What's the verdict on Windows 10 April 2018 Update?

Micro$oft hides all kinds of legalese goodies in the EULAs for all of its software, including Windoze. Heck, if you took the FREE upgrade, they can even say you didn't pay anything to them anyway. They've got terrific lawyers who'd simply call up the fine print and blow you out, as they always do. It's a company no one can live with...or WITHOUT. I've dabbled with Linux, as many have suggested, and you'll just find you're trapped back in Windows Land if you want to get anything done and would rather not spend the rest of your days in a Unix-style shell typing commands at a command prompt to get anything really done, you're forced back to Redmond. MacOS simply gets you paying 150% of the Windows price for software and less support for devices, and higher prices when you find them. Apple used to criticize M$ for trampling on customers, but now they're big enough to do it, too! Sorry to have to say, but you may learn from those who've gone before you...…….. Good luck

OK, here you have an extract from my post above for half an hour ago:

Of course there should be taken in consideration, that these machines have been quite standard office/home configurations, but in all there is in question 100's of mill.'s machines, with different configurations and devices and ageing uncompatible hardware and software components, as seen e.g. with the January 2018 routine update catastrophal case, locking 10's or 100's of thousands if not even mill.'s of machines already just after pushing the power button, due to the update addressed to the newer processor techniques, but was of course cleared here and there somehow, myself forced to re-install 3 machines totally from scratch …… (and guess who was willing to pay for the work, got just some really minimal compensation for any of those …&hellip

You bring up the interesting point of liability. This is where most program and OS agreements depart from what you are asking for.

I've seen folk go down that road.

Why do you think there is so much call for IT staff today? Do you blame this on Microsoft?

OK, some general comments on all this …

As all the time in the IT history, also nowadays is seen extremely rapid development on all and now 10's of partly/totally new small/huge features/components and also new versions for them launched every week, so, what is the real impact by them on all OS's and components, it's tremendous!

So, you can image the bottomless/endless complexity in all, and who could keep these things in hand, even a very-very slight slice of it … no-one, not even groups/organisations of upto mill.'s of people, so, also very widely affecting bugs are an everyday bread … and, on the micro(or, rather nano)-floor client level someone, like me, should take care of the single machines keeping them operable!, in minutes(!), or of course mostly in an hour or two, but anyway in a day or two …

OK, for a joke relief, an example of a discussion with a regular client -> he should have get the Windows Upgrade problems, even a big one, solved on guarantee by me!, who has been taking care of his machines since 10yrs … the big bug consequences are on my responsibility!?, lol, lol … So, I explained him, none of the OS's, due to their nature, do not have any-any guarantee at all! but, that machines/hardware "maybe" got repaired/exchanged for guarantee ... but, still all the needed "huge" re-install/update/file copy-transfer etc. hand-work will be debited in some extent!

Have a nice day!

Best regards,

PeteVfi

But for most companies it's training and getting these systems upgraded and working.

I'm running into many users that demand trouble free systems. That's not Windows or most other OSes.

CNET article at https://www.cnet.com/news/microsoft-obsession-with-windows-is-ending-and-i-couldnt-be-happier-build-2018-google-io-f8/

I Am Not A Lawyer:

What would your damages be?

Your damage would be that you can no longer use your used computer, so you have to buy another one.

First, I don't believe Microsoft ever guaranteed that they would support existing hardware in perpetuity. So, you're dead in the water right there.

Next, you won't get the value of a new computer. At best, you'll get the depreciated value of your current computer. Considering the CPUs that Win 10 has chosen not to support, the current value of your used computer is probably well under $100. You won't even get 100% of that. Then, the blood-sucking lawyers will skim off 1/3 for themselves. So, you would probably end up with something along the lines of a coupon valued at $10 for a Microsoft product. Or, maybe a teeny check. (I once got a check from a multi-million dollar credit card class action suit of $6.28.)

Class action suits are rarely worth anyone's time. Except the blood-sucking lawyers, who rake in a few million. Every once in a while there comes along a situation where we can use a class action suit to make a large company pay enough to affect their future choices. Make it too expensive to take the cheap and immoral route. But, it's rarely that clear cut. In my minuscule opinion.

