I shut off Windows updates because I feel like so often they cause some new issue, but with my new system, it seems that's not allowed? I just got a notification that I MUST leave my computer on and plugged in so that it can update. When I went to Settings to make sure updates were paused, there was this message: The pause limit has been reached. You'll need to install the latest updates on this device before you can pause again.

So is it really not possible to live without updates any more? Jay, I think you said you don't do them unless you need it---how?

I always do Windows Updates. It is driver updates that I normally don't do.

I, in good conscious, have to advise doing Windows Updates even it you choose to try the tool linked below. The tool, Wu10Man (Windows Updates 10 Manager), should be used to allow you to decide when to do updates, not to never do updates, by turning Updates on/off as you choose. It is reported to work in Windows 10 Home but I have not tested on that platform, only Windows 10 Pro.

https://itigic.com/wu10man-program-to-activate-or-deactivate-windows-update/

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Thanks!! I guess I will just do it. I just remember some really irritating issues a long time ago, so I've been fairly leery of updates since then, but maybe it's better to do them, especially since my AV is integrated now.

There are at least a couple programs that will "kill" Windows Updates and I use to recommend them but not anymore. I've been discovering, as have others, that my system runs smoother and simply works when I keep things simple and stop fighting Microsoft. The way that I "fight" Windows updates now is with the built-in delay feature. I love that feature because it gives a chance for bugs to be worked out before I get them, and because I am not fighting MS, it is part of Win 10.

There are too many security fixes in those updates and I almost wonder why I even delay them. But with my security programs (I've even simplified them) and my backup/recovery programs (one area I will not make simple, I now have six of those programs on my system), I feel OK using the MS feature of delaying.
Good luck, Bill

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The blazing evidence of immortality is our dissatisfaction with any other solution. -- Emerson

Personally, even though I don't, I see no issue with delaying updates to allow bugs to be found/fixed. I do updates as soon as they show in most cases but I DO have my system set to only notify on updates instead of automatically doing (apparently only able to do on the Pro version). The updates won't do anything until I click to download.

Sorry homefire. The following is directed at Acadia and may be over your head in some points.

I just figure that, even if an update messes things up, I just boot to my recovery media and restore my clone backup in about 10 minutes. With me it has become where cloning is my main backup. I'll manually do a clone at least once a week or if I do a major change or install but only do images about once a month. Cloning is just MUCH quicker. 10 minutes may seem long for a clone restore but my system drive is 325 GB used space. What can I say? I have a LOT of games installed and they work better installed on my M.2 SSD drive. I still have 139 GB free space so no issue. My system drive and destination drive for clone backups are both 500 GB M.2 SSDs so are exactly the same. If my system drive gets borked, and I'm in enough of a hurry to not want to restore, I just go to my BIOS and change the boot drive. Personally I think that cloning is superior to images as it is faster. Some might say to just set up a R.A.I.D. mirror array to where the cloning is automatic and in real time but I disagree. The way I see it a R.A.I.D. mirror array assures that if your system gets infected both drives are infected. Manually cloning prevents this aspect.

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Heh, Jay, whenever I feel that I am doing things in too complicated of a way, I just need to read any post of yours on how you do things, makes me feel simple again.
Bill

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The blazing evidence of immortality is our dissatisfaction with any other solution. -- Emerson

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LOL!

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stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"

Grumble, grumble... LOL! I don't see where what I do is so complicated. Basically I just boot to a CD and click to clone.

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Y'all are great! Thanks, Bill, for the thought on bugs being fixed while I delay updates. That makes me feel better about it!

Another question, while I'm here? (Do you ever get tired my eternal questions?) Last week I was using Excel for a rather unusual project-- not a normal spreadsheet, but I wanted to use the automatic date feature to make a day planner. So I was making a very wide spreadsheet (two pages per week for six months, plus monthly calendar inserts) and I had done a lot of formatting, borders, color, and inserted an image on each page. And it suddenly froze up. It sort of shocked me since my system is brand-new and basically empty, but apparently I can still overwhelm it.

Usually, I've had problems when drawing, and that has gone great so far with this machine, but apparently complicated spreadsheets are even more taxing? There was a LOT of copying and pasting formatting, so I'm guessing that is most of the problem. So my question is, how do I prevent that happening again? It was not a huge deal, since I had been saving regularly, but annoying, since I didn't want to do a hard reboot and it took forever to shut down. If I want to do something like this again, should I just take a break every hour or so and close the program? Or will it need to be rebooted in order to clear things?

Not only does it give time for MS to work out the bugs (actually, they are rather rare) but it also gives time for your third-party programs to "catch up". Many times a major Windows update will cause so many changes to your system, that some of the third-party programs now become "incompatible" with Windows. That sets all the companies scrambling to make their programs compatible again. By delaying the Windows updating, but constantly keeping all of my other programs updated, by the time I get the major MS stuff, everything keeps on working as if nothing has happened.
Bill

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The blazing evidence of immortality is our dissatisfaction with any other solution. -- Emerson

That makes good sense to me. Thanks!

