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Windows 10 Will No Longer Auto Install Feature Updates Twice a Year (windowscentral.com)

Posted by msmash on from the how-about-that dept.

Microsoft has announced that starting with the Windows 10 May 2019 Update, which will hit general availability late next month, users will no longer be forced to install new Windows 10 feature updates as they become available. From a report: This comes after feedback from users who have had countless issues with updates breaking programs, losing files, and installing at inconvenient times. Microsoft has been working hard to improve Windows Update, and while the system is better than it was at launch in 2015, it's still not perfect. Now, users will have the option to not have to deal with feature updates when they are released.

What Microsoft is doing here is splitting Windows Update in two. The normal "check for updates" button will now only function for security and monthly patches. Feature updates now get their own area in Windows Update where the user can initiate the download and install process for the latest feature update available. If the user doesn't want to initiate that process, they don't have to. The user will be alerted that a new feature update is available every now and then, but at no point will the user be forced to install that update, as long as the version of Windows 10 they're currently running is still in support.

58 of 104 comments (clear)

  1. Still in support by TheCastro1689 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So they'll more quickly remove support for older versions to force updates?

    1. Re:Still in support by ElizabethGreene · · Score: 2

      So they'll more quickly remove support for older versions to force updates?

      They've done the opposite, if you've been paying attention. They extended support for 1607-1809 and made the support period longer for the fall releases on a go forward basis.

      BTW, this patch Tuesday is the last patch for 1607 Enterprise/EDU. If you haven't upgraded, you need to ASAP or move to LTSC.

    2. Re: Still in support by cayenne8 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      How about they change and allow the user FULL control over what updates they do or do not want?

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    3. Re:Still in support by gweihir · · Score: 1

      That seems to be obvious, yes. They will not stop fucking their customers with a wirebrush. They just may paint it pink and decorate it with some (fake) silk bows.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    4. Re: Still in support by sinij · · Score: 3, Insightful

      How about they change and allow the user FULL control over what updates they do or do not want?

      Who do you think you are to demand this? Do you think you own your personal computer and software on it or something?

    5. Re:Still in support by DrStrangluv · · Score: 3, Informative

      "Still in support" is the key line, but they don't have to change any other policies to make this hurt. This was already changed a while back so the Spring (H1) feature updates only have 18 months of support and Fall (H2) feature updates only have 24 months of support.

      So the best you can do is update to the latest in Fall, where you won't be bugged again for two years... and at that point, if you skip the intervening updates and go straight to latest, you get two more years. If you don't want the current Fall update, you'll be bugged again much sooner.

    6. Re:Still in support by DrStrangluv · · Score: 3, Interesting

      This is after they shortened it.

      Windows releases used to be good for **10 YEARS** (mainstream plus extended). IMO, this was one their few big advantages in the server market over linux options, where even LTS linux distros only tend to be good for 3 or 4 without forced updates.

        Now, even in the best case, you only get two years, and that's after they extended Fall (H2) releases up from just 18 months.

    7. Re: Still in support by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Iâ(TM)m fairly certain the complaint with mobiles is that updates are just completely unavailable. I canâ(TM)t use tools I donâ(TM)t have, and those tools shouldnâ(TM)t be taken away from me either because most people are stupid or lazy.

    8. Re:Still in support by CharlesAKAChuck · · Score: 2

      I want to be in charge of my own security, I want to know what's being installed, I want to control when it's installed, and I damn sure want to control when my machine is going to reboot. However, I'm an IT professional. My mother, on the other hand, is doing well to turn the computer on, and I want her updates to be automatic without any intervention. Those two scenarios are not at complete odds with each other-if Microsoft would just set the default to automatic updates and give us the option to only run updates when the user checks for updates. In manual update mode, I'd even be just fine with Windows checking for updates automatically and notifying me if there are some, but don't install them until I say so and definitely do not reboot until I say so. Just the option of 'Notify but don't install until the user intentionally tells the updates to install' would make practically everyone here happy, and a default mode of 'Check for them, download them, and install them when they're available without having to bother the user' would keep the non techies happy.

    9. Re:Still in support by exomondo · · Score: 1

      Windows releases used to be good for **10 YEARS** (mainstream plus extended).

      But you had to update them along the way right? Like they do still support Windows 7 but can you get the latest security patches if you haven't even installed SP1?

