Why putting off software upgrades can make things worse

[Brink]

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it," has been an aphorism that's been with us for a very long time. In many ways, it's been a guiding principle for me and many other tech folks. However, I'm starting to think that, at least when it comes to computers, we're going to need to retire the practice entirely.

I'll illustrate this with an example. Many of you have followed along with my Broadband Studio project. Because I do so many webcasts, on-air interviews, and broadcasts, I built a studio into a 10x9 foot room.

At the core of that studio is a Mac mini that runs some very precisely configured software. This software handles the audio routing, the green screen chroma key, the lower thirds, and more. It's managed by very carefully constructed scripts. I augment the system with two iPads, one driving a teleprompter, and one that acts as a custom keypad to the broadcast software.

It's tight. It works perfectly. But it's running on OS X Mountain Lion.

Mountain Lion was the ninth major version of OS X. It was released to manufacturing by Apple just about four years ago.

About 18 months later, Mavericks was released. I chose to stick with Mountain Lion because Mavericks had such a rough start. Given the need for all the elements in my studio to work together seamlessly, I decided to keep my Mac mini on Mountain Lion because everything actually did work together.

I figured, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

That strategy stood me in good stead until yesterday. I make a good chunk of my living doing webcasts, so the webcast infrastructure is mission critical.

Yesterday, when I went into the studio to record a webcast, everything broke...

Read more: If it ain't broke, break it: Why putting off software upgrades can make things worse | ZDNet

 

[lehnerus2000]

I read this story a yesterday.
The real moral of the story is, if you don't have backup images, automatic updates will eventually break your PC.

How can you get any work done, if you are constantly creating backup images to protect yourself from automatic updates?

MS better get used to heaps of whining about W10's automatic updates.

 

[Brink]

MS better get used to heaps of whining about W10's automatic updates.

You could just disable the automatic updates in Windows 10, and not have to worry about it anymore. I find setting your Internet connection to be metered works best for this.

Windows Update Automatic Updates - Enable or Disable in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums

 

[lehnerus2000]

MS better get used to heaps of whining about W10's automatic updates.

You could just disable the automatic updates in Windows 10, and not have to worry about it anymore. I find setting your Internet connection to be metered works best for this.

Obviously you could just disable the network connection, I thought that "Disable Automatic Updates" feature was only available in W10 Pro (and above) not W10 Home.

I don't know if OEM desktops and laptops are going to favour W10 Pro over W10 Home (on cheap machines).

 

[Brink]

Nar, you could set to use a metered connection to disable automatic updates in Windows 10 Home as a workaround.

 

[lehnerus2000]

Nar, you could set to use a metered connection to disable automatic updates in Windows 10 Home as a workaround.

I forgot about that trick.

The laptop is off most of the time, so it shouldn't be a problem.
Currently I only turn it on to get updates (after creating a backup image).

My original comment wasn't just targeted at W10.
According to the ZDNet author, the Google Chrome auto-updater took out his system.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I never allow anything to auto update. I don't have a problem with programs and the OS alerting me that there are updates available—heck, I find it quite convenient—but I prefer to wait a bit before downloading and installing updates to make sure there aren't any issues (issues happen occasionally).

 

[Brds7t7]

I keep the majority on the latest versions. With the exception of a couple that have gotten too bloated in later versions.
Not a fan of automatic updates though, it's happened a couple of times when Automatic updates have broken something... Yes Google I'm talking about you and your Chrome auto-updates! I like to update things at my own pace.

 

[RoasterMen]

I'm fine with updates as long they ask me if I want to, and the details.

 

[CarlSD]

You could just disable the automatic updates in Windows 10, and not have to worry about it anymore. I find setting your Internet connection to be metered works best for this.

Doesn't that only work if you have a wireless connection? If you use a wired connection (ethernet cable) like most of us probably do then that option isn't available.

I've heard that there's supposed to be some sort of registry 'hack' that fools Windows 10 into thinking a wired connection is wireless so you can use the metered connection option but, knowing MS, I'm sure that won't stay working for too long.

 

[Brink]

You could just disable the automatic updates in Windows 10, and not have to worry about it anymore. I find setting your Internet connection to be metered works best for this.

Doesn't that only work if you have a wireless connection? If you use a wired connection (ethernet cable) like most of us probably do then that option isn't available.

