Posted on 12/15/2016 5:05:04 AM PST by eastexsteve
A word of warning from a retired IT guy with vast experience in multi-platforms. The latest Windows 10 cumulative update dated 12/13 (KB3206632) has proven to be the death of of my Dell Dual Core 780 desktop. I should have heeded the warning signs from the last two big Win 10 updates on this box, as they were troublesome to install, and brought the machine to it's knees both times. But, I was still able to get the machine through the installs both times. This one though, put the machine face down in the mud, and I couldn't even recover it from a previous restore point. I had to do a complete reset and lost everything! Since it was a machine that began with Win 7, that means it cleaned it's clock all the way back to fresh install of Win 7. (Though, I did have a backup of all my data.) Well needless to say, I'll be spending hours re-installing and re-configuring software packages.
I've tried to be a big fan of Windows, since I have software that doesn't have a sister version for Unix/Linux and must run in Windows. And, I can definitely tell that Win 10 is more robust than Win 7. But, This has sent me on another quest to find a Linux replacement for some specialized software that I use.
This has definitely put me in the "If it absolutely positively has to work, don't do it on a Windows box" camp of computer users. Sorry Microsoft. I tried, and I tried hard.
Off-topic hijacking of thread:
I’m in the market for a new setup; going to go laptop instead of desk.
All these comments about Win10 make me wonder if I should steer clear of a Win10 configured laptop?? Are new machines giving trouble with updates or just older ones with other Versions?
DH wants to get me a lower end SSD - anyone have advice on that front? Thanks for any wisdom :)
I updated to W10 on an 8 year old Dell 1525 Laptop. I had a minor problem with sound which I resolved.
Here’s an article about update bugs.
http://windowsreport.com/windows-10-kb3201845-bugs/
Sure glad I stayed with Win 7, a fantastic OS.
Unfortunately, MSFT is forcing everyone to become a computer expert. Lots of folks are not interested. They just want the car to run and not have to worry about what happens under the hood.
I just updated 50 Windows 10 machines in a training lab with this KB, and I’ve had zero problems.
Folks are often very quick to blame the OS when the underlying hardware is, in fact, the culprit. Hardware is not infinitely extensible.
Windows 10 is not the bogeyman everyone is making it. New hardware with Windows 10 works very well.
And I absolutely recommend SSD. Samsung is as top-of-the-line as it gets. Steer clear of OCZ, IMO. I’ve had nothing but problems with them.
On new versions of linux based OSs, you very rarely have to type in the terminal. (at the command line) Works like win/mac. A programs menu, all the keyboard shortcuts are the same, Ctrl+C to copy, Ctrl+V to paste, Ctrl+O to open etc. The program windows and menus are pretty much standard.
We’ve got four thinkpad laptops here and run dual boot setup with win7pro and xubuntu. Windows gets installed first, then when installing linux/ubuntu, it will repartition the hard drive to make room for ubuntu. During system startup you get a screen to choose which OS you want to start. This way you have a windows system to run windows programs when necessary BUT updates are turned off completely and wifi and network cards are disabled so that windows never connects to the web.
We do all our surfing on ubuntu and never get viruses because those are mostly aimed at windows(the hackers don’t like Bill Gates), Libre Office is a direct replacement for MS Office, Gimp replaces PhotoShop(and finally has a “save for web” feature), Inkscape for PNGs, firefox for a browser, thunderbird for email client, VLC media player plays pretty much everything without bloat, Calibre is and e-reader library management tool and will convert between all the different formats, Gramps genealogy program, CherryTree is a personal notebook/database, Gourmet is a recipe book program, Convert is a desktop unit conversion program, Dictionary, Thesaurus, Calculator(basic or advanced), Catfish file search with which you can index all your files(like a search engine does) for fast results, any kind of programmer’s libraries and utilities, python comes pre-installed on most linux builds, every kind of text editor imaginable for programmers/code, any kind of little geek utility imaginable, all for FREE. If you need more software, you can get most anything without having to go surfing the web and downloading potential viruses because all the software is in trusted repositories that you access with a desktop program(and the software is free). There is linux software available outside the repositories but most is open source which is generally safe.
Adobe for pdf editing (not just the pdf reader), is one of the few things I go to the windows side for. I haven’t found a linux equivalent, especially when it comes to making pdf forms. That and a little drafting program because I’m so used to it. There is a CAD program for linux(librecad) which is the equivalent of autocad(only free) but I’m used to TurboCAD.
For gaming, windows has a lot more available. For multimedia production, Ubuntu Studio comes with all kinds of software pre-installed for video editing, audio production etc.
Setting up a home network with linux SUCKS. If we need to share a file, we have usb thumb drives.