    10. Re:Still in support by squiggleslash · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Nobody's complaining Microsoft makes available updates. They're complaining that the update process is:

      1. Mandatory, and usually starts when you least want it to happen
      2. Often unreliable, frequently leaving the computer in an unstable state
      3. Requires reboots almost all the time (by comparison only a kernel update requires a reboot with GNU/Linux distributions, and it's rare anyone needs to update the kernel)
      4. Requires all updates be installed, the user can't choose to install only genuinely urgent updates
      5. Even if (4) were fixed, the updates are poorly documented, with it being unclear what the fixes are.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    11. Re: Still in support by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      Do corporate IT support and you will know exactly why we wine.

      Here is one example this week. Our WiFi is crashing and phones are blowing up about system freezes. A rogue Windows 7 upgrade decided to always fucking set wifi as default even if Ethernet is plugged in?!!

      So wifi waps have hundreds of current connections now! No way to disable this besides uninstalling the wifi driver 6000 times??

      Citrix is essential for 1/4 the workforce so if everyone defaults to wifi over Ethernet it takes it down.

      One just one tiny update. See the problem? Windows 10 is x10 worse because it still gets updated more often with features. Now imagine 5 or 6 issues a year with the update treadmill taking down systems and forcing calls at 8pm when you're trying to eat dinner because some angry executive in China can't get his free/busy to work with the latest office 365 update?

      There is a reason people prefer Android and Chromebooks. None of this nightmare spaghetti of compatibility and complexity

      --
      http://saveie6.com/
    12. Re: Still in support by Iwastheone · · Score: 1

      That's easy to say but unless you live your life as a true computer/tech person, real people who have regular jobs do not have the time to learn all that needs to be learned in order to keep up with computer advances.

    13. Re: Still in support by No+Longer+an+AC · · Score: 1

      Do corporate IT support and you will know exactly why we wine.

      I usually just beer, but wine is good too.

    14. Re: Still in support by painandgreed · · Score: 1

      How about they change and allow the user FULL control over what updates they do or do not want?

      You can have that and it is very simple as it has been with past versions, Microsoft will tell you to "simply have your Active Directory admin make the desired changes in the group policy for desired behavior." Things have been heading this way for several versions and things that used to be settings have been moved increasingly more into the control the Active Directory.

  2. Finally by DarkRookie2 · · Score: 2

    You don't get a thank you thou.
    You still deserve a kick in the privates for even doing the auto install in the first place. And Win 10 in general.

    --
    http://progressquest.com/spoltog.php?name=Son+Of+Son+Of+DarkRookie
    1. Re:Finally by Monkey-Wrench-Inc · · Score: 1

      Let us not forget about Win 8.0

    2. Re:Finally by omnichad · · Score: 1

      And even the auto-install of twice a year updates was better than the near-forced install of Windows 10 from Windows 7.

    3. Re:Finally by gweihir · · Score: 1

      _One_ kick? You are far too generous. Kick them until dead, then burn the body. And that would be letting them off lightly.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    4. Re:Finally by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      You don't get a thank you thou.

      Yeah, that would be pretty rare. Usually you can expect either a thank you or a thank thou, but not both.

    5. Re:Finally by DarkRookie2 · · Score: 1

      I wear steel toe boots and can kick very hard.
      I don't want to kill them, I want them in pain.

      --
      http://progressquest.com/spoltog.php?name=Son+Of+Son+Of+DarkRookie
  3. I'm disappointed by this news by JoeyRox · · Score: 1

    I kinda enjoyed my bi-annual fisting from Microsoft.

    1. Re:I'm disappointed by this news by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      On you can still get that. It’s just now opt-in instead of all sneaky. Unless you like sneaky fistings to which I won’t judge.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    2. Re:I'm disappointed by this news by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Not all of us are subs.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    3. Re:I'm disappointed by this news by desdinova+216 · · Score: 1

      some people pay extra for sneaky fistings. NTTAWWT

    4. Re:I'm disappointed by this news by desdinova+216 · · Score: 1

      there are probably a few dommes as well

  4. It took how long? by UnknowingFool · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It seems like it’s been a cat and mouse game with MS on Windows. MS has been trying to force “features” on their customers while the customers have been pushing back that they didn’t want these features especially since it seemed they were beta-testing them for MS.

    --
    Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    1. Re:It took how long? by thegarbz · · Score: 3, Informative

      while the customers have been pushing back that they didn’t want these features

      Huh? As far as I can tell customers have only ever wanted to be in control of updates and wanted their system to be stable. Who are these strange customers you apparently know that actively don't want the features that come out in the updates?

