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Microsoft wants to update your Windows 11 PC without forcing you to reboot (www.windowscentral.com)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Current versions of windows literally let you set an update reboot window. So set up the times you use it, and then forget about it and let it install whenever it wants.

I honestly, and sincerely, do not understand all the hate Windows gets with current updates. The alternative at the moment is “hope the user remembers to update” which we have seen in action and which does not work.

Is it annoying when you don’t set things up properly? Sure! But that’s a failing on the users side.

I’ve been using Windows for decades, and the last time I had it unexpectedly reboot for an update was years ago. Because I’ve actually taken the 10 minutes to understand the system, and how to configure it to do what I want.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

I haven't used Windows 11 interestingly, so I don't know if they've changed their update habits, and I wouldn't be surprised either way. Windows 10 is the last edition I've used. Since Windows 8, I had plenty of issues with Windows and Microsoft, and it got worse every release. I'll bullet-form my personal complaints at the bottom of this page.

My final straw for Windows 10 in my personal life was a forced restart, and I had all my update settings where I wanted them, and still, I lost a really important session to that reboot. Since I was pretty comfy with Linux, I went that direction. Since then, Linux has gotten more user-friendly and plays videogames, way more than Mac. It's still not something I recommend to most people, but probably someday, it'll get to a Mac or Windows ease of use.

At work, most of us haven't been migrated to Windows 11 from Windows 10, and I still get updates installing in the background a lot, causing issues even on our Windows servers. I'm sure our ops team can tune these abhorrent update defaults, but it's just a frustrating experience nonetheless.

I think a prompt or reminder could go really far to let the user configure that during setup.

Here are some of my complaints over time:

Force installs and bloat. Inclusion of bloat by default. Reinstallation of bloat on updates.
Resetting of my settings and registry edits regularly.
Ads on the desktop
Needless nagging to use their other bullshit like Onedrive. You think it's good? Great! Let me uninstall it and use the cloud providers of my choice.
Forcing an inferior start menu without a choice to use alternatives or the old ones.
Windows tracks insane amounts of users' data and actrivities, and I do not trust them to admit to all the tracking they do but the tracking they admit to doing is already mind-boggling.
Windows 10's forced upgrade and Windows 10 popup scandals were completely dishonest and disgusting, and I have not heard enough apologies for what they did. This personally affected me and broke a bunch of crap before Windows 10 was even well-baked.
A history of forced updates. A history of forced reboots. A history of lost work. This is me and my family. It sounds like Windows has reverted some of their worst practices, but the precedent is set, and I'll never trust Microsoft to stick to it.
The Windows seeker's scandal personally affected me. They put all sorts of beta garbage on my computer without telling me. This caused a loss of files. They've made a resurgence on their unethical behaviors in the browser space. I have faith they'll continue to revisit their other old habits. Look up Embrace-Extend-Extinguish and it'll get you started. IE was their old baby. Edge is the new one.
Buying and killing small companies and studios, such as Rare, a bit like EA had done
Moving away from some of the nice things earlier Windows versions did, like a start menu with a neat list of organized and searchable programs.
Having just 1 UI experience that isn't super customizable and breaking 3rd party UIs.
Fullscreen popups and nonsense over nothing
Microsoft's anti-competitive behavior has been a factor most of my life. They still push the boundaries of anti-competitive behavior to the Nth's degree. Again, that reading on Embrace-Extend-Extinguish will give you a taste of their BS.
Having fewer features and techs than Linux that I like to use, such as specialty filesystems, IO schedulers, process schedulers, swapping systems (ZRAM/ZSWAP) etc. Being stuck on NTFS (are you kidding me?) REFS is too little too late and you can't even boot off it
Way worse IO/Disk performance and features
inferior memory management

Overall, I don't want to do business or help in the success in an organization I do not like by offering up my data, watching their ads, and using their products less than necessary. I like some of the things Bill Gates has done, but it doesn't change any of my views on this.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

This is a weird response to one comment on a specific thing.

You’re essentially saying “yeah well that might be fixed but here’s a bunch of unrelated things you didn’t talk about that I don’t like.”

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I felt like clarifying that the updates issues I faced were the last straw and that if anyone was interested, I listed the other reasons I quit working with them and never looked back. That's why I wrote all that at the bottom.

Even if Microsoft does some things right, they still have a history of doing things wrong and have a bevy of other dark patterns. I do not trust them to get it right anymore. They could go back to their old ways tomorrow and I wouldn't be surprised. Thankfully, it's not my problem except at work

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Win 11 Pro user here. It doesn't care what time you set for updates, it'll do them when it feels like anyway, or annoy the piss out of you with notifications.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Annoy you with notifications, yes. But if it’s restarting outside the window set, you’ve likely messed something up.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

It might be that I don't leave the PC on all the time, I just hit sleep. But still, it shouldn't strong arm me into updating after a day or two of the download. Also hate having to RegEdit Edge off the thing after each one.