Patch Lady – ready for 1809?

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As noted in this ZDnet post the release of 1809 is right around the corner. If you don’t want to be part of the initial beta testing for the rest of u
[See the full post at: Patch Lady – ready for 1809?]

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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MrJimPhelps, deuce120, Noel Carboni, abbodi86, JohnW, Jan K., Elly, CyGuy, woody, Great Lake Bunyip, lmacri, WildBill, Mr. Natural, PhotM

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Gregg Keizer has published an article about the change of cumulative updates in Win10-1809.

How Windows 10’s new smaller monthly updates work
A “back-then-forward” model will govern patches starting with Windows 10 version 1809.
By Gregg Keizer | Aug 24, 2018

Microsoft will apply an unusual patching process to reduce the size of its monthly Windows 10 updates, a company manager said this week.

“If your device were on the September LCU (latest cumulative update) and then you installed October, your machine would apply the September reverse delta to go back to RTM and then the October forward delta to go to October [emphases added],” wrote Mike Benson, a principal program manager in the Windows division, in a comment appended to a previous post about update changes.

The article can be read here.

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deuce120, Elly, CyGuy, woody, Great Lake Bunyip, AlexEiffel, WildBill, PhotM

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What a bunch of nothing!
Hopefully someone will shortly tell us how to turn off and minimize these worthless changes.
And most important, a guide to privacy settings.

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That’s what I posted, you can defer these for a year and wait for one that you want.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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Elly, woody, Great Lake Bunyip

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This brings up an interesting/confusing question.

If I am currently on version 1709 that became “available” on October 17, 2017 but I have Feature Update deferral set at 365 days; does that mean on October 17, 2018 MS will automatically force install version 1803 (which has an “end of service”on November 12, 2019) unless I seek out and install version 1809?

Or with UW Group Policy set at 2, can we hopefully intercept the 1803 upgrade and hide it? Then ride out ver 1709 until its “end of service” on April 9, 2019?

Then have the option to unhide and upgrade to 1803 for the short remainder of its life, or skip 1803 altogether and move to version 1809?

Under the above scenerios, what version would the Feature Update deferral setting of 365 days be holding off?

Then would the Feature Update deferral of 365 days automatically apply to, and hold off version 1809?

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Mele20

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A similar question has been asked by @cyguy

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Interesting, and on the same day!  Inquiring minds …………………

I’m looking for a little more detail on the options, but hopefully someone will be able to answer all our questions.

Perhaps place a link to my post over there also for cross reference purposes and broadest exposure to members/staff?

Thanks

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Warning, very dry geek humor below.

~ Group "Weekend" ~

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johnf, deuce120, BobbyB, Karlston, JohnW, Elly, bobcat5536, woody, columbia2011, Great Lake Bunyip, ryegrass

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There is nothing wrong with your Windows installation.  Do not attempt to adjust the settings. We are controlling the updates. We will control their timing; we will control their effectiveness, taking them from crystal clarity to the soft blur of total obscurity. For the next year sit quietly by while we control all that you see and hear. We repeat there is nothing wrong with your Windows installation. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from stable computing to Windows 10

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johnf, Karlston

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What is this MicrosoftSpeak about “flight” on the wincentral article? What a bunch of buzzword-speak. I’d say about 90%  of what is ‘touted’ is nothing more than OS ‘gazingus pins” – a bunch of whiz-bang that doesn’t add to a stable, production operating system. My 2 cents. Heaven help those of us that want a stable OS.

Win10 Pro x64 22H2, Win10 Home 22H2, Linux Mint + a cat with 'tortitude'.

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Seattle27

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For Microsoft “flight” equates to an compilation, packaging, and release of the operating system, for many of us that means to fly away from Microsoft.

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Call me cynical, but… is there EVEN ONE new feature that’s worth the disruption of re-installing Windows?

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johnf, deuce120, BobbyB, AlexEiffel, walker, Elly, Seattle27, bobcat5536

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Sets.

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Some people may find Sets useful — but it’s available as a Windows add-in, and has been for many years (Groupy, TidyTabs, WindowTabs).

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Jan K.

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So far the only “new” feature I’ve been able to identify (in v1803) that might make Windows 10 worth having over, say, a working Windows 8.1 configuration is its refined ability to manage application scaling on multiple monitors with different characteristics. For this to be important you have to have multiple monitors, and they have to have different pixel pitches (i.e., you’re currently struggling to see your applications displayed properly sized). If you have one monitor, or you have several with the same dot pitch, Win 10 brings no desktop improvements, and in fact most folks feel the flat (lack of) theme degrades usability.

Regarding new features in v1809… Much of it seems as though Microsoft still thinks kids are running Windows 10 on mobile devices.

Regarding that new clipboard feature, I’ll reserve judgment. It *could* be a productivity enhancer, but it has cloud integration. Imagine everything you copy/paste going through Microsoft’s servers. I sincerely hope it’s truly de-configurable, but how can we know if it sends things to their servers whether or not we turn off the “Sync across devices”?

Personally as one who much prefers light text on a dark background I am looking forward to seeing how the dark themed Explorer looks and feels, but it HAS TO WORK first and foremost. I have heard they’ve been re-implementing it as a UWP App, and if their re-implementation has left out key desktop features Explorer has provided in the past decades then the entirety of the Windows desktop will be ruined for me. Explorer is and needs to remain the central integrator the way I use it.

Scribbling on the desktop isn’t something that’s ever excited me, and regarding Sets, I’ve so far been able to correlate the multiple facets of my work just fine the old, traditional ways (e.g., through file naming and placement in folders).

I had to laugh at several of the things they feel are new features, like:
Should apps and websites open in a new window or a new tab? It’s up to you!

As if “up to me” is something special.

