About to install the Windows 10 April 2018 Update? You might want to wait a little bit longer The troubled Windows 10 April 2018 update is facing another issue, with some users losing access to their desktop after installing the new code. The problem, which first appeared in a posting on a Microsoft support forum on 14 May, has gained a bit of traction over the last two days with users taking to social media as they go …
Microsoft helpfully provides a tool to do this very thing, although you will need a working PC on hand to make it work – something that might be a problem if your only PC has been borked.
Shouldn't this be "standard practice" with Win 10? Download the tool ahead of time and keep it safe?
Shouldn't this be "standard practice" with Win 10? Download the tool ahead of time and keep it safe?
Nah, standard practice is you never use it for anything productive, since it hasn't proven itself to be dependable tool*.
*I can totally imagine using a hammer (Windows 10) and seeing its head flying off every time I use it. It gets even better when the hammer gets upgraded!
"I can totally imagine using a hammer (Windows 10) and seeing its head flying off every time I use it. It gets even better when the hammer gets upgraded!"
They upgrade it to a bigger hammer, that does more damage when the head flies off the end. The upgrade after that is a small rocket engine in the head, for those hard to hammer through things, that flies around the room when it comes off. Smart people upgrade their hardware before the third upgrade, stronger walls, strong mesh protecting the windows, full body armour, ...
When you have a boot manager for dual booting Windows 10 or Linux, it gets disabled so you can only boot into Windows 10.
I've heard of this anecdotally, but I've never seen it in the limited contact I have had with Windows 10 in dual-boot setups. I'm a proponent of dual-boot setups, and I have them on all of my PCs that have enough space for more than one OS (in other words, all but my cheapy laptop with a 32GB eMMC "hard drive" that can't be upgraded).
Some of my Windows-using compatriots on other forums are fearful about dual-boot because of these reports, and are either avoiding it or are pondering unusual configurations like external a/b power switches for internal hard drives... but as I see it, if you're running Windows 10, it's a disaster waiting to happen one way or another, so you had better have a plan "B" even if you aren't dual booting. Backups (full system images) are essential.
That said, repairing a GRUB dual-boot setup is easy. Grab an ISO for the Ultimate Boot CD (UBCD) and write it to the USB drive (or an actual disc if you like) of your choice. Boot the PC that needs repair from the USB drive/disc, and select HDD, then Boot Management from the menu. One of the options will be Super GRUB2 Disc... select that, then follow the menus (I can't remember the exact options) to list all of the operating systems on the hard drive. Select your Linux from the list (your choice of whatever kernels you have installed), and let it go... it will take longer than usual, but it will (hopefully) boot your Linux, from which you can then open a terminal window and type (at least in Mint)
sudo grub-install /dev/sda
or sdb, sdc, etc., depending on where you want the bootloader. Most of the time, it will be sda.
That should do it... it always has for me (when I have messed up GRUB by other means... it's never been Windows that did it, though I don't use 10 either).
Some of my Windows-using compatriots on other forums are fearful about dual-boot because of these reports, and are either avoiding it or are pondering unusual configurations like external a/b power switches for internal hard drives...
Putting the boot partitions on the side, if their computer is a desktop, they could just install windows and linux on separate hard drives and boot into it accordingly with bios settings.
It is the easiest and cleanest way to boot into another OS without Windows causing boot partition issue.
The home directories ("User" folders) should still be there, just a bit more difficult to get to. Booting off a Linux USB drive, or hooking the hard drive up to another PC would be the easiest way, although you could also probably do it with cmd.exe if you're comfortable with DOS commands... I was able to launch cmd.exe (via windowskey-r) on the machine I saw with this.
Got a PC in this vicious circle just now; you can't roll back as that fails, you can't use system restore as there aren't any restore points; Windows helpfully tells you to reset your PC but the reset option isn't available!
Best you can do is boot to a "different OS", i.e. back to your botched non-desktop. Most stuff won't run - stuff as basic as Explorer for example. services.msc does, control panel doesn't; disabling the AVG related services doesn't help at all.
Looks like the only way out for this is a reinstall from scratch. I could probably count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I needed to do that for Windows 7 (and previous) - you can virtually always fix it when things go wrong. With 8 onwards, if the various basic "system restore" s fail, you've had it. Utter rubbish.
