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Windows 10 Tips Anniversary Update

Windows Update has never been an ideal solution for maintaining PCs. In that location are only too many different hardware and software configurations for it to work perfectly, or be painless. However, Microsoft has made the situation worse. The company is attempting to sweep the complexities under the rug by taking control away from users and pretending it can operate Windows ten as a service. While that is in line with its corporate objectives, it'due south frustrating many of its customers — and costing them countless hours of wasted time. Permit's look at some of the biggest problems with the current Windows Update and a mode Microsoft could address each of them.

Trouble i: Update makes Windows 10 a Forrest Gump feel

Windows 10 Update descriptions pretty much all look the same -- Clicking More Info adds almost no additional informationIt is with a cheery tone that Forrest Gump famously explains that life is like a box of chocolates, because "you never know what you'll get." That is not what we want from our computer when nosotros log in. Unfortunately, Microsoft now forces all sorts of updates — usually after a potentially information-losing reboot — on users without their explicit permission. If this was for the sake of security, that'd be one thing. Only the updates includes a hodgepodge of patches, bug fixes, new features, and UI changes. Making matters worse, Microsoft has more than or less stopped providing usable information about what is in each update.

Problem two: Windows Update tin can brick a perfectly good calculator

Even worse than Microsoft deciding when it wants to push new features or UI changes onto your computer is when you wake upward to find that a computer that worked perfectly yesterday is now not much more a paperweight. Sometimes the situation tin exist stock-still by Windows' own repair utilities, sometimes with a third-party utility (at some boosted expense), and sometimes non at all. Amidst the dozen or and then Windows 10 systems I've used and maintained, I've had all three happen to me. Most recently, one older laptop turned out to take a webcam driver that would non work after a forced update. Completely removing it from the arrangement allow it work for about 5 minutes until information technology re-enabled itself and the system blueish-screened. Short of opening up the laptop and cutting the wire to the camera, there wasn't a skillful solution. We could have done a fresh install, but of class the forced update would take crashed it again.

Updates can also cause more subtle problems, including suddenly inaccessible network storage devices, and even the un-announced removal of third-political party software Microsoft deems unfit to continue to exist.

Problem 3: Yous tin run, merely you tin't hibernate

Windows 10 Update screen shotsUnless you lot are part of an Enterprise, or a user of Windows Pro who knows how to use the Policy Editor, Microsoft does non provide any way to turn off Car Updates. You can tell them to occur outside "active hours," but you tin simply have upward to 12 active hours per day (and who is Microsoft to tell me when I desire my computer to exist usable and not rebooting?). Outside those hours, if you aren't actively using the system, it will happily kill off your applications, and reboot as many times every bit it needs to in order to apply updates. That can exist mildly frustrating when the updates actually work simply, in a version of Groundhog Solar day, Windows 10 will do this over and over again — every day — if the updates neglect to install.

My main work machine has gotten stuck in this bicycle more than once (until I turned off Auto Update). Each time the Update / Install / Reboot to Complete Install / Failed to Install / Uninstalling / Reboot to complete Uninstall loop kept the machine occupied for most an hour. The error screen to the above right is one I plucked off it just now, while I'k writing this commodity. I'm lucky enough to accept an office full of machines, so I could work on another one. But non anybody has that flexibility. I also establish I could download and install the Group Policy editor on Windows x Home systems, but some sites warn against that, so do it at your own take a chance.

Three things Microsoft should practice to fix Windows Update

Unlike attempting to create a revolutionary new mixed-reality computing environs similar Microsoft is trying to do with HoloLens, most of what Windows Update needs is just mutual sense:

Step one: Provide a simple, user-friendly, manner to configure updates

Imagine how refreshing it would be to have the initial Windows Update configuration screen await something like this:

A user-friendly Windows Update might have settings like this

A user-friendly Windows Update Settings screen

Step 2: Document updates

Windows 10 Update descriptions pretty much all look the sameIt'south embarrassing to even have to ask for this. My colleague Joel Hruska has been sounding the alarm near Microsoft'due south push to not bother telling people what is in its updates for a while at present. Sometimes Microsoft relents a lilliputian, but for the most part, at least for end-users, update descriptions all expect pretty much the same, like the one on the right. Clicking on More Info usually doesn't actually provide any more detail, simply some links about what an Update is and why, along with how like spinach, they are good for you. Microsoft used to provide a lot more than of this information, then it is definitely capable of it. With a billion users, in that location should certainly exist plenty R&D money for this relatively straightforward job.

Step 3: Provide existent help with error conditions

For some reason, Microsoft continues to provide arcane strings of hex digits as its excuse for error messages. In fairness, they alternate with banal exam strings like "couldn't complete the updates." Users have a choice of doing a deep dive into log files, or Googling the hex error code and wading through incredibly long forum threads full of rants mixed with advice to "try rebooting, uninstalling anti-virus, disabling drivers, and pulling your hair out." You tin find answers that style; I learned I needed to update my encryption package at one point, and the advice to update chipset drivers is always a skilful reminder. Just the experience is awful. Fault weather condition should be spelled out, and a link provided to Microsoft's best electric current assessment of the problem — ideally personalized to the configuration you're running.

Extra credit: Fix the progress confined

Sometimes Microsoft provides a percentage consummate indicator during updates. But often there is nothing on the screen for minutes — or in rare cases hours — besides a spinning ball and maybe a hopeful text message. Fifty-fifty when a per centum complete indicator is shown, information technology often only relates to the specific phase of the update being run, and not to the entire procedure. Honest status indicators that tell you when an operation is notwithstanding running or is hopelessly stuck would save users quite a bit of time and frustration.

To put this in perspective, I'yard a big fan of Windows x, and consider it a huge step forward from Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 (although many Windows seven loyalists are not so sure). But it is not merely not perfect, but in some ways, including respecting user privacy, and forced updates, information technology has taken steps backwards. Hopefully Microsoft will pay as much attention to these not-very-catchy fundamental problems equally information technology is to the heart-candy it has planned for next twelvemonth'southward "Creators' Update."

Now read: Windows x: The best hidden features, tips, and tricks