back to article Samsung: Don't install Windows 10. REALLY

Samsung is advising customers against succumbing to Microsoft’s nagging and installing Windows 10. The consumer electronics giant's support staff have admitted drivers for its PCs still don’t work with Microsoft's newest operating system and told customers they should simply not make the upgrade. That’s nearly a year after …

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  1. m0rt

    If proof is needed...

    ... that the 'tech' industry dont know what they are really doing, or even what they are trying to achieve, then this would be exhibit B.

    Microsoft and Windows 10 mobile debacle would be Exhibit A.

    1. Sil

      Re: If proof is needed...

      It's more of a proof to never buy a Samsung computer, since it won't invest a penny in the lifecycle of its products.

      Microsoft isn't responsible to develop all drivers for all materials, and if a PC makers refuse to invest in the maintenance of their drivers and applications, they sure should choose standard components from company that have an history of maintaining their drivers.

      Kind of reminds me when ATI never updated their graphic drivers, condemning their customers to super bad performance and compatibility issues, when NVIDIA did the opposite.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: If proof is needed...

        I don't see why Samsung should spend craploads of money just to support Microsoft's insistence on foisting beta-grade software on people who really don't need or want it. I don't know how old on average we're talking about here, but the NP-R590 mentioned in the article is seven bloody years old; at some point, you are going to have to deal with the fact that ancient machines are going to stop getting driver updates.

        1. The Original Steve

          Re: If proof is needed...

          "I don't see why Samsung should spend craploads of money just to..."

          Seriously? So the worlds most popular desktop operating system has been out a year, and you think it's fine for SAMSUNG to not bother updating their drivers for it..? Then who should?

          Additionally, I'd wager £10 that the chipset has a driver, but sammy hasn't gotten around to repackaging it with its latest crapware application yet.

          Put W10 on a 7 year old Dell Latitude that shipped with Vista. Drivers worked fine out the box, other than SD slot. Used the Vista driver and.... It worked!

          It worked because it was just a driver, written properly.

          There's few drivers that were certified against Vista, 7 or 8.x that won't work on 10 - same driver architecture. Seems that Sammy haven't written them properly in the first place (they look for a particular version of NT kernel for example), or they package drivers with 3rd party apps that they haven't updated yet.

          I'm a firm believer in vendors writing drivers properly, and do not contain applications.

          1. Michael Habel

            Re: If proof is needed...

            Additionally, I'd wager £10 that the chipset has a driver, but sammy hasn't gotten around to repackaging it with its latest crapware application yet.

            I had no idea it was this hard to either visit the AMD, or Intel Website, install a quick javascript package (YIKES!), and let it sus out the the Drivers for you.... At least this is how I used to do it, before I slipstreamed such 'Drivers' onto my Install Media (e.g. a USB Stick), Graphics Hurr durr that'll either be AMD, nVidia, or zark forbid Intel again I'm fairly sure the Sound is likely as not coming from some Realtek AC97 Chipset as not... The Touchpad? Likely either a Synaptics, or an Alps. Isn't this what Device ID's are for?

            Its 2016, and, I can Google for my Drivers boo hoo hoo!

            1. Phil W

              Re: If proof is needed...

              Except for when that doesn't work because despite being a perfectly normal AMD/Intel/Nvidia chip that may well work with the chipset OEM's driver, the hardware IDs of the chipset have been slightly altered so that they aren't included in the driver INFs from the chipset OEM.

              In some cases, such as AMD and Nvidia graphics drivers this can be worked around by adding the correct hardware IDs to the INF, but this can be a bit fiddly to get right.

              With Intel you're mostly stuffed as their chipset setup utility doesn't actually contain and drivers and just downloads the ones it decides you need, which with altered hardware IDs is none at all.

              1. jbuk1

                Re: If proof is needed...

                You've not been able to do this since Windows XP due to driver signing and so on.

            2. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: If proof is needed...

              you sound like an arsehole. have a down vote.

