Windows 10 upgrade version timing

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Why you may have been upgraded from 1511 to 1607 over the weekend, and what you can do about it. Important reading for anyone who wants to take contro
[See the full post at: Windows 10 upgrade version timing]

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Got the 1607 forced update this weekend. So fed up with this…D drive is hosed, system so slow it’s practically unusable..is fixing this as simple as uninstalling this update?

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The word “Defer” means delay, not cancel or prevent
those who leave Automatic Updates ON, should not complain

those who don’t, simply hide the feature update

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Yep, more accurately rolling it back. Article coming in InfoWorld, but http://www.infoworld.com/article/3074096/microsoft-windows/hit-by-an-unexpected-windows-10-upgrade-heres-how-to-recover.html

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Thank you Woody. The article you refer to here doesn’t seem to apply to me. I had Win 10 v. 1511 before the update and there are no options in System Recovery for me. Looking forward to reading your new article. Thanks again.

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Look in Start > Settings > Update & security > Recovery. Under Go back to an earlier build, isn’t there a Get Started button?

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What is MS going to do with Windows 10 PCs that cannot be upgraded to 1607? Have an HP Steam Notebook (11-r020nr) that no matter how I try, refuses to upgrade to 1607 from 1511. Always says not enough disk space and to use external USB drive. Tried that, still does not work. So far HP has no solution. Guess it will be stuck on 1511 for eternity.

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You dumbed it down quite well, but my head still hurts at this ‘turn’ that MS has taken over the last several years with updating people’s machines without consent or further clarification.

Good lesson to be learned from this, folks – image your machines routinely; at a minimum, I’d say 1x a month (if not every 2 weeks). Plenty of great free tools out there that will do this for you, on a schedule even – Macrium Reflect Free is always my go-to, but there’s many others. Image your system. Even if you only carry 1 image at a time (and delete all others) to conserve HDD space – do it. Make images of your system, so when ish like this happens, you can roll back to what you had before somebody [MS] poked their nose in it.

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1511 will go End of Life exactly 60 days after 1704 (or whatever it’s called) gets designated “CBB” and it’s published on the VLSC server. Drawing on Abbodi’s comment

https://www.askwoody.com/2017/win10-machines-with-1607-upgrade-hidden-are-getting-upgraded/comment-page-1/#comment-115924

At a minimum, 1511 will get patches for:

18 months from CB, May 10 2017 ( = Nov 10 2015 + 18 months)

60 days after 1704 gets released to the VLSC servers – which would put it beyond Oct 2017.

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+1

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Found a fresh copy of the 1607 update lurking when I ran wushowhide today.

Hid it again!

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Zap!

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Agreed.

However, I only got into imaging after the GWX fiasco. Before that, it was not an issue really as everything on my personal PC could be reinstalled and re-updated, and all my data was backed up off the machine. Yes, it was a pain taking 3-4 days, but it helped clean things out and remove old programs. Now updating a new install is much more time consuming due to the sheer number, and the new October process. Fortunately I do make a CD or DVD of all my downloaded programs as well as have them on a hard drive archive for re-installs. Plus with WU you have to avoid the big 4 telemetry loaders if that is an issue to you.

Now, what about just average users – not tech savvy or knowledgeable folks? If I were to query all the PC owners I know as to who images, I would get blank stares. Some backup files, but many use a PC like a refrigerator, they just want it to work seamlessly.

In the past 12 months I have managed to acquire a number of machines for free, some relatively new. Almost all have been from people getting OFF the Windows bus. They have replaced the PCs/laptops with phones (few – Apple and Android and one has a Win8.1 phone!), tablets (the majority – Apple, Android, other), and Apple (a few with Macs, mainly laptops). The most common complaint was the PC stopped working. When quizzed, it was usually after some update or another made it not work, lose data, or lose settings, or that it no longer would update, and they did not want to be bothered anymore. (WARNING: above data not scientifically or statistically sampled ;))

People just want it to work, successfully get rid of the update notification, have the updates done, and have everything working. Or they want it to be like when they get the oil changed in a car, or it is not an option. The underside of the device or OS is not what they want to see or learn.

Actually many would be good candidates for a Chromebook, but I have never heard a salesperson or tech in any store or PC store suggest that option (too cheap with lower commission maybe.)

An entry level 15″ budget laptop from Apple could make great inroads and converts, but like Mercedes-Benz in the US, Apple does not want to lower their “Standard of Excellence” a/k/a exclusivity. Disclaimer: We do have an older MB.

Maybe Win10 will get there, but with how many casualties.

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Yes, there is. Tried it before but perhaps I didn’t complete the process correctly. There was nothing to go back to. Then tried restore point and of course there were no restore points. So just tried the Get Started button again and this time got further than previous attempt and am now at v. 1511 again. However, it took a long time to get there. Also just ran wushowhide and the v. 1607 update does not appear. How often should I run this? Also my system still responds slowly so I suspect there may be another issue I have to investigate. Thanks again.

