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Comment by tsomctl | Hacker News Reader

My laptop with Win10 is at 72 days.

I created a bat file with:

  net stop wuauserv
  sc config wuauserv start= disabled

and then scheduled it to run every 10 minutes. The problem with that is you now have to remember to disable it and check for updates when you have time, which I'm obviously not doing.

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You're oddly proud about not having updated your OS for 72 days.

No, I'm proud that I haven't rebooted in 72 days. The last clause was me acknowledging that this isn't good computer hygiene.

edit: And I'm trying to help other people. I know how infuriating it is to have your computer restart in the middle of something, and the above fix is pretty straightforward.

I think having to disable the autoupdate in win10 is the most requested thing for IT helpdesks these days.

As a result of this complete ignorance to ergonomics, the windows ecosystem is returning back to WinXP years, and windows users are now getting pwned by years old exploits again.

I think microsoft best achievement in win7 was that it was working "out of the box" without having to hack it. Now, win10 again requires to be hacked right out of the box just to work.

People now install stuff like https://www.novirusthanks.org/products/win-update-stop/ or https://securityxploded.com/windows-autoupdate-disable.php and countless others.

But when they finally need to update, the half broken windows install may give up the ghost, because the update script can't account for hundreds of ways how windows internals may have been altered, and so they learn to not to update at all, and switch to antiviruses, qihoo and other "crapware clearners" in the end

> Now, win10 again requires to be hacked right out of the box just to work.

Or, to rephrase that (from Microsoft's—and most IT departments'—perspective): Windows now works, as once again users with broken workflows are now forced into fiddly sub-optimal patterns for using the OS, which are more work to maintain than just correcting their workflow. (And IT departments are empowered to not even allow these fiddly sub-optimal patterns through GPOs, allowing them to force users to immediately rectify their workflows.)

Microsoft is trying to be the teacher that slaps your hand with a ruler when you look down at the keyboard instead of touch-typing. Except, instead of touch-typing, they're trying to force people to use (and build) software in a way that makes restarting their computer irrelevant, by e.g. making long-running jobs checkpoint their work and resume from the last checkpoint after a restart.

Still doesn't work for all cases. At my work we had a system running a control loop reboot due to updates, which reset a system which had been stabilising for weeks (we had tried to stop it updating, unsuccessfully as it turned out). Windows is basically rendering itself unsuitable for running such a system because of their update policy (which is a shame when the systems necessary for running the control loop depend on it).

I mean... shouldn't those systems be running Windows IoT Core (nee Windows Embedded)? That branch doesn't have auto updates, AFAIK.

These systems shouldn't be running Windows to begin with

These are lab experiments. The people running, configuring, and setting them up neither have the expertise nor the time to set up such a system.

I can't say this chimes with me at all. I have seen plenty of Windows server 2016 (W10 for servers ish) stay up for over a year. On an AD network you control the update policy! I can stop all of my clients updating with a group policy.

This is basically a desktop system running a lab experiment. After the pop saying 'reboot in x hours' we changed the group policy, however this does not stop a pending update.

> I think having to disable the autoupdate in win10 is the most requested thing for IT helpdesks these days.

That has not happened even once to me, and what company allows users to decide?

I can tell you that the majority of calls to my desk from mac users are a direct result of not updating. The Windows machines all have their updates controlled by WSUS, a standard component on an AD network. I have very close to zero problems with Windows 10 updates.

> how infuriating it is to have your computer restart in the middle of something

That last happened to me a couple of years ago and I used Windows 10 every day since.

Or that you have to jump through hoops to get your OS to do what you want it to do.

About 15 years ago, I worked at a startup that had a server with 5 years of uptime!

I have a home server with 1301 days of uptime.. (last year it survived a move without rebooting)

That's amazing! The most I've made it with a home server was about 500 days. Eventually, there would be a thunder storm and the UPS would die. Then I'd use the reboot to do all the updates I should've done in the past year and a half...

> (last year it survived a move without rebooting)

How? UPS?

Yep, moved the computer while together with its UPS.

that's very cool, but what the heck is on this server that made it worthwhile to move it like that?!

Probably his uptime record!

If it's a short enough move I can see doing that just for the hell of it.

IRC bouncer with unregistered nick.

DEC computers were know for their reliability.

This was a generic, rack mount Intel server running Debian 3.x.

I seen now that my comment was out of context. Sorry.

I was referring to longevity in general. Back in the day, DEC computers would just about never go down. They easily had up times of longer than 5 years.

No prob... That is true. I used to do some work on VAXes and they were very reliable.

Choices are:

Allow Windows 10 auto update but for a chance for it to delete all your profile / data files PERMANENTLY :

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/windows-10-k... (February 19, 2020)

Turn off auto update with user control on when is best time to update:

Make backups, would you?

Useful, I may purloin that.

I don't object at all to regular reboots for security updates, but I do object to forced reboots. Windows not being safe to leave alone for 24 hours without risk of it rebooting itself makes it no better than a toy OS in my mind. And it isn't as if it is just the one monthly reboot around patch Tuesday plus the occasional emergency patch: I think I can count on one hand the number of months in the last ~two years when my main Windows machine hasn't needed to reboot twice or more in a month.

Actually I do object to regular reboots if I'm more honest, at least as many as Windows seems to need. The fact that just about any security update requires a full system reboot instead of many of them being applicable with just restarting component services smacks of bad design.

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