    2. Re:It took how long? by UnknowingFool · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Customers want patches and security fixes. What they don’t and didn’t sign up for was to be beta-testers for MS for “features” that could break their systems. MS has been heavily criticized for classifying updates that are not patches or fixes as “essential” or “critical”. Some of these features do not appear to be tested extensively as they did indeed break systems. For example the Ms Store and telemetry were marked as critical when they were not. But at least they didn’t break systems.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
  5. So if I understand this correctly... by 3seas · · Score: 1

    .... windows will stop slowing down you system or causing annoying delays after it has informed you, or not, that an update is available?

    1. Re:So if I understand this correctly... by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      No. They're offering to attempt to reduce the rate of annoying delays, not to stop them.

      Also, unexpectedly deleted files will be reduced, and you'll have more say in when the unexpected deletions happen.

      "But I can't update, I haven't finished the TPS report!"

    2. Re:So if I understand this correctly... by desdinova+216 · · Score: 1

      are you putting the new cover sheet on before you send them?

  6. The sheer incompetence of MS is staggering by gweihir · · Score: 1

    I mean, I would understand such a move if this was some newcomer that had been on the market for a year or so and was trying things out. But MS can still not do any high-quality engineering despite all the decades of experience and the shitload of money they have. Why again is their stuff popular and not an obscure 3rd rate-choice as would deserve to be on merit?

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    1. Re:The sheer incompetence of MS is staggering by sinij · · Score: 3, Interesting

      My guess that it was attempt to cut costs on MS part. If nearly everyone is on the same version you no longer need to devote massive resources to test every possible combination prior to releasing.

    2. Re:The sheer incompetence of MS is staggering by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      They have too many engineers, and at least 50% of them are Scotty from Star Trek, forever lying about how hard anything is.

      They've had all sorts of MBAs try to fix it. They even tried letting Balmer smash it until worked. But it still didn't.

      It may not be fixable. This is why when you start a company they say it is very important to choose and implement an effective company culture at the earliest stages.

    3. Re:The sheer incompetence of MS is staggering by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Dunno but I kind of theorize that they had some sort of massive talent exodus circa 2005. EVERY product since then has been a half-assed unnecessary recreation of a previous reasonably hardened product. And every one of the new products seems to get abandoned before being fully completed, in favor of more rewrites.

      Windows 2000 (to some extent XP) and Office 2003 were badass, and did everything their modern counterparts do on comparably minuscule amounts of RAM and CPU.

      Vista was so-so, 7 kinda stabilized it, but it still ran worse than 2000. Then they threw that shell out for 8, kinda fixed it in 8.1, then threw that out for 10... Office got revamped with '07 (badly) and then messed with again in 2012. And the weirdest thing is that none of the rewrites goes all the way - there's always some remnant of the old product if you dig - take Windows control panels for example: 10 has those stupid material-design-looking ones, but they only implement maybe 15% of the control panel - once you run out of them you get dumped back in the Windows 7 control panel. But that only implemented maybe 85% of the control panel, and when you run out of those you get dumped back into the 2000 control panels (which were reasonably complete).

      Don't get me started on the new Win10 Calculator, which has a noticable startup time and looks like shit, or the Windows Photo Viewer which takes longer and longer to open a JPG with every release, and is currently around 8 seconds on my machine for a 24MP file (meanwhile Irfanview opens almost anything instantly). And Windows Photo Viewer has next to no functionality!

      And they threw Windows Mobile under the bus and let Apple take over the cellphone market, before releasing a me-too Windows Phone (making most people's perception that they were late to the smartphone game rather than one of its innovators). Now even that is circling the drain.

      I think maybe the xbox 360 was designed before this happened, because that was fairly solid. Can't say the same for the One though.

      I'm almost done with them. If I can every get Adobe Creative Suite for Linux I think I'd drop them and never look back.

    4. Re:The sheer incompetence of MS is staggering by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Makes sense to me. Personally I plan for a dedicated gaming machine (nothing else, no email, no browsing) on Win10 and some non-networked VM for doing office, but on a Linux machine.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    5. Re:The sheer incompetence of MS is staggering by ilsaloving · · Score: 1

      Because they have a monopoly and a stranglehold on the computer market, thanks to all manner of malicious business decisions that Bill Gates made when he ran the company. Inertia took care of the rest.

    6. Re:The sheer incompetence of MS is staggering by thomst · · Score: 1

      gweihir inquired:

      Why again is their stuff popular and not an obscure 3rd rate-choice as would deserve to be on merit?

      Because, up until late last year, it was impossible to play marquee games - especially MMORPG's - on Linux, and OSX only runs on Apple's overpriced, proprietary hardware.

      Nor would Adobe's DTP and graphics programs run on Linux. The same is true for Avid's ProTools DAW. Those are the industry standards for graphics and audio recording professionals.

