Microsoft Needs To Fix Windows 10 Update Problems

[steven36]

A free update Windows 10 might be, but it’s giving some people – me included – a massive headache. So far I’ve updated two laptops, a tablet and my main desktop to the stable release of Windows 10. The tablet and my desktop were both previously on the preview builds.

The problem is – and if it’s plagued me it must be causing problems for a significant number of other people – that the upgrades from older versions of Windows never seem to work properly. To illustrate what I mean, I’m going to list my machines and explain how the update has gone.

Desktop – No problems, in daily use so just installed the RTM when MS released it

Tablet – Had an early Insider Preview build, wouldn’t update to the RTM (final) version so I downloaded the tool from Microsoft MSFT +0.00% website to install 10 and it worked fine. We can ignore this, because it’s not likely to be a common use case for users.

Dell XPS 13 – This machine doesn’t get much use these days, updating it was tricky because it needed to have lots of Windows 7 updates applied first. It did eventually agree to install 10 though.

Dell XPS 12 – This is my day-to-day machine, it was running Windows 8.1, and the update again seemed reliant on the existing OS having all the updates, and again I had to go through Windows Update to get it working.

Samsung RF510 – An old machine, but a powerful enough one that I use it a fair bit for Plex. Will not update via any means.

So, none of my machines was entirely simple to update. The one thing I noticed was that the “Windows Flag” in my tray was absolutely useless in all of these cases. Although reserving my copies of Windows was easy – and utterly pointless, because it didn’t speed up the rate at which a machine got its update – the follow up install was hopeless.

What happens on all my machines was that I would click on the “Your copy of Windows 10 is ready to install” and then that process would fail immediately. On both of the XPS machines, I had to get the Windows 10 update through the standard “Windows Update” service. Not the end of the world, but a poor user experience.

Things get a lot worse with the Samsung. This is the machine that I just cannot get to update. Nothing works. The Windows 10 logo has announced that my upgrade is ready, but it won’t do anything itself. I’ve downloaded update file for W10 about six times on this machine now, via Windows Update and it hasn’t worked any of those times.

In the end I headed to the Windows website to get the same tool I used for the tablet – also a Samsung – and tried that. It appears to work at first, then fails every time, hanging at some point on the Windows 10 boot logo. When the machine is rebooted the PC reverts to Windows 7.

The big problem in all of this though is that there is no way to obtain a product key for Windows 10 in advance of installing it. With all other versions of Windows you would be given a key, which you input during install. In Windows 10 there are no product keys, so there’s no way to install it other than via the Microsoft mandated update system. Once you’ve updated, I believe there’s a way to get your code so that you can do a clean install. But you need to get Windows 10 working first.

I’ve asked Microsoft for a comment on this, and how to solve this problem. I will update this article when they reply.

If you have struggled with the Windows 10 update process, please leave a comment below, or get in touch via Twitter, I’d be interested to hear if you either solved it, or are still unable to update.

Source

[jofre]

Because of so many bugs, I just format partition where win10 pro was installed. Maybe I will install again at the middle of next year. Or maybe not...I do not like to be guinea pig.

[steven36]

My Windows 8 PC . When I done it to 10 it took a good while .

1st I went ahead and reset it too factory default then I installed 3 updates it needs to get windows 8.1 trough the store . then I done all windows updates then I used my windows 10 DVD and upgraded it. It Works fine.

But my older machine had a lot trouble it was Vista upgraded to windows 7 when upgraded it to Windows 10 it took a very long time and had slow boot issue after i did get it working so i reverted back to windows 7 and am waiting to see if it improves after time.

My vista machine meets all there requirements so I dont understand it?

[HX1]

There are a long list of issues with OEM installations as well.. such as doing a reset... I have seen several of these that I had to take all of the personal data out of the machine .. wipe the drive of all partitions.. Make a few BIOS changes and just install fresh then setup the system again... I have had alot better success using this method... AND most drivers install automatically through Windows Update... I haven't really had a bad install this way.. and in some cases even on systems almost 10 years old.. with the right hardware..

To me I always wished a system would be upgradable with everything in place. BUT I think in many cases it would be too much to ask..

[steven36]

There are a long list of issues with OEM installations as well.. such as doing a reset... I have seen several of these that I had to take all of the personal data out of the machine .. wipe the drive of all partitions.. Make a few BIOS changes and just install fresh then setup the system again... I have had alot better success using this method... AND most drivers install automatically through Windows Update... I haven't really had a bad install this way.. and in some cases even on systems almost 10 years old.. with the right hardware..

To me I always wished a system would be upgradable with everything in place. BUT I think in many cases it would be too much to ask..

1.I cant let windows updates do my drivers I had to had turn that off. They send me a driver not compatible with my Windows 8 machine with windows 10 on it. And everyone haveing problems like i did.

https://community.amd.com/docs/DOC-1313

2. If I was to wipe it I would lose my factory default settings and i want keep it were I can reset to windows 8 if i want too for now and since it works ok i see no need

[HX1]

I see the dilemma.. The driver issue however.. that machine I would roll back to the previous supporting OS and keep it there... I know that may suck a little but it will probably be the best solution... next to manually tearing the machine apart and doing the research to replace the chip on a laptop or the buying a new Video card...

Every HP I have done this way runs like 10 times faster without the extra junk.. drivers work.. never really had any issues..

..and I am an Intel guy.. quad core if you must.. makes me happy... AMD ( Personal opinion here ) isn't snappy enough.. many video issues..

[steven36]

I see the dilemma.. The driver issue however.. that machine I would roll back to the previous supporting OS and keep it there... I know that may suck a little but it will probably be the best solution... next to manually tearing the machine apart and doing the research to replace the chip on a laptop or the buying a new Video card...

Every HP I have done this way runs like 10 times faster without the extra junk.. drivers work.. never really had any issues..

..and I am an Intel guy.. quad core if you must.. makes me happy... AMD ( Personal opinion here ) isn't snappy enough.. many video issues..

I dont have a driver issues anymore I installed 15.6 beta drivers it works fine i removed all extra junk after i installed windows 8.1 on it to upgrade to 10 .

Why fix something that's not broke? intel version is my other pc that had more issues than my AMD ever has. Intel I wont never buy another one.. none i ever seen is that good.