Minor things that bother you

[zachary_amaryllis]

The morons at Microsoft forced an update on me that PREVENTS ME FROM GETTING ACCESS TO MY FOLDERS!!!

Now, I can't search for music, photos, videos, delete my recycling bin or anything like that!!

Can't you postpone updates for 35 days?

I didn't even know it was coming. My stupid PC froze on me a couple of times today, and I had to reboot the shit. Then earlier tonight I found out I couldn't see what was in my recycling bin for some cockamamie reason. I took a break and went back, and I found out I can't see ANY of my folders.

My one Windows machine exists only as a VM. I turned off Onedrive syncing, dunno if that's the problem or not.
I kept noticing heavy network, after I would do file management.

[J N Winkler]

I didn't even know it was coming. My stupid PC froze on me a couple of times today, and I had to reboot the shit. Then earlier tonight I found out I couldn't see what was in my recycling bin for some cockamamie reason. I took a break and went back, and I found out I can't see ANY of my folders.

Windows Update (accessed by going to Settings --> Update & Security) has a control under Advanced Options that allows you to postpone Windows updates for up to 35 days.

Microsoft typically releases updates on Patch Tuesday, the second Tuesday of each month, and today is Patch Tuesday for February 2023.  I suspect you got caught up in the first wave yesterday, probably as soon as UTC passed midnight on February 14.  I never want updates to install as soon as they become available, because many bugs often don't become evident until they are out in the wild.

I generally update manually at the end of the month, by going to the Windows Update client, choosing "Resume Updates," allowing the updates to download and install, restarting, launching the Windows Update client again, checking for new updates, and--if I see a green check mark--going to Advanced Settings and postponing updates again for 35 days.

It might be possible to uninstall the update that is causing problems.

[Bruce]

Always have a USB stick with Windows 10 recovery media on it. Override the boot in BIOS or the boot select, then you can system restore or rollback the latest update.

Ran into this problem several times while upgrading SSDs because my HDD decided then and there to crap out.

[Scott5114]

I think it's downright criminal that there isn't an "Install updates only when I manually ask for them" option. That's the #1 reason I don't use Windows.

[interstatefan990]

This is definitely minor, but the times that I did use Windows, I didn't like how preppy it was. Especially when it would be like "We're just cleaning a few things up, hold on!  "



"Sit back and relax"? What is this, a spa?

[J N Winkler]

I think it's downright criminal that there isn't an "Install updates only when I manually ask for them" option. That's the #1 reason I don't use Windows.

The option to postpone for 35 days is the closest Windows comes now, and for my purposes, it has been sufficient.  Up to Windows 7 at least (I'm not sure about 8.x), you could simply refuse to install updates altogether, but Microsoft withdrew that capability to clamp down on unpatched copies of Windows in the wild, which has information security benefits since it reduces vulnerability to zero-day exploits.

[SSOWorld]

This is definitely minor, but the times that I did use Windows, I didn't like how preppy it was. Especially when it would be like "We're just cleaning a few things up, hold on!  "



"Sit back and relax"? What is this, a spa?

Don't get excited or you'll make a mess on the message table.

[J N Winkler]

I've found myself dealing with a couple of minor issues, one a bit more serious than the other.

*  Highway agency A makes a list of over 4000 of its let contracts (extending back to 2009) available online.  This list is sortable by work type (construction, engineering, and "other").  I downloaded it in full after sorting it to put construction projects at top.  Once I eliminated duplicates, I had a list of 90, which I then proceeded to go through manually.  When I finished, I thought I had reviewed all of this agency's contracted construction activity back to about 2020 or so.  Then, just for fun, I tried re-downloading the list without sorting it.  The result?  A list of 290, also covering the period from 2020 onward.  Conclusion:  sorting prompts the server to pad the results with duplicates that displace actual results.  (Dismayingly, this is not the first time I have observed this behavior.)

