Windows 10 October Update May Wipe Files, Have Driver Issues

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Kridian

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Feb 27, 2005
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Microsoft just hit the pause button on its new October 2018 update, also known as Build 1809.
They need to tighten up with these updates. Still holding off on Win10 here.
 

USAFRet

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Yes. There was an issue, and they've pulled it from users being able to forcefeed the update themselves.
I did a couple of my systems earlier, with no issue.
Was going to do another this morning, and it was no longer available.

It had not been rolled out to the general public yet.
 

stdragon

Admirable
I still have it from the Media Creation Tool on a USB thumb drive; I even prefer updating existing machines with the same drive as it's both quicker and saves time from not having to re-download it for each machine.

Anyways, the fact it was pulled is for the best. I will be clearing the thumb drive for the newer build once released.
 

USAFRet

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Moderator


Did anything disappear from your system?
If yours is like mine, no.

This is not a universal issue that affected everyone who upgraded.
 

hannibal

Distinguished
These kind of bugs that happen to unknown reason to some users and not to another... Are really painful to debug. There were similar problems with test releases and they did think that they did fix it... And well they did just find out that there still are some combinations that can cause real disaster.
The best would be that Home edition would have an update scheduler where user can choose between time period of X to Y when the update happens... So that he can make all necessary backups before the update happens. That would keep machines updated well enough against malicious software, but also allow user time to make all necessary before everything goes south in some cases. And it always does. The PC are so different with each others that it is a little miracle that Windows or Linux can work at all with all the possible combinations. Even Apple has bad updates and Apple has very limited hardware pool to support because they make all the models, and still something bad happens from time to time.
Longer timeframe to customer in these updates and good Backup system is the only way of making these less painful.
Not updating the OS is not the answer, sooner or later even that can lead to catastrophe...
 
Oct 6, 2018
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I received the update three or four days ago; it came automatically, like any other update. My personal files were unaffected (whew!).
 

Blitz Hacker

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I have no missing files that I can tell yet however notifications in the action centre show there are notifications then when I click on them there is nothing there. Also the pc seems to be running notably more sluggish
 

MWPollard

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"Microsoft Pulls Windows 10 Update Amid Serious Bug Reports", or as developers call it, because they didn't bother to test it properly.

As they have not properly tested almost anything in a very long time, only every version is now a ".0" release, without even a follow-up SP1 to fix it. This was supposed to *be* the more stable version, contrasted with the 1803 release and its problems.

And Microsoft has also removed (or more accurately, buried) the backup program. Windows 7 put in a great backup program that can save the system to a VHD file you can mount for granular recovery, or which advanced users can even convert into a virtual machine.

While Windows 10 still has the ability, it's really hard to find. Microsoft is pushing instead the File History feature, which does not allow a full restore in case of a total failure.

It reflects their new corporate culture of "we know better than you." Which has also become the culture of government.
 

stdragon

Admirable
Remember - Microsoft views Windows as a client edge platform as one part of the overall "experience" known to them as the cloud. It's not about your apps or the device. From their perspective, they will transitioning all MS users to the next level known as "ambient computing". And they forging ahead with out a single care about your individual needs.

Yeah, MS is really that arrogant!!!
 

phobicsq

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Windows has made update such a cluster these days. I'm so sick of the crap they pump into Windows 10 via update. Windows xp and 7 were so much better, I don't want bloatware!
 

Crystalizer

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Sounds good.
Yes, but I don't know a single person who has automatic backups every time you push a power button since they trust their os to not ruin things xD

With that said I think that arguments sounds like bad os. I switched to fedora after these things and I'm considering updating my os to fedora for the machines too. Fedora is a nice os. It notifies that there are updates and it's YOUR responsibility to update os when you see fit. It's the same card windows fans plays agains non believers. Just like with back ups. just to mention Fedora also has better GUI than windows. That's my opinion and I have been using windows since child. 22 years
 

Crystalizer

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There have been a lot of issues. My wacon tablet behaves really wonky. Sometimes the windows button doesn't work and you need to restart the tablet every few hours. This is a professional devise with only professional software installed made for professionals and was really expensive. 2.5k in euros. I don't think it's the october update that's causing just the latest updates in general. How can they mess up their updates so bad. It's like they have no QA anymore
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator


Backups aren't only for OS updates.
Dead drive, virus, ransomware, accidental deletion...


