Microsoft yanks the document-destroying Windows 10 October 2018 Update (#1809)

Windows Insider supremo Dona Sarkar took to Twitter to announce that Windows fans would no longer be able to get their hands on the afflicted build. Redmond said the automatic rollout would also be paused until it works out just what in blue blazes is going on.

Microsoft's advice to those who have downloaded the build is: for goodness' sake, don't install the thing. However, if you have gone ahead and allowed the update to do its stuff and been hit by the missing files issue, leave your PC alone and give Microsoft a telephone call for help.

The update made an appearance on 2 October, having gone directly into the hands of users rather than spending some time in the Windows Insider Release Preview ring first. If you have installed it, and everything is hunky dory (as it is for us), then there is no need to worry.

In her tweet, Sarkar said the person at the other end of the phone will have "the tools to get you back to a good state". Presumably either a file recovery application or a handy install of Linux. At this point we don't know. We contacted our local Microsoft support office and found it was closed. Because, hey, who installs this stuff outside of office hours, right?

Users in Canada have reported being instructed to take their afflicted PCs to a Microsoft store in the hope that some of their files can be restored. How that will work in regions that lack a Microsoft retail presence is unclear. Perhaps Honest Bob's Backstreet Windows Wrangler?

It is not a good look for the Windows Insider programme. Its more light-hearted tone has come in for some flack over the last year or so. One Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for the programme, Kari Finn, went public after being defrocked following criticism of the way things were going.

In his July post, Finn reckoned the programme had "turned into a playground", commenting that: "Developing Windows and getting serious feedback is hidden under a coat of ninja cat and taco hat jokes."

Finn, who described himself to The Register as a "Microsoft and Windows 10 fan boy" expressed concern that feedback was going unanswered and "professionalism is now forgotten".

Some would say those concerns have come home to roost as the current woes had been reported in the Windows Insider hub, and yet the release proceeded regardless.

The Reg has dropped Microsoft a line to find out what the recovery process is going to be and where Windows 10 goes from here. If you've had to pick up the phone to one of Redmond's support team, let us know how you got on in the comments below. ®

> In less than 10 words, can anyone explain the reason why Windows has gone from reliable and affordable with almost zero updates required - to a steaming pile of pig poo that is so unreliable and a major hassle that lots of people are turning elsewhere? I mean, what happened?? Why?? It was an excellent product. Why can’t they repeat Vista or the like? What are they doing?

I don't know about "less than 10 words". But my take is this:

Microsoft had the world by the short hairs with MS-DOS and all the Windows releases through WinXP. Up until maybe 2002, there simply was no competition worth talking about. MacOS/OSX machines were a few percent of the market; Linux and everything else was another maybe percent or two.

Microsoft made two huge errors of business judgment which affected Windows, though not immediately:

They ignored the internet long enough for other companies like Google to get way ahead of them. Google runs on Linux servers, and the internet runs on Linux servers. This gave Linux credibility and a huge market to develop within. Windows wasn't as well suited for the Internet.
They ignored the rise of mobile devices long enough for other companies like Apple and then Google to get way ahead of them. Apple devices run on Unix; Google devices run on Linux. Windows wasn't suited for devices.

Then Microsoft lost their focus in the 2002-2006 timeframe under Steve Ballmer's mismanagement, and meanwhile the competition established viable alternatives to Windows. WinXP was successful because it worked well enough. But it took Microsoft 8 years to produce a viable followup (Win7). (Vista, when it finally appeared, was very late, and deeply flawed. Windows 7 was "Vista, fixed", but still way late.)

Win7, in 2009 -- a decade ago -- was the last really good version of Windows. As Linux and MacOS continued to demonstrate that viable alternatives existed, Windows went straight downhill with the "Metro" UI (user interface) of Win8. That was basically the end of Windows as the presumed default operating system, because regular people flocked to MacOS and even Linux picked up a sizable following among regular users.

Since then, Microsoft has basically stumbled from release to release, relying on flawed advice from focus groups, and producing a series of poor UI designs. They have lost their way, and are stumbling through the woods, caught in the underbrush, stepping in sinkholes, walking into tree trunks.

It's a trainwreck in slow motion. They still have the lion's share of the market, but their hold on it has broken, and the house of cards built around the idea that "Windows is the only operating system worth discussing" is collapsing.

This current disaster scenario of humongous, unavoidable Windows 10 Updates that break things is just the latest indication that the Behemoth of Redmond has passed its time of power and is headed for The Fall. It's a damn shame, in my opinion, and it didn't have to happen this way.

Sorry, way more than 10 words.

RESOLVED - This was a huge Microsoft screwup.

The file deletion problem (which is quite real and fairly widespread) occurs if you relocated any of the special User-Profile folders (e.g. the "Documents" folder) to some other place using the tools Windows provides to do so.

If you used the Windows folder relocation tool, but there were still files in the original default folder location (this would usually be the case), those files are the ones that get deleted.

This is a major screwup, because:

The deletion wasn't intented to serve any useful purpose -- it was just "tidying up", unnecessarily.
It didn't check to see if any files were about to be deleted.
It didn't copy the files to the new relocated folder to save them.
And worst: Microsoft Engineering KNEW ABOUT THE PROBLEM AND IGNORED IT.

There are plenty of tech articles about this now, here's just one:

https://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-10-1809-bungle-we-wont-miss-early-problem-reports-again-says-microsoft/

And this one you'll have to copy/paste/go because we can't link to it:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/10/microsoft-suspends-distribution-of-latest-windows-10-update-over-data-loss-bug/

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