How they got me, once again

alms 2018-10-03 18:37:04 UTC #1

Click here to join the Dark (Theme) Side …we have Explorers.

(Changelogs, too.)

alms 2018-10-03 22:03:58 UTC #2

Assistant-initiated upgrade failed twice at 52%, so it’s time for Media Creation Tool:

alms 2018-10-08 16:56:23 UTC #3

PSA: there’s multiple reports from users having personal files deleted from their libraries.

Though not everyone is affected, caution is advised.

FTR stuff got in the way and I did not apply the upgrade yet.

lemonade 2018-10-08 17:21:51 UTC #4

Looks like they’ve quit pushing it out due to the deletion bug: https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/6/17944966/microsoft-windows-10-october-2018-update-documents-deleted-issues-windows-update-paused

FWIW, I installed it within an hour of it becoming available and experienced no issues.

Grizzly 2018-10-08 17:34:14 UTC #5

For some bizarre reason, I only got the spring update now.

alms 2018-10-08 18:12:27 UTC #6

AFAIK 1809 hasn’t become available yet, outside of the tools I’ve mentioned above. IOW it is installed manually, rather than received automatically.

Tomorrow should have seen initial deployment through Windows Update, but even then, Microsoft generally runs staggered schedules, where the latest feature upgrade is only offered to systems, for which their data shows the least likelihood of problems.

IIRC 1703 took the longest, with machines being offered it around December 2017 - January 2018.

lemonade 2018-10-08 18:14:59 UTC #7

I got 1809 through Windows Update! It popped up asking me to reboot, all automatically. I was really surprised my PC did that literally the hour it became available.

alms 2018-10-08 18:36:16 UTC #8

Interesting, perhaps the information I’ve gathered was incorrect, then.

lemonade 2018-10-08 18:40:21 UTC #9

Maybe the deletion bug wasn’t the only bug.

Either way I feel very lucky that I didn’t experience bugs. Apparently it doesn’t even keep the Documents/Pictures in the Windows.old folder, so the only recourse for those affected is tools like Recuva.

alms 2018-10-08 19:19:13 UTC #10

That makes sense, because it has the potential of increasing the space requirements exponentially, thus making upgrades inconvenient or even impossible.

Personally, I take a system image before every feature upgrade, and would recommend everybody else to do so as well.

While this may be enough in general, it’s really a good idea to have the system take regular backups for data that is even remotely inconvenient to replace; these days, with cheap mass storage and reasonably quick transfers, there is really no good reason not to do so.

Windows 10 offer integrated backup options, and there are solid third-party alternatives available for free, too.

alms 2018-10-11 01:20:08 UTC #11

Official response:

alms 2019-05-26 17:42:40 UTC #12

Almost 8 months later, I’m still on 1803.

The system has been trying to update itself for close to a month. It’s always failing: usually it goes like this: it freezes on configuring Windows Updates, or reboots and freezes during the first phase, sitting there for hours. Sometimes I do restart the machine myself, other times it reboots spontaneously. Often it insists the update is still in the pipeline pending restart, but when I click restart it begins download the whole of it again. The troubleshooter, SetupDiag, SFC, can’t find anything wrong.

I tried MCT and that failed too, first_boot sysprep yadda yadda. Currently downloading an updated video driver and crossing my fingers. The following post:

Claims that only about 1 out of 4 Windows 10 systems has been upgraded to 1809, and that Microsoft would be in the process of skipping 1809 in favor of a straight upgrade to 1903.

Clearly that’s not my case though, as it’s currently trying to install “Feature update Windows 10, version 1809 x64 2019-05OOB”. This out-of-band upgrade has popped up recently after several failed attempts, but for the time being I’m not seeing light at the end of the tunnel.

BillButNotBen 2019-05-29 02:26:30 UTC #13

i really need to upgrade my old laptop to Win10, because the Spectre/Meltdown patches made it slow as hell and almost unusable at times with win8.1.
My main reason for not doing it is that the hardware is pretty old and I’m worried it’s going to bug out. The graphics card doesn’t have a proper driver for even windows 8 (just a MS one which has rubbish performance). I managed to hack it to install the proper driver/software on Win8, and I hear the same hack works for Win10… but the live nature of Win10 makes me worried it’s gonna break or get overwritten every time they push an update.

Of course, I guess the other option is to go for Linux… but as it will be mainly used by family members who only know windows… I’m somewhat reluctant to go that route though it possibly makes more sense.

Good luck with the issue though.

alms 2019-05-29 12:46:11 UTC #14

I’ve given up for the time being.

Updated the graphics driver, nothing changed. The OOB update has been replaced again by what looks like the regular update: none manages to finish.

Updates set on pause, as I’m getting a little sick of being asked to schedule a restart. Sometimes I just want to play games, y’know, not stare at a green screen reading “Configuring Updates 91%”.

Technically, 1803 should receive security updates up to this August, and my deadline gets pushed forward every time the update fails, so there’s a few months left still.