            3. The Real Tony Smith

              Re: If proof is needed...

              "Its 2016, and, I can Google for my Drivers boo hoo hoo!"

              Why do you need to Google for your drivers? Don't they just come with your OS? And are updated via your OS's central update system?

              Linux user for 8 years now, mildly amused by all this driver business with Windows that seems to involve downloading random executables from the Internet!

          2. CompUser

            Re: If proof is needed...

            The world's most popular desktop operating system....

            Windows 7 = 47%

            Windows 10 = 15%.

            The world's most rejected desktop operating system...

            1. Updraft102

              Re: If proof is needed...

              And what would the 15% be if it had not been free for most of a year for most home users, and if MS had not been using deception to get people to upgrade?

              The "greatest version of Windows ever" is so good that they can't even give it away.

            2. TheVogon

              Re: If proof is needed...

              "Windows 10 = 15%."

              Nope - latest figures are 17.43% OS share (BetaNews) with over 300 million active installs.

              So by far the fastest deployed version of Windows ever.

              1. Anonymous Coward
                Anonymous Coward

                Re: If proof is needed...

                "So by far the fastest deployed version of Windows ever."

                Of course it is - it's being forcibly installed upon a massive locked-in user base. Hardly a measure of success based on product merit though.

          3. Preston Munchensonton
            Trollface

            Re: If proof is needed...

            Seriously? So the worlds most popular desktop operating system has been out a year, and you think it's fine for SAMSUNG to not bother updating their drivers for it..? Then who should?

            Did the world finally succomb en masse to the Nagware known as Windows 10? Methinks the troll doth protest too much.

          4. zen1

            @ The Original Steve: Re: If proof is needed...

            "Seriously? So the worlds most popular desktop operating system"

            Winner by default shouldn't count. I know hundreds of people who would probably put any microsoft OS as their third choice, or only if by gunpoint.

          5. John Bailey

            Re: If proof is needed...

            "I'm a firm believer in vendors writing drivers properly, and do not contain applications."

            And Santa

            And fairies.

            And unicorns.

            And honest politicians.

            Reality is... Even with new hardware. The chances of updating Windows and still having full functionality is NOT GUARANTEED. Never has been. Never will be.

            NOT A NEW PROBLEM!

            So tell me.

            Who do you think causes the need for new drivers to exist?

          6. BitDr

            Worlds most popular OS? Re: If proof is needed...

            AFAICT their drivers work perfectly well on the worlds most popular OS, but that wouldn't be Windows 10 would it.

          7. Uffish

            Re: vendors writing drivers...

            Why write drivers for older equipment when all it does with any certainty is bolster the profits of Microsoft.

        2. Lennart Sorensen

          Re: If proof is needed...

          Well I have upgraded an Asus EEEpc 1008HA (from mid 2009) to Windows 10, no problem. I just upgraded a 10 year old Core 2 Duo (P965 chipset) as well, no problem.

          Certain device makers are just terrible at updating drivers. Broadcom has been pretty bad. Samsung is terrible (just look at the pathetic state of their tablets, which hardly ever get any of the updates they promise).

          Of course if you want to avoid support for your hardware going away, best bet seems to be running Linux. Strange how we got to that state.

          1. energystar
            Windows

            Re: If proof is needed...

            Several ASUS and no problem. [Not even THAT UEFI problem].

            Betting on firmware problems. Motherboard &/| Devices.

            Just as Microsoft has a grip on the Upper side of the Boot Stack. PC|MB Manufacturers should have TOTAL control on firmware images below the OS I/O.

            A firmware should be true to identity with a 'witness' provided by the manufacturer, on committing the update.

            [New-System|User to personalize later, through the OS, preferentially].

            If Samsung not co-working on the issue, then those machines should be dismissed from the Update Program.

            The user updating|refreshing the BIOS|UEFI to the latest use to help a lot.

            Damaged Peripheral Firmware is just a nightmare -as is now, for every OS-!

          2. Kimo

            Re: If proof is needed...

