Windows 10 updating

[Gregr]

Thanks for the warning @grahroll. I shall hold off on Win10 update for a month or two.

[phb]

@grahroll

If anyone is deciding to do the Win 10 October Update 20H2

It was pushed through by the automatic updating today and installed here with no problems.

[grahroll]

The Automatic one is fine, it is requested

@grahroll

not to do it by downloading it it to a DVD/USB/ISO as there are a few bugs that can cause problems. Only use the Automated built in Updating process when your machine offers it

One of the bigger issues is losing all your Certificates on the machine, this will affect whether you can visit sites, read encrypted traffic and other issues including getting further updates.

[postulative]

@Gregr

I shall hold off on Win10 update for a month or two.

While Windows updates can cause pain, they also tend to fix fairly serious security issues. That said, this is a ‘feature’ update rather than the regular monthly patches, so you should be fine to wait.

That said, a look at the ‘features’ this time around says to me that Microsoft is being a little more cautious than it has been with some other feature updates. Some hardcore users will be keen, but for most of us there is a slight tweak to the UI.

[grahroll]

Control Panel has lost an entry or two, with more yet to be trimmed (I’m not altogether happy about the trimming).

The lost parts do turn up in the Setting but I think they are harder to find now. System is now not in the CP, icon is there but it redirects to “About” in the System section of Settings. The Icon will eventually be deleted from CP. The About entry has a lot more than About attached to it eg Advanced system settings where virtual memory allocations are set.

@postulative this one was more like a monthly update rather than a usual “feature” update, the next big feature one will be much heftier it appears.

[grahroll]

Soon maybe a CloudPC that allows you to login from any machine, tablet, smartphone perhaps

Microsoft CloudPC details leaked revealing a truly mobile workplace

[PhilT]

@grahroll

Only use the Automated built in Updating process

As one who has masochistic tendencies , and some PCs still waiting for the 2004 ‘up’ I did an image backup and used the upgrade assistance to get 2009. No worries. An interesting part of the experience is that with 2 PC virtually identical excepting for one having itunes and Office 2010, and the other Office 2007 and no itunes, the upgrades went a bit differently. Neither had a problem per se but both needed an additional reboot after the upgrade completed for network discovery to work again. A third quite different PC that started at 2004, a 2013 vintage notebook, went a little different yet again, and still needed that final ‘undocumented’ reboot.

[postulative]

@grahroll

Control Panel has lost an entry or two, with more yet to be trimmed

Yes, my understanding is that Microsoft plans to eventually move everything currently in Control Panel to Settings for ‘a consistent experience’. It makes sense at one level, but I like the ability to browse Control Panel and I know where things are.

Edit:

Microsoft begins killing off the Control Panel in Windows 10

[postulative]

@grahroll

Soon maybe a CloudPC that allows you to login from any machine, tablet, smartphone perhaps

And what could possibly go wrong?

Apart from anything else, I suspect that a fairly large proportion of governments and larger entities are not going to want Microsoft to have control over their data.

[grahroll]

I’m worried about if their CoudPC gets similar problematic updates as we do…what then for the data stored there.

[PhilT]

When everything is in the Cloud those pesky NBN outages will be even less onerous than they can be today, right?

[grahroll]

Oh yeah or power outages, less and less problems because we won’t be able to use the Cloud services

[grahroll]

Anyone using Win 10 1809 version be warned that MS will be ceasing support for it on the 10th of November this year. If using the Education or Enterprise editions this will instead be 11th of May 2021. Originally the date was to be in May this year for most types eg Home, Pro but due to COVID it had been extended to November.

If wanting to get support for Win 10 including on-going patches you need to update this older version to a newer one as soon as you can.

Windows 10, version 1809 end of servicing - Microsoft Lifecycle

[Bob01]

Its good until you encounter the problem of you C drive getting full. If you are doing an update it will save a copy in the windows.old directory. Recommend a google search on this and its lifespan.

The story here is …if the upgrade finds not enough space and asks you for a USB flash drive/storage. Bail out and clear sufficient space for the update. I didn’t do this and thought a USB stick would be safe, it wasn’t resulting in having to do a complete messy recovery because the upgrade failed.

[phb]

@Bob01

windows.old directory.

If you use the Windows 10 Disk Clean up…system file delete function, it will delete any unneeded and residual update files. This is how you do it…

Disk cleanup in Windows - Microsoft Support

[grahroll]

On the 9th of February MS released several updates listed as Critical & Important (on their scale of Critical, Important, Recommended etc). If you are updating Automatically these updates will have been implemented but if Manually doing updates MS are advising to install these as soon as possible as they provide protection against some Remote Code vulnerabilities (around TCP/IP). If not willing to implement the Updates they have supplied Workarounds until you are satisfied the updates are safe to install… CHOICE IT Admin may be interested for their Servers security.

https://msrc-blog.microsoft.com/2021/02/09/multiple-security-updates-affecting-tcp-ip/

https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2021-24086

https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2021-24074

https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2021-24094

[Drop_Bear]

Unintended consequences.

The system was duplicating the last digit of dosage quantities, with patients potentially receiving more than 10 times the necessary amount of medication.

“It’s added another digit and replicated the last digit, so if you were to have 17 milligrams, it would have prescribed 177 milligrams,” SA Health CEO Chris McGowan told ABC Radio Adelaide’s David Bevan.

“It was a generic issue in the prescribing software. It’s a patch relating to upgrading to Microsoft 10.”

Health boss unsure how many patients impacted by dosage bungle blamed on Windows upgrade - ABC News

[Gregr]

There is no chance whatever that I would believe that a Windows upgrade or a Windows patch would cause a numeric error such as that.
That has all the hallmarks of careless application programming and/or human error.
This story is just disinformation. I would have thought better of the ABC.

[PhilT]

Woa there.

"It was a generic issue in the prescribing software. It’s a patch relating to upgrading to Microsoft 10. That’s the operating hypothesis at least, but that’s being checked and that’ll all be part of the review.

I read that as stating a patch to THEIR software that was required as part of the Windows 10 upgrade was the problem. Not a patch to Windows 10.

[postulative]

@Drop_Bear

“It was a generic issue in the prescribing software. It’s a patch relating to upgrading to Microsoft 10.”

Clearly not an operating system error, but this quote implies that Windows 10 is at fault.

Presumably the problem is caused by an error in the software being used on the OS, and to be honest sounds like an error caused by a patch to that software rather than how the software operates under a particular OS.

One would expect that such software is tested before rolling out an OS upgrade, but I don’t work in a critical environment such as a hospital so cannot assume they test things before plugging them in and turning them on.