Windows 10 update and weird things afterwards

rob aylestone

Moderator
I shut down mt computer, and despite turning off updates, it said updating and shutting down - words of doom. On start up my old but loved Presonus firepod interface was no longer 'talk-toable'. No inputs or outputs. The latest 64 bit driver available is Windows 7, and I can only assume this is one of the 'end of life' features of 7. Re-installing the driver in the new version of compatibility mode did work though and normal service is resumed. The symptom is the Windows volume slider stuck on 0, and Cubase and other software not being able to load the driver.

Worth remembering this if you use any non-Windows 10 drivers.
 
So far I have not had that experience. After many years of being unwilling to budge from XP, I finally made the switch to W10 a couple of months ago (even though in the box I had W10 installed on an SSD that, from time to time, I swapped over to for brief forays into it).

I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to get my Firepod up and running. I posted that experience and what had to be done om HR a while back. Since then it has run flawlessly. However, I am constantly surveying the market to see what I will eventually replace it with. Unfortunately, I'm not seeing any product that offers the same level of functional and ergonomic usefulness.
 
Went into the studio for a quick five minute job. Two hours later it was up and running again. I just wish windows would understand that if it's running happily, forced updates can wreck things.
 
I've got a couple of issues with my old laptop, mainly the wifi adapter. I'll probably just get one of the micro USB wifi adapters just to keep it working. Otherwise it seems to be working OK with the move from 7 t0 10. Its strange because the wired adapter portion works perfectly, but it has an issue with staying attached with WPA2.

The computer is about 10 years old, so that's ancient in computer time. I got it to avoid having to move to XP from Win2000.
 
I just wish windows would understand that if it's running happily, forced updates can wreck things.

You want Windows LTSC then.

"But Steve," you may say, "that's one of those business editions where I'd have to talk directly to a rep and buy at least 5 licenses. I'm not dropping $500+ for Windows!"

Yes. Part of the cost of being a "cheap seats" user, is that we're beta testers for the pro-level users. If you want real control over the update cycle, you have to pay to upgrade to enterprise level or air-gap the device.
 
Sadly, I just don't trust them. It's not the $500, it's what you get for it? Which seems to be very, very little in real terms. I always used the pro versions of windows on some computers here I considered critical, and home on the others - I never noticed any difference in how I use windows.
 
Oh I definitely notice it when I'm on the home version. You lose a lot of power-user tools (powershell, WSL)

That's still a cheap version tho. LTSC is the "you're a business and are NOT going to mess with this garbage" version. Non-security updates only happen every 2-3 years, and those updates are all the features and bugs that the rest of us have spent 2-3 years testing for them.
 
Oh I definitely notice it when I'm on the home version. You lose a lot of power-user tools (powershell, WSL)

That's still a cheap version tho. LTSC is the "you're a business and are NOT going to mess with this garbage" version. Non-security updates only happen every 2-3 years, and those updates are all the features and bugs that the rest of us have spent 2-3 years testing for them.

Oddly enough both my laptops run Powershell on Home edition of WIn7 and my desktop with Win7 Pro won't. Computers are weird
 
I have Powershell on my Win10 Home machines. I haven't used it in so many years, I don't remember anything.

I gave up "power user" status many years ago. I hadn't opened up a computer case for about 3 years until I updated drives in a couple of machines a month ago, and got out my old Apple ][+ about a month ago and got it running again. (I was rearranging the junk in the basement!)
 
It seems to me that Microsoft causes some weird things to happen of late with their updates. It also seems to me that even if you turn off the updates, Microsoft sometimes gets in its "dictator mode," and the updates come in, come heck or high water. Their last update goofed up Outlook so that I cannot open email messages from SEVERAL companies whose messages I need, and the same failure occurs on both of my Windows desktop PCs. A Microsoft technician reinstalled Outlook on one of my machines with no resolution to the problem. He said that the Windows operating system would have to be reinstalled; but WAIT! If I have the same Outlook issue on both desktops, I find it hard to believe that the problem is a corrupted operating system corrupted in the same way on both desktops. I feel sorry for folk working on their music who suddenly find that a Microsoft update which came without their permission broke something or some things which they need. My Windows laptop with Windows 10 has a Presonas audio interface, and I have not checked it lately to see whether it still works. I am about to the point where I wonder whether Windows 10 has gotten so darned complicated that Microsoft might not know how to solve an increasing number of issues on computers running Windows. As a totally-blind musician, I have gotten along pretty well with Windows through several versions, and I am not "chomping at the bit" to go to Lenux, though I know of one or two other blind folk who use that system; but I am rather unhappy that nobody has so far been able to solve the problem on my Outlook (the latest version). I wonder whether there is a bug in the latest version of Outlook or in its interaction with Windows 10's latest update.
 
I stopped recording, went and did food and when I went back, the computer had reloaded the Windows generic driver again. Maybe this is something else, but nothing has changed just repeated replacement of a working driver because it's old! Wasted two hours getting everything back to normal. Infuriating.
 
For me, I just went Mac. At least for my computing needs.
I’ve been pc since W98, but stoped at W7. That’s the last decent operating system in my opinion. Ive heard too many W10 horror stories from forums and real life friends.
My music computers are still on 7 and everything works just fine. But in all fairness, they never go online.

Day to day computer use is all Mac for me now. Haha. Never thought I’d see the day.

It’s funny, the general consensus amongst my Mac friends and associates is “what took you so long?”
I feel like I joined a cult :)
 
I feel sorry for folk working on their music who suddenly find that a Microsoft update which came without their permission broke something or some things which they need.

This is one of the reasons I recommend that your main recording device be air gapped (disconnected from the network). As long as the device is networked, the maintainers of any software on it have the ability (and the responsibility) to update it periodically, and you can never be entirely sure those updates won't break anything. Plus who know what other kind of bad stuff can happen when your computer has ports open to be affected by the internet at large.

Mac isn't free from such shenanigans either. There is the horror story of the woman who found that iTunes had "helpfully" backed up all the songs she wrote to the cloud and deleted the local copies. Of course they could only be downloaded again in the lossy aac format.
 
Indeed - my Mac dumped iTunes totally and replaced it with Apple Music - which is fine, BUT - I have a paid for duplicate checker which I use frequently and that is iTunes specific and cannot read the music library. Wiping it out overnight.

The latest Windows update also seems to have set Cubase to grab and hold the audio driver making it unavailable to other programmes - Sound forge and others. They lived happily with each other before!
 
Windows 10 update can be performed by many methods.i haven't done the latest Windows 10 update yet and never do that.
 
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