Windows 7 Update Rant

[NardCake]

Hello! I haven't posted here in a while but I just had something happen to me that makes me extremely angry and I would like to vent, hopefully it's not a problem.

For the 1 almost two years I have been running various flavors of Linux on my machine, because I absolutely can't stand windows, it's a very big inconvienience for me. On Monday I decided I should partition my HDD and install Windows 7 because there's some Windows software I needed to use, here's what happened:

Monday at 5:30PM I begin the installation of Windows 7.

Monday at 8:00PM the installation finishes and it boots into a fresh Windows.

Monday at 5:40PM I install Chrome and browse the web for a bit, Windows update asks me to restart for update, I do (huge mistake).

Monday at 5:45PM Windows is completely broken because of Windows update, won't start. I boot into safe mode, it reverts to a time before the update, I boot back into normal mode and everything is fine and well.

Monday at 11:30PM I shut Windows down to go to bed, and see "Installing Updates x%" (something along those lines) and a spinning circle, I did not approve of this...

Tuesday at 4:00 PM I come home, boot up the computer, black screen again, Windows isn't booting. I try rebooting multiple times, nothing, safe mode, nothing, nothing, nothing nothing. Then I go into advenced boot options and try system restore and the option that's supposed to return it to a previous state before updates, none of them work, the one that's supposed to revert back sits for a few minutes and loks like it's doing something, gets nearly done and fails. There's nothing to do at all, can't boot into Windows at all, no safe mode, no working restore, NOTHING.

Tuesday at 5:15PM I'm reinstalling Windows and will be sure to disable Windows updates so I don't have to deal with this again, this is absolutely ridiculous. In my opinion any operating system that can completely break itself from updates it installed itself is not worthy to be on my machine, and has a serious issue. I strongly believe the reason Windows is still a thing is because of Microsofts money it can invest into tricking people and businessed into using it the best they can, this is like sitting down at a restraunt and being served poisoned food, it's insane.

</rant>

[JorgeM]

makes me extremely angry and I would like to vent,

yep, i understand based on the scenario, but....

On Monday I decided I should partition my HDD and install Windows 7

I'd say that this was your first mistake. If you prefer to run Linux, that's great. I dont know anything about Linux, but I've learned quite a bit about Windows. I completely understand your frustration. When people bring me their broken computers running Windows (even though i havent done desktop support in 15 years, but i'm still that computer guy), i get really frustrated. When I get a PC, i usually just reimage the PC, dont have time to try to fix the unfixable.

Tuesday at 5:15PM I'm reinstalling Windows and will be sure to disable Windows updates so I don't have to deal with this again, this is absolutely ridiculous.

that's probably not a good idea. I do encourage you to apply the latest service pack and the security fixes. I would not install any optional, non-security patches. You are asking for problems if you do.

My advice...for what its worth...

set up your system with a host operating system that you feel comfortable with. Install a VM application. Set up as many guest VMs as you have space/resources for. If you like Linux run that as your host then run windows as a guest. When windows breaks... Just delete the VM. No harm to the host.

[mike_2000_17]

I totally understand your frustration. I've had my share of problems with Windows Update. I think that the update system works under the assumption that you had Windows pre-installed with your computer and that you always use Windows and therefore, never miss their monthly updates. But for people like me, who can count on their fingers of one hand the number of times they booted up into Windows in the past year, that assumption breaks down.

Every time I boot up into Windows (most often because someone forces me to use PowerPoint for a presentation, instead of my preferred option: LaTeX/Beamer) I have several months worth of updates to get through (often requiring several reboots!!!) and every other time, they fail somehow and force me to do all sorts of steps to repair it. They simply did not design the system to be able to work unless you install all the updates as they are putting them out, i.e., meaning you need to always be using Windows to catch them all, and you can't really do a re-install from an old copy (not up-to-date) of Windows' installation CD/DVD/whatever.

And yeah, Windows' restore system is a joke! And as a customer, the joke's on you!

And I totally agree with JorgeM. If you need Windows for something, put it inside a virtual machine. It's preferrable to not allow it unfettered access to your system, Windows doesn't deserve that privileged position!

[NardCake]

Thanks for letting me vent and sharing your experiences!

JorgeM:
What makes not installing updates a bad idea?

[Captain119]

NardCake my guess is JorgeM said that bc of the patching they provide to potential security issues. there is new vulnerabilities all the time so updates patch them up but like JorgeM mentioned optional updates are mostly where the problems are in