Windows 10 bombshell: Microsoft to KILL OFF Patch Tuesday

The Register ^ | May 4, 2015 | Iain Thomson

[VanDeKoik]

Why?

Turn off auto updates if you rather not. Lots of people do, and lots of people blame Microsoft when they miss a critical update and something goes wrong.

For years people derided “patch Tuesday” as some monthly obnoxious process, and surprise, now they consider it to be a beloved institution.

[rarestia]

This is fine for home users but a PITA for enterprises. I wonder if WSUS will be affected.

[bmwcyle]

It now becomes iTunes.

[dayglored]

> For years people derided “patch Tuesday” as some monthly obnoxious process, and surprise, now they consider it to be a beloved institution.

At work it's certainly better to have 'em batched. I think of it as "PMS Week" for all the Windows machines (oops, is that politically incorrect?). Git 'em all done and forget it for three weeks.

At home I don't care if patches get distributed through the month -- as long as I can make them NOT DISTURB ME while I'm doing stuff that's time critical or can't tolerate interruptions. Apple has been that way all along -- OS X updates become available, and they ASK POLITELY when would be a good time to install them.

Microsoft sometimes doesn't learn even where there's a perfectly obvious good example right in front of them of how to do it properly.

My objection is to "SURPRISE!! Sorry if you were working, your computer is tied up and then will reboot." Which is what this new deal sounds like so far for the home user.

[rockrr]

Wouldn’t it be nice if MS offered something like a home version of WSUS so you wouldn’t have to D/L every patch 5 times? And the same for antivirus protection and Adobe products?

[dayglored]

> Wouldn’t it be nice if MS offered something like a home version of WSUS so you wouldn’t have to D/L every patch 5 times? And the same for antivirus protection and Adobe products?

Yes it would.

Especially for those who have a monthly cap on their download data size.

[mad_as_he$$]

I leave auto updates on for my four machines at home. Never had a problem and the updates fix urgent security problems in a relatively timely manner. At work I have 21 machines that are running XP. We have to push those because of permissions configuration. Most of them do not have access to an outside the plant network so security is less of a concern. Never had MSFT brick one of my machines unlike IOS updates.

[zeugma]

At work it's certainly better to have 'em batched. I think of it as "PMS Week" for all the Windows machines (oops, is that politically incorrect?). Git 'em all done and forget it for three weeks.

I've long thought of it as the windows sysadmin full employment program. The amount of work and associated downtime that goes on in my organization surrounding these updates is astounding.  It's especially bad when you consider the deployment philosophy of at least 'one server per task', wherewindows servers breed like rabbits.

When I was managing corporate web infrastructure the difference in how apps were deployed on windows boxes as opposed to unix boxes was mind blowing. Where we'd have one cluster of unix boxes that had 50 apache instances running on it, you'd see 50 different systems to do the same thing on the windows side. Virtualization helped a little. On the windows side, they were taking 50+ physical servers and consolidating them all on to a single ESX host, whereas we were lucky to get 10 unix servers virtualized. Management always looked at the windows servers and said "wow, look at all this money we're saving, why can't you uinix guys do that?" My reply was that our systems had been saving them that money for years because they did actual work because of design decisions we'd made regarding capacity.

Sorry. Ranting.

[daniel1212]

Actually, MS plans that,

devices running Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1 would receive a free upgrade for one year after the OS shipped. Devices upgraded in this fashion wouldn’t just get a one-time update code — Microsoft committed to keeping any upgraded device current “for the supported lifetime of the device.” Exactly what those words meant has never been clear. But new statements out of Redmond may have shed some light on that topic...

The big question consumers have been asking is whether Windows 10’s “free upgrade” is going to contain some sort of gotcha clause that ropes people into paying a lump sum later, or being marooned on an unsupported OS....

Microsoft has fought for years to pull users off of old versions of Windows, and the “supported for the lifetime of the device” language is likely designed to allow the company to move to a different support model. That doesn’t mean Microsoft intends to charge outright for future versions of the operating system, however. More likely, Microsoft wants users to treat Windows upgrades the same way that Android, iOS, and browser updates are typically treated, with the majority of users jumping for new versions as soon as they’re available. Businesses or individuals that choose not to do this may have the option of purchasing extended phone or technical support, in much the same way that companies can now. http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/204900-microsoft-sheds-light-on-windows-10-revenue-future-os-pricing-plans

[dennisw]

You'll just have to settle for the smoking entrails of the folks who offed themselves trying to make sense of the Windows 8 Metro GUI.

I am going to ask you again. After installing a start button from Classic Shell or Start8 what is your problem or anyone's with WinDOZE 8? Laptops and desktops.

[dennisw]

For my Windows 7 systems...... For sure I will not be upgrading them to Windows 10 for a few months after 10 gets released. I will be waiting for the dust to settle.

I will probably wait 6 months to see what has happened to others before installing 10 over 7

[NorthMountain]

So you’re sittin’ in the airport terminal, waitin’ for your flight, tappity-tap on your Windows 7 laptop.

“Now boarding Group 2 for USA123 to Los Angeles!”

That’s you, so you turn off your computer.

