Newsletter Archives

• Microsoft starts forced upgrades to Win10 1809. Again. This time with a next generation machine learning model.

  Posted on January 17, 2019 at 06:47 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Here we go again.

  Microsoft’s starting to push the Win10 1809 upgrade on Windows 10 Home machines, and on Win10 Pro machines that haven’t been properly set to block the upgrade.

  I have no doubt that 1809 will be the most stable version of Win10 yet. (Damning with faint praise alert.) MS took more than three months after its release to fix the problems. But you’d be well advised to lock down and see if there are any more big surprises.

  Computerworld Woody on Windows.

  Windows Patches/Security upgrade to Win10 1809

• Forcing the issue with Win10 v1809

  Posted on November 18, 2018 at 17:03 CST by PKCano • Comment in the Forums

  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.

  Windows Patches/Security upgrade to Win10 1809, Upgrade Win10, Win10 1809