Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Windows 10 Could Automatically Uninstall Buggy Windows Updates (windowslatest.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the CTRL-+-Z dept.

Microsoft is reportedly working on a new functionality that will automatically remove botched updates from Windows 10 to fix startup issues and other bugs preventing the PC from booting. "The support document was quietly published a couple of hours ago and for some reasons, Microsoft has also blocked the search engines from crawling or indexing the page," reports Windows Latest. "In the document, Microsoft explains that Windows may automatically install updates in order to keep your device secure and smooth." From the report: Due to various reasons, including software and driver compatibility issues, Windows Updates are vulnerable to mistakes and hardware errors. In some cases, Windows Update may fail to install. After installing a recent update, if your PC experience startup failures and automatic recovery attempts are unsuccessful, Windows may try to resolve the failure by uninstalling recently installed updates. In this case, users may receive a notification with the following message: "We removed some recently installed updates to recover your device from a startup failure."

Microsoft says that Windows will also automatically block the problematic updates from installing automatically for the next 30 days. During these 30 days, Microsoft and its partners will investigate the failure and attempt to fix the issues. When the issues are fixed, Windows will again try to install the updates. Users still have the freedom to reinstall the updates. If you believe that the update should not be removed, you can manually reinstall the driver or quality updates which were uninstalled earlier.

22 of 64 comments (clear)

  1. Will it get so advanced... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Will it get so advanced that it eventually just uninstalls Windows 10 altogether?

    Ba dum DUM

    I'll be here all week, folks..

    1. Re:Will it get so advanced... by SurenEnfiajyan · · Score: 1

      And also replaces it with Windows 7.

    2. Re:Will it get so advanced... by Goose+In+Orbit · · Score: 1

      If they were any good at "doing their job" the need for updates would be much reduced in the first place...

    3. Re:Will it get so advanced... by arglebargle_xiv · · Score: 1

      Will they also add an uninstaller for the reinstaller of the uninstaller of the updater? If they can't get the update right, why should we trust them to get the uninstall of the update right, which triples the number of failure points, the install, the uninstall, and being able to roll back to the previous state.

  2. You just KNOW what's going to happen by hyades1 · · Score: 1

    The update intended to fix the buggy update will itself have a bug...and we'll be doubly screwed.

    Respecting a long-standing tradition, Microsoft will, of course, insist that the problem is the user's fault.

    --
    I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
  3. FFS, Microsoft by DigitAl56K · · Score: 5, Interesting

    You force updates on people seemingly non-stop, several of them cause huge problems, including data loss, and now you're building functionality to remove botched updates?

    Here is a radical idea for you: Give us back control of when to apply updates.

    Not defer them for a few days. Not select a slower update track. Put a damn setting that makes it our own responsibility to go click the update button again.

    1. Re: FFS, Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Might as well have said 'You simply remove the bandwidth embigulator from the direct alternating current generator from the air tape sharpener. It's not rocket surgery.' This would have made just as much sense.

      You realize that to 99% of people, what you have said makes no sense whatsoever. They have no idea what this 'simple' solution means, don't know how and in most cases don't have the equipment to actually do that. The terms used have about as much use to most people as a foreign language.

      What would happen if WU makes a secure outbound on a port like 443 that just has to be kept open no matter what and your solution doesn't do any good. What would happen if windows ignored DNS server settings, kept changing WU host addresses, proxy settings, etc.,... Look at the newer windows update medic service who's job, entirely, is to make sure windows update is running. Haven't found how to disable that one yet but if you try, windows assumes you didn't mean to cause any problems so it 'fixes' itself re-enabling autostart.

      Your comment may be good for bragging but it isn't as useful to the masses when it comes to the stability and predictability (the only things most really want) of their computers. Nobody wants to waste time re-learning stuff, waiting for their kit to spend time updating itself as if the only reason to have it is stand by watching it update itself.

    2. Re:FFS, Microsoft by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      Here is a radical idea for you: Give us back control of when to apply updates.

      That doesn't address the root of multiple problems:
      a) it results in perpetually unpatched systems becoming a health hazard to the rest of the internet.
      b) people generally aren't upset at getting updates, they are upset at the reboot schedule and that those updates break things.

      I don't want options from MS, I want actual quality so that I have no need for options.

      Put a damn setting that makes it our own responsibility

      People can't be trusted to be responsible. This has been clearly demonstrated with widespread harm caused by previously patched security bugs being none the less exploited.

    3. Re:FFS, Microsoft by DigitAl56K · · Score: 3, Insightful

      People can't be trusted to be responsible. This has been clearly demonstrated with widespread harm caused by previously patched security bugs being none the less exploited.