I think the person who owns this PC may get it back running Linux (with her consent of course)- she only needs it for basic word processing and email, and at least once she's got used to which buttons to click for Libreoffice and Thunderbird they will stay put. With Windows 10, who knows what the next unwanted update is going to add/remove/destroy?
Like others have said, I was under the impression it was a security update, but nope... Creators. Aside from cleaning my start menu of all my office apps for their junkware, I had not discovered any other issues until today. Reasons unknown, I cannot record any analog audio from my usb devices using either Audacity or Audition, all which worked before the update. I used to like Windows, but now it's an irritant.
What an outrage! After 1803 killed my laptop, I went through the ordeal of reinstalling Windows (the "easy" part) and the reinstalling all of my apps (a huge task that is still ongoing). But then, the first time Windows checked for updates, guess what??? It decided to try to install 1803 again. I have put it out into the future, and supposedly a MS tech helped my stop future auto updates, but I definitely don't have any confidence that I'm safe from the dreaded update. In the meantime, I can't shutdown or restart the computer without 1803 install happening, because it's in the queue. Please, Microsoft, can't you give us a break?
Change the updated settings to the big business ones:
Settings/Windows Update/Choose when updates are installed
select "Semi-annual Channel" from the drop down. I did this to my wife's SP4; she is Chinese and needs a working Chinese IME. She is still on whatever it was prior to 1709 (the release that broke the IME). Works for me, Microsoft aren't paying me to test their software and neither are Big Business paying. Time to change that Microsoft?
The 1803 update really did a number on my 7 (almost 8) year old desktop.
After the update the start menu stopped working, which arguably is a upgrade not a downgrate, but anyway.
Also as part of the update process Microsoft had 'helpfully' reverted the driver for my RAID to a old Microsoft one. Which resulted in stupidly long DCP calls pretty much totally killing performance of the system.
Luckily the fix while time consuming was rather simple.
Fiddle with some BIOS settings to disable the old Intel RAID. Change disks from RAID to AHCI. I actually pulled out the RAID a while back, because the system was working, I didn't fiddle with BIOS, cos if it ain't broke!
Fixing the start menu not working was a case of doing a in-place 'upgrade'.
Still, none of that should have to have been done if the update wasn't a total untested turd.
It's fine and dandy for knowledgeable people (or at least those who think they are) to declare that it's better to not install Microsoft upgrades, or at least wait a few months until they've proved themselves.
The challenge is what do you do with Uncle Joe, the average computer user that doesn't want to know the inner workings of his PC, but still wants to be safe? My experience has been that it's better to leave auto-update turned on, and know that regardless of what other problems might emerge, at least any security updates will get applied as quickly as possible.
I guess Uncle Joe's advantage is that he likely has a bog standard PC, unchanged from the day that he bought it, so in most cases updates will just work without too much trouble.
Latest update appears to have broken *everything* except FireFox. Startup is a litany of 'The program was unable to start correctly' messages like the dark days of over ambitious virus attacks.
Ah well, at least I know what I'll be going when I get home - clean install, quick google to find out which games & drivers I'll be losing and then avaunt to the best Linux distro - thank goddess for Steam on Linux!
Not really expecting the Feature Update, it dropped on me last Friday. This was a Tower system with an Intel SSD for system boot.
Whatever the update did - the boot disk was unusable. No system checkpoint or rollback available.
None of the normal Windows tools, like chkdsk or fixboot helped. Windows ISO download did not help.
Interestingly enough, Acronis True Image had no trouble reading the disk. Something in 1803 is not compatible with the boot device.
Gave up trying to fix the problem, so I used the Windows 10 ISO to reinstall Windows. Would not activate; could not find the digital license. Microsoft wants me to buy a new license for the system they broke. This was a Vista system originally, with a paid upgrade to Windows 8, and a free upgrade to Windows 10 from there. In theory - I could reinstall Vista and do the upgrades again - but Microsoft no longer offers the free Windows 10 upgrade. And Microsoft wonders why people hate them...
Like, duh. Protecting the core of the system against attack is the responsibility of the OS vendor. After some delay Microsoft now does this (unlike certain fruity people, and Linus).
I had a Surface Pro4, it updated fine (this machine; my serious compute machine, still hasn't volunteered me). The SP died some weeks afterward because, I believe, of a failed fan; it's out for $450 support (replacement). Nothing to do with W10, something to do with MS's mistake of putting moving parts in the "high" end machines.
The probably permanent Cortex(?) "SP" replacement (Microsoft no longer do numbers, watch out Linus; no numbers are even cheaper) upgraded itself today while I was setting it up. I had to kill it during one of the "don't turn me off or I will die" moments, but then that is to be expected with a modern OS; if it can't survive that what good is it?
Bottom line, as we say over here, don't throw gasoline (petrol) over someone else and blame them for catching fire.
Obviously rubbish AV software is going to be a likely cause of update issues as it does its thing, whatever that is.
The only thing I noticed about this update is that some file associations got lost, so when you double click a file, it asks what program it should be associated with.
Also, previously saved MSTSC credentials got trashed
this update didnt remove malwarebytes like the last few did,
It inserted a win 10 settings page between the speaker icon on the task bar and into the playback/recording config settings.
My friend had a broken internet protocol which stopped him getting online for a while.
It did disable all my speakers and headsets putting control into a VB Virtual Cable for everything including Communications.
Another of my friends has obtained the Win 7 game pack to play MahJong but every update uninstalls her MalwareBytes and the games pack.
Friends do, because friends know that people are not good at looking after themselves and the branded products bring "confidence" in application.
How many non techie friends do you know who have managed to absolutely write off their hardware by getting their machines clogged with mallware, messed up "open with" options so dredful apps open to do simple things like music, video or picture.
Friends would rather their friends get a balck cab home rather than chance their bad choices with a random car they flag down.
I'm having to deal with constant calls from one mate about Kaspersky being far too intrusive.
Of course, when advised by Kaspersky, he does what Kaspersky asks -- and I have to sort out the resultant mess or lack of access.
'Just don't pay for another year - the reason you get funny emails is that you go on funny sites'. but the bugger still clicked.
Malwarebytes and Defender seem to work well together, I had enough of Avast chewing up resources.
Friends do...
Real friends don't. Real friends take the effort to swim across the internet and return to find a working alternative (windows 7-8.1, linux, macOS, etc with other security measures. If you couldn't get some specific 'license', then you haven't made enough effort.)
Real friends makes sure that their friends not only felt like they've return home safely but also actually return home safely. See Windows 10 breaking down once in a while, you called that making sure your friends returning home safe? I've personally witness more than one car on a highway did exactly that and I know that only some of the drivers made it back home.
Every week there is a new random issue indicated by Windows Security Centre's action needed system tray shield icon.
Naturally after the upgrade which took 3 hours not "the 1" suggested above Norton took a few reboots to start working - yet action centre said nothing was wrong. I also changed the order of what icons were in the tray and what were "hidden" so Norton showed on the tray rather than the MS stuff it decided should be always shown.
A week later and action centre declared no working virus/malware software. Norton said it was fine and a couple of eicar tests proved it was doing something. again a few reboots were needed for action centre to decide all was ok
then yesterday action centre decided there was a device performance health issue or two. the wizzard was run which corrected a temporary folder moving issue (?) but could not fix dissapearing app issues (?) a google search on a "type this in" - "net helpmsg 2182" gave up 2 year old confusing stuff so i ignored it... this morning it again had an unhappy shield, yet clicking on it and there were green ticks on every item in "security at a glance" - the shield magically fixed itself to a green tick after that.
MS should stop peeing around with automatically changing login screen pictures that randomly decide to offer "information buttons" about them and stick to the knitting... no one is impressed when the colourful front door leads to a buggy insides.
I'm hating what the update has done to my PC.
I'm turning off the 'auto update' option.
I wonder how many weeks it will be before my desktop is back to normal.
This incident makes me want to begin research on a non Microsoft operating system that I can replace the Microsoft OS with.
Operating Systems are supposed to GET BETTER, not worse! What is going on??
This is by far the worse updating of OS I've every experienced.
SHAME on Microsoft!! Not cool at all!!
Wish I'd seen this before now, as tried all tricks to recover system, but had to bite the bullit and do a re-install - fortunately all personal data was on a separate drive.