Edit: Upon re-reading my posts, I want to edit what I said above. I would only recommend delaying the MAJOR Windows updates that come out once or twice a year. The monthly ones I would let thru because they are the ones that contain the security fixes and usually do not mess with other programs.
Acadia

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The blazing evidence of immortality is our dissatisfaction with any other solution. -- Emerson

Sheesh, editing again. Today I received update KB4556799. It is a monthly but despite what I stated above, I delay the monthly too, mostly because I trust my security software and backups. I usually go into the Internet afterwards to see what just changed on my system. In this case I am glad that I delayed it, in May there were a bunch of problems with this update for some people, maybe delaying it gave MS time to work things out.

Delay the monthlies too? (MS only allows you to delay those 30 days and I think that is a good idea, you need those security fixes) Opinions?
Bill

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The blazing evidence of immortality is our dissatisfaction with any other solution. -- Emerson

As for myself I do monthly and feature updates as soon as they are out. If something happens it just takes 10 minutes to restore my clone. If I'm in a hurry it takes less than a minute to set my clone as the boot drive.

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Jay, have you ever had any problems with a monthly update, that you can remember, where you needed to restore? I have never had any problems with any update since switching to Win10 over 2 years ago, but I always have delayed them.
Bill

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The blazing evidence of immortality is our dissatisfaction with any other solution. -- Emerson

I THINK that I had an issue once but can't remember for sure. Since I can't remember for sure I doubt that it was major. I also have Updates set to just notify and the notice just sits there until I click download. That way the update does not happen while I'm busy. I also do not use Windows Updates to do Feature Upgrades. I always burn an install DVD.

A neighbor had an issue with the May 2020 upgrade where he lost his wireless, DVD and was locked in tablet mode but I don't think that he was supposed to get the upgrade. He had just got out of the hospital and his laptop was on the whole time he was gone. I think that the upgrade probably downloaded while he was away before the block for problem systems was initiated. I just used the 'restore to a previous version of Windows' option and all was fine.

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I've just sent my desktop back to the previous version. It had the new feature update showing a couple of days ago so thought the machine must have been ready for it.

No such luck, I couldn't go anywhere on it, it was as if it kept freezing, trying to bring the browser up took forever it just sat there as a blank page and if it did show anything half the time I couldn't get anywhere else. I've told it not to update till the 18th of July, although I'll keep an eye out for security updates as they are no problem it was trying to go from 1909 to 2004 that caused problems.

It's funny as I installed it on my laptop on the 12th December 2019 and had no problems, well if there have been any they've not been anything major just the odd glitch.

I'll make sure hubby doesn't upgrade his yet, he has the same make and model of desktop as me I bought them both at the same time, they're Acer Aspire XC-704 while my laptop is an HP Envy 2 in 1 Convertible, the Acer are Intel and the HP is AMD.

I still have my Asus K55A to try, that's an Intel inside and hubby has a Toshiba laptop that's Intel.

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Joan Archer
http://crossstitcher.webs.com

Sigh. If I understand this article correctly, Microsoft has now done away with the delaying option for Updates.

https://www.computerworld.com/article/3564158/microsoft-nixes-update-deferral-settings-but-gives-us-a-targetreleaseversioninfo.html

Well, I still have one of those programs that completely kills Updates for as long as you want to. But I really would hate to go back to using that thing, too easy to forget that it is turned on and you fall behind on your updates.

Bill

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The blazing evidence of immortality is our dissatisfaction with any other solution. -- Emerson

Mayhaps the article is talking about something else as it uses the term 'defer' but I just looked and can delay updates in Windows 10 2004 for 35 days as of 6/26/2020 (image below).

Personally I use wu10man to control how my updates are done. I have it set to just notify. This way updates are not totally turned off and I get reminders that they are there.
https://itigic.com/wu10man-program-to-activate-or-deactivate-windows-update/

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Jay, with my version 1909 (and earlier versions) I can delay the major updates for 365 days, you knew that, didn't you? The article above shows the feature update screen that I have, that is now missing.
Bill

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The blazing evidence of immortality is our dissatisfaction with any other solution. -- Emerson

I guess because I do updates pretty much right away I never noticed that. I don't even wait for feature updates to hit my Windows Updates. I download the ISO and do as soon as they are out. I just don't worry about something messing up as restoring from my clone backup is only about a 10 minute process.

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OK, thanks. I reckon 35 days is better than nothing.
Bill

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The blazing evidence of immortality is our dissatisfaction with any other solution. -- Emerson

I set mine to 35 days after I went back to 1909 the second time but didn't wait that long after seeing the post about Malwarebytes. Everything has been working ok since I put Malwarebytes into beta form so I'm sticking with 2004.

I've always done updates as they've been offered and this is the first time I've had any problems.

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Joan Archer
http://crossstitcher.webs.com

I updated to 2004 a few weeks back and I must admit, I kinda almost like the way Microsoft did the update pause thing. For one thing they made it really easy to set in Advanced Options. I am the kind of person who likes to see EVERYTHING my pc is doing (or at least as much as my system will allow me to see), but this is especially true when it comes to Windows Updates. All of you probably already know this, I can simply click on Resume Updates and watch as everything happens; I end up watching in real time what MS has done to my pc. Then I just go back and pause updates again until the next time I want to check, which is usually the next day. My system is getting updated more often now that ever, and what is really neat, I am mostly in control.

Also liking the new Edge more and more, gosh that thing is fast.
Acadia

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The blazing evidence of immortality is our dissatisfaction with any other solution. -- Emerson