Microsoft Freezing Optional Windows Updates Amidst COVID19 Pandemic

Raevenlord · Mar 25, 2020

Microsoft yesterday announced that they would be freezing any release for optional Windows 10 updates whilst the world still reels from the COVID-19 pandemic. This decision by the company comes after they decided to keep delivering security updates for the Fall Creator's update (version 1709 of the OS).

Both these decisions by Microsoft stem from the company trying to reduce the impact of Windows 10 updates on businesses - reducing update requirements to security updates means there is fewer chances of an optional update shipping that could negatively impact productivity - of which very little bit is required right now for some businesses to even keep afloat. When the crisis has passed, all updates will be resumed.

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lexluthermiester · Mar 25, 2020

More happenings that are just bizarre.

Tomorrow · Mar 25, 2020

So it took a really bad worldwide pandemic for Microsoft to pull back on some of their forced updates? Wow.

claes · Mar 25, 2020

Dang, I’ve been checking for updates daily lately to keep my fans from running at full speed. I have an older motherboard in my HTPC and AiSuite won’t run with the latest update, SpeedFan doesn’t recognize the controllers, etc.

Guess it’s time to play with that rollback feature

windwhirl · Mar 25, 2020

I will never understand how people run into problems with vanilla Windows 10 (some of such issues are just plain strange) and here I am running a Insider Preview and everything's stable (I don't run anything "mission critical", but I feel confident that I could, taking the usual measures of caution such as backups and the like)...

Anyhow, if people are constantly and very loudly reporting problems with every update, this should alleviate their minds.

Aquinus · Mar 25, 2020

Raevenlord said:
reducing update requirements to security updates means there is fewer chances of an optional update shipping that could negatively impact productivity

Is that an admission that their updates are disruptive?

windwhirl · Mar 25, 2020

Aquinus said:
Is that an admission that their updates are disruptive?

Any update that it's not exlusively security-related could be considered disruptive... but I know what you mean

lexluthermiester · Mar 26, 2020

Tomorrow said:
So it took a really bad worldwide pandemic for Microsoft to pull back on some of their forced updates? Wow.

Right?

Aquinus said:
Is that an admission that their updates are disruptive?

Seems reasonable.

Crackong · Mar 26, 2020

The Human malware isn't the problem, stop beta testing on customer.

Tomorrow · Mar 26, 2020

windwhirl said:
I will never understand how people run into problems with vanilla Windows 10 (some of such issues are just plain strange) and here I am running a Insider Preview and everything's stable (I don't run anything "mission critical", but I feel confident that I could, taking the usual measures of caution such as backups and the like)...

Anyhow, if people are constantly and very loudly reporting problems with every update, this should alleviate their minds.

My bet is on drivers. Also you may just be lucky.

Vayra86 · Mar 26, 2020

Man I love the sentiment against a company that is basically just trying to keep an OS up to date.

Bizarre, indeed

delshay · Mar 26, 2020

Well I've had the optional update 1909 sitting there for months. Don't need it, computer works fine without it.

R0H1T · Mar 26, 2020

Maybe they'll disable telemetry next, or not :ohwell:

Tomorrow · Mar 26, 2020

Vayra86 said:
Man I love the sentiment against a company that is basically just trying to keep an OS up to date.

Bizarre, indeed

There is a difference between keeping system up to date and force feeding updates that have not been properly tested.

Most companies can provide updates normally. Even those that have hunders of millions of systems worldwide. But MS. One of the biggest software makers in the world fumbles around like an amateur in his garage. It's embarassing.

Aquinus · Mar 26, 2020

Tomorrow said:
There is a difference between keeping system up to date and force feeding updates that have not been properly tested.

Most companies can provide updates normally. Even those that have hunders of millions of systems worldwide. But MS. One of the biggest software makers in the world fumbles around like an amateur in his garage. It's embarassing.