Where did I say that I would be doing this?!

There are many CPU's used in the public and private sector, that were NOT prepared for this update and the damages to perfectly functioning CPU's before it wreaked havoc in the cyber world!

In all seriousness, I believe what Microsoft just committed with this update, is worse than a release of a virus or malware emanating from North Korea, Iran, or Russia!

I didn't say you actually were. But, you do seem to think it's a great idea.

I was giving you an idea of how to calculate if a knee-jerk class action suit makes any sense whatsoever. A large number of these kinds of hype-based suits provide nothing of real value to the members of the class. They mostly line the pockets of the lawyers. And the customers end up eating that cost in higher prices in the future. Too many of these end up being failures, even if the class "wins."

Whenever you see a report about one of these knee-jerk class action suits, keep in mind my $6.28 check. That's likely about what they'll settle for, along with no admission of wrong doing.

Lawyer's Motto: Let's You and Them Fight

The lawyers.

As to the users it's clear that at no time has Microsoft been responsible for your PC or your files.

There are new to this area folk that think that they are ENTITLED to running Windows forever. They can but as we saw from Dos to present day, this has never been true.

You can bet that some will want to make a case out of this to which I think they should try.

Please read EVERYTHING that I wrote!

I believe that we are ENTITLED to an update on CPU's that are compatible, with a legal explanation to everyone that was screwed by this update, why their CPU's will NOT be supported by Microsoft anymore, on CPU's that were fully functioning on Windows 10 before being inflicted with the 1803 update!

The owners of Alienware CPU's were given a lot more respect and care than HP owners That right there, in my opinion, could be of interest to class action litigation!

Does anyone remember how Apple was hit with the battery issue with the 6's?!

Now you have to find legal ground to stand on.

Even Linux dropped updates for many old systems.

Okay, I try to stay out of discussions about legal issues in jurisdictions that I don't understand all that well - epecially those that tend to come across as rather bizarre to the outsider ...

But in most cases where you aren't offered a free update to your software you are just told to stay on the old version that your old hardware supports, and then that's that. Even Windows used to work that way - given a sufficiently old computer you might be stuck wirh XP or even 98 or whatever. Same with Linux - in fact, same with MVS version 3.8 (for those who remember

But this is the first situation that I can recall where the updates force themselves onto unsuitable hardware and break what used to be a working system - that fits the description of malware.

Correction: I can think of one situation where exactly this happened - fairly recently just under a million routers issued by Deutsche Telekom were rendered useless after some hacker had attempted to upgrade their Linux to a version that would make them part of a botnet, The attempt failed because these router wer actually not Linux based but tried to load the offered firmware upgrade anyway. Okay, but that actually WAS malware ...

I'd make sure you are not in any violation of the EULA that you agreed to. Just saying that, if you want to swim in the legal pool, you have to make sure all the T's are crossed and the i"s dotted.

A lot of what I'm reading sounds like some user errors, IMPATIENCE is a main problem. Gone is the day when updates took less than an hour. Even the black screen goes away in a few hours. But, I would suggest contacting a lawyer if you really want to try a class action.

Just finished a 5th pc. All previously were Pro Versions, this last one was a Home Version and so far working fine. All are 64-bit Versions, also!

How about this as an addition to the Forbes article's Option 2, tested to be applied also to the Ethernet (and of course, in case the same time to the Wi-Fi) connection:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\NetworkList\DefaultMediaCost -> non-metered -> 1 -> metered -> 2

But, note! To make changes to the DefaultMediaCost key require the permissions to be granted to the Administrators by (OK, of course very careful with the RegEdit!)

-> DefaultMediaCost -> right click -> Permissions -> Advanced -> Owner Change -> type Administrators -> OK -> tick Replace -> Apply -> OK -> change to Administrators -> tick Permit Full Rights -> OK -> Ethernet/Wi-Fi -> right-click -> Edit -> change to 2 (hex or dec)

And, note! When seen all this not anymore actual, remember to do these procedures vice versa!

It's too late to turn off Windows 10 updates on my two laptops that were turned into bricks by the latest big Windows update. Instead, I'll try resurrecting these two dead machines by switching them to Linux operating system (Linux Mint is the version that is sounding best to me.) I probably should have set those two laptops to run on Linux in the first place--Would have save me all of this grief, headaches, and hassles.

