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Operating Systems Microsoft Windows IT

Windows 10 Will No Longer Auto Install Feature Updates Twice a Year (windowscentral.com) 104

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
Microsoft has announced that starting with the Windows 10 May 2019 Update, which will hit general availability late next month, users will no longer be forced to install new Windows 10 feature updates as they become available. From a report: This comes after feedback from users who have had countless issues with updates breaking programs, losing files, and installing at inconvenient times. Microsoft has been working hard to improve Windows Update, and while the system is better than it was at launch in 2015, it's still not perfect. Now, users will have the option to not have to deal with feature updates when they are released.

What Microsoft is doing here is splitting Windows Update in two. The normal "check for updates" button will now only function for security and monthly patches. Feature updates now get their own area in Windows Update where the user can initiate the download and install process for the latest feature update available. If the user doesn't want to initiate that process, they don't have to. The user will be alerted that a new feature update is available every now and then, but at no point will the user be forced to install that update, as long as the version of Windows 10 they're currently running is still in support.
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Windows 10 Will No Longer Auto Install Feature Updates Twice a Year More

Windows 10 Will No Longer Auto Install Feature Updates Twice a Year

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  • Still in support (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Colin Castro ( 2881349 ) on Thursday April 04, 2019 @02:15PM (#58384932)

    So they'll more quickly remove support for older versions to force updates?

    • So they'll more quickly remove support for older versions to force updates?

      They've done the opposite, if you've been paying attention. They extended support for 1607-1809 and made the support period longer for the fall releases on a go forward basis.

      BTW, this patch Tuesday is the last patch for 1607 Enterprise/EDU. If you haven't upgraded, you need to ASAP or move to LTSC.

      • Re:Still in support (Score:4, Interesting)

        by DrStrangluv ( 1923412 ) on Thursday April 04, 2019 @04:00PM (#58385724)
        This is after they shortened it.

        Windows releases used to be good for **10 YEARS** (mainstream plus extended). IMO, this was one their few big advantages in the server market over linux options, where even LTS linux distros only tend to be good for 3 or 4 without forced updates.

          Now, even in the best case, you only get two years, and that's after they extended Fall (H2) releases up from just 18 months.

        • Windows releases used to be good for **10 YEARS** (mainstream plus extended).

          But you had to update them along the way right? Like they do still support Windows 7 but can you get the latest security patches if you haven't even installed SP1?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      That seems to be obvious, yes. They will not stop fucking their customers with a wirebrush. They just may paint it pink and decorate it with some (fake) silk bows.

    • Re:Still in support (Score:4, Informative)

      by DrStrangluv ( 1923412 ) on Thursday April 04, 2019 @03:58PM (#58385708)
      "Still in support" is the key line, but they don't have to change any other policies to make this hurt. This was already changed a while back so the Spring (H1) feature updates only have 18 months of support and Fall (H2) feature updates only have 24 months of support.

      So the best you can do is update to the latest in Fall, where you won't be bugged again for two years... and at that point, if you skip the intervening updates and go straight to latest, you get two more years. If you don't want the current Fall update, you'll be bugged again much sooner.

    • So they'll more quickly remove support for older versions to force updates?

      Yes and good. I mean Slashdot needs to be collectively checked into a psych ward. On one side they complain about phones not having support or security updates and being insecure spambots, then on the other side they dare complain that desktops are provided automatic security updates. It seems the only thing anyone is happy with is leaving the user in charge of their own security which is precisely how the internet turned into a cesspool of malware in the first place.

      • Re: Still in support (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Iâ(TM)m fairly certain the complaint with mobiles is that updates are just completely unavailable. I canâ(TM)t use tools I donâ(TM)t have, and those tools shouldnâ(TM)t be taken away from me either because most people are stupid or lazy.

      • I want to be in charge of my own security, I want to know what's being installed, I want to control when it's installed, and I damn sure want to control when my machine is going to reboot. However, I'm an IT professional. My mother, on the other hand, is doing well to turn the computer on, and I want her updates to be automatic without any intervention. Those two scenarios are not at complete odds with each other-if Microsoft would just set the default to automatic updates and give us the option to only run

      • Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)

        by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday April 04, 2019 @07:00PM (#58386732)
        Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Do corporate IT support and you will know exactly why we wine.

        Here is one example this week. Our WiFi is crashing and phones are blowing up about system freezes. A rogue Windows 7 upgrade decided to always fucking set wifi as default even if Ethernet is plugged in?!!

        So wifi waps have hundreds of current connections now! No way to disable this besides uninstalling the wifi driver 6000 times??

        Citrix is essential for 1/4 the workforce so if everyone defaults to wifi over Ethernet it takes it down.

        One just one

  • Finally (Score:3)

    by DarkRookie2 ( 5551422 ) on Thursday April 04, 2019 @02:20PM (#58384978)
    You don't get a thank you thou.
    You still deserve a kick in the privates for even doing the auto install in the first place. And Win 10 in general.
  • I kinda enjoyed my bi-annual fisting from Microsoft.

  • It took how long? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by UnknowingFool ( 672806 ) on Thursday April 04, 2019 @02:25PM (#58385028)
    It seems like it’s been a cat and mouse game with MS on Windows. MS has been trying to force “features” on their customers while the customers have been pushing back that they didn’t want these features especially since it seemed they were beta-testing them for MS.

    • Re:It took how long? (Score:4, Informative)

      by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Thursday April 04, 2019 @04:38PM (#58386004)

      while the customers have been pushing back that they didn’t want these features

      Huh? As far as I can tell customers have only ever wanted to be in control of updates and wanted their system to be stable. Who are these strange customers you apparently know that actively don't want the features that come out in the updates?

      • Re:It took how long? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by UnknowingFool ( 672806 ) on Thursday April 04, 2019 @06:35PM (#58386626)
        Customers want patches and security fixes. What they don’t and didn’t sign up for was to be beta-testers for MS for “features” that could break their systems. MS has been heavily criticized for classifying updates that are not patches or fixes as “essential” or “critical”. Some of these features do not appear to be tested extensively as they did indeed break systems. For example the Ms Store and telemetry were marked as critical when they were not. But at least they didn’t break systems.

  • .... windows will stop slowing down you system or causing annoying delays after it has informed you, or not, that an update is available?

    • No. They're offering to attempt to reduce the rate of annoying delays, not to stop them.

      Also, unexpectedly deleted files will be reduced, and you'll have more say in when the unexpected deletions happen.

      "But I can't update, I haven't finished the TPS report!"

  • I mean, I would understand such a move if this was some newcomer that had been on the market for a year or so and was trying things out. But MS can still not do any high-quality engineering despite all the decades of experience and the shitload of money they have. Why again is their stuff popular and not an obscure 3rd rate-choice as would deserve to be on merit?

    • Re:The sheer incompetence of MS is staggering (Score:4, Interesting)

      by sinij ( 911942 ) on Thursday April 04, 2019 @02:39PM (#58385138)
      My guess that it was attempt to cut costs on MS part. If nearly everyone is on the same version you no longer need to devote massive resources to test every possible combination prior to releasing.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Jahoda ( 2715225 )
        There is something to be said for being able to point at a consistent "build" installed on millions of machines, rather than a mish-mash of updates in whatever order. Having said that, the regression in stability of windows updates, and the sorry state of administrator control in Windows 10 flavors that aren't enterprise, is deplorable.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        the 'feature updates' reset the baseline for future updates; with far fewer updates to wade through, microsoft never had to actually fix windows update's horrendous performance issues that plagued every preceding version the longer they were out. the forced upgrades twice a year was microsoft's "fix" for that.

    • They have too many engineers, and at least 50% of them are Scotty from Star Trek, forever lying about how hard anything is.

      They've had all sorts of MBAs try to fix it. They even tried letting Balmer smash it until worked. But it still didn't.

      It may not be fixable. This is why when you start a company they say it is very important to choose and implement an effective company culture at the earliest stages.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Dunno but I kind of theorize that they had some sort of massive talent exodus circa 2005. EVERY product since then has been a half-assed unnecessary recreation of a previous reasonably hardened product. And every one of the new products seems to get abandoned before being fully completed, in favor of more rewrites.

      Windows 2000 (to some extent XP) and Office 2003 were badass, and did everything their modern counterparts do on comparably minuscule amounts of RAM and CPU.

      Vista was so-so, 7 kinda stabilized i

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gweihir ( 88907 )

        Makes sense to me. Personally I plan for a dedicated gaming machine (nothing else, no email, no browsing) on Win10 and some non-networked VM for doing office, but on a Linux machine.