            On the other hand, my Asus G51 gets locked into a perpetual reboot and can't find any storage media during the Win 10 upgrade. I really don't expect them to release new drivers and BIOS for a six year old machine. I wish MS would stop trying to push the upgrade because their compatibility check obviously isn't taking the BIOS into account.

            1. energystar
              Windows

              Re: If proof is needed...

              "...my Asus G51 gets locked into a perpetual reboot..."

              THAT'S the UEFI problem.

              Update UEFI, trough their own tools.

              Never there. But my guess is that Windows Update will continue after this firmware UPD.

              Helpful also to enter UEFI setup and Set to 'Secure Boot' and Unset the 'Compatible-Mode'. Clean, refreshed BIOSes don't have this problem.

          3. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

            Re: If proof is needed...

            "Well I have upgraded an Asus EEEpc 1008HA (from mid 2009) to Windows 10, no problem. I just upgraded a 10 year old Core 2 Duo (P965 chipset) as well, no problem."

            I just tried that tonight on Asus EeePC, an X101CH. Windows 10 refused to install because Intel didn't supply upgraded video chipset drivers. At least now I know I won't get hoodwinked into an unintended "upgrade" by closing a requester window and finding close means yes instead of no.

            In light of this, I'm a little surprised at the existence of this story. Surely the Windows 10 "upgrade" should refuse to install if there's not a full set of compatible drivers available, especially network drivers.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: If proof is needed...

              Same issue on a (whisper it) Mac Mini.

              Disabled the Intel driver, installed at a ridiculously low resolution, when it came back it seemed to have magically found an updated driver, reset the resolution.

              Made sure to select custom install, disabled the "phone home" options - the ones that are user settable at least. Was still dismayed that Microsoft decided that it should delete Minesweeper and XP Mode.

          4. Displacement Activity
            Meh

            Re: If proof is needed...

            "Of course if you want to avoid support for your hardware going away, best bet seems to be running Linux. Strange how we got to that state".

            Speaking as a lifetime Unix user, and an occasional Linux device driver writer, and as sometime who recently had to take a hammer to his wife's computer after it announced that it was going to 'upgrade' to Windoze 10 in 5 minutes...

            Not quite. Keeping up-to-date with kernel changes is a major, major, PITA. I did a PCIe driver a few years ago, which was originally for 2.4.7. There were significant or major changes in so many kernel versions that I lost count - 2.4.10, 2.4.17, 2.4.22, 2.6, whatever, not to mention the whole v3 and 4 thing. The only way to keep on top of it is to select a major distro - something like RHEL6 - and try to support that.

            The kernel people will update a few selected drivers (which I've never heard of) when they make a change, but the rest of us are on our own, with little or no usable documentation.

            1. GrapeBunch

              Re: If proof is needed...

              I was wondering why Linux hadn't "conquered the world", seeing as we have, decades of Windows tepidity. Displacement Activity has given a first hint. Direction.

              I might add the eternal baseline advice: if things seem to need changing, it might really be MS working your brain. They want you to think that their technology is worth emulating.

          5. DaddyHoggy

            Re: If proof is needed...

            My EeePC 1015PX initially upgraded to Win10 OK (from Win7 Starter), sans webcam/mic and Asus specific Power Management nonsense.

            Unfortunately six months on, and after the last Win 10 upgrade, it now locks up completely and spontaneously at random intervals - something to do with the Wifi I think as I sometimes notice it'll lose WiFi connection a few seconds prior to lock up and if I slam the lid down and get it to hibernate in time, it is sometimes good for a little while and I don't lose all my work when I open the lid again and save what I can.

            I've tried quite hard to like Win10, but I think this little netbook is destined for Mint or Lubuntu...

        3. Anonymous Coward
          Gates Horns

          Re: If proof is needed...

          Worked perfectly with 7 & 8 You say?... We'll see about that.

          If it ain't broke, fuck it up.

          --M$

      2. Mage Silver badge

        Re: If proof is needed...

