Oh but you're going to miss that pretty screensaver... You know, the one that says (<sarcasm> "Do you like what you see?" </sarcasm>) ... NO, I LIKED THE WORK I WAS DOING

I bought a new computer. I bought the Flight Simulator 2020. The flight simulator wouldn't work. MS Support said to update Windows, which I did. FS2020 worked... for a week. Then MS Support said to update Windows to 2004. The whole update took about 6 hours, time I would like to have spent flying.

Of the 3 weeks I had FS2020, a FULL DAY was spent on the phone with MS Support, with the ONLY change being a new, updated Windows. 24 hours of "support" spread over 3 weeks. 3 work days I could have flown.

FS202 is an amazing program. But it won't run if (a) the remote license check fails (b) the operating system isn't up to date, (c) the wifi is down, or (d) FS updates aren't applied.

Would you keep a great car if (a) it wouldn't start if the owner's manual wasn't up to date? or (b) it wouldn't start because your lease isn't up to date? or (c) the onboard computers weren't the latest update? or (d) the wifi was down? I'd get rid of the car, no matter how good it was.

I got rid of FS2020. I now have a sweet Linux install.

If you value your time, your work, or your money... Don't use Windows.

The user-hostileness of Windows Update astounds me. This week I had a notification about updates. I still had many tabs and a few editors with (unsaved) content. I put my computer to sleep to continue the text day, figuring I'll do the update then.

Nope. Microsoft in all its arrogance decides that no user can be trusted to make proper decisions about their own hardware. It set a wake timer, booted up my PC in the middle of the night and rebooted it (killing all my processes, wiping out my work) to install its update. It's unforgiveable. There's no way to turn just the forced reboot feature off permanently. The only thing you can do is suspend updates for a bit, temporarily.

I own my hardware, I want to own my software. I'm sick of this "OS as a service" turn Windows 10 has taken.

I used to exclusively use Linux desktops but got back into games.

However, this combined with the deceptive Microsoft account bullshit when installing makes me think I should make the switch back again.

Who has insight into _why_ these updates are so fraught? I see tons of rants about how bad it is, and I've had mixed experiences at best — some hardware I've never had problems with for years, others reliably shit the bed on any significant update.

Is it possible from Microsoft's side to have good operating system updates within Windows' existing constraints, considering the hardware diversity? (And on the flip side, why has Apple had so much trouble recently with avoiding updates that break features, despite controlling the hardware?)

I get that it's challenging, that's clear, but why are updates in these proprietary OSs so apparently unsolvable?

My current setup is a laptop with Windows 10 as a host and an Ubuntu VM for work, and while it was nice avoiding the common Linux laptop issues, I really do consider migrating to a Linux only setup because of how awful and unpredictable recent Windows updates are.

I run all my Windows software in Parallels/Virtualbox instances, on macOS/Linux respectively. It is very hardened Windows 7, and it has very limited access to the internet, and Windows 7 still receive some updates, which I assume cover critical vulnerabilities. I hope to keep this setup for 2-3 more years.

I remember, I said huge No to Windows 10 when I realized I can't change Administrator password offline, as I created MS account during setup. Big mistake of mine.

As the pandemic continues, my wife had me purchased a Cricut craft cutter, accessories and supplies to keep her and the kids occupied with crafts...since school was also closed for summer.

Literally every time she goes to use the laptop there’s an update...takes over an hour to get things started. Eventually she got tired of the updates and now back on the phone scrolling.

“The point is that it takes some time to get all of these things running again after a reboot.”

I too would like my desktop restored to its last setting on reboot.

So, any insight what was happening during those six hours?

Using Group Policy you can set Windows to download but not install updates. [0]

Setting this, I have never had an unexpected restart. Please keep in mind that future Windows updates may adjust this setting. I have had to re-apply the policy at least once.

I’ve also had issues with wake timers which have needed a combination of settings to fix.

Personally, I have moved away from Windows for every device I have excluding a dedicated gaming PC. I agree that this is hostile behavior and is completely unacceptable.

[0] The group policy is located at

  Computer Configuration\ Policies\ Administrative Templates\ Windows Components\ Windows Update

and is called “Configure Automatic Updates”. Enable it and select “3 - Auto download and notify for install”

Yeah, you need to be very cautious with megacorp software these days. Disable internet access before putting your laptop to sleep or better don't even give it access to the entire internet in the first place, as the OS, the drivers, everything working in background will abuse it.

Although if you just want to control updates wumgr [1] still works, check it out. I use windows laptop pretty rarely, like a few times per year maybe and it helps a lot.

[1] https://github.com/DavidXanatos/wumgr

> I used to exclusively use Linux desktops but got back into games.

If you mostly play singleplayer games, WINE/lutris/Proton have all gotten pretty good. If you play games with anti-cheat, there's no escaping Windows though.

You may have luck with a GPU passthrough actually, if you've got the hardware.