Windows Setup Error Messages Will Soon Actually Help Fix Problems (arstechnica.com) 69
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The next major Windows release, the Windows 10 April 2019 Update (codenamed 19H1), is going to offer some significant improvements [to error messages]. Microsoft described them on its Windows Insider webcast, and they were spotted initially by WinFuture. Currently, the best case during installation is something like this screen.
The message says that an incompatible application is detected, and a Knowledge Base article is referenced. It turns out that most Windows users don't know what "KBxxxxxxx" actually means, and the article isn't hyperlinked to make accessing it any easier. Issues detected through the other setup experience aren't much better. Windows will offer to uninstall problem applications, but often the better solution is to upgrade the application in question. The new setup process aims to be both more informative and more useful. The general approach is to allow decisions to be made within the setup program where possible and to put meaningful descriptions in the error messages, rather than leaving people with just a KB number to go on. Further, the "learn more" links will take you directly to the relevant Knowledge Base article, rather than hoping that end users know what "KBxxxxxxxx" means. Third-party developers will also be able to provide information about upgrades and updates when applicable to resolving compatibility issues.
The message says that an incompatible application is detected, and a Knowledge Base article is referenced. It turns out that most Windows users don't know what "KBxxxxxxx" actually means, and the article isn't hyperlinked to make accessing it any easier. Issues detected through the other setup experience aren't much better. Windows will offer to uninstall problem applications, but often the better solution is to upgrade the application in question. The new setup process aims to be both more informative and more useful. The general approach is to allow decisions to be made within the setup program where possible and to put meaningful descriptions in the error messages, rather than leaving people with just a KB number to go on. Further, the "learn more" links will take you directly to the relevant Knowledge Base article, rather than hoping that end users know what "KBxxxxxxxx" means. Third-party developers will also be able to provide information about upgrades and updates when applicable to resolving compatibility issues.
Re: (Score:1, Funny)
Must be really dark and stuffy in your house.
Obligatory (Score:5, Funny)
Re: Obligatory (Score:1)
Itâ(TM)s preposterous to pretend linux is any better at this particular game. Anything slightly wrong and you get loads of cryptic bullshit error messages with no clue how to proceed.
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What a thought (Score:3, Insightful)
Who would have guessed that meaningful errors might be a good idea? I'm not holding my breath though, they will probably be some kind of nebulous "user friendly" error messages that link back to websites with 20 different unrelated causes.
Oh sure they will (Score:3, Insightful)
"Windows Setup Error Messages Will Soon Actually Help Fix Problems"
Ha ha, yeah sure they will. As if the average Windows user will be able to understand a KB article and formulate a fix from it.
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Why is it all I read was, Windows will help you more with installing applications, instead of just presenting a meaningless message it will un-install the application for you, problem solved - wait what, how is a problem application installation solved by uninstalling the application, the problem hasn't been solved at all, you have just made it disappear, how does that solve anything.
Ohh I get it, M$ will be calling all competing applications problematic and uninstall them for you, not windows fault, your
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Ha ha, yeah sure they will. As if the average Windows user will be able to understand a KB article and formulate a fix from it.
The average user doesn't need to. Let the experts be experts, but for the love of fucking god put more detail in error messages than "Something went wrong :-("
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The average user doesn't need to. Let the experts be experts, but for the love of fucking god put more detail in error messages than "Something went wrong :-("
New error message...
"Something went wrong, please see the stack trace below for more details:
b34d33f 908012cfb2743909 3b111ff17676a 22596f83
b1027d2857a 3ab0ec91d2ddeee 6fbffb6cfcea f3dd74
63052684 1df79ecf7d 2e8 79a1585b3a168 c4a 3929275
699 60b3b1a 8f00 b9 35b6 eb51c8d0818291a 95cf8c 65c
1ff92 468a 224a2df7b 465907 ef a852 1668d720 8fc337
Thank you for choosing Microso558ef4a53bb033cc82"
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Hey I'll take something I can type into Google, over something that spits out generic results any day. People forget that meaningless error codes actually help narrow down the error by connecting people with a potentially same underlying problem.
Please, give me a KB number. Give me a stack trace. It's far better than what we're getting right now.
I can see where this is going (Score:2, Funny)
"Hi, i'm clippy... it seems like you're having a systems error..."
Win 10 So Bloated Already (Score:1, Interesting)
With Win 10 already being so bloated, why don't they put OS images from their earlier history (MS-DOS, Win 3X and up->), Linux, and run these in VMs when an incompatibility crops up? No more problems with those incompatible programs a user/administrator might need. Of course, these VMs would crash from time to time just like in the good old days, when MS was running the BitBlt code 'borrowed' from Apple for their early Windows OSs and not the later Windows with legally gotten OpenBSD code.
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You just invented "Windows XP Mode"
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Windows 7 came on a dual-layer DVD, Windows 10 came on a single-layer DVD. Standard Ubuntu is now more than double the size of a CD; remember when 'it fits on a CD!' was its headline feature? App bloat is ubiquitous, it's not just OSes. 64bit binaries are bigger, for one thing.
Re:Win 10 So Bloated Already (Score:5, Interesting)
Windows 7 took up 1 GB of RAM when running, Windows 10 takes 3 GB. Windows 7's background processes consumed less than 5% CPU on my 2008 computer, Windows 10 regularly sits at 100% CPU for hours on end on my 2018 computer.