        I thought maybe this might mean buying a Samsung was a good idea, though I'd been thinking of a Lenovo "retina" style screen laptop.

        I'd probably put Linux Mint on whatever new laptop I buy, unless MS brings out a new OS with the best bits of NT3.51, XP and Windows 7.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Gimp

          Re: If proof is needed...

          "I'd probably put Linux Mint on whatever new laptop I buy, unless MS brings out a new OS with the best bits of NT3.51, XP and Windows 7."

          God.. don't hold your breath Mage!

          ..on the other hand.. if you were hoping for the worst of Windows 3.0, ME and 8...

        2. BobChip
          Linux

          Re: If proof is needed...

          Trouble is, you (almost always) have to pay for Microsoft's malware whenever you buy a new machine, before you can throw it away and install a decent OS. I wish I could build myself a new laptop as easily as I can build a new desktop. That would help my anger management no end.

          1. shovelDriver

            Re: If proof is needed...

            I seem to recall that somewhere in the fine print, the license agreement says "If you are not going to use or do not want or in any way are not satisfied, you can return the software license for a full refund of the software price.

            Microsoft says:

            How Can I Return a Product for a Refund?

            •Return the product within 30 days of purchase date.

            •Provide a copy of your original sales receipt, credit card statement, or canceled check.

            •Provide complete contact information, including your street address (sorry, no PO boxes), city, state or province, ZIP or postal code, telephone number, and e-mail address (if applicable).

            •Uninstall the software product from your computer and any storage devices and delete any backup copies.

            •Include all related media and manuals.

            •Provide the name and location of the retailer from which you purchased the product.

            •Explain briefly why you want to return the product for a refund.

            •Send the product, its original packaging, and all related materials via traceable means to our Return Center. For tracking and security reasons, all returns must be sent by FedEx, FedEx Ground, UPS, DHL, or insured U.S. mail with delivery confirmation.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: If proof is needed...

        Disagree.

        I own an ageing RF710 (one of THE first core i7 laptops).

        Its had: a new battery, new CD rom. new speakers ( i vacummed dust off and sucked the paper out of the speaker!) new ram upgrade, new intel wifi / bt card and last month, fresh from Sammys own UK parts distributor a new top chassis including keyboard and glide pad and all the associated electronics.

        Thats pretty decent spare availability AFAIAC.

        Its never skipped a beat. Best laptop i've ever owned.

        1. Darryl

          Re: If proof is needed...

          This, milord, is my family's axe. We have owned it for almost nine hundred years, see. Of course, sometimes it needed a new blade. And sometimes it has required a new handle, new designs on the metalwork, a little refreshing of the ornamentation . . . but is this not the nine hundred-year-old axe of my family? And because it has changed gently over time, it is still a pretty good axe, y'know. Pretty good.

          -The Fifth Elephant

          (Sorry, your post just reminded me of this)

          1. energystar
            Windows

            Re: If proof is needed...

            You see, my rig still has this light gray metal framing to it. The physical on/off switch still on there, functional, but connected to emptiness. The old tractor size PS replaced with a fanless one...

          2. energystar
            Headmaster

            Re: If proof is needed...

            "This, milord, is my family's axe. We have owned it for almost nine hundred years, see."

            This, Darryl, is the MAXIMUM lesson ever seen at ElReg, [by me].

          3. fwadman

            Re: If proof is needed...

            Triggers Broom in Only Fools and Horses ...

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUl6PooveJE

        2. Simon Westerby 1

          Re: If proof is needed...

          Sounds like Triggers broom to me ....

        3. jgarbo
          Happy

          Re: If proof is needed...

          With all those upgrades and replacements, shouldn't you say "Best laptops I've ever owned." ?

        4. KH

          Re: If proof is needed...

          It's not the same laptop, any more than the best axe you ever owned, despite replacing the head twice and the handle once, lol. It would be more accurate to say it's the best laptop-shaped rolling collection of parts you've ever owned. ;)

      4. jelabarre59

        Re: If proof is needed...

