
Microsoft pulls Windows 10 October 2018 Update due to major issues – The Verge - aravindhsriram
https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/6/17944966/microsoft-windows-10-october-2018-update-documents-deleted-issues-windows-update-paused
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fonnat
This is what happens when you stop paying for QA and want your end users to do
the work for you.

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anonymfus
> want your end users to do the work for you

They don't: they skipped release preview step this time.

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lostmsu
That's even worse, because they rolled this to non-RP users straight away.
Though I must admit I never saw it in the updates list.

~~~
DaiPlusPlus
It's worse than that: my files were deleted as Windows Update downloaded the
files _before_ it even asked me if I wanted to install the update. I never
even had a chance.

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hocuspocus
I've been using Windows 10 since the beginning and I believe it's the best
desktop OS out there (I use Ubuntu at work and I have a Macbook Air too, I can
compare).

However, I'm getting a bit tired of the overall poor quality of the biyearly
updates. There's _always_ one machine (either my main workstation or one
belonging to my close relatives) where it'll miserably fail. The error
messages and logs are completely unhelpful and so is whatever you'll find on
the Microsoft Community website. In the end, I'm sure I'm going to have to
reinstall at least one Windows cleanly, every six months.

~~~
pletnes
In what way is windows 10 then the best OS? An OS that keeps breaking by
updates is pretty much the worst OS by my standards. At work about 30% of
computers have been reinstalled due to windows update failures over a year or
so. Pretty awful if you ask me. Oh, and no problems with our ubuntu machines.

~~~
hunta2097
I've always had a Linux partition and a Windows partition on my laptop.

Years ago I would end up drifting back into Windows.

However I haven't logged into Windows for a while now, and I'm considering
deleting the partition.

When are Adobe and Autodesk going to support Linux properly? They are the only
non-gaming reason for Windows now.

~~~
pletnes
The unholy Word/excel/powerpoint trinity is what is keeping my win10 alive at
work.

~~~
r00fus
More and more companies that I work with are shifting to google docs for
better or for worse ...

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mxscho
Is this also the reason why the download page of Windows Server 2019 images
[1] within the Microsoft Evaluation Center has been removed? It worked three
days ago when it was referenced at the end of the general availablity
announcement [2].

[1] [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-
windows-...](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-windows-
server-2019)

[2]
[https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/windowsserver/2018/10/02/wi...](https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/windowsserver/2018/10/02/windows-
server-2019-now-generally-available/)

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johnchristopher
The issue being that documents get deleted.

2018\. Windows update deletes non system files.

2018.

~~~
kijin
This is not a regular Windows update. A Redstone update is effectively a new
version of Windows, and the updater replaces your existing Windows
installation with the new version during the mandatory reboot. In other words,
it's more like do-release-upgrade than apt-get upgrade. Obviously, this is
going to be much more risky than the typical security patch.

But Microsoft is doing its damnedest to make it look like just another update
to ordinary users. It's the same trick they used to automatically "upgrade"
Windows 7/8/8.1 computers to Windows 10, only subtler this time because users
already have Windows 10 which helps conceal what's going on.

~~~
Silhouette
The real problem here is what you mention in your second paragraph: Microsoft
has deliberately chosen to blur the lines between different types of update.
The Windows 10 world makes little distinction between a small, essential
security update with no normally observable change in behaviour and a full
reinstallation of the underlying OS.

So, I don't think Microsoft should be allowed to rely on the kind of argument
you make in your first paragraph. If it's going to push everything out as
being just the latest version of Windows 10 that everyone must have, then
_all_ updates are now "regular Windows updates", and the entire-OS update
needs to be as reliable as the essential security update that just replaces a
flawed networking library with a bug-fixed version.

If Microsoft can't do that -- and obviously it's an extremely difficult
requirement to meet, with ample evidence suggesting that it won't happen --
then maybe the whole mandatory updates strategy isn't such a great idea?

~~~
kijin
I agree with everything you said. It would be really interesting to see
Microsoft adopt the Arch Linux release model, but unfortunately I don't think
it will happen. They're stuck in a difficult place, trying to do SaaS with an
operating system installed on users' devices.

If you use Windows 10 Professional or above, though, you can defer Redstone
updates for a maximum of 1 year while still getting the usual bugfixes. I
guess that's how long Microsoft wants to keep supporting the not-updated
version.

~~~
Silhouette
_If you use Windows 10 Professional or above, though, you can defer Redstone
updates for a maximum of 1 year while still getting the usual bugfixes._

That's OK as far as it goes, and maybe for casual power users (if there is
such a thing) it's better than nothing.

However, for small business users who would traditionally also be using the
Pro edition of Windows, a one-year delay is marginally more valuable than a
chocolate teapot. We're talking about the operating system, the foundation on
which the rest of our software base is built, and that software base may cost
thousands per machine. The guaranteed support period is missing a zero if it
wants to be taken seriously.

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nickjj
I updated the day the patch was available.

Although Windows 10 Pro had the option that would have deleted the files set
to "not configured" which as far as I know is safe. I set it to "disabled"
just to be extra safe.

This reminds me of an ongoing gag in the movie Airplane![0]

"Looks like I picked the wrong week to [stop smoking, stop drinking, stop
sniffing glue, update Windows 10]".

[0]:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v46plhmxXU4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v46plhmxXU4)

~~~
nolok
To be fair, no matter the OS updating on the latest and greatest immediately
after release is always risky and should not be done unless you have clean
backups and are ready to reinstall it all if needed. Linux testing, iOS, OSX,
Windows 10, ... All of them.

If you want stability and safe update, you either use safe release version
(Debian stable, Win10 LTSB, ...); you wait the service pack, or you give it a
month or two to have issues found.

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pletnes
Is win10 LTSB available to anyone who wants on win10 home/pro?

~~~
jaclaz
I don't think so, you need some corporate contract or the like.

JFYI, accordingly to this, LTSB is now LTSC and you _shouldn 't_ choose it
unless you have an embedded device:

[https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/ukplatforms/2018/06/11/s...](https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/ukplatforms/2018/06/11/say-
no-to-long-term-servicing-channel-ltsc/)

Of the twelve key points/reasons given in the above, more than six make me
actually want to have a LTSC, however.

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Tsubasachan
Wonder what this means for the next Enterprise LTSB? Glad y'all beta testers
caught this. Muchos gracias.

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baloki
_facepalm_

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nitinreddy88
There is so much negativity about this update or windows updates. I must tell
you that they roll out the same update to more than million machines within
Microsoft even before its released to public.

