This is different from XP mode both in intent and function. Yes, VMs with sandboxing capability have been around for some time... but nothing this fast and simple to use. Plus it's built in, and free. So while it's not a revolutionary concept, it's still a really solid addition.
Not sure if this can do this - but what would be nice is browser mode that complete in virtual machine, this mean any virus or adware that comes in is only in the virtualization of the browser. Absolute no way hat any process can access outside, and optionally allow any file transfer to be done by protected scan channel - or text copy mode only.
"Microsoft has put the control back in the hands of the people using their OS. Finally." - Pausing updates is a small concession to WIndows Home users but that is hardly putting control back in the hands of people. For there to be a real choice, Windows need to have an option to select the updates to install and if desired, to disable the Update feature completely.
Power users can of course disable Windows Update manually. I'm still on Windows 10 Pro version 1709 (recently updated to May 2019 patches before disabling Update again). There should be an easier way for less tech savvy users to do this.
The problem is that if everyone could mess with updates, you couldn't rely on everyone having feature X. The nice bit about W10 is that you need to write stuff for the newest Windows and assume everyone can run the thing. No need to mess with old Windows compatibility or anything.
Or you go to help someone fix their computer, only to find it's a year out of date. Bonus points if it's broken BECAUSE it's out of date.
Also, I'm curious how Koenig168 got the May updates on 1709. It's supposed to be EOL now, unless you have Enterprise or Education, but they said they have Pro. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/13853/win... My guess is it was just May updates for .NET or something that was still in support.
You just demonstrated exactly why they don't want most people doing that. They had a huge amount of trouble with "expert" users disabling updates on Windows XP and 7 for their casual user friends back in the day.
Ding ding ding! I've seen it happen too many times. They disable updates for the whole family, oh joy, free botnet machines. But worse yet, I've seen it happen in small offices. A doctor's office, for example.
Delaying updates is fine. I think this is a good, balanced approach. Stopping them completely should intentionally be a pain in the butt to deter all the but nuttiest of nuts.
Just disable the service and make sure the Upgrade Advisor is removed. Poof, Windows Update is no longer functional. As far as picking which updates you want, since Windows will automatically roll back if an update doesn't work and suspend offering you that update for 30 days, that's not an issue.
If your whole point is that you don't want the Intel security mitigations installed due to performance, then you won't want to install any feature or even quality updates for the next 10 years, which is probably how long it will take Intel to actually fix their insecure processor design issues.
"A new approach to updates windows" Really? We could selectively chose individual updates we needed to install since Windows XP; also on Windows 8.1 and 7 too. I wonder if Windows 10 will ever be up to speed with OSes of the past.
Some system administrators conflate themselves with operating system designers and security experts. They're often neither of these things, and they often don't see the benefit of installing things like security patches. Install mitigations for Spectre/Meltdown? And incur performance penalties of >3%? That's insanity! Fortunately, the decision can be taken out of their hands.
Nailed it. "I want everyone else's OS to be broken and insecure by default because I think I'm smarter than everyone else and won't face the consequences"
I wish they dedicated the next 3-4 releases for only under the hood work: 1. Reducing the number of background processes and memory consumption. 2. More modular Windows so user will be able to disable / remove components they don't need and optimize performance. 3. Optimize the IO stack so we'll have Linux like performance. 4. Optimize the File System so we'll have Linux like performance. 5. Ability to remove all pre installed components users doesn't want.
We want to be able to make Windows lean and efficient.
The biggests flaw of the file system is the UI itself. The UI won't save settings, hasn't since win xp. A good example would be preview large pictures, you can't apply to network drives the settings, so it caches it on PC as large file, which in turn slows down UI browsing. Windows does weird stuff with file browsing, wish i could find a good UI replacement.
