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Latest Windows 10 Update Breaks Windows Media Player, Win32 Apps In General (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The important data loss bug that interrupted the rollout of the Windows 10 October 2018 Update, version 1809, may be fixed, but it turns out there are plenty of other weird problems with the release. As spotted by Paul Thurrott, the update also breaks the seek bar in Windows Media Player when playing "specific files." Microsoft does promise to fix the bug, but the timeframe is vaguely open-ended: it will be "in an upcoming release."
Also in the "how did that happen" category comes another bug: some Win32 programs can't be set as the default program for a given file type. So if you want certain files to always open in Notepad, for example, you're currently out of luck. A fix for this is promised by the end of the month. Setting default program associations is something that's been in Windows for 20-something years, so it's a little alarming that it should be broken. On top of this, there continue to be complaints that Windows 10 version 1809 doesn't work with iCloud, and machines with the iCloud client are currently blacklisted to prevent them from receiving the 1809 update. It's not immediately clear whose fault this one is -- it could be Microsoft's, but it's also possible that Apple is to blame.
Also in the "how did that happen" category comes another bug: some Win32 programs can't be set as the default program for a given file type. So if you want certain files to always open in Notepad, for example, you're currently out of luck. A fix for this is promised by the end of the month. Setting default program associations is something that's been in Windows for 20-something years, so it's a little alarming that it should be broken. On top of this, there continue to be complaints that Windows 10 version 1809 doesn't work with iCloud, and machines with the iCloud client are currently blacklisted to prevent them from receiving the 1809 update. It's not immediately clear whose fault this one is -- it could be Microsoft's, but it's also possible that Apple is to blame.
Windows just shouldn't be a service!
Leave it alone and give us big big upgrades every couple of years.... That's fine and acceptable and what we're used to.
This autoupdating crap means that any given morning, my box may be broken in very strange ways, with little if any perceivable benefit.
Slashdot Valentines Beta Massacre: iT WORKED! The boycotts killed Beta!!
...installing spyware for gov would break things? How many users will through their hands up and just go with MS defaults?
Use VLC!
less BS/ads and sometimes works with broken files.
Obama's legacy: (N)othing (S)ecure (A)nywhere and (T)error (S)imulation (A)dministration
That's cool. I knew that eventually iCloud would be good for SOMETHING.
--Brandon / Split Infinity Music
Joke:
You are apparently thinking of Microsoft as a software company.
That's not correct. Microsoft is an ABUSE company. Software is just a method of delivering abuse.
Setting default program associations is something that's been in Windows for 20-something years
This, btw, was the single biggest wow factor for Macs for PC people -- how in god's name does the OS know which program to open for a given file?
Wow that was neat when it appeared on PCs! People forget, or more and more simply weren't born yet.
As for why it's broken, probably not enough testing on their virtualization of all you do into their cloud, scannable by them for advertising, and reporting to the government, because of obscure permissions you click tbrougb on page 127 of their licensing.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
At this point if you told me Windows 10 was Microsoftâ(TM)s way at getting back at everyone who hated Windows 8 Iâ(TM)d probably believe you.
Did you know 80 to 90% of the moderators on slashdot wouldn't recognize a troll even if one dragged them under a bridge.
Maybe breaking Win32 is a feature? If the (cloud-free, private, and paid-for) apps are deprecated and "hidden" when opening files, then maybe Microsoft can push more 64-bit cloudware from their "store" onto hapless users. Only $9.99 per month! Step riiiiiiiight up! Apps, Maps, and Zaps! Stepppppp riiiiight up!
(Windows ME) "I will remain forever champion as the Worst Microsoft Operating System!"
(Windows 10) "Hold my beer."
The Year of the Linux Desktop; brought to you by Windows Update.
> It's not immediately clear whose fault this one is -- it could be Microsoft's, but it's also possible that Apple is to blame.
Nope. If an operating system breaks any userland program, it's always the operating system which should be blamed.
Windows 10 was literally forced on a lot of users ... just like ... a virus.
Windows [not 10] is the same. It's only 10 that has this weird fetish with forcing updates on you.
Honestly, just pull the rip the update service out and run it once a month to update, then nuke it again.
Man, that bad IT consultant must be taking care of more Windows 10 systems than I thought!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Put drive in sled.
Offload user data (if any).
Wipe drive.
Install a real OS and software.
Restore user data.
Bugs as a service
Put drive in sled.
Offload user data (if any).
Wipe drive.
Install a real OS and software.
Restore user data.
Have you tried turning it off and on again?
It is my opinion that Microsoft's mis-management and abuse is not reported sufficiently. Joking may help people adjust.
Microsoft is damaging customers and itself.