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Paragon HDM Professional for me…..

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Since I will never apply any patches to 1511 to avoid the return of Cortana and edge, what happens after eol? If I keep Wu disabled and metered connection will I live in peace?

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I had avoided all the pain so far, but this time it got me. I upgraded my Win7Pro to 10 just before the deadline, so I got 1511, and it has behaved remarkably well, applying updates etc. BUT Saturday morning I discovered I had a rotating star on the main monitor, and nothing else. A hard reset caused it to try to recover the installation, but in the process I discovered that my RAID mirror was degraded. The recover effort had the same result, so another power down and back up did a Recover Previous version, and it came back up successfully, but I noted that I had another hard drive (my mirror) in file manager. Unfortunately I had a full day the rest of the day and evening, so yesterday morning I discovered it had done the same thing. I let it try for 24 hours, and then did the same hard reset, and it recovered again. Both hard drives are showing fine under CHKDSK, and appear to be identical. I did manage to get a full System 7 backup, but it looks like my RAID mirror is toast, and I might as well wipe that drive and double my disk space – the drives are approaching 5 years old. Anyone have a different suggestion?

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I have my PC’s totally locked down on all partitions in the Registry on AU & WU.

On W 10 I have sat and watch the System undo those change right before my eyes in RegEdit. There is a solution for this using “Permissions” BUT be very CAREFUL!!!

I want my systems Patched up to date, so I have no experience over a period of time, But at my own convenience.

Lord help us if they start using Trusted Installer, it has the Ultimate in Elevation……

Best Regards,

Crysta

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When my new build with a purchased version of widows 10 auto updated to 1607 last spring my entire freshly built desktop locked up after 30 seconds. I was lucky because I had nothing on it yet. I rolled the pc back to 1511
I installed the troubleshooter or hide updates from MS website its a diagnostics troubleshooter. I checked hide 1607 update, and I still am running 1511 this Monday, no update. I hope this continues

In trying to report the problem with the 1607 to MS I got very annoyed, I am not their guinea pig. I built a new pc with 1,700 of my hard earned money and then paid 130 for the POS windows 10. Only to have a forced ann update freeze my machine after booting, I mean nothing worked and I haven’t seen anything to prove they ever corrected this well reported problem.
Victor

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The symptoms have many, many possible causes. You may find that your machine upgrades to 1607 with no problems – or you may get clobbered again.

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You won’t get any security patches – and that’s a problem.

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I’m not sure about the “hidden” behavior of the 1607 upgrade, after you’ve rolled back. If you’re concerned, check it daily for a while.

If your system is very slow, you might try a Reset.

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@ fp ……. Yr Win 10 1511 will be like Win X-P or Win 10-Passe’.
……. But beware that after Oct 2017/EOL M$ may one day suddenly send u something to brick yr Win 10 1511 since u hv broken the EULA which says that it is mandatory for the user to keep Win 10 up-to-date cumulatively n Versionly. Remember the built-in Allow Experimentation value in Win 10 Registry.?

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@ Fed up ……. Last resort is to do a clean install of 1607 via M$-website.

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No the patches are the problem. My question is will Ms keep pushing upgrades on me?

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Even if I wanted 1607 (which sounds like a nightmare), my machine won’t successfully install it. It keeps saying I have to remove a program, but there’s nothing there but a period.

And I don’t like the thought of having to remove a program to make it work, because I probably need that program for something.

The unsuccessful install was the only thing preventing my machine from getting taken over with an upgrade during the weekend.

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The concerns are notable though I would quite like to try the latest versions but these major updates fail on my machine.

Win10 Pro 64-bit, i7, AMD R9 390x, x99 chipset MB, sufficient fast DDR4 RAM all fairly recent and of reasonably high specification.

Yet for a year these updates have been finishing by reinstalling the prior installation.

The minor security updates often leave me with a mess to clean up the morning after.

Win 10 Pro was clean installed without mishap (as my previous installation turned out to be an exquisite pirate copy, or thats what Msoft said.)

So this constant auto-peeling back to the previous version just seems like nonsense which should be easily handled by releasing the updates as whole OS’s capable of picking up pre-existing settings or singing out where it cannot.

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I expect it will continue to push upgrades to those “not being serviced” systems.

Think about this. Microsoft has said that 1507 will not be serviced after March 2017. And yet if you check Windows 10’s lifecycle, you will find that Microsoft has agreed to support “Windows 10, released in July 2015” until 2025.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/13853/windows-lifecycle-fact-sheet

How can that be? The only explanation I can think of is that even after March 2017 systems running 1507 (except those with LTSB) will still be offered the current build of Windows 10, whatever it may be, via Windows Update.

The situation is most likely the same with 1511. So you have to remain vigilant if you do not want to be “upgraded” without notice.