1. Background processes are largely "free" with good OS schedulers and multiple cores, so who cares how many there are? About memory, I'm not sure what you're seeing, but on my current box the vast majority of Windows background services are taking up less than 3Mb each, so who cares if there are 150 of them running? 2. They've been doing this for the last 2 releases and are continuing to do this. 3. Linux is pitiful when it thrashes the disk. So is Windows. Windows' network stack isn't as good, though. Is that what you're referring to? Be specific. 4. When you say "Linux like performance", are you talking about Ext4? XFS? JFS? BTRFS? Because all of those have radically different performance characteristics. 5. I think they sell a stripped-down version for kiosks and the like. Is that what you want?
The original Windows XP Service Pack 1 was really just an update roll-up with no new features. SP2 added new stuff though. Cumulative updates are fairly new, in the sense that you can do a clean install of Windows 10 1511, and every update for 1511 will come with a single update, no need for downloading 200+ updates to get fully up to date. No need for updates for the updates of the updates the way Windows XP, Vista, 7, and even 8 had.
What's being missed here is the benefit of automatic and difficult-to-pause updating/patching. Think of it like vaccination: if most people are vaccinated, then everyone benefits. Does anyone remember the SQL Slammer worm, circa 2003? It used a vulnerability that had had a patch available for the past 6 months. It brought the internet to its knees and took ages to clean up, simply because we didn't have automatic patching. There are many other examples, like Sasser and Conficker, which would have been stopped or mitigated if we had automatic patching by default. Anandtech users may prefer to turn it off, that's fine, presumably we know the risks and accept them. There are only a few of us anyway and we benefit from herd immunity. Even giving "normal" people the option to turn it off is silly because it opens the world up to more easily-spreadable malware. I'm old enough to remember the brouhaha when manufacturers decided to stop random software from writing to the boot sector -- "It's TYRANNY! We want FREEDOM! USER CONTROL! AARGAHAGAHAGAH!". That was a damned good call in retrospect, of course, and nobody seriously suggests that we should allow it today. This, too, is a very good idea and I applaud Microsoft for actually doing the right thing, even when it incurs the unpopularity of many of us.
You can download the update, but currently it is only for certain hardware profiles. Every other update I could install on day one. This one would not install on my home built machine with current hardware. MS really is taking this one slow.
It's a bit of a catch-22. A flash drive might cause drive letters to change and cause problems with the update, so by using a flash drive to do the update, it says your machine isn't compatible with 1903. I found that if you start it and it begins the process, if you pull the flash drive before the check for compatibility finishes, it will generally let the update continue without a problem(because the files have been copied to the hard drive already). This is a problem that has already been fixed, and just needs to be pushed out by Microsoft.
I just happened to update anyway, a freshly purchased Lenovo S730 had a prior...
1803 I guess. since 1903 wasn't on auto-update this morning, 1809 went through first.
And as I feared, it took hours.
This is a quad-core i7, 4.6GHz top clocks, actually saw it do 4.4 on all four physical cores but even if Prime95 will push it down to 2.x GHz after a minute or so, even at 15Watts this is a beast of a CPU. And the Samsung NVMe SSD is certainly no slouch either.
I'll never know why Windows updates must diddle for hours, nor why cleanmgr.exe will take yet more hours to clean out "Windows Updates", but eventually it got all done.
Was ready to settle down for yet more hours, but actually the 1809->1903 update was fairly quick, perhaps an hour overall.
Of course, I had to tell Windows again, that indeed I don't want it to phone home, and that I wasn't interested in Cortana, Edge, XBox or the Windows store.
In fact if that new Linux subsystem clashes with VMware and VirtualBox (who live quite happily side-by-side as type 2 hypervisors on Windows), I'm pretty sure I won't care for one of the most interesting new features of this release.
I just thought it prudent to do this next update before I had anything important on the machine...
this update created problems on my computer no print, no trouble shooting wizard, froze. rolled back to yesterday, working as usual. Be very wary of this update.
