"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
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.
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
Last edited by Brink; 29 Apr 2016 at 09:05.
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.
Last edited by lehnerus2000; 29 Apr 2016 at 02:08. Reason: Clarification
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).
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.
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.
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