them quickly. By turn off I mean not loaded at all.

2. Auto save those choices against my install key, with an easy reinstall from a usb image downloaded from microsoft. In fact, let the download link be for that system with everything ready to go, including adding to the list any common applications that are freely available. Also add a description of the PC, and of course make sure everyone can log in and browse their licenses/transfer them to new hardware/etc. Basically make flatten and reload little more than a few simple steps.

3. Make the built in antivirus provably at least as good as mcafee, and go on a long campaign to convince all fortune 500's to switch. I'm including full disk encryption in this. Seriously, I'd cheer if microsoft could finally destroy that abomination. It's sort of the borg destroying the thing even worse than the borg. Microsoft could be a hero.

4. When you download a new install usb image from microsoft you get should get a fully updated system in say 30 minutes tops. A custom usb image like this should include what is needed for those settings. (If need be you can select the settings in a web page.) (You should be able to specify hardware or get it scanned and automatically get all drivers.)

5. Provide standard iso images similar to the previous to load standard VMs, including having common microsoft software loaded by default (visual studio/git for example).

Re:0.01%

[Dutch Gun]

Maybe I should feel lucky that neither of my Windows 10 machines can update past the Fall 2017 release?

Re:0.01%

[AmiMoJo]

Problem is that there is no real penalty for deleting people's data. At most we might see a class action one day, resulting in a $5 discount on Microsoft products for affected users, most of which will never be taken up.

The EU has regulators for privacy issues who proactively look for problems and investigate. We need something similar for severe product flaws.

I have an idea

[slashmydots]

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!!!!!!

Yes, until they hit another big bug and stop again

[williamyf]

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...

I don't care if it was 700 or 70,000 or 70,000,000

[Jahoda]

...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.

Not trusting it with a mile long pole

[xack]

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.

Re:Not trusting it with a mile long pole

[Xenx]

First, to be clear, I'm not defending the initial problem or Microsoft.

The problem was with deleting folders that they were assuming would be empty. The fix is, to either not delete the folders or not to delete them if there is content. I don't think that is something that requires a lot of time to implement.

Re:I don't care if it was 700 or 70,000 or 70,000,

[commodore64_love]

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.)