Forcing the issue with Win10 v1809

Always a Guinea Pig – Forcing the issue with Win10 v1809.

I am running Win10 Pro in VMs, so this was a test situation, not my daily driver. The host system is MacMini, MacOS Mojave using Parallels Desktop 14, Ivy Bridge i7 with HD Graphics 4000 and running TrendMicro – the last two are counts against me from the beginning because 1809 has problems with both the graphics and the AV. But this system is also running an up-to-date Insider Preview, so I thought I’d give it a try.

I was running v1709. In the Settings, I set SAC (Targeted), delay Feature = 0, delay Quality = 0, no pause. Try what I may, I could not get WU to offer anything but v1803, so I let it upgrade to v1803 in hopes I’d see v1809 on the other side.

No joy. I finally downloaded the v1809 ISO and burned it to a double layer DVD (the x64 is HUGE). I could have copied the ISO to the VM and mounted it there, but I did not want the extra 5GB in the VM. I accessed the DVD from within the VM and ran setup. After accepting the EULA, I chose to keep my data and programs (an in-place upgrade) and let it install.

The ISO installed Win10 v1809 Build 17763.107 with no problems. i immediately ran Windows Update and was offered KB4467708 which brought the Build to 17763.134 – according to WU up-to-date. Thanks to Parallels Tools driver emulation, the HD 4000 was not a problem. And the VM is running BitDefender Free, so no conflict there either.

Although I have not had time to look at it in depth, here are some of the superficial observations:
+ I did not lose any data – because in the test machine there was no data to lose and I had not relocated the User folders to another location other than C:
+ Under Default Programs, all my third-party defaults came through (at least they are on the list) – Thunderbird, Firefox, VLC, Windows Picture Viewer, etc.
* System Restore was turned off (again)
* Under Network, sharing had been turned back on – I had it turned off in the VM for testing. I have not checked to see if the VM is visible on the network.
+ I went back through all the Settings App. Anything new is turned on by default, and some of the ole settings were also changed.
* Task Scheduler – I had to disable the tasks under Application Experience and CEIP (again) as they were turned back on. Some of the other Tasks that I have been disabling I no longer have permission to change the setting.
* I have blocked Cortana/Bing in Group Policy, along with other things like web search. I have not had time yet to go back over those settings.
+ I did not get Apps like Candy Crush. I did open a few of the UWP Apps just to see if they worked. Geezz, they’re ugly! Dumbed down, flat, ugly! No wonder I use Classic Start and third-party programs.