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austinsguitar - Tuesday, May 21, 2019 - link
that sandbox feature is actually genius.ooogemaflop - Wednesday, May 22, 2019 - link
Windows 7 had XP mode and VMs and Sandboxes have been around yearsAlexvrb - Wednesday, May 22, 2019 - link
This is different from XP mode both in intent and function. Yes, VMs with sandboxing capability have been around for some time... but nothing this fast and simple to use. Plus it's built in, and free. So while it's not a revolutionary concept, it's still a really solid addition.HStewart - Wednesday, May 22, 2019 - link
Not sure if this can do this - but what would be nice is browser mode that complete in virtual machine, this mean any virus or adware that comes in is only in the virtualization of the browser. Absolute no way hat any process can access outside, and optionally allow any file transfer to be done by protected scan channel - or text copy mode only.ooogemaflop - Wednesday, May 22, 2019 - link
like what sandboxie does lolBedfordTim - Wednesday, May 22, 2019 - link
That has been available as an optional component in the Pro version for some time.jabber - Friday, May 24, 2019 - link
As PWN2OWN has shown many times...sandboxes can be bust wide open.Koenig168 - Tuesday, May 21, 2019 - link
"Microsoft has put the control back in the hands of the people using their OS. Finally." - Pausing updates is a small concession to WIndows Home users but that is hardly putting control back in the hands of people. For there to be a real choice, Windows need to have an option to select the updates to install and if desired, to disable the Update feature completely.Power users can of course disable Windows Update manually. I'm still on Windows 10 Pro version 1709 (recently updated to May 2019 patches before disabling Update again). There should be an easier way for less tech savvy users to do this.
Zizy - Wednesday, May 22, 2019 - link
The problem is that if everyone could mess with updates, you couldn't rely on everyone having feature X. The nice bit about W10 is that you need to write stuff for the newest Windows and assume everyone can run the thing. No need to mess with old Windows compatibility or anything.Mr Perfect - Wednesday, May 22, 2019 - link
Or you go to help someone fix their computer, only to find it's a year out of date. Bonus points if it's broken BECAUSE it's out of date.Also, I'm curious how Koenig168 got the May updates on 1709. It's supposed to be EOL now, unless you have Enterprise or Education, but they said they have Pro. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/13853/win... My guess is it was just May updates for .NET or something that was still in support.
Spunjji - Wednesday, May 22, 2019 - link
You just demonstrated exactly why they don't want most people doing that. They had a huge amount of trouble with "expert" users disabling updates on Windows XP and 7 for their casual user friends back in the day.Alexvrb - Wednesday, May 22, 2019 - link
Ding ding ding! I've seen it happen too many times. They disable updates for the whole family, oh joy, free botnet machines. But worse yet, I've seen it happen in small offices. A doctor's office, for example.Delaying updates is fine. I think this is a good, balanced approach. Stopping them completely should intentionally be a pain in the butt to deter all the but nuttiest of nuts.
Targon - Thursday, May 23, 2019 - link
Just disable the service and make sure the Upgrade Advisor is removed. Poof, Windows Update is no longer functional. As far as picking which updates you want, since Windows will automatically roll back if an update doesn't work and suspend offering you that update for 30 days, that's not an issue.If your whole point is that you don't want the Intel security mitigations installed due to performance, then you won't want to install any feature or even quality updates for the next 10 years, which is probably how long it will take Intel to actually fix their insecure processor design issues.