I didn’t care much for the Mint versions. They seemed to run slow compared to ubuntu based linux.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_distributions#Official_distributions
Nope, have built every machine in my house since the mid-90’s, thank you very much. And because of that, I know that PC components fail due to age and use. Electrical currents running through diodes and transistors eventually cause trouble.
You on the other hand simply want to blame Microsoft for your woes of trying to run a 5+ year old machine (my guess considering the Core 2 Duo came out in late 2008-ish). Buy something newer!
Windows 10 is NOT universal, except as compared to Apple closed-loop systems. They rebuilt the Kernel (praise the Lord) and specifically to remove the bloat that long-term universality brings.
My guess is your motherboard finally gave up the ghost due to reboots during installation. Your warning to denizens of FR should be “hey, I have really old hardware and it failed, watch out”. Not, “screw MS”....
Nope, have built every machine in my house since the mid-90’s, thank you very much. And because of that, I know that PC components fail due to age and use. Electrical currents running through diodes and transistors eventually cause trouble.
You on the other hand simply want to blame Microsoft for your woes of trying to run a 5+ year old machine (my guess considering the Core 2 Duo came out in late 2008-ish). Buy something newer!
Windows 10 is NOT universal, except as compared to Apple closed-loop systems. They rebuilt the Kernel (praise the Lord) and specifically to remove the bloat that long-term universality brings.
My guess is your motherboard finally gave up the ghost due to reboots during installation. Your warning to denizens of FR should be “hey, I have really old hardware and it failed, watch out”. Not, “screw MS”....
Sorry about the double post, double clicked the Post button...
I have one pc with a dual core and my main pc with a quad core.
Both of them as least 5 years old. I also run CC Cleaner.
Both of my pc’s work fine with Win 10. The last updates were installed yesterday. Didn’t notice any problems.
I give a thumbs up for Win 10.
I had this exact same problem. Dell desktop upgraded from Windows 7 to 10. Automatic updates. Now it will not go to home screen, will not restore. It’s 10 years old, so may be time to get a Mac. Swore off any future Dells (I had never bought anything else) after my last tech [non]support call a year ago.
Oh well, the ugly truth is always better than a pretty lie. Is there any way to avoid the automatic restart which sometimes happens when I have a lot of stuff open that I would prefer not to lose?
I really, really hate 10. Really hate it. Stuck though.
This machine meets Microsoft's required specs to run Win 10. 'Nuff said.
Thanks - I played with Ubuntu a few years back. Been hearing it’s a tossup between Ubuntu and Mint.
I have a Win 7 machine with one of the "newer" bios setups and had trouble getting a Mint CD to load up to test it. - any hints on the "magic key combination?
Go to the Cortana window and search for "Services".
Choose the "Services desktop Ap" from the list.
Scroll down the long list to the "Windows Update" listing.
Double click on it, and it will give you some options.
Go to the dropdown list for "Startup Type" and choose "Manual".
Go to the bottom of the window and choose "apply".
Choose OK to close the window.
After you do this, you will have to go to the "Windows Update" settings and manually tell it to look for and DL updates when you want to do an update.
Thank you
We have exactly two mission critical Windows dependent apps we need to run at my office which is otherwise entirely Apple Mac. Both of these are Cloud based database for which the companies that maintain these databases absolutely require a Windows interface. The last three forced updates at my office has broken the use of these interfaces. . . and one of those three hosed the entire virtual machine so badly it would not drop back to a recovery point or even allow the re-installation of ANY version of Windows at all. . . even after removing every vestige of the hosed Windows 10 install!
After talking to Microsoft, their advice was to reformat the virtual drive (I.e. recreate it) and re-install from scratch. I had to do just that.
This occurred despite the fact I had locked down the Windows 10 system from accepting ANY updates at all. Microsoft ignored those settings and pushed through an update anyway. I researched this and discovered that they have changed their lockouts. You CAN lock-out the updates by telling the system you have a metered internet connection if you connect via WIFI. . . in which case it will not automatically download the updates. However, we use Ethernet. . . and if you use a wired connection, Microsoft, in its infinite wisdom does NOT allow such a lock-out! It ignores that setting, and goes ahead and downloads and installs the update regardless of your settings!
A half-hour AFTER I had re-created the new virtual-machine, the user on that machine announced that the Windows virtual-machine had announced that it wanted to install a new Windows 10 update! She was given a now or later option. I had her select the later option and immediately had her shut down the virtual machine. We made an exact copy of the entire 68GB virtual drive. She now starts up the Windows 10 instance, does what is necessary, and then quits the entire virtual machine, not giving it a chance to update! If it does accidentally update, I have a back-up virtual drive I can copy and in a couple of minutes we are back in business. Got my fingers crossed that this will do the trick!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.