      And, yes, I'm aware there are perfectly cromulent DTP, graphics, and DAW programs that run very well on Linux - but those are not the programs in use by professional, commercial production houses. To play with the big boys, you have to use the toys the big boys use.

      Oh, and MS Word is the publishing industry standard, too, so there's that. (Yes, yes, LibreOffice, right? Wrong. LibreOffice documents saved in "Word format" render all kinds of fsked up in both the Mac and Windows versions of Word, which is what every publishing house of consequence uses. So does every freelance editor I've ever worked with. Once again, the industry dictates what tools you can use, if you want to write professionally.)

      Believe me when I tell you that I hate being locked in to Redmond's crapware OS - but I live in the phenomenological universe. I therefore acknowledge that there are things over which I have no control. Like the omnipresence of stupid people with smart phones, they're just unavoidable aspects of 21st century reality.

      Being forced to use Windows because the industries in which I work and play have dictated I use it (or the only alternative - and I sure can't afford the Apple tax) is just something I've learned to accept.

      Albeit resentfully ...

      --
      Check out my novel.
    7. Re:The sheer incompetence of MS is staggering by Jahoda · · Score: 1

      There is something to be said for being able to point at a consistent "build" installed on millions of machines, rather than a mish-mash of updates in whatever order. Having said that, the regression in stability of windows updates, and the sorry state of administrator control in Windows 10 flavors that aren't enterprise, is deplorable.

    8. Re:The sheer incompetence of MS is staggering by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      the 'feature updates' reset the baseline for future updates; with far fewer updates to wade through, microsoft never had to actually fix windows update's horrendous performance issues that plagued every preceding version the longer they were out. the forced upgrades twice a year was microsoft's "fix" for that.

    9. Re:The sheer incompetence of MS is staggering by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      That kind of holds with the theme. The company started out quite corruptly with IBMs own lawyers colluding with Wee Willie Gates Parents to cheat IBM investors out of copyrights, for a piece of the action, really scummy stuff right from the get go.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
  7. Just make LTSC avalible to the public by xack · · Score: 1

    People are already using in their millions illegally, just make a legal version for home use already.

  8. From 6 to 18 months, bring back 5+5 by Kjella · · Score: 1

    The user will be alerted that a new feature update is available every now and then, but at no point will the user be forced to install that update, as long as the version of Windows 10 they're currently running is still in support.

    Well they support new versions for 18 months. In practice this means you can skip one update since you'd have to from last day of support to a brand new version to skip two. When we know how many are/were perfectly happy with 10 year old XP/Win7 releases it's Microsoft moving ten steps forward and one step back. There's nothing so drastically changing about an OS these days that you need new versions every year.

    --
    Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  9. precursor to charging for new features by RhettLivingston · · Score: 1

    This is obviously step one to charging for new features. Next step will probably be to split out some very special feature improvements while continuing to give the bulk for free.

    I'm not a total MS fan and ran Linux on my main machine from 2015-2018, but I do like the near zero-hassle updates and feature installations. It is a 32GB, i7 quad-core with SSD laptop that has aged well since purchase in 2014, but has Optimus mobile graphics (NVidia / Intel combo with Intel driving the display) which has very bad Linux support. I switched back to booting the Windows partition most of the time to avoid the constant hassles of straightening out update problems which often meant editing files from the terminal mode when the graphics subsystem failed.

    I guess nothing is really free.

    1. Re:precursor to charging for new features by jasonharrop · · Score: 1

      The Windows forced-updates problem motivated me to move my main machine to Linux (it had been Windows since oh 2005) - currently Manjaro/KDE - and to convert my Windows machines to VMs which I run on it via VirtualBox.

      bumblebee/mhwd-gpu meant my laptop was using Intel's graphics, except when I explicitly tell it I want to use my GPU. Well, since it is always plugged in to AC power, I removed bumblebee, and now use the Nvidia GPU all the time (I've turned off integrated graphics in the BIOS).

      I haven't experienced any issues updating, but just in case, if/when I do reboot, its to non-graphical mode (systemctl set-default multi-user.target). To start X then, its systemctl isolate graphical.target

    2. Re:precursor to charging for new features by RhettLivingston · · Score: 1

      I probably confuse / stress the issue somewhat by connecting an external 32" monitor to the laptop and running dual screens. This required more changes to eliminate the severe tearing that you get from Optimus on the external monitor.

      It was somewhat stable with bumblebee as you indicate until I hit Ubuntu 18.04. After that update, getting it back to the point where I could switch it on and off again took a lot of web searching and trials for a couple of days.

