Crap!!!

Are thou using the latest greatest Windows 10?
If yes, excuse me...
I'm having a beer!

 

Damn....there must be something in the air as yesterday me too
My Win 10 download box also needed a reinstall of the OS. It wasn't a virus or Malware that caused the problem.
I didn't really have time to check the actual cause but I had been postponing all system updates for a couple of months and it decided to update all by itself and then crashed on reboot. It wouldn't let me roll back to any previous restore point. Jeez Win update has occasionally caused some grief
Being the download box it was easier and quicker to just reformat and fresh install.....lucky I had a backup of most of my bookmarks and favourites and there wasn't much else on this pc

 

Y'all like me? I come here and help people, I fix other people's PCs (IRL), but I can't stand to fix my own! I have a Win 7 box that has right issues, I'm admin but can't save files in certain locations, and so on.. started a month or so ago and I can't bring myself to give up and nuke it..lol. That and I have not been sold on Win 10, I have a stand by loaded.

 

No.
I run Windows 7 Ultimate. No SP1, no updates, no problems.

 

I just built a new gaming box https://forums.majorgeeks.com/threads/thoughts-on-new-gaming-build.319595/#post-2021983
and instead of Win 10 Pro I have installed Win 7 Pro.
I have three other Intel i7 PCs with 64bit Win 10 Pro installed and I am sick of the problems Win update causes......I had to do an AMD Ryzen Threadripper build just so I could avoid the Intel requirement to only use Win 10

 

If you use a browser that can sync that shouldn't be necessary, though I'd be the last to argue against backing up!

 

Rolf Welcome to windows 10.where it freezes for no reason.
https://media.giphy.com/media/YhRnQKXiNgcUM/giphy.gif

Now you know why i stuck with seven.

 

I don't recollect asking

 

My core i7 runs O.K on any of them- On my present hard drive, I have triple boot W7, 8.1, and W10 pro versions.
My computer does a crash in W10, (that I found was mostly caused by Edge brouser) So, if I can catch it quickly, I go to task manager and end task on Edge, and then it is O.k.
I have often had to hard shutdown (hate doing it as it messes the hard drive up, over time)
If I need to get on line without sorting it out, there and then, I just switch to W7, or, 8.1 pro.
I think the more updates we get on W10, the more it plays up .
My other hard drives have copies, so I can just switch when I want to, I have even used wsus to download iso's of W7, and W10 updates , in case of a complete failure of a hard drive - I have been lucky so far, but W10 is becoming another Vista. I keep thinking of binning it, and going back to W8.1 ( No problems with it, or, with W7. Iobi t Advance System Care did release a fix for the Intel vulnerability, and it seems to have held for me.

 

When i first got my laptop.It came with windows 10 last year.But about six months into having it.Windows 10 bricked the hard drive that came with it.So i had to replace it with a new SSD and windows 7.And it's been working fine ever since.

Iobit does fix a lot of the problems.Reason why i been using them since day one.

 

Do to a familiar and what seems to be a common situation; one small move whipped out a well thought out post that I was writing about to hear what others thought about this observation, followed by a suggestion that might lead to figuring out a solution to this problem that I've heard about often from friends who somehow think that I might know that answer that will fix this problem.
While I'm taking about it since it happened while writing about it I'm going to say what I SAW and experienced and if others have similar experiences it might help to hear about things that may have happened before the disappearance of a whole post or an portion of a post. It does seem to me that it might be possible to collective agree on what we may have been doing before the disappear act ....
That said, I noticed that what other people notice may often be different than what I notice. Beyond that observation I also noticed and wondered what " catches the eye " so to speak, what things happen that motivate a person, an HB<----I've been using this designation a lot in just about everything that I write and I often put that little hour that suggests that I am pointing to something in <----this direction or in -----> that direction and translate "HB" into what it stands for in my world which is Human Being. Until I discover a way to represent the being, the entity that I am part of but I see that most other creatures who use computers are mostly HB's
Maybe a separate post can be created to discuss if other creatures, entities, things that use and effect something noticeable about their interaction with computers "HB"'s work well for me. So if I do not use the made up arrow pointing towards the "HB" letter or something else that I want to confirm or explain better than just leaving it hanging for the reader to figure out.

I like that there is a place for " off subject " subjects and another one for jokes, and sometimes for specific questions. I am wondering what might be possible searching for a new topic/subject/way of stirring the mind of a HB.

