Microsoft promises speedier Windows 10 Feature Update processes
Microsoft releases two feature updates for the company's Windows 10 operating system per year. Users and administrators will also install feature updates regularly as feature updates are only supported for 18 months by the company. In other words: if you don't want to run an unsupported version of Windows 10, you do need to upgrade regularly.
Feature updates can be compared to classic Service Pack upgrades. A feature update upgrades Windows 10 to a new version that includes large and small changes to the system.
A core difference between cumulative updates that Microsoft releases at least once a month is that feature updates require multiple reboots to complete whereas cumulative updates only one reboot.
The installation of feature updates happens in four phases, each either offline or online. Online phases occur while the operating system is up and running. Users may use the system during online phases which makes them less disruptive to the experience.
Offline phases, on the other hand, run update processes when the operating system's frontend is not available to the user.
Joseph Conway, Senior Program Manager on the Windows Fundamentals team at Microsoft revealed recently that Microsoft engineers managed to reduce the time the operating system is in offline mode during feature updates significantly.
The offline phase of the Creators Update, released in April 2017, was about 82 minutes in total. Microsoft managed to reduce the offline time to 51 minutes in the Fall Creators Update, released in October 2017, and the upcoming Spring Creators Update will see further reductions to that. Recent Insider Build feature updates have an average offline time of just 30 minutes.
How is that achieved? Microsoft published a table that lists online and offline phases of the old and new feature update model.
| OLD Feature Update model | NEW Feature Update model | |
| Online |
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|
| Offline |
|
|
The company moved some operations that were run in offline mode in previous feature updates to the online mode.
The new operating system was placed into a temporary working directory in offline mode during previous feature updates; the same operation happens in online mode now instead.
The preparation for migrating user content to the new version of Windows 10 moved from offline to online as well.
Closing Words
Offline time reductions during feature updates is a welcome improvement especially since users and admins may feel that there are too many updates for the operating system when compared to previous versions of the Windows operating system.
Now You: What's your experience with Windows Updates?
Windows Update has not caused a major problem for me since it was introduced. However sometimes I find it is not a total current update until a manual “Check for Updates” is done after indications are that the Update is complete, to include the last automatic “Check for Updates”.
That’s the price you pay when your OS is a Service “Windows as a Service”
Once MS decide to move the entire OS in the cloud a.k.a Azure (I can asure it will, sooner than later) then people would find other reasons to complain for example the monthly/annual subscription fees and how pricey it is.
Don’t worry my dear guinea pigs things will get much better for you from now on.
Offline time reduced = Online time increased.
An inplace upgrade means M$ has to scan your Win 10 system online before applying the upgrade. M$ may be slurping up all your user content, as in spying on you every 6 months, while applying the inplace upgrade online.
In comparison, when you do a clean install from the 4GB Win 10 1709 ISO file, the install process is mostly offline, ie is only online for the installation of updates and activation of the Win 10 digital license = likely not much slurping of user content by M$.
Seems, ignorant users are willing to give up their user content/privacy to M$ for the sake of convenience, laziness and being herded like sheep.
According to
https(colon)//answers(dot)microsoft(dot)com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-update/windows-10-fall-creators-update-crashed-my-pc/b8e2bdb4-9125-448b-a768-d597db79bf2c
https(colon)//answers(dot).microsoft(dot)com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-update/update-1709/3d9ff6e0-f7c0-4002-a29c-6170e7195e40
, seems, some 4 to 5 years old computers could not be upgraded to Win 10 1709 because their hardware devices are no longer supported by the OEMs.
If so, affected users will have to buy new OEM Win 10 computers = Planned Obsolescence.
Not good enough.
Twice now, Windows updates have cost me over 2 hours of my workday because I’ve had to reboot my development machine when there has been an update waiting to complete.
This is ridiculous, and expensive. What I need is a way to tell Windows not to update no matter what until I specifically say to. Anything less is not nearly good enough.
Unless you use Windows only software like Photoshop, you should really consider moving to Linux.
@Anonymous:
I use nothing but Linux on my own machines. My employer, however, gets to decide what OS is on my work machines, so I don’t have any choice there.
@John
In that case your employer can’t complain. Consider it as free break time :)
@Anonymous: There’s no such thing as free break time. Every minute lost is one less minute before my deadline comes.