And finally, does anyone REALLY want Microsoft deleting their files unilaterally?

we embarked on a journey to help you automatically clean up storage when low on disk space.

I’m curious, with all these new features, what the base process count will be to support an idle, empty desktop. I’m betting it goes up 20 or more from v1803, which is already bloated.

-Noel

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johnf, Mele20, Sessh, Karlston, Elly

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Noel Carboni wrote:

I had to laugh at several of the things they feel are new features, like:
Should apps and websites open in a new window or a new tab? It’s up to you!

As if “up to me” is something special.

This is totally new, as it’s about tabs in apps, including File Explorer, not a browser.

But you also have to realize that this is not an official list of new features in 1809, but a compilation of all tweaks to insider preview builds as they were announced over the last six months.

Noel Carboni wrote:

And finally, does anyone REALLY want Microsoft deleting their files unilaterally?

Yes, I certainly do. Been using it on lots of computers for nearly 18 months and it works very well. (Particularly useful for staff who use large files but have little awareness of disk space issues, although they now have SSDs which are smaller than the HDDs they’ve been used to in the past; set it and forget it for ongoing automated disk cleanup.) Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.

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b wrote:

Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.

I believe that may be a luxury many in real world situations, for one reason or another, just can’t afford…

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johnf, Elly

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That makes it sound as though you haven’t examined the options.

The new Storage Sense feature mentioned for 1809 doesn’t delete files, only removes duplicates (as configured by the user).

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My point was that many people are too busy working too long for too little to have the time or money to be able to spend time (and therefore, money) tweaking their systems as often as the latest software requires to keep it up to date.

And there are other reasons too, for delaying both feature and security updates, i.e.
Why do enterprises take a long time to install vital security updates

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johnf, Jan K., walker, Microfix, satrow, Elly

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Configuring Storage Sense to guard your disk space automatically according to your wishes takes less then 30 seconds.

Much less time than people here spend trying to block useful updates.

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b wrote:

Yes, I certainly do. Been using it on lots of computers for nearly 18 months and it works very well. (Particularly useful for staff who use large files but have little awareness of disk space issues, although they now have SSDs which are smaller than the HDDs they’ve been used to in the past; set it and forget it for ongoing automated disk cleanup.) Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.

If you feel any form of automatic file deletion makes any sense, you and I really must have nothing in common in our desires from computing equipment. I’ve never had any need for anyone or anything to clean up after me, nor do I believe anyone can make a judgment about what I no longer need but me. That’s okay, everyone’s different. I just hope the automatic cleanup can be disabled.

And for what it’s worth, I use actual Windows, not tabs. I use the Taskbar. Buttons on the taskbar are a lot like tabs. I don’t believe tracking and integrating work can be better done in an application than on the desktop.

-Noel

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johnf, Kirsty

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Except for the new addition to Task Manager I saw nothing to get excited about.
Much said about Sets and other items but when it came to user control for privacy setting controls .. one stinking paragraph. Ohhh lookie at the new colors! OMG control panel black! wow!
<shrug> keep it. TM wasn’t that exciting ‘cept for power usage control/ view
james

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After some internet review, found that “Sets” can be turned off via Group Policy.
Whew! At least for now.

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All Windows features H2 (tick) updates released have shown to cause quite a few issues so it makes sense to skip those releases and wait for the H1 (tock) release coming in Spring of the next year.

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For those of you that have a need to do this via registry rather than GPO (say you have a bunch of systems that are Windows 10 Pro but not on a domain):

Set the Windows Update type (Branch Readiness Level) to Semi-Annual (use a value of 32)

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsUpdate\UX\Settings\BranchReadinessLevel

Set the deferral amount for feature updates in days (up to one year:  I have this set at 120 for our clients)

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsUpdate\UX\Settings\DeferFeatureUpdatesPeriodInDays

Set the deferral amount for Windows 10 cumulative (Quality) updates in days (I have this set at 15 for sure, but you can set longer, I believe up to 30)

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsUpdate\UX\Settings\DeferQualityUpdatesPeriodInDays

 

As we work with clients of all sizes, sometimes the GPO method doesn’t work for us, so we ensure clients use Windows Pro, and the onboarding scripts in our remote management/monitoring software enforce these, among other items.  Finally, one more item I highly recommend to assist in patching:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Power\HiberbootEnabled=0

Set this to 0.  It means when you tell Windows to shut down/reboot, it will always do a true shutdown, rather than a fast hibernate/reboot.  Starting with Windows 10, the fastboot mode is default; sounds nice in theory to allow fast startups, but this means Windows doesn’t always truly reboot when you want it to.

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HiFlyer, johnf, columbia2011

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Hibernation can be turned off without messing with the registry. Just execute
powercfg.exe /hibernate off

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johnf

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anonymous wrote:

Hibernation can be turned off without messing with the registry. Just execute powercfg.exe /hibernate off

It can, but hiberboot is a somewhat different feature.  That, and I like laptops to have a hibernate option, but still don’t want hiberboot.

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I’m currently on Win 10 Pro (1709 build 16299.611).  I believe I understand the group policy changes in your post, but don’t the boxes in the advanced options section of Win update settings where you have the option to change the delay of feature updates to 365 days perform the same functions? 
Or is the group change procedure a more robust or reliable process?

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No difference. But Susan did say, “I’m sure there is an easier way to get this setting …”:

If not configured by policy, users can defer feature updates, by going to Settings > Update & security > Windows Update > Advanced options.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/update/waas-configure-wufb

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OldPM63049, Elly

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In addition to “Select when Preview Builds and Feature Updates are Received”, I also set the other two options under “Windows Update for Business:
* Select when quality updates are received: Enabled, defer for 30 days.
* Manage Preview Builds: Enabled, “Disable Preview Builds”.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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