It went downhill really fast with Windows 10. I honestly liked it as an OS, but I had enough after updates bricked my machine twice. The second time when it prevented Linux from booting (because of my RAID-5 being NTFS and not "cleanly shutting down," it wouldn't mount and caused the entire boot process to just stop) was the last straw. At that point, I decided to cut my losses. That was at least 4 years ago.

texas64 · Mar 26, 2020

Aquinus said:
It went downhill really fast with Windows 10. I honestly liked it as an OS, but I had enough after updates bricked my machine twice. The second time when it prevented Linux from booting (because of my RAID-5 being NTFS and not "cleanly shutting down," it wouldn't mount and caused the entire boot process to just stop) was the last straw. At that point, I decided to cut my losses. That was at least 4 years ago.

That's the fascinating part. I've never had any of my machines even hiccup due to upgrades of Windows 10. And yet there are others that have a ton of issues.... I don't envy Microsoft having to support all these various configurations.

Aquinus · Mar 26, 2020

texas64 said:
That's the fascinating part. I've never had any of my machines even hiccup due to upgrades of Windows 10. And yet there are others that have a ton of issues.... I don't envy Microsoft having to support all these various configurations.

The first time, it miscalculated how much disk space was required for upgrade, filled the disk, fell over, then half-assed the rollback while leaving the disk full. I'm sure my SSDs just loved that.

The second time, it upgraded "okay", but it left drivers in a weird state. I used DDU and re-installed the GPU drivers only to get a BSOD even in safe mode.

The third time never happened because I gave up on Windows.

Jism · Mar 26, 2020

They should just freeze any outgoing update and test it before releasing it in the first place. The amount of failing (automated, pushed) updates since the release of W10 is just bizarre. Personal, Business, everyone got affected by at least one update that bricked the OS competely.

Tomorrow · Mar 26, 2020

System Name	The Ryzening
Processor	AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
Motherboard	MSI X570 MAG TOMAHAWK
Cooling	Lian Li Galahad 360mm AIO
Memory	32 GB G.Skill Trident Z F4-3733 (4x 8 GB)
Video Card(s)	Gigabyte RTX 3070 Ti
Storage	Boot: Transcend MTE220S 2TB, Kintson A2000 1TB, Seagate Firewolf Pro 14 TB
Display(s)	Acer Nitro VG270UP (1440p 144 Hz IPS)
Case	Lian Li O11DX Dynamic White
Audio Device(s)	iFi Audio Zen DAC
Power Supply	Seasonic Focus+ 750 W
Mouse	Cooler Master Masterkeys Lite L
Keyboard	Cooler Master Masterkeys Lite L
Software	Windows 10 x64

System Name	boomer--->zoomer not your typical millenial build
Processor	i5-760 @ 3.8ghz + turbo ~goes wayyyyyyyyy fast cuz turboooooz~
Motherboard	P55-GD80 ~best motherboard ever designed~
Cooling	NH-D15 ~double stack thot twerk all day~
Memory	16GB Crucial Ballistix LP ~memory gone AWOL~
Video Card(s)	MSI GTX 970 ~~GOLDEN EDITION~~ RAWRRRRRR
Storage	500GB Samsung 850 Evo (OS X, *nix), 128GB Samsung 840 Pro (W10 Pro), 1TB SpinPoint F3 ~best in class
Display(s)	ASUS VW246H ~best 24" you've seen FULL HD 1O80PP SLAPS~
Case	FT02-W ~the W stands for white but it's brushed aluminum except for the disgusting ODD bays; cries
Audio Device(s)	A LOT
Power Supply	850W EVGA SuperNova G2 ~hot fire like champagne~
Mouse	CM Spawn ~cmcz R c00l seth mcfarlane darawss~
Keyboard	CM QF Rapid - Browns ~fastrrr kees for fstr teens~
Software	integrated into the chassis
Benchmark Scores	9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999