@John Fenderson
this might help you. I have win10 (ver. 1709) but i think it does work with other versions as well. It is a command script that gives back full control of windows update on windows 10. Its been working for me so far, i choose to download and install updates when i want. It will still be nagging you to do it with notifications but at least there will be no more automatic reboots and such wastes of time.
i uploaded it on my mediafire account.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/6r3ocvc2fasan7r/windows%20update%20full%20control%20for%20win10.7z
its a zip file and inside is a commandscript (like a batch file). You may also use notepad to edit it or read the contents of the script if you have doubts, which is how you should be, but i assure you its just a helpful scriptfile.
I can relate to your problem. Time literally is money in my line of work as well.
Microsoft no longer cares what consumers want. Anything they say to the contrary is pure PR speak. They’re focusing on satisfying the big money Enterprise customers. If you aren’t paying hundreds annually, per device or per seat, then you’re part of the QA last line of testing before Enterprise LTSB users get their updates. LTSB users can fully control, or disable updates and telemetry. We consumers cannot.
You can’t fully disable telemetry even on LTSB, only reduce it. Microsoft changed it in AU 1607 from Off to Security. Security doesn’t equal to Off as it was in Build 1507 LTSB. Read the telemetry description in gpedit in 1507 and then compare it to 1607. There is a difference. But then when i tested Windows 10 LTSB 1507 in VirtualBox and set telemetry to Off but it was still connecting to various Microsoft servers so telemetry description in gpedit was likely deceptive in 1507.
If you want to completely 100% disable telemetry/spying, your only option is jailing Windows 10 to VirtualBox on Linux and keeping Windows 10 virtual machine always disconnected from the internet. Never connect Windows 10 to the internet.
@DVDRambo: “Microsoft no longer cares what consumers want.”
Microsoft has never cared what users want.
They did care to some extent what consumers wanted until Windows XP and Office 2003. Also they had a US government oversight because of the unlawful monopolistic things they did in the past. As soon as it ended in 2011 and Ballmer stepped down in 2014, they became even more hostile towards customers. Products getting worse, treatment of customers gone from bad to blasphemous. No one can do anything unless they outright reject their products and refuse to use them. Oops services, not products.
@John Fenderson
this might help you. I have win10 (ver. 1709) but i think it does work with other versions as well. It is a command script that gives back full control of windows update on windows 10. Its been working for me so far, i choose to download and install updates when i want. It will still be nagging you to do it with notifications but at least there will be no more automatic reboots. I would still recommend you dont leave the updates to pile up, do them when you can.
i uploaded the commandscript on my mediafire account. Heres the link:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/6r3ocvc2fasan7r/windows%20update%20full%20control%20for%20win10.7z
its a zip file and inside is a commandscript (like a batch file). You may use notepad to edit it or read the contents of the script if you have doubts, which is normal, but i assure you its nothing harmful.
I can relate to your problem. Time literally is money in my line of work as well. I needed a fix and this is what i found on the web.
@ dark – Interesting, about AU 1607 being the last point in time where Telemetry could be truly off.
I have “frozen” at 1607, and I had already – a long time ago – disabled Telemetry via a registry change, which reflected in the interface as being ‘greyed out’, though I really can’t know if it is sending anything.
I also have PCs frozen at 1507 and 1511 – and Telemetry hacked there too.
What I’m wondering therefore, is if these older, unsupported (or in the case of 1607, soon to be unsupported), have eliminated the Telemetry factor?
I guess probably not…….Win10 will always be sending something….
With introducing new features they ofcourse mean they introduce more bugs….
Lucky me i am still on Linux, XP x64 and 7 x64 !
Users need STABLE updates, not only speed.
Users need stable OS, not only updates … :-)
Users need to Linux, its the only way.
1709 … sucks hard some older machines became shit , they were running well on 1706. MS really took a dump on small business .
The Win10 Update process/clusterf* works as my Windows aversion therapy.
My brother and SIL both have Win10 and recent feature updates have put their systems out of action for days due to unknown/unstated issues; finally he had to repair/reinstall over an existing system. Grrrr. This after he purposely held off on updates until he could use decent Internet access (his home only can get <1Mbit DSL :-(.
FOAD, Microsoft.