Of course system was using Avast, will now expect to see others.
The whole concept of Microsoft updates on Win10 is ill-thought out and is, in my opinion, the reason why more users are either moving away to alternatives - some have also gone back to Win 7. Microsoft need to go back to the drawing board on the update process.
I'm sticking to Win 7 on my personal multiboot system (rarely use win 10)
I have a small netbook style laptop, it can't/won't install any updates after January this year. No error code, no accessible log to say what the bloody problem is. Just the message "can't install update because previous update hasn't finished".
I don't use the machine often enough to be bothered to put the effort in to fix this. I'll see if there is a linux distro about for it soon.
Windows update is by far the worst element/product/turd that Microsoft has ever produced in a long history of producing large steaming turds.
'Steaming Turd' Icon needed.
I have a small netbook style laptop, it can't/won't install any updates after January this year.
If it has a 32GB "hard drive," it could be that there's not enough room to allow Windows to update. This has been reported with netbook-style laptops from several manufacturers. It didn't stop me from buying one, though in my case I planned from the start to wipe Windows and put Mint on it. I did, and it went from the eMMC "hard drive" being 2/3 full just from Windows to being 2/3 empty with Mint and a bunch of other programs I installed. I did put /home on the external microSD card, but there's not much in there.
See if you have a "Go back to previous Windows version" option (or similar) in your Backup settings. I had a similar issue, and "rolling back" got me passed the "stuck update" thing. I had to reinstall some apps, but had no issues since. Backup critical data first though, just in case!
The Windows 10 April update borks Asus laptop keyboards - I had my laptop update itself while unattended. The Asus keyboard driver has an issue with the update. Updating the driver results in an error message stating the Asus Num Pad device was not compatible with this version of Windows.
Unfortunately my parents' Asus laptop also had updated itself while they were out. Luckily I had Teamviewer installed, remoted into it and rolled back on both laptops (after first trying to update the driver.)
The Windows 10 April update borks...
Also has been known to update their own hardware SP2017 then blue screen of death a few hours later, (apparently doesn't like the SSD they used).
Why isn't MS holding off on the updates to run a few more tests? How can they have not even tested it in their own line of PCs? Why is no one holding them to account?
They're really starting to piss me off!
Edit: It also borked my Miix310 wifi adapter, have to find a realtec driver to fix it.
If this is on you PC (W10 home version) your Windows Update has broken at some time in the past. The Fall Creators update completely trashed my AMD machine, and I (to cut a long story short) created a new user profile and copied all the shortcuts/files from the broken profile across to the new one. *Everything* was copied across without reinstalling Windows. I then made sure that stuff was working in the new profile before deleting the old one. I also turned off the "fast boot" option. This took two weeks of testing.
All the stuff on support websites (including Microsoft) didn't work, as some programs fired up properly (whereas others didn't), the task bar was broken, but after several reboots it would work properly as if nothing happened. Then stuff would start going wrong again. A mish mash of anything I could find helpful actually worked. However, it has been fine since last year.
The April update has gone through with no problems and appears to be dribbling slowly out of Redmond, and my machine now boots faster. If you're having problems with WU, go here:
http://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Home.aspx
This will give you standalone installer versions and it runs like XP WU did. It is imperative that you match up the KBXXXXXXX with that of those detailed in WU. In my experience this fixes WU as it updates the update catalog. This also worked on my sister's laptop.
Last week my recently update Win10 (1803) PC refused to start, despite trying all the various safe mode options, repairing etc.
I had to resort to rolling back through the last known good settings, fortunately the 1803 update took one from just a few days before, so I went back to that and the PC came up fine.
Not sure whether the update killed the boot mechanism or not, but if not, having a recent restore point saved my ar$e
I have updated 14 machines to the latest version of Windows. 13 went fine, with no problems. The 14th - an Acer desktop, ended up in a nasty loop where it kept restarting, booted to a black screen, and then rebooted.
After forcing it to crash to get to system restore, was unable to roll back to previous version. The only option was to reset windows which took me back to 1709 losing all of my installed programs. A second attempt fared no better. Microsoft support for this issue has proved non existant. The workaround is a registry hack to prevent automatic updates, but certainly not ideal.
So where can i go for support when a Microsoft update borks a PC?
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