************************************************************************
BTW: what happened above that lead me to embellish a little more what I was attempting to clearly write about was this: A move on the keyboard of this Lenovo computer that I've written about before; did one of those things that it does from time to time and i'm not above listening to the possibility that it is ME. I might be doing something to cause a hic-cup of sorts that carried the cursor to perform this act of highlighting all or most of the words already typed so the very next stroke wipes out everything highlighted.
If this happens when I am typing in WordPad which I use often to sketch out my idea's and once finished I copy and past it wherever I want to make my statement. If I catch it soon enough these arrows become active in the upper left hand corner. I think they are commonly referred to as " UNDO" and "REDO" so all of the written words that disappeared leave me staring at a blank page I can tap one the left hand arrow and everything returns. Our forum does not have those buttons as far as I can tell.
In any event I'd like to read a forum topic that might suggest ways to improve on a method that we mostly accept as " the way it is ".

Correct me if I am wrong about this: " Isn't it possible to create an app that can do just about anything?" In other words If one can think it, it can be designed and built?

Enough said for now.

Looking forward to your thoughts.

PS I very strongly want to ask a question about a political issue but am I wrong that most sites including our MG site strongly urges us to no make comments that can be interpreted as right or left?

 

If you look around the are 'fixes" to bypass processor requirements..

 

Maybe so......but why should I need to patch something from brand new just so I can have the previous flexibility of OS choices.
Besides, I don't trust that the "fixes: will work in the long term....my experience relates to several "fixes" to prevent Win 10 updating but after about 90 days of no updates, Win 10 still updates whether you permit it or not and this unwanted action has caused several system crashes.
Personally, I only use Win 10 to be compatible with several companies for whom I work and as a sidenote, I also hate Office 360 with a vengeance although once again to maintain compatibility it is a required install.
My OS preference is Win 7 Pro as I have never had any issues with this OS and for me if something ain't broke then don't fix it

 

A good practice is (after doing a fresh install of Windows, loading your software (MS-Office, etc.) and verifying everything works) to make a recovery partition or recovery USB (or possibly both - the USB is a better option if the hard drive tanks).

I've been using the old (v. 1.5) version of AMOEI OneKey recovery (it let you do either a partition or USB); the current version (1.62) isn't as good since it demands a paid upgrade if you want to use the USB option. Ashampoo backup is free in the downloads section and does the same thing.

My experience working if PC repair for years is that - in the event of lousy performance that a cleaning and DISM command can't fix - the best option is to cut your losses, wipe the drive and do a complete reinstall. Faster and less painful than banging your head against the wall for hours or days on a futile attempt.

 

In all honesty i have looked at AMOEI and Ashampoo.I don't like either of them.

For me mostly i have nothing to lose.I keep 90% of my stuff backed up on my secondary drive as is.If problem comes about i just reinstall.But hey that's just me.I mostly play games on my computers any way.It's not like i can't re-download them.

 

Let me preface this by first saying that I am an electronics engineer who now works as an IT Admin and in several past jobs have been a robotics programmer, a PLC program analyst and problem solver for optimising production line CNC and PLC machines, a PCB CAD designer and head of the research & design PCB department in charge of Pacific Rim area for a major international company.

My problem with Win 10 is you can't stop the updates which for most people this is not too much of a problem. I have raised this issue with Microsoft Tech Support as well as Software Engineering and their strict policy (supposedly no exceptions) is that updates are required to protect the end user and limit possible future security breaches and when you agree to the EULA this is one of the conditions. We would use Win Enterprise Server but the company directors won't stump up the money for licencing and they are taking advice from some external specialist accounting and system auditing company and in their view our company doesn't have enough employees to make the outlay viable and the ROI (return on investment) figures that they produced say that the money can be better spent elsewhere.

The issue for me is two of my PCs (one is a server) which I use for a particular company are Intel i7 processors which require Win 10 to run and the problem is that both these PCs have some very specific non standard setups that are related to WAN VPN setups for several International company networks as well as direct secure access to several foreign government secured portals. These VPNs tie in our company's product ordering software, logistics software (both local delivery and international shipping), government customs offices both local and overseas as well as secured government bond warehouse database access. These setups are all written down but it is a PITA when they go down in the middle of the day because one of the servers happened to do an unplanned Win 10 update. We also have WANs with secure connections to several print media outlets in our country so we can exchange images and advertising content and proofs that are company confidential prior to being released to the public. These WANs are accessible via mobile phones, mobile tablets/laptops and they are also linked to secure file stores in the cloud. The company accounting system is fully cloud based and is accessible from the manager's PC at every company showroom throughout Australia as well. We also have outsourced web servers in two states and these can be accessed via VPN or by web based dashboard access although the VPN access is only available to me and our website designers/builders and has much higher file access permissions.