*  Highway agency B maintains a server for distribution of contract documentation that it protects to a somewhat excessive degree.  When it logs a user out, the last file requested downloads at zero length.  My downloader for this server thus checks for zero file length to determine when it has been logged out and needs to log back in.  I leave a download running overnight and return in the morning to discover it has stalled, with the script logging in again and again for hours.  The cause?  Upload of two small PDF files failed, so their actual length on the server was zero.

[Takumi]

When people say "5-Hour Energy Drinks" . I know you consume such things by drinking them, but their marketing was literally "we're not an energy drink" .

[D-Dey65]

This is definitely minor, but the times that I did use Windows, I didn't like how preppy it was. Especially when it would be like "We're just cleaning a few things up, hold on!  "



"Sit back and relax"? What is this, a spa?

Don't get excited or you'll make a mess on the message table.

Well, luckily all I had to do was restart it again. That seemed to fix the problem... for now.


In the meantime, I have to sort out the pics I took today on my day trip to Polk County which my glass run was part of, and prepare for the online segment of a Wiki-Meeting before 6:00 PM.

[ZLoth]

Automatic updates were introduced in Windows 98, and considering how many end users who think that Fluffy217! is a secure password, a IP address is some sort of bathroom joke, and WTF does a security code have to be sent to their mobile device when logging into a financial site wasn't computers supposed to make life earlier, it's a necessary evil. I've had too many discussions trying to justify why a security patch needed to be run which took much longer than actually installing the goddamn patch. Now, for a corporate or government environment where you actually got paid to test and validate is one thing, but to a parent who looks at you as unpaid technical support. Being one-two months behind is one thing, but being one year behind? Let me point you to our documentation about our slow release policies.

[SSOWorld]

the dip of the accumulation is placed there and wierd - coincidently the portion - Grant County is managed by NWS La Cross (while Dubuque County (in a warning) is managed by NWS Quad Cities and the forecasting of the counties east of Grant are overseen by NWS Milwaukee/Sullivan.  They all do their own predictions and you can see in other maps a difference between each forecast office.

image lifted from a limited term https://www.weather.gov/images/arx/wxstory/Tab2FileL.png?1ada9216c48e34fdd4ebce8c9ac8a198

[dvferyance]

Pizza Hut and Burger King going back to the old school logos. Thier contemporary logos were much better.

[Max Rockatansky]

Pizza Hut and Burger King going back to the old school logos. Thier contemporary logos were much better.

Personally I liked the older logos.  But then again I tend to like simplistic designs in general.

[Scott5114]

Automatic updates were introduced in Windows 98, and considering how many end users who think that Fluffy217! is a secure password, a IP address is some sort of bathroom joke, and WTF does a security code have to be sent to their mobile device when logging into a financial site wasn't computers supposed to make life earlier, it's a necessary evil. I've had too many discussions trying to justify why a security patch needed to be run which took much longer than actually installing the goddamn patch. Now, for a corporate or government environment where you actually got paid to test and validate is one thing, but to a parent who looks at you as unpaid technical support. Being one-two months behind is one thing, but being one year behind? Let me point you to our documentation about our slow release policies.

So for a parent you just set up a cron job for them.

I should get to decide whether and when the cron job is run on my own computer.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Maybe slightly more than minor, but cars with running lights so bright their idiot owners don't realize those aren't the headlights, and no one can see them coming up behind them because their tail lights aren't on.

[ZLoth]

Automatic updates were introduced in Windows 98, and considering how many end users who think that Fluffy217! is a secure password, a IP address is some sort of bathroom joke, and WTF does a security code have to be sent to their mobile device when logging into a financial site wasn't computers supposed to make life earlier, it's a necessary evil. I've had too many discussions trying to justify why a security patch needed to be run which took much longer than actually installing the goddamn patch. Now, for a corporate or government environment where you actually got paid to test and validate is one thing, but to a parent who looks at you as unpaid technical support. Being one-two months behind is one thing, but being one year behind? Let me point you to our documentation about our slow release policies.

So for a parent you just set up a cron job for them.