System Name	System V
Processor	AMD Ryzen 5 3600
Motherboard	Asus Prime X570-P
Cooling	Cooler Master Hyper 212 // a bunch of 120 mm Xigmatek 1500 RPM fans (2 ins, 3 outs)
Memory	2x8GB Ballistix Sport LT 3200 MHz (BLS8G4D32AESCK.M8FE) (CL16-18-18-36)
Video Card(s)	Gigabyte AORUS Radeon RX 580 8 GB
Storage	SHFS37A240G / DT01ACA200 / ST10000VN0008 / ST8000VN004 / SA400S37960G / SNV21000G / NM620 2TB
Display(s)	LG 22MP55 IPS Display
Case	NZXT Source 210
Audio Device(s)	Logitech G430 Headset
Power Supply	Corsair CX650M
Software	Whatever build of Windows 11 is being served in Canary channel at the time.
Benchmark Scores	Corona 1.3: 3120620 r/s Cinebench R20: 3355 FireStrike: 12490 TimeSpy: 4624

System Name	Apollo
Processor	Intel Core i9 9880H
Motherboard	Some proprietary Apple thing.
Memory	64GB DDR4-2667
Video Card(s)	AMD Radeon Pro 5600M, 8GB HBM2
Storage	1TB Apple NVMe, 4TB External
Display(s)	Laptop @ 3072x1920 + 2x LG 5k Ultrafine TB3 displays
Case	MacBook Pro (16", 2019)
Audio Device(s)	AirPods Pro, Sennheiser HD 380s w/ FIIO Alpen 2, or Logitech 2.1 Speakers
Power Supply	96w Power Adapter
Mouse	Logitech MX Master 3
Keyboard	Logitech G915, GL Clicky
Software	MacOS 12.1

System Name	System V
Processor	AMD Ryzen 5 3600
Motherboard	Asus Prime X570-P
Cooling	Cooler Master Hyper 212 // a bunch of 120 mm Xigmatek 1500 RPM fans (2 ins, 3 outs)
Memory	2x8GB Ballistix Sport LT 3200 MHz (BLS8G4D32AESCK.M8FE) (CL16-18-18-36)
Video Card(s)	Gigabyte AORUS Radeon RX 580 8 GB
Storage	SHFS37A240G / DT01ACA200 / ST10000VN0008 / ST8000VN004 / SA400S37960G / SNV21000G / NM620 2TB
Display(s)	LG 22MP55 IPS Display
Case	NZXT Source 210
Audio Device(s)	Logitech G430 Headset
Power Supply	Corsair CX650M
Software	Whatever build of Windows 11 is being served in Canary channel at the time.
Benchmark Scores	Corona 1.3: 3120620 r/s Cinebench R20: 3355 FireStrike: 12490 TimeSpy: 4624

Microsoft Freezing Optional Windows Updates Amidst COVID19 Pandemic

Raevenlord

News Editor

lexluthermiester

Tomorrow

claes

windwhirl

Aquinus

Resident Wat-man

windwhirl

lexluthermiester

Crackong

Tomorrow

Vayra86

delshay

R0H1T

Tomorrow

Aquinus

Resident Wat-man

texas64

Aquinus

Resident Wat-man

Jism

Tomorrow

System Name	Personal Gaming Rig
Processor	Ryzen 7800X3D
Motherboard	MSI X670E Carbon
Cooling	MO-RA 3 420
Memory	32GB 6000MHz
Video Card(s)	RTX 4090 ICHILL FROSTBITE ULTRA
Storage	4x 2TB Nvme
Display(s)	Samsung G8 OLED
Case	Silverstone FT04

Processor	7800X3D
Motherboard	MSI MAG Mortar b650m wifi
Cooling	Thermalright Peerless Assassin
Memory	32GB Corsair Vengeance 30CL6000
Video Card(s)	ASRock RX7900XT Phantom Gaming
Storage	Lexar NM790 4TB + Samsung 850 EVO 1TB + Samsung 980 1TB + Crucial BX100 250GB
Display(s)	Gigabyte G34QWC (3440x1440)
Case	Lian Li A3 mATX White
Audio Device(s)	Harman Kardon AVR137 + 2.1
Power Supply	EVGA Supernova G2 750W
Mouse	Steelseries Aerox 5
Keyboard	Lenovo Thinkpad Trackpoint II
Software	W11 IoT Enterprise LTSC
Benchmark Scores	Over 9000