Posted on 01/30/2019 7:34:30 PM PST by dayglored
April (2018) still on top as Microsoft's difficult October update slowly trickles onto PCs
With the next release of Windows 10 edging closer, users continue to steer clear of Microsoft's October 2018 update.
Figures published by ad slinger AdDuplex show that the Update of the Damned, aka the Windows 10 October 2018 Update, has dribbled its way onto 12.4 per cent of Windows 10 PCs sold.
It's a far cry from the near hysterical rate at which the April 2018 Update was flung out, demonstrating just how cautious the software giant has become after the disastrous debut of Windows 10 build 1809 back in October. Back in the day Microsoft claimed April's effort saw "higher satisfaction numbers" and "fewer known issues" due to its AI boffinry.
Clearly those AI brains rebelled, as Microsoft hurriedly pulled the follow-up, the October 2018 Update, as problems (including a data deletion bug) surfaced.
The update was re-released on 13 November accompanied by a blog post heavy on excuses but strangely light on words like "sorry".
The update was initially only available to users willing to say "1809" five times in front of a mirror click the "Check for Updates" button, and at the end of November accounted for a paltry 2.8 per cent of Windows 10 installations. By the end of year the figure had crept up to 6.6 per cent. Microsoft has now started pushing the code to users with devices its AI thinks can stand the heat and installations have nearly doubled to a mighty 12.4 per cent.
The figures are based on the tracking of apps that are part of the AdDuplex network but are a handy pointer to where things are in the absence of official statistics from Microsoft.
19H1, aka the Windows 10 April 2019 Update, is likely to hit in a matter of months. While it would be nice to pretend that 1809 never happened, the Update of the Damned has been slapped with the Long Term Servicing Branch (LTSB) moniker, meaning it will hang around for another 10 years.
(Confusing as it is, the Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC/LTSB 2019 edition is based on the 1809 build, and has extended support to January 2029. Support for the 1809 build of Windows 10 Home, Pro, and Pro for Workstation editions runs out in May 2020, and May 2021 for Enterprise and Education flavors.)
Still, those confident October tweets of the Windows Insider team could always use the company for the next decade. ®
Even though I have to re-adjust the choke, reset the points, adjust the brakes, adjust the clutch, and re-tighten the screws on the starter solenoid every time I drive it... I refuse to give it up.
Then in late December a web search uncovered this solution -- a "Creators update", whatever that means. The process I followed is item three on this list:
5 Ways to Update to the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update.
Voila -- problems solved. This bypassed whatever was choking the standard update process completely -- it did take several hours to complete.
The only bad thing that happened was it clobbered my desktop a bit and reverted all my window display settings back to factory default, a bit of goofiness that took less then ten minutes to resolve.
Hope this helps. Good luck!
In W-7, Start button—>All Programs—>is a convenient way to access or see what programs are there & available.
I can quickly send any program to desktop as an icon or Pin it to task bar. That is more convoluted in W-10.
Microsoft gives you less control over such functions in W-10
But basically I make the W-10 look as much like W-7 as possible.
And thanks for that link to Classic Shell. I will certainly give it a try.
I had issues with both my Pro 3 Tablet and desktop. That all ended when I imaged both systems, and then did a clean install on both using Win 10. Since then, Win 10 updates have installed quickly and flawlessly. Both machines also operate flawlessly.
Can you expand on how you did that or point to a link with good instructions? Thanks!
Go to Control Panel, Backup and Restore (Windows 7), at the upper left, select Create a system image. I use a USB drive for the image.
Alternatively, using the Win10 UI, go to Settings, select Recovery on left side; under “Back up your files” on right side, select “Check backup settings”; then select “Go to Backup and Restore (Windows 7) on right side; and select “Create a system image” at upper left.
Thanks....I’ll first do a fresh reinstall on my spare laptop so if anything goes awry, no loss.
1607 here. Everything else be damned.
We're all very glad it's working so well for you and your customers. A lot of Win10 users, like yourself, report happiness.
I agree that on machines with newer hardware, simpler systems with fewer oddball components, and a fresh clean installation... Win10 and its updates work quite well. At work where we install it native on the hardware (engineering workstations, administrative user work stations, and development servers) it is fine as long as the hardware is pretty new and it's a fresh install of Win10.
Not so much on the upgraded boxes (Win7 and Win8.1 upgraded in-place to Win10) on older hardware. More problems there. I suspect a lot of the end-user complaints are on upgraded systems.
Personally I only run Win10 as a VM under MacOS or Linux, with a fresh install, and thus I have relatively few problems, other than the fact that I can't stand the UI, even with ClassicShell and having brain-damaged the UI back as far towards the Win2K UI as I can achieve. But I'm a Luddite that way.
There's a lot of pain in the Win10 world.
It's going on 4 years since Win10 was released, for FREE, and pushed and prodded and forced down people's throats. If it was all going swimmingly, you wouldn't still see half of Windows users still on Win7 despite its imminent demise.
10 years ago that would have described Linux. :-)
Lol... Actually I was thinking similar when I hit the post button. That reality is why I waited so long to finally make the change. But these are different times and it has now reversed. :)
Here’s one for you... What make of vehicle was I describing? If you have ever owned one you would relate with no problem. lol
Absolutely. Actions speak louder than words. My whole beef was the dependencies. the bus ride there might be free, but the destination is to a bad neighborhood.
The post about Classic Shell is incorrect. Classic Shell was abandoned second half of last year. It does not work properly with 1809 and causes all manner of strange problems.
First and foremost, DONT USE SHELL CHANGERS. Win 10 already looks and works like Windows 7 if you just take a few minutes to find the file explorer icon and look over the start button. Also right clicking on the start button gives a menu that’s better than anything Windows 7 offers. Almost every menu you need to manage the system can be had by right clicking on the start button. It’s great.
That said, if you still must have Classic Shell, it was taken over by an open source development team and it’s called Open Shell now. You can get it directly from github but that page confuses a lot of people. The old school site MajorGeeks keeps it updated also: http://m.majorgeeks.com/files/details/classic_start.html
Amen
I will keep that in mind when my IT neighbor comes for dinner.
I guess sometimes it can be a love/hate relationship. lol
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