I should get to decide whether and when the cron job is run on my own computer.

Are you saying that Windows Update should default to "opt-in" rather than "opt-out for 35 days"? Bad idea considering how most computers are connected to the Internet. There are ways to completely disable automatic updates, but would I do it? No.

I'm lucky in that my mother lives with me, so she has free in-house technical support. Others are not so lucky, being pressed into technical support service when they do a family visit and "surprise, look at this new bargain laptop I got from the Home Shopping Zone", and often cleaning up the mess afterward.

[Scott5114]

Automatic updates were introduced in Windows 98, and considering how many end users who think that Fluffy217! is a secure password, a IP address is some sort of bathroom joke, and WTF does a security code have to be sent to their mobile device when logging into a financial site wasn't computers supposed to make life earlier, it's a necessary evil. I've had too many discussions trying to justify why a security patch needed to be run which took much longer than actually installing the goddamn patch. Now, for a corporate or government environment where you actually got paid to test and validate is one thing, but to a parent who looks at you as unpaid technical support. Being one-two months behind is one thing, but being one year behind? Let me point you to our documentation about our slow release policies.

So for a parent you just set up a cron job for them.

I should get to decide whether and when the cron job is run on my own computer.

Are you saying that Windows Update should default to "opt-in" rather than "opt-out for 35 days"? Bad idea considering how most computers are connected to the Internet.

That's how it works on Linux (and thus the vast majority of servers and embedded systems in the world). System update doesn't happen until I type sudo dnf update. If I want to have cron automatically schedule this command to be run at a certain time (including on a recurring schedule), I can do that. But if I don't, no update will be run.

I am the one who tells the computer what to do. It doesn't get to tell me what to do. I don't need a nanny. If someone cracks my machine because I was too lazy to install an update, that's my own damn fault.

[Bruce]

I think it's downright criminal that there isn't an "Install updates only when I manually ask for them" option. That's the #1 reason I don't use Windows.

There's a 7-day pause option in the Windows Update menu, and then an advanced option for a pause of up to 35 days. Beyond that, there's other workarounds.

[ZLoth]

Automatic updates were introduced in Windows 98, and considering how many end users who think that Fluffy217! is a secure password, a IP address is some sort of bathroom joke, and WTF does a security code have to be sent to their mobile device when logging into a financial site wasn't computers supposed to make life earlier, it's a necessary evil. I've had too many discussions trying to justify why a security patch needed to be run which took much longer than actually installing the goddamn patch. Now, for a corporate or government environment where you actually got paid to test and validate is one thing, but to a parent who looks at you as unpaid technical support. Being one-two months behind is one thing, but being one year behind? Let me point you to our documentation about our slow release policies.

So for a parent you just set up a cron job for them.

I should get to decide whether and when the cron job is run on my own computer.

Are you saying that Windows Update should default to "opt-in" rather than "opt-out for 35 days"? Bad idea considering how most computers are connected to the Internet.

That's how it works on Linux (and thus the vast majority of servers and embedded systems in the world). System update doesn't happen until I type sudo dnf update. If I want to have cron automatically schedule this command to be run at a certain time (including on a recurring schedule), I can do that. But if I don't, no update will be run.

I am the one who tells the computer what to do. It doesn't get to tell me what to do. I don't need a nanny. If someone cracks my machine because I was too lazy to install an update, that's my own damn fault.

You said the magic word "Linux". It might as well be "FreeBSD" or "OpenBSD" or any of the other *nix variants out there. (hint hint... my TrueNAS server core operating system is FreeBSD). The Command Line Interface is your friend, and more than likely, you are SSHing into the server rather than interfacing with it directly. You actually know what happens "behind the scenes" and make the magic happen. You also know the difference between a TCP and a UDP packet, and why UDP packets are preferred for audio/video traffic, and why packet shaping can be bad for online meetings. You also know the difference between a CRC checksum and a SHA512 hash, and why it's extremely important to never blindly trust user input, but to sanitize it to prevent a SQL injection attack to DROP all the tables.

