Adventures With Windows 10

[KBD]

I bought a few used/refurbished laptops over the past year and a couple came with Windows 10. Since I have not had a Windows computer in about 5 years I was curious and thought I'd learn what I could about it and see how long it would be before I ran into problems. I have to admit that I'm impressed it lasted 6 months. Today I got a big update, probably the Windows 10 Spring update. Where before the computer ran cool and fast, now it was hitting temps around 74C and 3gb ram with one tab open in Firefox and cpu spiking. Looking on Reddit I see quite a few people had problems with the spring update.
I'm not surprised Windows crapped the bed, only that it lasted 6mos before doing so :)
Installing Debian on the machine right now. Will see how long it lasts before having issues, anyone want to take a guess? 5-6 years? Maybe more?

[sunrat]

I disabled updates on Win10 due to a bad experience. *Yes it is possible!* Use the Win10Privacy utility and ignore the big red "don't do this" messages.
This is on a machine that gets used for professional multitrack audio recording and doesn't usually connect to the internet. I recommend not to do it if you use Win10 online.

[KBD]

sunrat, that is probably the only safe way to run Win10.

[cyrilus31]

Yup. Can't say W10 is too bad. BUT updates can be annoying if not disastrous so I try to postpone them.
@sunrat: thanks for the tips.

[el.Barto]

I also bought a used Laptop with Windows 10 on the disk last month.

Reducing the size of the Windows-Partition and installing MX went flawlessly :-)

Kept Windows 10 for using Affinity Photo. But The Problems started already last week. This Spring-Update can't be installed. Due to the cryptical Error-Code it has to do with the other three Partitions for MX. Somewhere I read the tip to remove MX, then install this Spring-Update and reinstall MX. Wait? What?

Today Windows 10 tried to install some "minor" Updates. One also failed with ea cryptical Error-Code...

Also on Windows 10 my harddisk is very noisy (on MX only when starting a Program).

Maybe I'll try to install Affinity Photo under wine and delete this crappy Windows 10...

[KBD]

Yup. Can't say W10 is too bad. BUT updates can be annoying if not disastrous so I try to postpone them.
@sunrat: thanks for the tips.

Windows needs a more conservative upgrade path for businesses and those who don't want to roll the dice with them. Windows 10 is so much different, it is like a rolling release and its worse than that as they introduce completely new features into the OS twice a year. They are asking for trouble. They are going to leave more and more hardware behind with each major update release.
The Pro version allows update delays by a couple months, but even that is not enough for major problem upgrades.

[KBD]

I also bought a used Laptop with Windows 10 on the disk last month.

Reducing the size of the Windows-Partition and installing MX went flawlessly :-)

Kept Windows 10 for using Affinity Photo. But The Problems started already last week. This Spring-Update can't be installed. Due to the cryptical Error-Code it has to do with the other three Partitions for MX. Somewhere I read the tip to remove MX, then install this Spring-Update and reinstall MX. Wait? What?

Today Windows 10 tried to install some "minor" Updates. One also failed with ea cryptical Error-Code...

Also on Windows 10 my harddisk is very noisy (on MX only when starting a Program).

Maybe I'll try to install Affinity Photo under wine and delete this crappy Windows 10...

Ouch, would back up any critical data. Noisy hard drives make me nervous. It would not hurt try Affinity under wine, and/or see if you can find a Linux app that works just as well.
I recently read complaints that the Spring Update is renaming partitions on some computers and adding new partitions. Not sure why the let such a buggy update into the wild.
BTW with Debian my laptop is running much cooler and faster than with Windows 10.

[uncle mark]

Yup. Can't say W10 is too bad. BUT updates can be annoying if not disastrous so I try to postpone them.
@sunrat: thanks for the tips.

Windows needs a more conservative upgrade path for businesses and those who don't want to roll the dice with them. Windows 10 is so much different, it is like a rolling release and its worse than that as they introduce completely new features into the OS twice a year. They are asking for trouble. They are going to leave more and more hardware behind with each major update release.
The Pro version allows update delays by a couple months, but even that is not enough for major problem upgrades.

I've seen good reports on this in another forum:

https://www.sordum.org/9470/windows-upd ... cker-v1-1/

I'm thinking that if you used this, then updated with older WSUS Offline scripts, that might be the best way to expose yourself to update-related breakage. May not be fully up to date but at least your W10 install wouldn't get hosed by alpha quality updates.

[Stevo]

I still have Win10 on my Acer laptop, but haven't run with the Net connected since the beginning of January. I was mainly keeping it for BIOS updates that can only be done in Windows, but the latest BIOS releases from Acer might not require that. A newer MSI laptop on the way lets BIOS updates be done directly from the UEFI setup, using a USB stick with the update files in the root.

My Skylake laptop runs even cooler in MX since I undervolted the processor...

[KBD]

I've seen good reports on this in another forum:

https://www.sordum.org/9470/windows-upd ... cker-v1-1/

I'm thinking that if you used this, then updated with older WSUS Offline scripts, that might be the best way to expose yourself to update-related breakage. May not be fully up to date but at least your W10 install wouldn't get hosed by alpha quality updates.

It is humorous that Windows 10 updates are so unreliable that one needs an update blocker :) But if someone must have Windows that is a good idea.