Some of the many, many stories:
Windows 10 is possibly the worst spyware ever made. "Buried in the service agreement is permission to poke through everything on your PC." (Aug. 4, 2015)
Microsoft's Intolerable Windows 10 Aggression (May 27, 2016)
Microsoft is infesting Windows 10 with annoying ads (March 17, 2017)
Microsoft, stop sabotaging Windows 10. (March 21, 2017)
I'd understand if the quality of Windows had lowered because of all the new features and improvements that they had to code. But these days every new version of Windows sees working features removed with no equivalent replacement, and feels even more unpolished and unfinished than the previous one. What are they busy coding, at Microsoft? Cortana? 3D paintbrush? To me it looks like the underlying OS is somewhat improving, while the development of the built-in applications and of the user interface is spiraling out of control.
People still run Win XP -- there's no sin or shame in running Win 7 past end of "support."
When I first became a Windows Insider, I very much appreciated the ability to test and report on issues with both Windows Mobile and Windows Desktop. Of course, these versions did NOT land on my 1600 or so machines at work. (I manage the service desk and handle a mix of Linux, Unix, MacOS, as well as Windows 7, 8.1, and 10. It is bad enough having to ensure all the AV is updated, but needing to deal with rolling updates based on the schedule of a company far away is not feasible.
My personal laptop is now dual-boot with Windows 10 and Linux Mint. Though I gave up on Linux in 2013, I've been rediscovering it as Windows has severely tested my patience
The Kai's Semi-Updated Website Thingy
It's not so much that Microsoft doesn't trust users, it's that Windows programs used to go wild and crazy with changing file associations every time they were run, so Microsoft clamped down on it and made it a privileged operation to avoid letting definitely-a-media-player-and-not-spyware.exe grab the associations for every single file extension every time the user started it. (See also, the way default browsers are now set.)
The side effect is that setting file associations is now a complicated pain in the ass that gets reverted at random because Microsoft is trying to prevent untrusted third parties from grabbing every single association. It also helps that their association UI appears to randomly break so you can select a program and it'll just forget it for no reason.
But there's at least a reason it acts like this, and it's thanks to the shitty Windows software of yesteryear.
> Setting default program associations is something that's
> been in Windows for 20-something years
This is... ok, not exactly outright wrong, but at least misleading.
I mean, yes, twenty-some years ago, Windows had the ability to set program associations. But that implementation is not in any way related to the current one, except in the most general "there's a way to set program associations" sense that applies just as well to other operating systems.
Microsoft's first implementation of this in Windows was in winfile.exe, which was deeply deprecated in Windows '95 and does not exist at all in any recent version of Windows. The second iteration, in the first version of Windows Explorer, involved the Windows registry and was somewhat more complicated in its implementation but still conceptually similar to the first version: for any given filename extension, you could specify one program that would be used to open it; and that was it. This got redone when Windows Explorer went through its little identity crisis ("Of course it's integrated with the web browser..." "What? Web browser? No, no, no."), leaving a legacy of associations based on things other than the filename extension (in addition to the ones that are based on extension), and at some point gained the ability for programs to register themselves at install time as _capable_ of handling a given file format, so the "Open With..." context menu could offer multiple options. Then the "set program access/defaults" wizard was added to let people specify which of the options should get the double-click action for certain important formats and tasks. That implementation, or a descendant of it, still exists in Windows 7 (I think; unless it was redone another time that I didn't notice) but was never ported over to Eight/Ten, which have their _own_ implementations of file associations, which have gone through changes repeatedly because, frankly, they're unnecessarily complex and thus buggy.
But yeah, sure, just say this is a feature that's been there for twenty years and just suddenly broke unexpectedly. Reality is overrated.
Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
I'm constantly astounded by how much abuse by Microsoft, people (and corporations) will put up with. That abuse being endless "updates" that break systems, and the spyware aspects of the turd_in_the_punchbowl that is Windows 10. I spent 20 years dealing with the insanity that is Microsoft as a sysadmin, but when I retired in 2010, I decided I was done with anything Microsoft. Watching these endless stories about YET another broken "update" from Microsoft makes me endlessly glad I escaped from the MS ecosystem for my personal systems...
THANK YOU, Edward Snowden!! Americans owe you a debt of gratitude (whether they know it or not..)
I noticed a general M$ pattern since roughly a decade ago. M$ tends to not outright remove old tools/features over time, but rather makes them incrementally harder to use or install. This is both server-side and desktop.
For example, if you upgrade to a newer version of Windows, some prior features don't work out of the box. After Googling around, you can usually find a fix, but it takes time, such as installing old drivers and adding something into the Registry.
Thus, M$ can technically say they support their older tools, but in practice they make you dance and sing to keep using them.
Table-ized A.I.