      Regrettably, it never fully worked. For some reason, the NVidia GPU would randomly go out of control for a while, hit about 94 degrees C and then some type of protection mechanism on the motherboard would kill the power.

      When 18.10 hit and thoroughly broke the system again, rather than digging through bulletin boards one more time to get the graphics to come up, I just gave up and switched back. I was also getting tired of the other glitches like the update window popping up saying that there were updates and not listing them (requiring a directory to be deleted once every couple of months or so to get it to rebuild its list). I guess it was a bit annoying to that once every few days it would want to reboot for one of the near daily updates.

      I haven't had a problem with an update since switching back despite being in the preview program.

    3. Re:precursor to charging for new features by jasonharrop · · Score: 1

      I feel your pain.. what brand is your laptop? Mine's a Dell; I do run an external monitor :-)

    4. Re: precursor to charging for new features by cyber-vandal · · Score: 2

      How about: they both suck for different reasons.

    5. Re:precursor to charging for new features by RhettLivingston · · Score: 1

      Acer Aspire V3-772g. With the single exception of the Linux graphics issues, I've been very happy with the machine. Even at 5 years, the 32GB, i4712 and Nvidia 750M still handle my demands with ease. The only upgrade I've made since purchase was to replace the TB hard drive with SSDs.

  10. Windows 10: Less abuse? Or different abuse? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    "... allow the user FULL control..."

    Joke: You don't understand Microsoft. Microsoft an ABUSE company, not a software company. "Windows 10 Will No Longer Auto Install Feature Updates Twice a Year" only means they have found other abuses they like better, like forced advertising.

    My opinion, shared by many others.

    Windows 10 is possibly the worst spyware ever made. "Buried in the service agreement is permission to poke through everything on your PC."

  11. Re:Modularity by DarkRookie2 · · Score: 2

    Fuck the Store. They try to position is as a safe way to download and install software. Its no better than downloading anything off the internet.

    --
    http://progressquest.com/spoltog.php?name=Son+Of+Son+Of+DarkRookie
  12. At Some Point - you'll have to install features by btroy · · Score: 1

    Since feature updates seem to be effectively 10.xxx upgrades, I suspect at some point everyone has to click that feature update button to stay supported. Just a guess, but we see the same thing with other OS/Software worlds. Of course, I suppose a person could go un-patched and happily at risk.

    On the other hand, twice now the feature update has messed up my wife's machine, forcing me to either rebuild or back-out. At least on the last update I was able to recover from a prior point in time.

    She is so frustrated she's ready to go Apple. And honestly, I don't blame her.

    So this feature of optionally delaying feature updates is welcome.

  13. Re:How will it work for businesses? by n3r0.m4dski11z · · Score: 1

    "Our business is lagging behind on Windows 10 feature updates. They have to be initiated manually and take hours to install for each PC, which makes it very difficult to schedule with the users, especially since most of them have portables."

    You need to buy system center to fix this problem. You need to install the updates with system center.

    "Also the latest version of Windows 10 (1809) broke unattended installs where a batch file calls exe programs residing on a server location, which is typical for our large CAD software deployments."

    This might be because of hardened paths, which have been there a while. part of my install is to whitelist the ones that i dont want any security on like so:
    https://serverfault.com/a/7549...

    otherwise its another setting and configurable. Win10 is garbage but there are ways to make it work in a way approaching usability.

    --
    -
  14. Update EVERY week by Jefrin · · Score: 1

    Yes it will update every week end

  15. Am I one of the few? by SGDarkKnight · · Score: 1

    I'm guessing there isn't many people out there that modified their registry to prevent automatic updates? I've done it, and only install the updates that I want... It's extremely nice not to be forced to run updates

    --

    ...A no smoking section in a restaurant is like having a no peeing section in a swimming pool...
  16. Simple IF by WoodstockJeff · · Score: 1

    You are on an enterprise version of Windows, in which case it is the enterprise administrator that is given almost full control, not the user.

    Oh, you are not an enterprise administrator controlling a vast network of PCs, but just a normal user? No, you haven't got control yet. And you may never have control.

    1. Re:Simple IF by painandgreed · · Score: 1

      You are on an enterprise version of Windows, in which case it is the enterprise administrator that is given almost full control, not the user.

      Oh, you are not an enterprise administrator controlling a vast network of PCs, but just a normal user? No, you haven't got control yet. And you may never have control.

      Totally agree. Don't think I'm in favor of the situation, just explaining it as how Microsoft has explained it to me.