And it says

“Now installing update 1 of 153493 Please do not turn off or unplug your computer”

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, that happened to me.

[daniel1212]

“Now installing update 1 of 153493 Please do not turn off or unplug your computer”

But if you choose when to install updates then you should not have to deal with unexpected requests or actions to reboot when in the middle of some work.

[NorthMountain]

I fixed that problem. Windows 7 Professional 64, at least (I have no experience with any other version of it) is very flexible about its update policy. MS would be smart to continue that flexibility into Windows 10.

[dayglored]

> I am going to ask you again...

Please, we've wasted far too much time on this one already; let's just agree to disagree, thanks. Cheers!

[Squawk 8888]

Say what? I set my auto-updates to install in the middle of the night. On Win8 it installs on shutdown, and gives you a few days’ notice if it needs to reboot.

[dennisw]

we are not done and I never got a good answer/////// sheeeeeeeeesh you are getting as bad as sword and his apple watches!!!!!!!!!!1111111!!!!!!111!!!11!1!!1!1!

[daniel1212]

For my Windows 7 systems...... For sure I will not be upgrading them to Windows 10 for a few months after 10 gets released. I will be waiting for the dust to settle.

Actually, i have bee running versions of Windows Technical Preview since about Sept with no real problems, and with Classic Shell and Star 8 would likely be similar.

You could try it out if you wanted. You can download it here , if you

• Sign up for the Windows Insider Program.

  The best place i think is to install it on a separate spare drive, unplugging your Windows drive until after you installed WTP. You then choose in your BIOS which drive to look to boot from first, although you can also usually keep tapping the F11 or F9 or another keep during the POST phase of boot up .

And the best place i think is to install using a USB flash drive. Install and run the Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool , and choose the WTP ISO that you downloaded from the first link up above .

Then choose in your BIOS to boot from the USB drive first, or find out which F key gives you that option during boot up.

After it is installed and you reboot, you can do things like copy program folders from your User Roaming folder, and then when you install them then your preferences should be the same.

I also go to File Explorer and open to C drive, and choose Details under View. And choose columns and adjust them and the window size. Then go to File Explorer/Folder Options and choose to Open File Explorer to This PC, rather than Win key and e opening Quick Access. And under View, choose to see as much as possible. And up top, Apply this view... to all folders of this type. And under Search, not to index System...

I also do things like add a Quick Launch bar to the task bar (C:\Users\dennisw\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch) Note that i replaced my User name with dennisw, as you must replace that with your actual user name.

And i make shortcuts to the Startup folder and the SendTo ("C:\Users\dennisw\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup" C:\Users\dennisw\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo

TaskBar with small icons (23'' screen)

Classic Shell Start

QuickLaunch

[dennisw]

I don’t own a spare drive right now. I have older drives that are not SATA but my new motherboards don’t have ribbon connector slots for them.

I love quick launch and use it in 7 and 8. You are my windowzzzzz twin but smarter so.......

If you were to buy a new hard drive now what would you get? What is the most reliable that will not die. I don’t need tons of storage. 1TB or less is OK

Maybe I should get an SSD?

[dayglored]

> we are not done and I never got a good answer/////// sheeeeeeeeesh you are getting as bad as sword and his apple watches!!!!!!!!!!1111111!!!!!!111!!!11!1!!1!1!

Looks like your left pinky finger got stuck there, Dennis, gotta watch that. :)

Listen up, please, as I'm only gonna go through this rant for you one more time. It's tiresome to me too.

* Yes, there exists third party software to do almost anything on a Windows PC.

* Yes, you are more ambitious and possibly smarter than the average Windows PC user, you can find and install software to change your PC from the defaults.

* The fact is, the vast majority of Windows users DO NOT change from the default, they suffer with it. That's the problem here: the default sucks.

* Win 8 is a fine OS under the hood, but desktop users don't interact with system software calls, they interact with the Metro GUI. And for the vast majority of Windows desktop users, the Metro GUI is worse than worthless. For them, it gives no value and it sucks their time and patience. It has cost businesses as well as home users countless tens of thousands of lost hours of productivity while users try to battle their way back to something they can use productively like they have for the past decade and a half. That's real money lost for no good reason and no net benefit.

* Microsoft screwed the pooch with the Metro GUI for desktop use because they removed the old GUI. If they had only left it in place as an option, Windows 8 would have done really well. Seriously. But they made it impossible to use Windows 8 out of the box, for the vast majority of Windows desktop users.

Now please, please, read closely, here it comes again:

* While it is true (as you say) that a user can hunt around and find a third party package to correct one part of the egregious mistake Microsoft made with Metro on the desktop, users should not have to correct egregious mistakes by layering in third-party software that only addresses a fraction of the problem. "Restoring the Start Button" is only the first small step, and does nothing to reverse the cost damage done by Metro to the businesses and homes of America.

And the fact that Microsoft has backtracked on the GUI and admitted they were wrong is another indication that your claim, while true, is meaningless for the vast majority of Windows 8 users.

Now you've made me say it again, and it's the last time. Let's please just agree to disagree and leave this alone.