I've heard that there's supposed to be some sort of registry 'hack' that fools Windows 10 into thinking a wired connection is wireless so you can use the metered connection option but, knowing MS, I'm sure that won't stay working for too long.

You can set both a wireless or Ethernet connection to be metered.


How to Set Ethernet Connection as Metered or Non-Metered in Windows 10

OR

Set Wireless Network as Metered or Non-Metered Connection in Windows 10

 

[RolandJS]

Brink, I use this for my Windows 7 Pro, will this batchfile work at the beginning of each Windows 10 session:

echo disabling Windows Update for current session
c:\windows\system32\net stop wuauserv
c:\windows\system32\sc config wuauserv start=disabled
exit

 

[ThrashZone]

Well at least in win-7 it's only a once or now twice a month thing,
Win-10 there's no telling when an update is coming
Sure you can do as Shawn says but I found many updates will say pending install even after using install now.
Yes imaging is great but that has turned into a constant chore which 10 is already too fragile even without getting into the updates issue.

After this was posted I have not booted into 10 since it's just not worth it anymore to deal with until M$ comes down from the clouds to reality = reliability.
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...ues-with/8cc2af67-d1ef-43d8-8658-b5c5a69be530

It's tough enough in win-7 to keep from getting borked from updates
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthre...Secure-Boot-Violation-Asus-Maximus-VII-Ranger

 

[fireberd]

Two weeks ago a client brought a Dell desktop to be upgraded to Win 10. As it turned out it had Win 8 and not 8.1 so I had to first upgrade it to 8.1 The first thing I did was make a complete disc image to a USB hard drive using Macrium Reflect. It had never had any Windows updates installed and when I checked there were 111 updates. I tried doing all 111 at one time but it failed and reverted back to before attempting to update. I finally got the 111 updates installed by doing 10 at a time. Then I was able to upgrade to Win 8.1. I made another disc image of the 8.1 installation and finally upgraded to Win 10.

In this particular case not doing the Windows updates was not the thing to do.

 

[ThrashZone]

Yep I got a taste of win-8 pro again and same deal with updates
I managed to get 50 at a time installed and keep that up until it said it was okay to install 8.1 from the m$ store.
So yea even win-8 is being messed with same as win-7 as far as installing or clean installing goes.

It was also very nice of M$ while downloading 8.1 they were kind enough to change my update setting to auto

I was trying to upgrade to 10 so it wasn't too maddening

 

[Brink]

Brink, I use this for my Windows 7 Pro, will this batchfile work at the beginning of each Windows 10 session:

echo disabling Windows Update for current session
c:\windows\system32\net stop wuauserv
c:\windows\system32\sc config wuauserv start=disabled
exit

It should still work in Windows 10 as well.

 

[Brds7t7]

It was also very nice of M$ while downloading 8.1 they were kind enough to change my update setting to auto

I've seen a few people saying their settings got changed without their knowledge. How does this even happen? I've been using PC's for 20+ years and I don't recall ever having had a Windows setting change without me doing it myself????
While I haven't used 8/8.1 on any of my main systems, I have run it in several VM's and I still haven't seen any settings change without my input.
I've seen it mentioned that Windows Defender can change update settings back to Auto, but I've never used it myself.

 

[Brink]

It was also very nice of M$ while downloading 8.1 they were kind enough to change my update setting to auto

I've seen a few people saying their settings got changed without their knowledge. How does this even happen? I've been using PC's for 20+ years and I don't recall ever having had a Windows setting change without me doing it myself????
While I haven't used 8/8.1 on any of my main systems, I have run it in several VM's and I still haven't seen any settings change without my input.
I've seen it mentioned that Windows Defender can change update settings back to Auto, but I've never used it myself.

Sometimes a Windows Update may reset a Windows setting back to default.

 

[Brds7t7]

Those pesky Windows updates *shakes fist*
I can't say it's ever happened to me before though (I think). *Starts looking through settings*

 

[ThrashZone]

Yea I had made a system image before doing the download from M$ store after the chore in updating 8 was so much fun with 2 failed attempts installing all win-8 updates at once failed and reverted back

But yes simply downloading 8.1 reset the update setting not sure I would call that "sometimes"
I didn't test it again since 8.1 installed and I was trying to upgrade to 10 anyway.
But yes M$ made it quite easy
But if that wasn't the intent it would of been a tad infuriating to say the least :mad2: