Tonight’s article was going to be about the trials and tribulations of moving technology from one office to another. I’m on the tail end of a decent sized job that’s been consuming much of my time, so I thought that would make a good story. My computer thought otherwise.
At around 8:00PM I came upstairs to start that article only to have my computer shut down automatically and without warning. When it turned back on I was shown a progress screen that started at 5% and ascended until the computer finally turned off again twenty minutes later. It’s now almost 10:00PM and the computer is finally usable.
I hear complaints about Windows updates so many times. Customers frequently ask me to turn them off because they hinder workflow and productivity. After tonight, my stock answer may be changing from an explanation about the benefits of updates to how frustrating they are.
Windows updates have always been a nuisance that we as users have to tolerate. Most of the time they come without warning and seem to install on their own accord. Microsoft has tried to create a better system, and with 10 updates were supposed to be much more convenient. They’re not.
Most updates address security flaws or issues within the operating system that may cause other problems. For the most part updates are good and should be allowed to install. Most, thankfully, don’t take almost two hours like tonight’s.
Years ago Microsoft developed service packs that could be installed as standalone updates or upgrades. Service packs included major operating system enhancements in addition to most of the previous updates. Until tonight, service packs could be installed at convenient times for the user.
With Windows 10 we were introduced to “builds” which actually reinstall Windows. Apparently tonight I was forced to download a new build that took over my computer’s normal functionality and replaced it with a two hours of progress counters. In other words, two hours of wasted time.
In the days of service packs I could install them at my convenience. At the stores we made disks that included the latest service packs and updates to save us time. Windows 10 changed that and makes us download updated copies of 10 every so often. Apparently the newly released copies include the latest builds. The whole update/build confusion makes my head hurt.
What’s most frustrating about tonight’s build installation is that something failed on restart and I had several erroneous error messages pop up. One error right after another warning me files were either missing or corrupt. To make matters worse, I needed to repair those issues before I could get my other work started.
Microsoft does a lot of things right or they wouldn’t be a technology giant. Over the decades I’ve been using computers, Windows updates have been my biggest bone of contention. They always cause me the most headache at the time when I really need to be most productive. Surely someone in Seattle could have created a friendlier update scheduler.
To the customers and people I talk to regularly who think I have zero computer issues: you’re very wrong. My personal computer gets used for about an hour a day and is nothing more than a giant digital typewriter. If it were up to me I’d still be using my old Selectric to hammer out these articles. To the best of my recollection those old IBM Selectric typewriters didn’t require updates to type an article.
(Jeromy Patriquin is the President of Laptop & Computer Repair, Inc. located at 509 Main St. in Gardner. You can read past articles at www.LocalComputerWiz.com.)