Patch Lady – Last call for your opinion

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Just a heads up for any procrastinators…. I’ll be closing up the patching survey over the weekend and then will be writing up some overall thoughts
[See the full post at: Patch Lady – Last call for your opinion]

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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abbodi86, Noel Carboni, lurks about, ch100, PKCano

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KB4284848 is not showing up on my WSUS server.  Any idea why?

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Do you have the category of “update” in the settings?  it’s not deemed to be a security update so you may not have it set to sync with your server.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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Yes

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Seems to be a problem for others too:
https://sw-euc.com/2018/06/29/windows-10-cumulative-updates-categorized-as-updates-do-not-show-up-in-configuration-manager-wsus/

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I also have the same problem with this update for 2016,KB4284833

EDIT html to text (may not read as intended)

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While not really a target for the survey, I think trying to get a sense of the problems people are facing is a critical first step (good job btw). I am not to concerned about the ‘scientific validity’ of the survey (most surveys are not really valid anyway) but what types of problems are reported with some sense of the relative frequency of those problems.

Unfortunately, I do not think MS will pay any attention to these results because they will probably undermine the entire WaaS strategy.

My Windows boxes are not allowed on the Internet and are only used for a couple of ancient legacy programs.

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There’s another real-life case of what the updates do to unsuspecting people here. This is really a shame.

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walker

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Windows used to be a PC user’s dream because it was so easily customisable to one’s own preferences, thanks – in many ways – to the registry.

Now that Micorosoft has deliberately obfuscated not just the registry but also filenames and folders, it’s just an unholy mess. No wonder that people like Ivo Beltchev (creator of Classic Shell) have given up.

Who in their right minds would buy into this new MS paradigm unless they had no choice?

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Bill C., Jan K., Elly, HiFlyer

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The registry is a huge burden from the past and one of the main reasons Windows sooner or later will run into troubles. For an average user the only solution left then is – if the problems are severe enough – clean install. As also often is the standard advice of their fantastic Indian helpdesk. It’s why people see it as normal to reinstall Windows clean about once a year. It’s like swapping the engine of your car on a yearly basis. For some strange reason, no one would accept that though… 😀

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BobbyB, OscarCP

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The registry is a huge burden from the past and one of the main reasons Windows sooner or later will run into troubles. For an average user the only solution left then is – if the problems are severe enough – clean install.

Clean installs are for unprepared users only.

For me that would probably be a full day’s work… instead I’ll just grab latest stable system backup and restore that. 10 minutes job.

In these days having a detailed and tested backup and restore plan in place is a must.

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BobbyB

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“The registry is a huge burden from the past and one of the main reasons Windows sooner or later will run into troubles.”

This is so right! The registry is indeed a major vulnerability in Windows: a single point of failure that, for such an essential component, would rate a “criticality 1” in NASA-speak, somehow like the infamous rubber coating on the Shuttle or the O-rings in the Shuttle’s solid-fuel boosters. It always has worried me when doing a software install or upgrade of the kind that gets recorded in the register during this operation, that doing so might corrupt this file and brick my much needed PC, because of some faulty design of that particular software installer, something that, while not very likely, still is within the realm of possibilities. And yes, there are ways around this, but why should it even be necessary to take care of such a problem, which in a soundly engineered system should simply not exist?

I have a Mac, whose OS is based on BSD and, in every way that matters, works just like LINUX. So it does not have a registry, but is, nevertheless, as easy to install software or update it as in Windows, at the GUI-level, and at the command-line level there are applications for installing open-source software, such as “homebrew”, where all it takes is to invoke it with the URL of the download site as argument. Then hit “Return”, sit back, and watch it happen.

And never mind all those adds offering “cleaning” software that among other wonderful things promise to fix one’s register, that obviously (in the cleaner-makers’ opinion) is in terribly shape and just about to give up the ghost and take us down to computing hell with it.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Responded.

You didn’t go long enough on the release timing. The most extreme entry, “Every 2 years”, is still too often.

-Noel

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jburk07, Kirsty, Jan K., AlexEiffel

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Well, Linux Mint releases on a 2 year schedule for major releases, but they’re supported for five years, so if you don’t want the new features (zero pressure to upgrade if you don’t want to), you’re still set for a good half a decade.  The cadence between releases (and how suitable that is) depends on how long they’re supported after the release, IMO.

 

Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon 6.2
XPG Xenia 15, i7-9750H/32GB & GTX1660ti, Kubuntu 24.04
Acer Swift Go 14, i5-1335U/16GB, Kubuntu 24.04 (and Win 11)

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Elly, AlexEiffel

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And how they handle bugs or “features”. I am on 1703 but the search is still broken and they only fix it on 1709. It was a feature not to show files from outside the documents folder when you search with Cortana after having replaced the better classic Windows search with that inferior click-fest and huge display but short list of results of a mess that Cortana search provides.

Some companies seem to generate profit by purposefully not fixing issues until a new release so they can charge you for upgrades you wouldn’t do otherwise…

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I am currently using 1709 .522, but when I got 1703 that re-started the “web search”, I was able to modify / edit the Registry with the instructions at this website:  https://www.ctrl.blog/entry/how-to-disable-cortana  and then only have local computer search with no cortana web search.  It is still working that way with 1709. Do not know if it will work with 1803. Hope that this info may be helpful.

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AlexEiffel

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I don’t have web searches with 1703 because I use group policies to disable them. However, in 1803, Microsoft ignores the group policies for this “feature” on the Pro version. They are getting farther away from the “Pro” name with each “feature” update.

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As others have pointed out… this isn’t scientific. It’s not a random survey taken with random people with margins of errors that can be quantified.

Well, you’re harvesting empirical data, which is basic science. So… 😀

Looking forward to your conclusion though I don’t think there’ll be any surprises.

My guess is, users don’t think Microsoft is building Windows the way they would prefer it to be…

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Elly

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I’ve completed the survey although I found it frustrating that it led me into it with a general question about Windows 7 to Windows 10 and then it was all about Windows 10 – which I don’t use. It’s a shame it didn’t probe a bit about post-EOL intentions in relation to Windows 7.

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Kranium, Microfix

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Same here – turns out this is a Win 10 survey only. Except for the first question. Should have mentioned this up-front.

Group B for WIN7 w/ ESU, plus trying out Linux builds in dual boot.

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Microfix

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Ever since the proverbial hit the fan in the global 2008 financial crisis, the business fan has been speeding up and the mess is ever increasing. When times get tough for business irrespective of whether digital, mechanical or products, they engineer things or parts to fail! MSFT’s ability to do this is cataloged in this forum in the form of patches, upgrades and useless features, why don’t they just have a look here.

Note: Not a W10 user and not likely to be in it’s current / predictive/ road map state.

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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