When you have a Win update crash you usually can't roll back to a previous restore point so I cleverly thought I would get around the problem by creating a full drive image and just reload when there is a problem but doing this doesn't have the new updates so then it goes through the process again.
When I use Win 7 Pro I never have these problems and I couldn't really care about any security updates as we have two hardware firewalls (two bridged networks) as well as industry leading Corporate AV and Malware software to secure banking levels of protection. All logins are secure and encrypted and if you mistype any password for a third time then that PC or device is locked out of the network until reset by me. Pity the accountant insisted upgrading these PCs which caused the problem.....the reason given for upgrading was because the previous PCs had run out of their depreciation tax breaks and we needed new ones to depreciate as a tax deduction........otherwise we would still be using Win 7 Pro.

So far I have had to reinstall Win 10 3 times in about two years but I have also had to reinstall drivers and had to re-enter VPN settings and do a fresh setup of some specific Meraki Router protocols numerous times and even though I have all the required information well documented it is still a major PITA especially as things are set so we can't reuse passwords so I have to inform the IT Departments in several countries of the password changes and wait until they make the changes to get access again.......remember daytime here is night time the day before in these overseas countries so when I make the changes I have to wait at least 6 or 7 hours for them to arrive at work to make the changes.....grrrr

I have been in discussion with the company directors trying to get some extra budget $$$ to employ a programmer on contract to write some software to mitigate these problems by either totally preventing the updates or letting Micro$oft think we have done the update but in reality no files get changed so you can carry on without problems. So far money is tight because they overspent on a AU$750,000 new showroom fit out so this (as I was told by the CEO) "minor" IT problem will be put on hold for another year

 

I agree with you, Joffa. My comment was directed to individual and small office users.

As for blocking Windows Updates, I'm surprised nobody has developed some type of software to manually let users filter or block them. Or you could just really wish hard Windows Updates do install. Upon wishing this is when the update errors start happening.

 

If there was an update blocker that actually worked I think I would have discovered it by now as I have tried about half a dozen so far. The blockers work for a while but the problem seems to happen after about 90 days to 120 days and something triggers in Win 10 that says there have been no updates.
I have even tried blocking access to all microsoft sites in the hosts file but Win 10 still finds a way. There must be the equivalent of a rootkit hidden somewhere but I still haven't found it hence trying to get a clever programmer in who is much smarter than me and might know good places to put some breakpoints so we can catch it in the act while it is booting/shutting down as it seems to mostly occur either in a shutdown cycle or the next reboot and it happens before win 10 loads so you can't stop it.........frustrating.....and yes I have spent a bit of time on this rubbish program feature

In our specific case the nightmare happens when the update resets the OS to win 10 default security and network settings and overwrites our specific network device drivers and very specific network protocol profiles and then our specific VPN, WAN and LAN settings no longer work on the next automatic login so then the login fails and because the security is set very high we are then permanently denied access to all the overseas and interstate VPN accounts until they are reset requiring generating new encryption keys at both ends and also new passwords at both ends as we can't reuse passwords. The annoying thing is the different time zones so we end up having no access for 5 or 6 hours while we wait for our partners to arrive at work and make the changes at their end and I have the CEO on my back whining that our salesteam can't do a stock check so they may lose a potential sale .......and just fix it

Hey gman I've given up wishing for Micro$oft to do the right thing and gone back to wishing that I win Lotto............I think a Lotto win is much more likely

 

joffa,
Have you tried a third-party firewall to block access to Microsoft's servers?

 

There is a bit of a problem as we actually need access to Microsoft quite regularly so when I blocked them in the hosts file this was more an experiment as opposed to a solution. Among our cloud solutions we have cloud hosting accounts with several different providers so we are not crippled if there is some sort of server failure with one provider and one account is a One Drive account which is where we store company files that we may give third parties access to so that they can do work (usually graphic designers doing advertising campaign layouts) and exchange data for us and One Drive uses Micro$oft mirrors

Good thought thanks Eldon

 

Surely if someone produced a good update blocker they would either have been sucked up by MS or at least paid off?