cosmotic - Tuesday, May 21, 2019 - link
I love that almost all the big new features are obvious flaws, originally intentionally added, being removed now.uefi - Tuesday, May 21, 2019 - link
"A new approach to updates windows" Really? We could selectively chose individual updates we needed to install since Windows XP; also on Windows 8.1 and 7 too. I wonder if Windows 10 will ever be up to speed with OSes of the past.Carmen00 - Wednesday, May 22, 2019 - link
Some system administrators conflate themselves with operating system designers and security experts. They're often neither of these things, and they often don't see the benefit of installing things like security patches. Install mitigations for Spectre/Meltdown? And incur performance penalties of >3%? That's insanity! Fortunately, the decision can be taken out of their hands.Spunjji - Wednesday, May 22, 2019 - link
Nailed it. "I want everyone else's OS to be broken and insecure by default because I think I'm smarter than everyone else and won't face the consequences"RSAUser - Thursday, May 23, 2019 - link
Fun fact, the W10 May 19 update includes a new Spectre patch that has way lower impact, supposedly now negligible.Drazick - Wednesday, May 22, 2019 - link
I wish they dedicated the next 3-4 releases for only under the hood work:1. Reducing the number of background processes and memory consumption.
2. More modular Windows so user will be able to disable / remove components they don't need and optimize performance.
3. Optimize the IO stack so we'll have Linux like performance.
4. Optimize the File System so we'll have Linux like performance.
5. Ability to remove all pre installed components users doesn't want.
We want to be able to make Windows lean and efficient.
mooninite - Wednesday, May 22, 2019 - link
You should just install Linux.Opencg - Wednesday, May 22, 2019 - link
I would love all of thisQasar - Wednesday, May 22, 2019 - link
Drazick like mooninite said.. .just install linux then :-) but i do like points #1, 2, and 5HStewart - Wednesday, May 22, 2019 - link
This sounds like a Windows Lite mode. Reduce over head - I could see how it could be used to play games. That would be nice.piroroadkill - Wednesday, May 22, 2019 - link
If only they concentrated on performance and removing gimmicks, Windows would be much betterSpunjji - Wednesday, May 22, 2019 - link
For whom? Remember, you're not representative of the majority of Windows users.imaheadcase - Wednesday, May 22, 2019 - link
The biggests flaw of the file system is the UI itself. The UI won't save settings, hasn't since win xp. A good example would be preview large pictures, you can't apply to network drives the settings, so it caches it on PC as large file, which in turn slows down UI browsing. Windows does weird stuff with file browsing, wish i could find a good UI replacement.Carmen00 - Wednesday, May 22, 2019 - link
1. Background processes are largely "free" with good OS schedulers and multiple cores, so who cares how many there are? About memory, I'm not sure what you're seeing, but on my current box the vast majority of Windows background services are taking up less than 3Mb each, so who cares if there are 150 of them running?2. They've been doing this for the last 2 releases and are continuing to do this.
3. Linux is pitiful when it thrashes the disk. So is Windows. Windows' network stack isn't as good, though. Is that what you're referring to? Be specific.
4. When you say "Linux like performance", are you talking about Ext4? XFS? JFS? BTRFS? Because all of those have radically different performance characteristics.
5. I think they sell a stripped-down version for kiosks and the like. Is that what you want?
Mr Perfect - Wednesday, May 22, 2019 - link
Replacing NTFS would be grand too. Wonder why they backed off of ReFS so fast?ooogemaflop - Wednesday, May 22, 2019 - link
Commutative updates are not new . Do not be kidded my Microsofts terminologyFeature updates are no different to what the service packs were of XPs days no matter how much Microsoft want us to think different
ooogemaflop - Wednesday, May 22, 2019 - link
by not mypixelstuff - Wednesday, May 22, 2019 - link
What's old is new again. Microsoft has adopted fashion strategies so they can continue to release new features without having to invent something new.Targon - Thursday, May 23, 2019 - link
The original Windows XP Service Pack 1 was really just an update roll-up with no new features. SP2 added new stuff though. Cumulative updates are fairly new, in the sense that you can do a clean install of Windows 10 1511, and every update for 1511 will come with a single update, no need for downloading 200+ updates to get fully up to date. No need for updates for the updates of the updates the way Windows XP, Vista, 7, and even 8 had.boozed - Wednesday, May 22, 2019 - link
"Today Microsoft has officially launched the spring 2019 update for Windows 10, affectionately called the Windows 10 May 2019 Update"Affectionately?
