26th May 2018
Updates are Affecting PC’s
This week we have been kept very busy with a greater than normal number of dead computers being brought to us. This increase in dead PC’s has been sparked by Microsoft’s latest updates to its Windows 10 operating system. So, what is this all about?
Previously Microsoft released a new operating system every 3 to 5 years starting with the ground-breaking Windows 95 and then 98, Millennium, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 and currently 10. As you can see Microsoft’s marketing arm decided that the number 9 would not sell as well as going direct to 10 – although I am a little bewildered why they thought the number 8.1 would be a good idea!
Mostly we have had to pay for these new operating systems until the ‘free’ upgrade from 8 to 8.1 and most recently the ‘free’ upgrade from 7, 8 or 8.1 to 10. When Microsoft released Windows 10 back in July 2015 it also gave it a Version number of 1507. At the same time, they told us that they would not release any newer versions but rather they would simply keep applying major updates to Windows 10. The update part of this last sentence has certainly been true.
Since its debut we have had a major update from this initial Version 1507 to Version 1511 called a ‘November update’ in November 2015, an update to 1607 called an ‘Anniversary update’ in August 2016, a ‘Creators update’ to 1703 in April 2017, a ‘Fall Creators update’ to 1709 in October 2017 and now an update to 1803 called of all things the ‘April 2018 update’.
Basically, Microsoft has told us that it will update Windows 10 twice a year with ‘major’ feature updates and every month with security and reliability updates. There are mixed rumours about Microsoft skipping Windows 11 – but releasing a Windows 12 in late 2019. However, there are also rumours that they will stick with the name – Windows 10. All of this remains to be seen and Microsoft are well known for changing their minds on such things.
This latest major Windows 10 update to Version 1803 has been automatically downloading onto many computers now for the last 2 weeks and this will continue for at least the next month. Unfortunately, this update fails on a percentage of computers and leaves them in a useless state somewhere between the previous update and the latest.
We have already seen around 20 of these failed update PC’s and they do need professional intervention to fix. The good news however, has been that no one has yet lost any user data because of the update. So why are some PC’s failing this update?
The update makes major changes and can take 40 minutes at best on a powerful PC to around 3 hours at worst on a slow PC. During this time the user is best not to use the PC for anything else. We have also seen this update failing on PC’s that have not been rebooted for weeks and on poorly maintained PC’s which have malware infections and junk software installed.
Do you need these updates? The short answer is yes. The upgrade / update process is firmly built into Windows 10 and not only brings in the feature updates but also the security and reliability updates. We do not suggest turning Microsoft updates off as this causes more problems yet again.
Unfortunately, some people will experience a failed update even when they have done everything else right and there is not much that they can do about this. Customers that have a support contract with us do get these sorts of problems fixed for free.
All previous Byte Me Articles can be found on our website at www.kerrsolutions.com.au and Bruce is contactable at Kerr Solutions, 205 Musgrave Street or on 49 222 400.
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