 

For the download box, I take it you move the files from it to other computers. How exactly do you have that set up? Personally, I am going to need to have at least 1 offline computer (running an oldish operating system and oldish software). Ideally, I'd like to be able to edit text files on the offline computer while web browsing on the download box. To make things more complicated, the download box will be Win 8.1 or Ubuntu and the offline computer will be OSX.

 

The short answer is yes we do download/upload files which we then copy/move to different locations using the download box that is loaded with software that we paid to have written to our specification. Our custom software mostly uses console commands and can copy non windows files as we also have mac users and ipads. It also has the ability to change file formats if requested although sometimes this falls over so we try and grab the files in the format required by the enduser.
BTW I didn't choose Win 10 but it was forced on us by our insurance company after an audit on risk mitigation regarding liability for possible future data breaches of customer personal information. To keep our current level of insurance we needed to upgrade from Win 7 Pro 64bit to Win 10 Pro 64bit by 2016 because it was deemed more secure and was current technology.

The long answer
The download box is setup because head office near Melbourne and also our other big showroom in Sydney have got really old ADSL2+ connections (all that is available in area) and are still waiting to be connected to the NBN (National Broadband Network) and our connection speed is really quite slow then 5 years ago our accounting system become cloud based so in order to prevent taking bandwidth away from our employees who need a fast connection we have a dedicated download box with a separate internet provider. Originally the download box was setup for Win Xp in 2005 when our internet connection was even slower and not much better than dialup speeds but that was more setup then for our interstate showrooms to be able to download order/delivery/stock level/availability information in order to give timing and price quotes to clients directly from our server based accounting software without causing timeouts to local users in head office who were inputting orders, billing customers and general accounting etc.
Now the files we mostly exchange between offices in Melbourne, Sydney, London, Paris, Milan, Stockholm, Beijing and New York are very high resolution images, advertising layout documents, final advertising documents for proof reading and lately many large file size hi-res advertising videos as well as instruction videos for suggested uses of new products.
We use some custom software written for us that allows us to select files in a VPN location somewhere and download them as needed and the download box is basically setup as a scheduler where you select how urgently you need the files and it downloads to the box in head office and then puts up a copy on the cloud or elsewhere as required. We do it this way because most of our PC systems are Win 10 except for our 10 ipads and 30 iphones. We do have one iMac Pro on premises because a lot of our "creative" content designers use Macs so we have to be able to check their work. The download box is used so we have direct control of the files that are put into the cloud or the secure areas on our WAN as most relate to the next season's advertising so if a competitor knew what new images we were going to use then they could initiate an advertising campaign to neutralise our own new season content.
The download box has several key functions being that it:-
1. Gives authorised employees/3rd party endusers access to our company confidential files in many locations in a controlled way without giving them any direct VPN access with elevated permissions to secure areas of the company network.
2. It allows employees/3rd party endusers to only see the relevant files required to perform their job and all other files are safely hidden from their view.
3. Downloads/uploads files in a timely manner as selected by users.
4. It schedules when the download/upload takes place (if urgent it is immediately or if not could be overnight).
5. It sends a copy of the files to several locations.....one in the cloud and several to different locations on our WAN/LAN.
6. It performs virus and malware checking on the files to ensure data integrity before transmission to endusers.
7. It encrypts/decrypts files and moves them in a format that is usable by the enduser.
8. It maintains a database of all files downloaded/uploaded , when they were downloaded, by whom they were downloaded and the IP address of the user requesting the download.
9. It creates archives of all the files downloaded/uploaded as well as user access data and sends a copy of these to a backup folder on a dedicated UPS (uninterruptible power supply) backed NAS server running in RAID6. (The download box also has its own UPS).

The custom software was written for us about 15 years ago by a local programmer and gets updated each year to keep it compatible with our current OS (currently Win 10) as well as having new features added as needed. It runs standalone under Windows and uses many Windows core services and processes and it has been totally redesigned several times to take advantage of OS upgrades since the simplistic original release Win XP version.

