How not to update
Ok. This is not about VMS but Windows. Windows 10. “Professsional” (you’ll understand the quotes after the story).
To start with the history of this machine.
I built it from (at the time) up-class components, installed Windows 7 Professional (of course I paid for it; OEM version as it was a brand new system…).
Some time later, 8.0 came out and I could update freely – with the option to reverse the installation But I was satisfied with it so I removed that ability. Update to 8.1 went smoothly, without a glitch. So was the update to Windows 10; No surprises, everything went fine. However, there are a few ‘ glitches’: Automatic update is enabled by default, not a real problem, normally. With Windows 7 and 8, System restore was enabled and each update created a restore point so you could easily reverse. NAd if updates were to be installed, you would see it in the menu because there was a notion that updates were to be installed on shutdown – and the progress would be shown on the shutdown-screen.
Windows10 changed that. There is NO warning on updates, nor are you informed that updates are being installed. Shutdown just takes longer. Much longer, eventually. It is after you start the machine that you are informed that updates have been installed.
If yhings go wrong, it’s too late.
As I found out in December. There has been a major update to Windows, installed silently the same way. But from that moment on, things had changed: Some things didn’t work at all anymore, including the new browser (Edge – it really is an improvement though not all functionality of Internet Explorer or other browsers in available), the new Search facility (Cortina), and some important system management tools like the notifier (Action center) and numerous other things: opening a second File Explorer window from the shortcut on the menu didn’t react, for instance. Very annoying if that is what you normally use most.
I posted a complaint on a technical Forum at Microsoft, where I learned that were more installation that have the same problem. Suggestions that I found elsewhere to re-install Edge didn’t work either (and on one occasion I learned that this update had indeed caused a lot of trouble) but time by time, some functionality was rstored – or I found a way around it. But some programs and site-accesses rely on Edge so these don’t work either.
Today I contacted Microsoft supprt via chat. Very helpful. It was tried to set things right again which required a reboot. That is when trouble really started.
First, I could no longer login into my normal account. I usually login with a PIN code, but that was now reversed to password login. But entering the right password (and I am absolutely sure I made no mistakes) failed: Either name or password incorrect. I noted that there was no internet connection, required for login (I think) since the account is coupled to my LIVE.COM account. Luckiliy, I also have a local (administrator) account that I could use. Done some investigations: There was no way I could enable internet connectivity – and the chat session tried to connect – which of course failed.
Using a second PC (Still on Windows 7 and to be kept as such – since some games are not compatible with Windows 10 and will not run) I contacted Microsoft support on this issue. Where I found out (using msconfig) that all services but a few had been disabled. The suggestion was either to revert to a previous version (and re-install Windows 10 – and everything I installed after upgrading from Windows 8.1) – or do a full re-install. Neitehr option was acceptable; the other solution was to reboot normally – which worked.
After that, the connection that was stopped on reboot, was revived and I could get on with the chat. It still didn’t work as before. And the problem resides with all current users on the machine – even the local admin account had the same problem.
One thing I could try was to create a new user and see if that would solve the problem. and behold: THAT WORKED.
So is was suggested that moved all files to that new user and work with that account from now on.
It would mean I would have to copy EVERYTHING on the system to that account. Or change file ownership and protections from one user to another. BY HAND.
Or leave it as it is, hoping that Microsoft will come up with a real solution: one that will repair the system where it broke.
There are still a few things to figure out because I think that there is more that went severely wrong in this update: I doubt very much that there has been made a restore point, for instance. And if so, I doubt it is complete. Since I did look for such a point when I found out of the problems but couldn’t find one
Anyway, I disabled automatic updates. Download is OK but I decide if, and when, they are installed, so I can be sure I have a rstore point if I need to go back.
Update
Just looked at the local admin account.
Where it failed to start Edge and Search this afternoon, IT NOW WORKS THERE….(For now? Well, it does.. But why doesn’t it in my normal account? This must be a registry thing….)
The oldest restore point I can find is beginning og this year. All earlier ones seem to be gone. Latest has been today.