Mandatory updates

[StuartR]

Microsoft releases tool to hide or block unwanted Windows 10 updates

[HansV]

That's good news (although I can understand why Microsoft would prefer to make updates mandatory).

[JoeP]

You must still install the update, uninstall it, and then block/hide it. Rather convoluted for most I think. It looks to be useful only for troublesome updates. I think that as long as updates are not causing an issue most users will not even attempt to use the tool.

Joe

[Jay Freedman]

There was a big flap a few days ago about a forced update of an NVidia GPU driver that conflicted with NVidia's own update mechanism (http://betanews.com/2015/07/26/windows- ... -computer/). That's been resolved by GEForce releasing a newer driver today (http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/articl ... r-released).

It seems inevitable that something similar will happen again, maybe a few times a year and affecting some unsuspecting group of users. If the effects are bad enough, those users are going to have to reload the whole operating system just to be able to boot up, before they can uninstall the offending update.

[BobArch2]

There has to be a better approach to updating. IMHO, mandatory updates have and will cause issues. I posted a separate message regarding an issue with imaging software.

I have always used the option to tell me about the update and let me handle it when convenient to me. I am not too sure how many Insider Review testers posted concerns about mandatory updates, but I did.

Might I suggest that mandatory updates will be like the lack of a Start Menu in Win81?

[StuartR]

In principle I think that mandatory updates are now needed for the VAST majority of users. Optional updates have left us with the dire situation we now have with millions of slave PCs in botnets that are used for criminal purposes. This really does need to be sorted out, and I think that mandatory updates is the way to do so.

I would have liked Microsoft to offer an "expert" mode that allowed people to disable the updates if they really know what they're doing, but I suspect there are too many self-proclaimed experts out there for this to have worked. I know that enterprise versions of Windows won't have mandatory updates, so maybe the solution is for the experts to buy these versions.

[JoeP]

Still much uncertainty about updates for Pro & Enterprise. Some say any Pro install can defer updates. Others say only Pro connected to an update server. Others say only Pro connected to a Domain. Enterprise an entirely different animal as far as Microsoft is concerned. Can be on a completely different servicing branch/schedule. Probably take next several months to sort it out.

Joe