        It's more of a proof to never buy a Samsung computer, since it won't invest a penny in the lifecycle of its products.

        Agreed. As much as I usually find Microsoft is to blame for these sorts of problems, this is an occasion where Samsung seem to be the ones suffering from Cranial-Rectal Insertion. As if my experience with their products hasn't already convinced them to put Samsung on my do-not-buy list (abandoning the Note8 tablet well before it's end-of-life, deciding to sit on warranty repairs for 3 or so weeks before they even look at them, and the shoddy engineering of their flat-panel TVs or at least the ones I've had the misfortune to set-up and troubleshoot), this will definitely make me avoid whenever possible. Would probably be better to buy a cheapass Hisense product, since it won't be any worse in quality while being loads cheaper.

        1. jgarbo
          Happy

          Re: If proof is needed...

          My Note 4 is more computer than phone, so I'm not OT. Works perfectly, regular OS updates, excellent build quality. And gets the inevitable question from fanbois, "It's got a pen, too?" Yep, and it talks to the machine if you leave it behind. I'm OK with Sammy stuff.

      5. Mikel

        Re: If proof is needed...

        or even monitors

        It takes a special kind of fail to make an OS version upgrade not support a monitor. The deliberate kind.

        Samsung is killing Microsoft in Mobile. Of course Microsoft is trying to return the favor in PC, which is still their domain. For now.

        1. energystar
          IT Angle

          Re: If proof is needed...

          None of the two has put proof of bad blood. Except for immovability at both sides.

          1. YARR
            Trollface

            I can understand that a company the size of Samsung must really struggle to write drivers for it's hardware 10 months after an Operating System has been released. Clearly this has nothing to do with profit motive and Samsung would just love their customers to upgrade to Windows 10 for free than buy a new PC.

      6. PNGuinn
        Devil

        Re: If proof is needed...Microsoft isn't responsible

        OK, if they'd just brought out a new version, Update at your own risk, maybe.

        If they'd tried to help punters with ACCURATE lists of supported hardware, maybe.

        If they'd even offered a "check my hardware for compatibility" maybe.

        If they'd offered a trial live DVD, even a download of the same, maybe.

        BUT THEY DIDN'T, DID THEY? THEY'VE PUSHED AND CONNED AND MANIPULATED IN EVERY WAY THEY KNOW HOW TO GET PEOPLE TO "UPGRADE".

        I'd say they've MADE themselves responsible.

        Off topic - anyone know how many feet Slurp have left for target practice?

        1. cloth

          Re: If proof is needed...Microsoft isn't responsible

          I was pestered into upgrading our Sammy to win10 and it kept on blue screening. It was then that it dawned on me that perhaps, just perhaps, computing is still in the dark ages when it comes to actually working easily. Checking the samsung website told me that I couldn't upgrade my specific model. So, quick uninstall later and I'm left with the incessant requests to upgrade to win10 - aarrgh - I hate computers !!!!

      7. uqrxur

        Re: If proof is needed...

        Then... How would you explain Microsoft's inability to create functioning drivers for its own surface book notebook? (Aka sleep of death bug)

    2. g e

      Your files are still where you left them

      Was the message my laptop displayed to me over the weekend. Needless to say I shut it down immediately and used the other (Linux) laptop to Google for what the virus was I'd somehow installed.

      Turns out the virus was called Windows 10 and this was a 'normal' update message from it upon unsleeping, having downloaded some updatey crud...

      Utter wankery.

      Edit: Not a Sammy lappy, an ASUS Gamer Republic one I recently got for audio work with Reaper, etc

      1. Steve Crook

        Re: Your files are still where you left them

        I asked for the upgrade on my PC nearly a month ago and finally gave up waiting to receive any notifications or a download of the update and had to go to the MS site and kick it off manually.

        The upgrade went without a hitch and was done in about an hour (excluding the download).

        So, as ever with this sort of thing, YMMV...

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