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Woody, this just in:

Microsoft revives free Windows 10 upgrade for SMBs :
http://www.computerworld.com/article/3160705/microsoft-windows/microsoft-revives-free-windows-10-upgrade-for-smbs.html

Revival of consumer Windows 10 upgrades to soon follow?

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Check the footnote:

“Windows 10, released in July 2015**”

“** A device needs to install the latest update to remain supported.”

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Yep, that’s exactly how Microsoft is meeting its commitment.

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Yep, I talked about that here:

https://www.askwoody.com/2017/is-microsoft-preparing-a-new-get-windows-10-campaign/

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I suppose I was lucky. The update only took over my very fast PC for 50 minutes (rather than 2 hours). However, afterwards, the boot-up process went from 20 seconds to 110 seconds. Then since I have CRM installed, rendered both CRM and Outlook useless and I was not able to send attachments without crashing Outlook.

Fortunately, MS allowed me to rollback to the last version and it only took 5 minutes. All is good now.

My question – why does Microsoft deliberately inflect this pain on its customers? No wonder people refuse to leave Win 7.

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I’m sure the folks at Microsoft would gladly fix the problem, if they could get to the root of it. Or, more likely, them.

Unfortunately, doing so is a complicated process – and it isn’t fair for them to have you as an unpaid engineer….

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Update – my son suggested it might be an unsupported device, and I realized I had a USB scanner plugged in that hasn’t worked well since the upgrade to Win10. I’ll reconnect to the web and see if the update tries again and works. (We do have some laptops and a desktop that upgraded to 1607 without issues.)

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I could live with these automatic updates if they were over in a couple of hours. I’m not an techy just an average PC user. My machine has been updating since yesterday, and it’s only at 91 percent! The percentage hasn’t moved for hours.

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Rollback? wasn’t possible..restore, nope, a mirror, win 7 restore back-up? nope! – not possible.This “update was supposed to “create space”…. well, it created it then took up a great deal of space, and deleted some 5000+ photos (I’m a semi-Pro Photographer)..no, they didn’t move, or go to the cloud or camera roll..they are 100% GONE! Glad I had a removable drive with all my images copied to it along with some expensive software that seems to be missing too. Can’t wait to see the Lawyers go after this snafu. Bill Gates is in deep do-do!

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One of the frustrating things about MS Update is behavior during power outages.

At two in the morning I hear my UPSs beeping because of another power outage. We get several a month here in rural Connecticut.

I wake up and go in there to shut down my PCs before the batteries give out and what do I see on the screen, “Please do not power off, installing 1 of 12 updates…”

The next mornning I see, “Windows will not load…” and I have a rebuild on my hands.

There should be an option to Shutdown without installing updates for situations like this. This is quite frustrating.

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Hi Folks,
I got so tired of trying to keep the M$ spies out of my old acer, I moved to linux before the Win7 was erased without my consent. Even though 3 keyboard keys (U-W-F) need a hammer to react. But I have no regrets, I have a choice of desktops, multi-monitor supported, all periphals work. Google can be boxed in properly, and learning the ropes on Linux takes less time than re-imaging, or moving to W10 when they decide it for you.
There are plenty of support pages and you actually get help without having to whip out your credit card.
Don’t take the risk, just dl for free any distro (I dislike Ubuntu plain, but used it to learn) and sod MS forever. If someone would hype a “go to linux week”, the sales department at M$ will have to give in. The $hareholders will make them.
Happy Linux mint user since 2016-9-06.
Jay

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Yep, I’m going to try this next. Thank you.

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What really burns my butt is that the system update occurred on the 22nd without prior notice, obviously as my desktop changed that morning. i tried to recover but it says the update was more than 11 days old (impossible) I use my system every day. What happened to me seems to be pretty rare per another forum. But deleting my photos, movies, music, documents. Was deplorable/despicable. Updating some software packages was OK, except a simple pain to get back my custom settings. Good thing I didn’t have any projects underway. Moving my files (or a failed attempt) to an online storage service (one drive/iCloud) with big bro and hackers is frightening.

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@ SteveG ……. Such a problem seldom affects Win 7/8.1, MacOSX n Linux.

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“Go to Linux Week” — Sounds like a great way to open people’s eyes to the possibility of Linux.

I went to Ubuntu a few months ago. I keep Windows around for the things I can’t do in Linux. Hope to have all of that resolved soon, at which time I can abandon Windows forever, or at least keep a copy of it sandboxed in a VM in case I need it for a task or two.

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Take a look at the Windows Update options in Group Policy.

You can also try setting your Ethernet/Wireless connection to be metered, and stop updates from being automatically downloaded…

Ethernet –

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/35656-ethernet-connection-set-metered-unmetered-windows-10-a.html

Wireless –

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/3162-wireless-network-metered-connection-set-windows-10-a.html

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