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Won't help. excessive resource usage is due to bloody OneDrive.
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Windows 10 takes 3 GB.
No it doesn't. Windows 10 takes bugger all and then the pre-fetch service uses a shit-ton of your available RAM. It's also much faster at freeing this RAM when requested, and you'll notice your 4GB computer doesn't really noticeably slow down at all when you open up something resource heavy e.g. the latest Lightroom with it's 2.7GB memory footprint.
On the flip side launch Office after this exercise takes longer.
Can I introduce you to this new concept of caching? The only wasted RAM is empty RAM.
Windows 10 regularly sits at 100% CPU for hours on end on my 2018 computer.
Given you kn
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Given you knowledge of how Windows works it's not surprising you somehow managed to break your system.
If you haven't used Windows for a few weeks and turn your machine on, it will go berserk and peg the CPU for hours at 100%. It's regular scheduled maintenance, and it is certainly real. I see this all the time when diagnosing problems with various machines. Even Win7 does it on occasion if you haven't turned off all the background crap.
But, yeah, there's always someone out there like you who loves to shout, "User error... as usual!"
Reminds me of when Microsoft first broke WindowsUpdate on Win7, so it wou
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If you haven't used Windows for a few weeks
What a strange edge case. On the flip side it's quite well known that scheduled maintenance is mostly incremental and a complete re-index and rescan from defender is only forced when you don't use your computer for a long time. It is also only done when the computer is idle and the process suspends should you actually do something with it. Likewise fetching and background install of updates would be completely non-intrusive for a normal user.
But, yeah, there's always someone out there like you who loves to shout, "User error... as usual!"
Well this clearly was. A normal computer user doesn't not use thei
Re:Win 10 So Bloated Already (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, it is not necessary to install all 10000 applications that are part of the Ubuntu DVD.
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And once you get a whole office suite, SQL server, webserver, a couple GUIs to choose from, compilers for pretty much any programming langugage there is for the OS you're installing and a couple things more that I forgot because I never needed them on that same CD as Windows, you actually compare the systems correctly.
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The driver is just a few 100k, but telemetry packages are kinda large by now.
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Well, considering one of the first thing the install routine does is to phone home to find out whether your copy of Windows happens to have the blessing from the gods of Redmond, you could just use that network connection for something useful too...
Bullshit! (Score:1)
Microsoft have been promising to create useful error messages since DOS (the original didn't have a version number). It's not as if they haven't had enough time to figure out how to do it, which leads me to believe they they simply don't know how.
The problem with the KBxxxxx links (Score:3, Insightful)
is that more often than not, when you click on them, it takes you to a broken URL and redirects you to a generic Microsoft web page that asks how it can help you. The same outcome as clicking on the event log online help. Articles like this seem to praise MS for doing something new an innovative, where as they are really just fixing a feature they broke long ago
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I still use Win7, and almost every time I click on something I get a broken URL. The reason why, of course, is that MS has deleted a huge amount of the Win7 documentation from their site, and all I get is ads for Windows10.
Online documentation for anything, never mind KB articles, is a dumb idea in general.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, perhaps the problem is the "xxxxx" part. If you use an actual knowledge base number, it might take you to something a little more meaningful!
"Average user doesn't know" (Score:2)
What a joke! It should have read, "No user could possibly know."
What an incredible innovation (Score:4, Insightful)
Giving users useful information rather than "0x80000005 an unknown error has occurred". I wonder how much more productive people in the Windows ecosystem would be if Microsoft could be bothered to write their error messages properly.
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"Error: Unspecified error" is simultaneously the most quintessentially Microsoft and most common error I've had when working with Microsoft software.
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Later Amigas were worse, as they would only display the software error message for a few seconds before continuing, so it was hard to write down the message. At least the A1000 showed the Guru permanently until you clicked the mouse button. There was always a command-line utility to retrieve the last error message, though.
On that note, the only reason Guru was a thing was because AmigaOS was too immature and buggy to handle exceptions properly. Not having an MMU and memory protection certainly was a bumm
Re: What an incredible innovation (Score:2)
Quite often there is no help even when you search on the code.
Why don't they go back to the 1990s? (Score:2)
Back then virtually every error message (particularly with networking) said "Contact your Administrator". See, problem fixed.
How much more helpful? (Score:1)
SOMETHING HAPPENED! (Score:2)
I think that was my favorite Win10 setup error. I got a nice big purple box that said "Something happened" up top and in the details section in all its glory:
"Something happened."
Nice.
try { // stuff
} catch (Exception e) { System.out.println("d'oh!"); }
Updates next (Score:2)
Please wait an undetermined period of time for unspecified things to be done to our computer! If you are still staring at this screen in an hour, don't concern yourself with whether or not this process has failed, because you are only a user and should not concern yourself with what we may be installing and/or harvesting from you.
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Does it have an OK button? (Score:2)
Because if there is, people will click it, just to make it go away. They won't notice that you can go to a link for more information. They will just click the OK button and maybe try again. That's what OK buttons are for, after all!
Unspecified error (Score:2)
I wonder what the KB article will be for "Unspecified Error" or "Unexpected Error."