Since the last Windows 10 update my new laptop has been crashing and re-booting like mad. First, internet pages began crashing. Then the whole browser began crashing. Then the computer itself.
The crashes even deleted some of my browser add-ons, which I had to re-install multiple times. When they didn’t disappear, they mysteriously turned themselves off.
I tried to roll back the computer, but it keeps crashing before it can complete the task. I’ve given up on even trying.
The last two days, I’ve been consumed with trying everything I know, and visiting lots of knowledge sources - without luck. Today I couldn’t get YouTube to work at all. It wouldn’t even display the player window.
I have no idea why, but a couple of minutes ago, YouTube came back to life. We’ll see how long that lasts.
Two words: Linux Mint. Unless you must have some Windows specific programs, it’s unbeatable.
It seemed like a miracle when I finally worked out all the issues that were plaguing my new laptop when I woke up the other morning. It is amazing that Microsoft is able to create so much mischief with a device that is supposedly sleeping. All I wanted was to just get it back to running the way that it had been the day before. I had created recent restore points but I had not made an image of the system. The irony was that trying to use system restore is what actually caused the startup files to become corrupted and the tools on the recovery media that are supposedly there to help to rewrite those files would not work. I spent much of the day trying to get past the “access denied” errors that I was receiving.
I have to admit that I felt a sense of accomplishment when I finally navigated through all of the road blocks that it felt like Microsoft had intentionally placed in my path. But I also marveled at what felt like the mediocrity of the situation. Windows 10 is now a mature and polished operating system but somehow the company that has spent billions of dollars developing it still manages to regularly screw things up. How is this even possible?
I know the answer of course and it is certainly not completely Microsoft's fault even though they make an excellent punching bag. Windows 10 is compatible with such a wide array of hardware and software that is constantly changing. Apple has a very tiny subset of hardware by comparison and people who use various versions of Linux tend to pick and choose the hardware and software that they use largely based on compatibility issues and solutions other people have found work. Only Microsoft is basically expected to work on such a wide array of hardware. And most of the time they do a pretty good job.