It's Media Player. The SEEK bar is missing on "specific files" - Or, rather, specific files triggered this "feature"
Now Media player is like F(*^(& YouTube, where you can't do anything but Pause and Play as your rights as a consumer are eroded. The ONLY reason to have flags in the media player so you can't seek through it is to ensure that you have to watch the full video, which is something that content creators want over us.
I never thought they'd push this crap all the way to our desktop though.
GrpA
Enjoy science fiction? "Turing Evolved" - AI, Mecha, Androids and rail-gun battles. What more could you want?
As in they have managed to make it complex enough and have sacked or driven away enough good engineers that they really cannot make work well anymore. Sure, windows never worked very well, but this is a new quality of bad.
Now, what do you do when you stupidly have let one OS maker get a quasi-monopoly and that maker loses it?
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Maybe it's time to port Wine to Windows, so WIndows 10 users can run Win32 applications...
So literally, "fuck home users", which is a number measured in billions in total, yes with a B. Well done.
Luckily at this point in time, most home users get it and try to avoid win10, which is being forced on them as a matter of routine by MS. How long this resistance can last with lack of availability of win7 in retail is anyone's guess, but it's holding remarkably well considering almost total lack of availability of the said product to an average home user.
for enjoying the new computer games.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
I may well be a happy Linux user, and every time I see reports like this, I am glad that I switched 2 years or something ago. That said. WTF is MS doing? This is so unacceptable for those that rely heavy on Windows for actual work. I don't care how much you game, as these issues are of no concern. Yet... If you make a living, using Windows?? WTF Micro-Snot !!
I have a hard time believing that this is accidental. Their semi-annual Win 10 releases would reset your major programs associations back to the default (i.e. to Microsoft apps). I guess enough people complained about that because the last update left the associations alone. But the first time I tried to open up a file associated with a non-Microsoft program, I got a pop-up asking "are you sure you really don't want to try the Microsoft app to open up this type of file instead?"
A friend of mine uses Office 2003 because she paid for it, and it does everything she needs. She called me up last month saying Word and Excel kept saying they were expiring. When I investigated, a Windows 10 semi-annual update had installed the Office 365 trial, and changed the Office file associations from her permanently licensed Office 2003 to the subscription-based trial.
Clue to Microsoft: The OS is supposed to be a productivity tool for me, not an advertising platform for you.
Nope... There is no shame in that. I just chose to run Linux instead, some 2 years ago. 7 became too heavy after each update, so I thought that when they do end it in 2020, then why not try Linux. I have tried it on and off, since I had it installed first time in the summer of 1995. I have run it in dual boot ever since, and after every second reinstall of any Windows version, I had Linux installed as well. It was just like... I had to give it a serious go, and not just playing with it. And it kind of stuck with me this time. I find it a nice system for the things that I use a computer for. Like word processing, homebanking, email, youtube, surfing, finding information and visiting forums. For gaming, I have vintage computers (PC and Amiga) and a couple gaming consoles. And I have a RaspberryPI if I want to run Linux on Arm. No need for Windows gaming.
Write your Congress Critter and get them all up in Microsoft's business again. Windows 10 is entirely unfair. Microsoft should get a hard time since they're giving all of us a hard time.
--- We need more Ron Paul!
I sometimes wonder how much of that 2014 QA axing funding has been used to find the PR efforts.
"So if you want certain files to always open in Notepad, for example, you're currently out of luck"
So suspect the OP has no idea what they are talking abou,t
You CAN compile .NET/C# for the "x86" target platform. Which means a Win32 program.
C - the footgun of programming languages
>> rely heavy on Windows for actual work
That is so wrong on so many levels.
Don't do that.
aaaaaaa
I think I would take the risky updates over having anything iTunes/icloud on a machine voluntarily.
For me, I first noticed it when the Calculator (yes, the Basic function of a computer) wouldn't open, and I had to download an older version from XP so I could have that functionality again.
Next, the Calendar, Notepad, the "Alarms and Clock" and now anything Media-related (editor, player, etc)...
Sheesh, M$! Get your Stuff together here! You want to change Windows OS to a "Service" and This happens? If you ever wonder why people Don't want to go that way, just review your product feedback on these issues, and you just might be able to figure this out for yourselves!
Begin the transition now so that you will have enough time to be made aware of any snags and find potential solutions. If you wait until the last minute you may end up frustrated and feel forced to either have a rough transition and be frustrated, or to upgrade and deal with the hassles you wish to avoid.
Try running Windows 7 and something else side by side, and see how well you get along in your alternative, booting to Windows 7 when you feel forced to and taking note of the circumstances to try and find a potential solution and path forward.
Twinstiq, game news
After every Windows update, my only hope is that nothing has changed.
Might makes right irrelevant.