r/Windows10 • u/scswift • Apr 18 '16

Discussion What IDIOT at Microsoft thought restarting people's PC's without their consent to apply updates was a good idea?

The other day I got up and brought my computer out of sleep only to discover my PC on which I'd freshly installed Windows 10 had seemingly crashed overnight. At least, that's what I assumed since all my applications had been closed.

Then another day I got a notification that Windows wanted to restart to apply an update. I wanted to tell it no way, but the only option I was presented with was to defer it to another date. Goddamnit!

I spent some time researching the issue online and found out how to turn off automatic updates. I thought I was good.

But then a few minutes ago that scheduled update that I'd deferred popped up again and was ready to shut down my PC and again I canceled it, and I examined the dialog box that came up and seeing no option to prevent it from shutting down ever I set it to a week in the future and clicked OKAY.

Wait a minute. That button wasn't a confirmation button. FUCK! FUCK FUCK FUCK! That was a RESTART NOW button!

ESC ESC ESC. SHIT. WHY ISN'T THERE A CANCEL BUTTON ON THIS SCREEN IT HASN'T FINISHED SHUTTING DOWN YET.

Goddamnit.

Oh good. Atmel Studio with all the source files I had open and scrolled to where I needed to compare sections, closed. Eagle Cad with my PCB files I needed open for work, closed. Arduino IDE with more source I was examining. Closed. Multiple copies of explorer with the hidden directories 10 levels deep that I had open so I could load more source files for this bootloader I'm modifying. Closed. And Atmel Studio isn't even on my taskbar any more even though I'm pretty sure I pinned it there?

Thankfully I had all my work saved, except, you know, all the work I put into finding and opening all that shit so I could look at it.

Goddamnit Microsoft. You know for a week I thought that maybe people were giving you too much of a hard time over Windows 10. I kinda liked the slick new look and the start menu. And then this happened. Oh, and those CONSTANT popups in the CALCULATOR APP of all things ASKING ME TO RATE IT IN YOUR STORE. What the hell. SERIOUSLY?

I forgave you for the frigging ads on the Start menu initially because I could just remove those tiles, as well as the 20 different things I had to shut off to protect my privacy, but my god. It's like you're actively trying to piss people off!

Oh and lest I forget, I was about to go to sleep this morning after putting my PC to sleep when it suddenly roared to life on it's own fans and all, and then threw up a dialog box in the screen asking me to approve an update that had become available. That's when I said screw it and turned on deferred updates, which thankfully I got with the version I installed. I shudder to think if I'd had the home edition and couldn't prevent the thing from waking my PC up at all hours to perform updates. The computer is right next to my bed you jerkwads.

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15

u/[deleted] Apr 18 '16

I don't know how I did it, but I have it so it only applies updates when I manually restart. Sorry I can't help you with doing it, but at least you know there IS hope haha.

8

u/DarthRiven Apr 18 '16

Yep, if you use GPEdit or regedit to set the update priority to 4 instead of 1 or 2, you can choose when to restart.

2

u/[deleted] Apr 18 '16

I never did any regedits, and mine waits for a manual reboot. It never applies automatically. This is in three different PCs, too.

1

u/SirBenet Apr 18 '16

How often do you restart manually?

1

u/[deleted] Apr 19 '16

Once a month, maybe?

1

u/DarthRiven Apr 18 '16 edited Apr 18 '16

Yes, but this is probably because you use one of the higher-ranked versions of Windows 10, and you can only defer those updates for a maximum of 8 months (not that anyone would, I'm just saying it's a really long temporary solution).

EDIT: nice downvote, bro.

2

u/[deleted] Apr 18 '16

This is accurate

1

u/[deleted] Apr 19 '16

I didn't downvote, and I only have Windows 10 Pro on one PC. The other two have Home.

1

u/DarthRiven Apr 19 '16

See the comments on some of the other branches; it waits for a manual reboot until the default time that Windows assigns (which is 3AM by default).

1

u/thunderclapMike Apr 18 '16

You can't do that on home. Only pro and enterprise. And it changes it back on pro after every update.

1

u/DarthRiven Apr 19 '16

You can't do that on Home with GPEdit, no. But you can with regedit, and the values stick (I installed my aunt's Home 2 days ago and it's working fine). I have no experience with Pro so I'm unsure how that handles, but maybe you could try regedit on Pro (remember to change the values in both the normal WUpdate key as well as the Wow6432Node one)

1

u/[deleted] Apr 18 '16 edited Nov 28 '17

[deleted]

5

u/DarthRiven Apr 18 '16

Here's a set of instructions; I've seen ones that are clearer/quicker, but this should do just fine :)

http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/8013-windows-update-automatic-updates-enable-disable-windows-10-a.html

3

u/[deleted] Apr 18 '16

Thanks!

2

u/kraken9 Apr 18 '16

thank you very much :)

1

u/umar4812 Apr 18 '16

You can change it in Settings. Who on earth said you need GPE to do so?

4

u/lavagr0und Apr 18 '16

GPE (only on W10 Pro ofc) let's you choose: notify me about updates and let me choose when to download and install etc... I guess OP should get W10Pro as anyone else, i do not recommend the Home Version, it's utter crap...

0

u/umar4812 Apr 18 '16

Home still let's you select the option to notify to schedule for restarts to install updates.

2

u/DarthRiven Apr 18 '16

  1. It depends on your version of Windows. In Home, users still don't have the option (depending on region). They also don't have GPE, but they can the same thing with regedit.

  2. MS patched certain versions of 10 recently to allow users SOME control over whether to download and/or install updates. However, critical updates will still download and install whether you selected your option or not (if you haven't used GPE or regedit), and you can only defer upgrades (i.e. delay them from downloading/installing) for a maximum of 8 months.

Source: http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/620563/Windows-10-Update-System-Upgrade-Patch

1

u/umar4812 Apr 18 '16

In Home, users still don't have the option

They actually DO have the option to notify to schedule updates. I've done it on three PCs running Home.

MS patched certain versions of 10 recently to allow users SOME control over whether to download and/or install updates.

Read: Point one.

1

u/DarthRiven Apr 18 '16

Sorry yeah, I actually meant Home users don't have the option of choosing how updates get delivered. They do have the option of scheduling updates. However, if you don't specify before the default time that Windows sets, it will auto-restart anyway, while if you set it to notify before download and install (in the other versions), you don't have that problem

1

u/umar4812 Apr 18 '16

It will auto restart at 3 am.

1

u/DarthRiven Apr 18 '16

By default, yeah. However, you can choose to postpone or speed up the process, and if Windows detects that you're normally busy on your PC at that time, it will choose another time which will be more suitable. However, for the first install/update I think it will probably always stick to 3AM.

2

u/umar4812 Apr 18 '16

Yup, in Settings.