Also, it's autumn.
RuralJuror - Wednesday, May 22, 2019 - link
You do realise that it’s spring in the Northern Hemisphere where Microsoft is headquartered, right?Carmen00 - Wednesday, May 22, 2019 - link
What's being missed here is the benefit of automatic and difficult-to-pause updating/patching. Think of it like vaccination: if most people are vaccinated, then everyone benefits. Does anyone remember the SQL Slammer worm, circa 2003? It used a vulnerability that had had a patch available for the past 6 months. It brought the internet to its knees and took ages to clean up, simply because we didn't have automatic patching. There are many other examples, like Sasser and Conficker, which would have been stopped or mitigated if we had automatic patching by default. Anandtech users may prefer to turn it off, that's fine, presumably we know the risks and accept them. There are only a few of us anyway and we benefit from herd immunity. Even giving "normal" people the option to turn it off is silly because it opens the world up to more easily-spreadable malware. I'm old enough to remember the brouhaha when manufacturers decided to stop random software from writing to the boot sector -- "It's TYRANNY! We want FREEDOM! USER CONTROL! AARGAHAGAHAGAH!". That was a damned good call in retrospect, of course, and nobody seriously suggests that we should allow it today. This, too, is a very good idea and I applaud Microsoft for actually doing the right thing, even when it incurs the unpopularity of many of us.Danny3xd - Wednesday, May 22, 2019 - link
Great point, Carmen!Well, points.
ratbert1 - Wednesday, May 22, 2019 - link
You can download the update, but currently it is only for certain hardware profiles. Every other update I could install on day one. This one would not install on my home built machine with current hardware. MS really is taking this one slow.GreenReaper - Wednesday, May 22, 2019 - link
You might just need to check for updates again, then reboot with the USB drive unplugged. Worked for me!Targon - Thursday, May 23, 2019 - link
It's a bit of a catch-22. A flash drive might cause drive letters to change and cause problems with the update, so by using a flash drive to do the update, it says your machine isn't compatible with 1903. I found that if you start it and it begins the process, if you pull the flash drive before the check for compatibility finishes, it will generally let the update continue without a problem(because the files have been copied to the hard drive already). This is a problem that has already been fixed, and just needs to be pushed out by Microsoft.ratbert1 - Friday, May 24, 2019 - link
Update: I found I have an issue with Battleye that is causing the update to fail. It is a known issue.abufrejoval - Wednesday, May 22, 2019 - link
I just happened to update anyway, a freshly purchased Lenovo S730 had a prior...1803 I guess. since 1903 wasn't on auto-update this morning, 1809 went through first.
And as I feared, it took hours.
This is a quad-core i7, 4.6GHz top clocks, actually saw it do 4.4 on all four physical cores but even if Prime95 will push it down to 2.x GHz after a minute or so, even at 15Watts this is a beast of a CPU. And the Samsung NVMe SSD is certainly no slouch either.
I'll never know why Windows updates must diddle for hours, nor why cleanmgr.exe will take yet more hours to clean out "Windows Updates", but eventually it got all done.
Was ready to settle down for yet more hours, but actually the 1809->1903 update was fairly quick, perhaps an hour overall.
Of course, I had to tell Windows again, that indeed I don't want it to phone home, and that I wasn't interested in Cortana, Edge, XBox or the Windows store.
In fact if that new Linux subsystem clashes with VMware and VirtualBox (who live quite happily side-by-side as type 2 hypervisors on Windows), I'm pretty sure I won't care for one of the most interesting new features of this release.
I just thought it prudent to do this next update before I had anything important on the machine...
And I guess I got lucky: Everything fine so far.
anoyedc - Thursday, May 23, 2019 - link
this update created problems on my computer no print, no trouble shooting wizard, froze. rolled back to yesterday, working as usual. Be very wary of this update.twtech - Thursday, May 23, 2019 - link
Ironically, you'll need to get the update in order to opt to wait on future updates.