      Microsoft can't be trusted to be responsible. This has been clearly demonstrated with tricky/forced migration from older OS versions, data loss, and dead PCs.

    4. Re:FFS, Microsoft by Obfuscant · · Score: 2

      a) it results in perpetually unpatched systems becoming a health hazard to the rest of the internet.

      I wish this meme would die. Not all unpatched systems are a health hazard to anyone, much less your little part of the world. They DO need to do productive work, and when they stop working it costs a lot of money to get working again.

      I just had to waste an hour this morning driving to a site to reboot a computer because "windows detected a potential problem and shut the system down to prevent damage to the hardware." How nice. It's one of those systems that is behind a strong firewall and is not a "health hazard" to anyone.

      I don't want options from MS, I want actual quality so that I have no need for options.

      That's a stupid meme, too. People use computers for different things, and people run different software on them. The fact that your games run just fine and you have no devices more complicated than a keyboard doesn't mean that's what everyone else does. Some of us have stuff that breaks when MS decides to change how things work and force updates. We have PRODUCTION systems that need to keep running, and we get paid to verify that changes won't break things before we apply them -- and MS doesn't give a shit if one of my production systems stops working because they change something.

  4. Popcorn time by ArhcAngel · · Score: 1

    Came for the comments about it uninstalling itself...Was not disappointed!

    --
    "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
    1. Re:Popcorn time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Did you have time to enjoy your popcorn?

    2. Re:Popcorn time by Goose+In+Orbit · · Score: 1

      2... maybe 3 pieces...

  5. How long until it uninstalls Firefox by tratson · · Score: 1

    Doing this automatically is exactly how Microsoft could remove it's competitors products. I foresee a time when "buggy patches" changes to "shit we don't like".

  6. Hope it can be DISABLED by p51d007 · · Score: 1

    We all know how well THAT will work. It will uninstall the "update" and who know's what else!

  7. enh, maybe not by roc97007 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Windows 10 (Windows in general, actually) has had a bad record on automatic installs. I don't think I want it automatically uninstalling anything.

    I understand what they're trying to do, but as someone else said, the hot setup is not to push out buggy installs in the first place.

    --
    Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
  8. It'll work this time?? by Voyager529 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So, MS has had this since Windows 7...but every time it tried pulling out a failed update, it would either fail to remove (leaving the machine in an unbootable state), or pull it out, then reinstall it on the next reboot, then fail, then revert, and so on...also leaving a machine basically unusable.

    This isn't what Windows 10 needs.

    What Windows 10 needs is simple: security-only updates with a 10MB maximum per update, references to actual KB articles that explicitly state the exploit they mitigate, and a return to 'service packs', released annually. Want to call them 'feature updates'? fine. Support security updates on service packs N, N-1, and N-2, and allow users to permanently opt out of service packs and have manual installers available for those service packs, so users can do the major updates on their own terms.

    Even the handful of people who actually care about the new features being added to Win10 are either in the Insider program (where they opt into this-might-break-stuff updates), or else they consider those new features secondary to existing functionality.

    It's really that simple.

  9. Microsoft: MORE control? by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 1

    "Windows 10 Could Automatically Uninstall Buggy Windows Updates."

    Judging from past experience, there is probably a hidden reason: Microsoft will have even MORE control over customer's computers. That will make "buggy updates" financially important to Microsoft. Microsoft wants permission not only to install software, Microsoft wants full control, apparently.

    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)

    1. Re:Microsoft: MORE control? by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      Wait up, removes bad updates, like the ones the stop windows 10 from booting up, exactly how?!?

      I am going with a play station on monitor and linux boxen and a switch.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
  10. So, they automagically install bugs overnight by Snotnose · · Score: 1

    while your laptop is closed and presumably offline (fuck that shit). Then they will automagically uninstall bugs the next night to fix the problems with last night's install while your laptop is closed and presumably offline (fuck that shit).

    Good luck figuring out why your laptop is unstable every few months.

  11. We're losing the 'free' internet... by Iwastheone · · Score: 1

    About 10 years ago, years before MS bought out Skype, I bought an Android tablet that had Skype pre-loaded. I told a relative via a phone call (who works for an un-named U.S. government agency), "Hey, now we can 'Skype' to each other!" My relative immediately said to me, "No, it's not secure." That told me volumes about how insecure the internet was. Slowly but surely the 'free internet' is being locked down, bit by bit. Say or do nothing on any device that you would not want to be repeated back in any open courtroom. Phones are mini computers that have a 'phone app', and are basically spy-devices that we pay for monthly. Slowly but surely 1984 is becoming a reality. Act accordingly.

  12. Reminds me of a movie by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

    “We apologise again for the fault in the subtitles. Those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked have been sacked.”

    --
    Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.