Now, here is a reality check. Per StatCounter, the worldwide market share for Desktop Operating systems is estimated at 74.14% for Windows, 15.33% for Mac OSX, and 2.91% for Linux users. Many of them don't know what goes on "behind the scenes" and, more importantly, don't really care as long as they get their job done. My mother doesn't care how my the Plex instance runs on my TrueNAS computer or how I copied the episodes from DVD to MP4 video files, all she cares about is playing her Golden Girls over, and over, and over again "because they make me laugh" on her Roku bedroom TV.

My perspective comes from the fact that the team that I manage handles a wide spectrum of users from the system-level administrators who are managing deployments, making necessary adjustments to firewalls, and integrating their identity management servers (including diagnosing SAML assertions) with our cloud-based software down to the end-user support. There are many tales I can tell involving Mac Karins. I have seen many changes in the computer industry since I got my first computer in 1980.

Oh yeah, why are we here on AARoads Forums? Gee... because we want to know more about the road systems and the history of the highway system. That there is logic behind how Interstate/US highways are numbered. Why a diverging diamond intersection is safer for freeway interchanges than standard interchanges. And so on.

[Scott5114]

Sounds like you're saying Microsoft isn't interested in having me as a customer because I know too much about the man behind the curtain, I guess.

I would be perfectly happy having an option that was "perform updates at 9 am every Monday" (or whatever) set by default. But I have to be able to configure the time and day. And it must update only at that time. No foisting an update on me because I had the computer off at the appointed time and just now turned it on. And it must be cancellable if I need the computer for something else during the appointed time. And it cannot force a reboot. (If your system requires a reboot to apply an update, then either your system architecture isn't modular enough or your update process is broken or both.)

The most-recently-purchased Windows computer I own is a crappy Toshiba that I set up to dual boot Windows 10 and Fedora Linux. I spent the majority of time using the machine booted into Linux, and would infrequently boot into Windows to use two specific pieces of software: controller software for my vinyl cutter and, most critically, Doppler radar software that I use as the primary means to track tornadic storms near my house. Given how infrequently I used the Windows install, it never got updates, which meant it would ambush me the second I turned it on and install several months of them over the course of an hour or so. This was less than ideal, because, you know, TORNADO MAYBE HITTING MY HOUSE WITHOUT ME KNOWING.

I tried a few times to manually force it to update a day in advance when tornadoes were in the forecast, but somehow it still would find an update right when the storms started. I finally just gave up and figured out a workaround to run the software I needed on Linux under Wine. I still have the computer, but I haven't used it for years at this point, so next time I move I'll probably just destroy it.

[zachary_amaryllis]

Maybe slightly more than minor, but cars with running lights so bright their idiot owners don't realize those aren't the headlights, and no one can see them coming up behind them because their tail lights aren't on.

Somewhat related: how many headlights do you need? My car has two, and I can see just fine. I just bought a Kia with foglights in the ... bumper? but I've turned them off because, how often does it ever get foggy here?

If you lift the truck (for whatever reason you lift your truck) you have to re-aim the lights. No one (at least here) does this.

[kirbykart]

the dip of the accumulation is placed there and wierd - coincidently the portion - Grant County is managed by NWS La Cross (while Dubuque County (in a warning) is managed by NWS Quad Cities and the forecasting of the counties east of Grant are overseen by NWS Milwaukee/Sullivan.  They all do their own predictions and you can see in other maps a difference between each forecast office.

image lifted from a limited term https://www.weather.gov/images/arx/wxstory/Tab2FileL.png?1ada9216c48e34fdd4ebce8c9ac8a198

That dropoff is crazy. I thought I was looking at the Long Island Sound and Connecticut's northern shore at first!

[Roadgeekteen]

Imgur sucks now. I literally can't crop anymore, it won't load.

[Max Rockatansky]

Imgur sucks now. I literally can't crop anymore, it won't load.

Can you figuratively crop?