HOLY CRAP it's a computer apocalypse, what should I do?

[Harold Hallikainen]

Every few days, my Win10 desktop computer says it needs to do an update. It then does the update, says it was not successful, then undoes it. This has been going on for months...

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Every few days, my Win10 desktop computer says it needs to do an update. It then does the update, says it was not successful, then undoes it. This has been going on for months...

As if auto updates are not already annoying or not, what you have there makes it 10x worse. If that happened to me I'd take a screen shot so you know which update and what it's for. Then reasearch that on the MS web site. It may be there is something onyour MB that requires the update, but it may not be functioning correctly allowing the update to load. The other thing I'd do is shut off Auto-Updates permanently until you are able to figure out what that update is for. Then do updates manually.

(Navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update . Double-click on Configure Automatic Updates . Select the Disabled option to turn off automatic updates. Click Apply and then OK .)

[Randy Stankey]

I never, never, never allow any computer or computerized device to update automatically... ever!

My phone/iPad send me push messages when there is an update available but I usually ignore them unless I know what the update is about, in advance. (e.g. A known virus/security risk.) Otherwise, I wait until I have time to look up what the update is about. At such time, I'll decide whether to take the update, now, or wait until I have time (and inclination) to do the update, later.

I have had too many problems with Windoze machines pushing automatic updates, undoing my settings and deleting or replacing drivers without telling me. My mother had an off-brand laptop that needed a certain driver to use the Wi-Fi connection. (Don't ask me! It was a cheapo computer and I didn't buy it!) Every time Windoze automatically updated, it replaced the needed driver with the default, Windoze driver which borked the network connection until somebody (me) came back to restore it.

No! It's MY COMPUTER! I have the sole right to decide when, where and how the system is updated.

I don't care if Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, himself appeared in front of me and decreed it! There is no hair-brained, half-assed, cockamamie excuse that anybody can dream up that will change my mind!

I certainly appreciate the courtesy of informing me that there is an update available but in the end it's MY COMPUTER and it's MY DECISION!

PERIOD!

[Frank Cox]

My one-and-only Windows computer doesn't seem to have a "never update" or "only update manually" option. The only thing I could find was something that said don't update for the next 30 days, which isn't the same thing.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Randy... Just so you are aware, the latest update of Windblows 10, 22H2, automatically checks and installs new driver updates if there are any. Not much one can do about that...

[Scott Norwood]

On Win10, the "fix" is to configure your network interface as "metered." If you do this, it won't download or install patches on its own, but it will still complain when they are not installed.

[Randy Stankey]

My fix was to delete Windoze and install Ubuntu, instead... Problem solved forever!

[Leo Enticknap]

Leo, it's not going to download updates for stuff that is not in your computer. Mostly driver updates and such. Microsoft automatically runs a check to see what's in each computer before the downloads begin. It's mainly going to download OS updates. At least that's what I see mine do. (Lenovo M93P Tiny)

The stuff that wasn't updating on the laptop on which W11 was installed from a boot drive that had been hacked to ignore hardware requirements was stuff that had been installed, not device-specific hardware drivers: .net, the Windows Subsystem for Linux, and a Microsoft Edge update. I therefore suspect that hacked W11 installations on which Windows detects that the hardware spec is out of compliance are only being offered barebones security updates, not functionality updates.

My fix was to delete Windoze and install Ubuntu, instead... Problem solved forever!

Ubuntu is useful, but not a miracle cure. I've already encountered two PCs that will run 20.04 LTS happily, but on which 22.04 LTS simply won't complete the boot sequence after the install. If all you need to do is email, web, office apps, VNC, and file handling, Ubuntu is great. It also has the added advantage that it handles Linux filesystems natively, making it a great tool for troubleshooting issues with DCP distribution drives in the field. Essentially for this reason, my field laptop dual boots into W11 and Ubuntu, running from separate partitions. But the minute you start to need to use applications for which a dedicated Linux/Debian version is not available, then its limitations start to show themselves. For example, the old Series 1 and 2 NEC communicators work under Ubuntu/WINE very reliably, but the "New Coke" one (as Steve calls it) doesn't work at all. That rules out Ubuntu for a booth/remote access PC if some models of NEC projector are in use. All the versions of the Q-Sys software I've tried have been unstable, too, etc. etc.

[Scott Norwood]

I've already encountered two PCs that will run 20.04 LTS happily, but on which 22.04 LTS simply won't complete the boot sequence after the install.

Is this a BIOS vs UEFI thing? Or possibly secure boot? If you can, disable secure boot and enable legacy mode (aka "CSM") in the BIOS. If you have a newer motherboard that doesn't allow legacy mode, set it to UEFI, but still disable secure boot. UEFI systems require a separate EFI partition, so maybe that isn't getting created and/or is getting clobbered by something else.

(Just guessing here; I'm not a regular Ubuntu user, but have run into similar problems with CentOS and Rocky.)

[Randy Stankey]

Ubuntu is useful, but not a miracle cure.

Yes, I agree! I chose Ubuntu because it was the easiest option that didn't cost anything to implement.

The computer was for my mother and it was second hand to her. I got so sick of having to run to her house in order to fix the computer that I had to do something to stop the madness.

Mom was already used to using Ubuntu because she had another old computer that needed fixing but it was so old that it was the only halfway decent OS I could install.

If it had been a computer that was used for work I would have considered another version of Linux.

[Henry Atkinson]

For stable Linux distros, provided you are working in a "development environment" you can still get Red Hat Enterprise Linux (server or workstation) from IBM for free: https://developers.redhat.com/articl...erprise-linux#

If you don't want to play chicken with their EULA, you can either run Fedora (very similar, just a more frequent release schedule theoretically resulting in a less stable OS, I won't pretend to have enough experience with Fedora to give a real answer there), or you can pay IBM their licensing fee.

[Frank Cox]

Or https://rockylinux.org/ (which is what I personally use); it's bug-for-bug compatible with RHEL.

Alma Linux and Oracle Linux are also available.