    • Because they have a monopoly and a stranglehold on the computer market, thanks to all manner of malicious business decisions that Bill Gates made when he ran the company. Inertia took care of the rest.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by rtb61 ( 674572 )

        That kind of holds with the theme. The company started out quite corruptly with IBMs own lawyers colluding with Wee Willie Gates Parents to cheat IBM investors out of copyrights, for a piece of the action, really scummy stuff right from the get go.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by thomst ( 1640045 )

      gweihir inquired:

      Why again is their stuff popular and not an obscure 3rd rate-choice as would deserve to be on merit?

      Because, up until late last year, it was impossible to play marquee games - especially MMORPG's - on Linux, and OSX only runs on Apple's overpriced, proprietary hardware.

      Nor would Adobe's DTP and graphics programs run on Linux. The same is true for Avid's ProTools DAW. Those are the industry standards for graphics and audio recording professionals.

      And, yes, I'm aware there are perfectly cromulent DTP, graphics, and DAW programs that run very well on Linux - but those are not the programs in

  • People are already using in their millions illegally, just make a legal version for home use already.

  • The user will be alerted that a new feature update is available every now and then, but at no point will the user be forced to install that update, as long as the version of Windows 10 they're currently running is still in support.

    Well they support new versions for 18 months. In practice this means you can skip one update since you'd have to from last day of support to a brand new version to skip two. When we know how many are/were perfectly happy with 10 year old XP/Win7 releases it's Microsoft moving ten steps forward and one step back. There's nothing so drastically changing about an OS these days that you need new versions every year.

  • This is obviously step one to charging for new features. Next step will probably be to split out some very special feature improvements while continuing to give the bulk for free.

    I'm not a total MS fan and ran Linux on my main machine from 2015-2018, but I do like the near zero-hassle updates and feature installations. It is a 32GB, i7 quad-core with SSD laptop that has aged well since purchase in 2014, but has Optimus mobile graphics (NVidia / Intel combo with Intel driving the display) which has very bad

    • Linux is free if your time has no value (let's burn together hahahahaha!)

    • The Windows forced-updates problem motivated me to move my main machine to Linux (it had been Windows since oh 2005) - currently Manjaro/KDE - and to convert my Windows machines to VMs which I run on it via VirtualBox.

      bumblebee/mhwd-gpu meant my laptop was using Intel's graphics, except when I explicitly tell it I want to use my GPU. Well, since it is always plugged in to AC power, I removed bumblebee, and now use the Nvidia GPU all the time (I've turned off integrated graphics in the BIOS).

      I haven't e

      • I probably confuse / stress the issue somewhat by connecting an external 32" monitor to the laptop and running dual screens. This required more changes to eliminate the severe tearing that you get from Optimus on the external monitor.

        It was somewhat stable with bumblebee as you indicate until I hit Ubuntu 18.04. After that update, getting it back to the point where I could switch it on and off again took a lot of web searching and trials for a couple of days.

        Regrettably, it never fully worked. For some reas

        • I feel your pain.. what brand is your laptop? Mine's a Dell; I do run an external monitor :-)
          • Acer Aspire V3-772g. With the single exception of the Linux graphics issues, I've been very happy with the machine. Even at 5 years, the 32GB, i4712 and Nvidia 750M still handle my demands with ease. The only upgrade I've made since purchase was to replace the TB hard drive with SSDs.

  • The whole problem is the lack of modularity.
    Windows should not include a 3D paint program. It should be available in the Windows Store.
    They should be able to upgrade the control panel without upgrading Internet Explorer.

    • Fuck the Store. They try to position is as a safe way to download and install software. Its no better than downloading anything off the internet.
  • Since feature updates seem to be effectively 10.xxx upgrades, I suspect at some point everyone has to click that feature update button to stay supported. Just a guess, but we see the same thing with other OS/Software worlds. Of course, I suppose a person could go un-patched and happily at risk.

    On the other hand, twice now the feature update has messed up my wife's machine, forcing me to either rebuild or back-out. At least on the last update I was able to recover from a prior point in time.

    She is so fr
  • Yes it will update every week end

  • I'm guessing there isn't many people out there that modified their registry to prevent automatic updates? I've done it, and only install the updates that I want... It's extremely nice not to be forced to run updates

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