Originally we looked at available packages back in 2004 but in the end there was nothing that satisfied all requirements. Since the first concept in 2004 the program has changed radically because in those days our "high speed" business internet connection was only 1Mb/s down and 256kb/s up and there was only one VPN, there was no cloud, there was no direct banking access, our accounting software was originally written for Win 95 and server based onsite, our Logistics software wasn't integrated with our accounting package and had no connection to overseas Logistics or Government Customs information, there were no social media feeds, we only had one website, we didn't have an online sales website with payment portal, we didn't need branding consultants for naming new product lines, we didn't have loyalty programs linked with sales data, we didn't have any Apple products on site (we were still using Blackberry phones then), there was no access to overseas or local government portals, there was nobody doing work for us offsite and most of our advertising was only aimed at the print media.
How times changed and now we have too much invested in this custom software so that now we don't even look for new packages..........that can be a job for the next IT Admin who replaces me sometime in the future

 

Joffa - That is some setup to have to keep going, and I feel for you. Unfortunately W10 is a bit of a control freak, I think, and I will keep my triple boot system hard drive (and copy) as I change to my other setups with W10, and VM'S with W7,and W 8.1on them. That way I feel I can cope, if W10 crashes mine.
I have been lucky so far, but I do find W10 (pro) a buggy system compared to W7 Ultimate, and W8.1 pro(modified)
Good luck...…

 

Whelp i retried windows 10 for about a week...

And i was getting problems.Computer was acting funny and on top of that.I could not wake up computer after going into sleep mode all night.Got tired of hitting the power button.No matter what i tried it would not wake up from sleep even hitting all the key's.Fairly to say that windows 10 is broken and sucks balls.And this was a fresh install.Of the latest update from microsoft.

I think i will stick with windows 7....

At least with windows 7 i have not had an issue with it in the last 4 years of service.No blue screens no issues.Windows 7 run's solid.

 

Is this a self build? Win 10 on three systems here very stable. You think there wouldn't be a major press campaign if such problems were widespread?

 

Functionally I don't have a problem with Win 10 and once setup works very well but my issue is that you can't stop updates and often when the update happens many Win 10 settings that you may have changed for good reason are reset back to the Win 10 defaults. For most people the Win 10 default settings are fine and so the problem arises when you have a specific setup for a real world purpose and your setups keep getting reset to the default as I have mentioned in previous posts in this thread.

My point of contention is clear in that the enduser should be able to run the software as he/she likes and not get locked in to constant unwanted updates..........it would be like a car dealer selling you a car that stops working as soon as it is time for a service and then when you get it back from being serviced you find some of the vehicle options no longer work.

Hmmmm....speaking of constant annoying updates that still happen when updates are disabled.....this is the reason why our company no longer uses any Adobe product

The only software needing regular updates should be specific anti virus/malware products. I was told by Microsoft Tech Support that they have to update Win 10 regularly so Defender and its tools stay current but when I said we never use Defender so should be exempt from updates they disagreed so it became a stalemate as Microsoft wants to promote a system where endusers have to continually phone home

 

No it was the windows 10 1809 install pack i was running.The system would not get out of sleep mode no matter what i tried or fixed.

 

Beginning with 1803, Windows 10 started wrecking havoc on certain PCs. Working as a retail repair tech, I have seen at least 20 HP notebooks (all of which originally shipped with 7, 8 or 8.1) that ran fine until 1803 installed. At this point, the battery and charging icons still appeared to be normal but the PC shuts off as soon as it's unplugged. HP Diagnostics claim the battery and charger are working normally. Nothing will fix the problem (BIOS updates, reverting back to the older version of 10 or even wiping the drive and reinstalling Windows 7). HP initially pretended the issue didn't exist. Although Microsoft protects itself with a binding arbitration requirement when Cortana tells you to accept the user agreement, HP doesn't. My guess is a class action lawsuit is pending that will eventually end in the lawyers getting $5,000,000, the lead plaintiff getting $5000 and everyone else who was affected getting a coupon for $5 off the purchase of new HP PC.

As of last week, I had to run Windows Update Troubleshooter on almost every PC we did a new set up on due to the 1809 upgrade causing issues. Tomorrow is a new week, and I have a feeling the fun is just beginning.

 

This is were the issue lies................upgrades rarely work, if only for a while!

I clean install all client devices, never had an issue with Win10 updates yet??

 

So it was not just me having issues with 1809 update than

 

Problem was mine was a fresh wiped ssd.1809 was causing a slew of problems.