And no OS is immune to update issues. Not Linux, not Apple, not Windows, not Android.
 


Interesting, I didn't know that GPEdit is technically available for the home edition. I'll have to remember that the next time I'm doing a tweak on someones computer who only has home. I much prefer that to registry edits.

At any rate. Even without GPEdit. You can still disable Windows 10 updates via the registry.
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-stop-updates-installing-automatically-windows-10#block_auto_windows10_update_regedit
 

alextheblue

Distinguished
You must be looking back through rose-colored glasses. XP was and is awful compared to Win 7, 8.1, 10 - even a patched Vista is better. You probably don't remember the launch version of XP, but even a fully updated XP today is an absolute pile. I guarantee you I've used it more recently than you have (work systems). It's halfway OK for an offline system that is rebooted regularly... then again so was Win 3.x. If I wanted an oldschool Windows experience I'd probably tinker with ReactOS before I installed XP on anything ever again.

Win7 is pretty solid. However, when I use it after using Win10 at home, it does feel a bit dated and clunky. For home systems and non-tech-literate users, Win10 is also easier and safer to use. It has cut down calls for tech support from family and friends down to almost zero, now that they've all been migrated. I can't remember the last time I had to break out the malware toolkit. Yes, the issues were user induced... but that's my point. These are the same users, with a newer OS and always up-to-date don't-need-to-remember-to-renew anti-malware built in. Almost zero problems, with no other changes.

Yes but when an update borks an Android or iOS device, you just throw it away and get a new phone, problem solved. It's been a year, you're about due. :p

 

InvalidError

Titan
Moderator

XP ran great on both PCs and the laptop I had running it at the time. The only major issue I had with it is being limited to less than 4GB of RAM on the 32bits version. Most computers of the time shipped with 256-512MB of RAM and that would obviously lead to miserable experiences when the OS uses most of the first 500MB for itself and doesn't get genuinely comfortable to use with less than 1GB of RAM. Stability-wise, I've never had issues either with my PCs running for months at a time (with the occasional suspend/hibernate through power outages and extended non-use periods) between reboots for updates.

Can't blame the OS for poor user experience when most people have PCs that have less RAM than the OS requires to work properly. When you are that low on RAM, swapping quickly makes your life miserable and applications tend to crash more often due to chronic swap lag throughout the OS and apps. If you ran Windows X with the bare minimum RAM required to boot the OS, you'd still be pulling your hairs out today just like I was on my XP laptop until I bumped it from 512MB to 1.25GB by swapping a 256MB DDR1 SODIMM for a $230 1GB one.

The main difference between then and now is that RAM is ~20X cheaper so most people can afford to have far more than the bare minimum RAM required to run the OS even on entry-level systems.
 

Christopher1

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Aug 29, 2006
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Same here. I just installed this on my 'test' PC and wonder of wonders... no files were deleted from any directory. This appears to only be an issue if you monkey with the default user directory locations which this problem was known dating back to the second update release of Windows 10 according to looking at forums.

 

Olle P

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I'm pretty sure that Explorer edits the registry when you do those changes.
That's how the OS knows where the folders are.

 

USAFRet

Titan
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Well, yes.
But you don't have to do that manually.
 

Christopher1

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Aug 29, 2006
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Exactly. Explorer edits the registry to point at the new locations of the Library and User folders. That is perhaps why when you point them to a non-default location, it wipes the directories. Some sort of 'sanity check' might be going out of control or even this might be intentionally malicious behavior to do a "I'm gonna punish you!" by someone working for Microsoft with malicious intentions.

Now I know people are going to accuse me of "Having my tin-foil hat on too tight!" but think about it for a second.
What would a malicious state actor trying to steal information not want people doing in Windows or any other OS? Answer: Moving the directories where they put their data or putting it on a separate drive.
 

brunis

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Funny how you try to make Microsoft the good guy. They knew about the bugs but didn't deem them serious. Now you pretend they have our interest at heart.