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Geek Culture / Furious with latest Windows 10 Update: suggestions welcome

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Green Gandalf
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19
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Joined: 3rd Jan 2005
Playing: Malevolence:Sword of Ahkranox, Skyrim, Civ6.
Posted: 2nd Aug 2017 10:43
I am shocked and furious.

I opened up my laptop this morning so I could work on some images held on my desktop machine. A simple task that should take just a few minutes.

To my initial irritation, Windows 10 decided to update something. When it finally let me get access a mysterious popup appeared telling me to sign in or dismiss. It warned me to sign in or I would lose some files. Since I had no idea what I was supposed to sign into and, assuming I might simply lose the files I had open when the laptop went to sleep, I chose dismiss.

BIG MISTAKE!!

Everything has gone!! At first I thought I'd just lost a few internet bookmarks and other settings, but no, everything. All my pictures, programmes, software, games, Microsoft Office documents. Yes, the whole damn lot.

I am lost for words (well almost ).

Can anyone help please? Is it possible the stuff is still on the disk in some form or other??
Van B
Moderator
21
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Joined: 8th Oct 2002
Location: Sunnyvale
Posted: 2nd Aug 2017 10:49
I'd have a look through the Users folder. It may just be that you've signed in under a fresh user profile, and your existing documents etc are still there under a different user.
The code is dark and full of errors
Green Gandalf
VIP Member
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Joined: 3rd Jan 2005
Playing: Malevolence:Sword of Ahkranox, Skyrim, Civ6.
Posted: 2nd Aug 2017 11:00
Thanks VanB. I hope you are right. The mysterious thing is that the windows button no longer works and I can't seem to locate the Settings page or anything much, yet.

One odd thing though, I noticed that most (all?) my shortcuts were still on the desktop so I tentatively tried logging into Steam and playing a game I'd recently been playing. Well that worked but when I closed it the screen dimensions changed to the one the game was using and I couldn't see how to get access to the Settings/Display page. All this suggests I've for some reason been logged in as a default user without Admin rights so you may well be right.

I'll check back in a minute.

Green Gandalf
VIP Member
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Joined: 3rd Jan 2005
Playing: Malevolence:Sword of Ahkranox, Skyrim, Civ6.
Posted: 2nd Aug 2017 11:15
Yes, I had to forcibly shut down the laptop (because none of the usual Windows features were accessible () ) and then login again.

Why on earth didn't the message tell me I was being logged in as something else - and, more to the point, why didn't it simply log me in as requested when I initially woke the machine up??

I wonder how many other users have been baffled by this sort of behaviour from Windows?

Anyway, everything seems OK for now, so thanks VanB for your extremely prompt and appropriate reply.
Van B
Moderator
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Joined: 8th Oct 2002
Location: Sunnyvale
Posted: 2nd Aug 2017 12:03
Good stuff... Windows stopped surprising me a long time ago

My bet would be that M$ had another security flaw to fix with user profiles.
The code is dark and full of errors
Dark Java Dude 64
Community Leader
13
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Joined: 21st Sep 2010
Location: Neither here nor there nor anywhere
Posted: 2nd Aug 2017 20:18
I'm so glad I'm still running Windows 7.
Yes!
Phaelax
DBPro Master
20
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Joined: 16th Apr 2003
Location: Metropia
Posted: 2nd Aug 2017 23:35
Microsoft has made it so users can't disable automatic updates. This is a horrible decision. Not just for regular users but imagine an enterprise environment. That's a network admin nightmare!

There is a program to prevent this from happening though. I'll have to search for what it was called.

"I like offending people, because I think people who get offended should be offended." - Linus Torvalds
Ortu
DBPro Master
16
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Joined: 21st Nov 2007
Location: Austin, TX
Posted: 3rd Aug 2017 04:24 Edited at: 3rd Aug 2017 04:27
in an enterprise environment, you can point workstations to an in house WSUS server to manage updates. they may still call out to microsoft if it goes too long without updates I think, but it gives you time to test and deploy in a controlled manner, and you can be much more selective in which updates are approved.

What really irritates me is that every major 'upgrade' (1511, 1607 anniversary, 1703 creators) disables our VPN clients forcing a reinstall. At this point it shouldn't require an hour long call with affected remote users... but it does.

@GG glad you got it sorted, quick tip: always have a second local user account with administrative access. You mostly don't ever need to touch it, but it is enourmously helpful if your normal user profile ends up with issues.

Also, pick up an external hard drive, they are very cheap these days even 1TB - 2TB, grab a system image using the 'Backup and Restore (Windows 7)' option in control panel. Update it anytime you have enough changes that you don't want to lose/redo them
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Kevin Picone
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Location: Australia
Posted: 3rd Aug 2017 11:22 Edited at: 3rd Aug 2017 11:22
I can't stan Win10 either... a slow frustrating mess... you can disable the auto updating it's just hidden away.

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Green Gandalf
VIP Member
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Playing: Malevolence:Sword of Ahkranox, Skyrim, Civ6.
Posted: 9th Aug 2017 11:23
Quote: "I can't stan Win10 either... a slow frustrating mess... you can disable the auto updating it's just hidden away."


Yes, the auto updating is causing real problems here. The main problem is my laptop which will not reinstall the 1503 "creators" update completely. This has the effect that every time it fails Windows then seems to re-download the whole thing yet again.

Could you give us a hint where to find this hidden way of disabling updates, preferably individually since not all are affected. I'm using Windows 10 Home Edition which at first sight gives limited access to such settings.

I don't recall having anything like these issues with W7 and regret every second wasted with this "free upgrade" to W10. [To be fair, I'm not having the same problems with my newer machine - just the usual collection of user errors or oversights. ]
BatVink
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Joined: 4th Apr 2003
Location: Gods own County, UK
Posted: 9th Aug 2017 11:58
Had to roll back a friend's PC this week. The update had a minor glitch - he could no longer connect to the internet!
PC is hardwired to the router, router is visible on PC. Router works for all other devices.
Tracert stops at the router gateway. With update installed, McAfee interface is unable to be opened or disabled.
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Dark Java Dude 64
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Location: Neither here nor there nor anywhere
Posted: 9th Aug 2017 12:03
Quote: "McAfee interface is unable to be opened or disabled."
That sounds like a real joy!
Yes!
easter bunny
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Playing: Dota 2
Posted: 9th Aug 2017 14:05
Quote: "That sounds like a real joy!"

The first part at least

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