One of my extra machines is a 2011 era Dell Latitude. It's a dual boot Windows 10 and Linux Mint 17. After the newness of Mint wore off, I missed too many things I could do with Windows, so I rarely use Mint anymore. Go ahead and try it. You can still wipe it and clean install Windows 10 again. By the way, I usually use the Windows 10 laptop once daily for about 10 min, for a certain purpose, but yesterday I noticed it was "preparing to download update 1803" so I didn't use it today....

If so, go here and check box for Linux, then the box under Architecture for ARM to find the distros that support that processor, which is also typically found on those cheap Pi mini computers. Ubuntu (MATE?) and Debian support ARM.

https://distrowatch.com/search.php#advanced

For info, the Cherry Trail Z8300 processors are Intel Atom x5 Airmont microarchitecture, no ARM ...

Even being quite a new design/product they have been re-directed to other market segments, due to seen to loose the battle for ARM's on phones and tablets, and, seemingly also not anymore being compatible with Windows 10 new upgrades ...

Best regards,

PeteVfi

P.S. On IT 54yrs, and, a BbTrumpetLead, from Scandinavia …

OK, thanks for the info, anyway interesting. Having not time or interest enough to concentrate more in deep on the Open Source/Linux world, with, ouu-hhh, hundreds of different distros, and, technically quite an "old-fashioned style" complicated environments, even having some support experience on these, they have not got too tempting for me, so far ...

Long ago I gave some advice to just get any bootable distro for a rainy day.

No need to "learn Linux." Read about how it is used for those bad days at:
http://tips.oncomputers.info/archives2004/0401/2004-Jan-11.htm

Yes, I do have some Linux Live-CD/USB (Puppy Linux, xtra-pc/ubuntu) and also Installation medias in reserve for Ubuntu, Lubuntu and Debian, sorry, Linux Mint missing, so far.

But, in order to get something technical done with Linux, as not too much used to it, it will take ages to get very deep technical things really done with the structure of 100's of non-descriptive abbreviations of commands, folder names etc. … compared with Windows, which I know from tip to toe (lol!), done from 1min to 1+day ...

Like checking a drive partition for surface wear, bad blocks. I didn't trust the report from SMART values, nor the report from smartmontools program, so ran the tried and true long way in terminal today on suspect drive. It's Terminal where many dive for cover, or run back to windows.
====================================

sudo e2fsck -c -f -v /dev/sdb2
e2fsck 1.42.9 (4-Feb-2014)
Checking for bad blocks (read-only test): 0.00% done, 0:00 elapsed. (0/0/0 errdone
MINT-16: Updating bad block inode.
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Pass 5: Checking group summary information

MINT-16: ***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****

429351 inodes used (5.94%, out of 7233536)
2541 non-contiguous files (0.6%)
615 non-contiguous directories (0.1%)
# of inodes with ind/dind/tind blocks: 0/0/0
Extent depth histogram: 371379/278/1
10410272 blocks used (36.01%, out of 28911616)
0 bad blocks
2 large files

318969 regular files
49358 directories
57 character device files
25 block device files
0 fifos
185 links
60834 symbolic links (57504 fast symbolic links)
99 sockets
------------
429527 files

Then play around with it from a LIVE DVD of whatever they like the look of, then move to testing in a virtual drive with windows Hyper-V, or VPC2007 with earlier windows, or using Oracles VM or VirtualBox. Some like playing games on computers, I like checking out distros, lol.

Trying a re-boot with Linux Knoppix sounds like a great idea that might actually help me to get my machines working again.

Here's a list of them all and their capabilities.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Atom_microprocessors

Here's the Cherry Trail versions. They all run 64 bit operating systems.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silvermont#Tablet_processors_(Cherry_Trail)

Suggestions of what Linux distros work best on them. I'd try LInux Mint with MATE or XFCE desktop. Lubuntu or Elementary OS are good choices too.
http://dailylinuxuser.com/2013/10/12-great-linux-operating-systems-for.html
http://www.everydaylinuxuser.com/2014/01/6-more-great-linux-operating-systems.html