Vài tháng trước, tôi viết prophetic piece "Windows 10 updates - One step forward, one step back", than vãn massive over-complication trong update facility của latest OS version, thời gian cần để get things done, cũng như planned improvements designed address these issues. Sau đó, cũng có matter of quality.
Tôi highlight này trong recent Creators reviews — first time ever, tôi có big errors trong 1809 build, điều chưa bao giờ xảy ra trước, vì Windows Updates used to be legendary rock-solid. Rồi Build 1809 introduced still more issues. Không cho tôi, nhưng cho everyone. Microsoft actually paused update này, restored it, và rồi axed nó completely. Và rồi, họ revamped update functionality.
Vậy đang xảy ra gì?
Vâng, Microsoft đã thay đổi cách Windows 10 handle updates. Đầu tiên, separation giữa regular monthly patches và feature upgrades (twice-yearly upgrades a-la old service packs). Thứ hai, Windows Home users sẽ có option defer updates lên đến 35 days, nên họ won't be instantly pressured vào installing packages và possibly hitting bugs, cách nó happening more and more lately. Vẫn còn other changes, all meant to reign in the chaos.
In a nutshell, more like ... the old updates.
Giờ, chúng ta cần fair và give praise when praise is due. Có bao nhiêu (big) companies capable admit mistakes và backtrack on decisions? Đây là something not done in industry, và bạn usually end up với long, almost religious spiels of buzzwords justifying one bad decision after another. Nhưng Microsoft did change và react, quite a few times past several years. Có Start Screen fiasco, và giờ updates becoming more reasonable.
Đây là VERY good thing — và tôi sẽ viết complete article khi test properly, come 19H1 update. Nói chung, expectations của tôi fairly simple: speed và stability. Windows 7 và 8.1 cho tôi complete updates trong ~20 phút, one reboot, done. Có slowness problem lâu nay, nhưng cái đó got resolved. Trên Windows 10, tôi muốn thấy same kind of speed, vì wait hour hoặc two để system upgrade simply too much. Đó là time people need cho productivity, và không phải something one can easily afford to lose.
Active hours & automatic updates là another big issue. Là personal example, Windows machines của tôi stay up without reboots many weeks, và overnight chạy all sorts scheduled tasks, bao gồm backups. Work setup remains, và having system trigger reboot highly disruptive. Transactional nature của automatic updates works fine cho phones, nơi people have little to no 'history' immediate work, nhưng that just isn't feasible on desktop.
Sau đó, có reliability element. Mặc dù tôi NEVER update machine without performing full system image first, even notion của having to restore OS state vì bad patch is annoying. Another waste of time. Và đây không phải problem. Ever. Only now, overall quality của patches going down, và problems also propagating vào older Windows versions. Tôi know này related to anti-virus software, và while you don't need one, most people do use one, và who knows what other complications may arise. Whole drama around speculative execution issues với Meltdown và Spectre doesn't help, vì things took another turn downhill January last year. Cũng back then, có similar issues với patching và anti-virus compatibility, only problem now isolated to non-Windows 10 systems.
Vậy không big ask: reliability.
Sounds familiar? Yes. Much like the old updates!
Và so we have years and years of work going toward making development seem faster, but in the end, it just doesn't work. Có reason why old, tested methods are the way they are. Có reason why you cannot just arbitrarily change systems due to random fashion fads, whatever technology jargon of the week may be. Microsoft's decision to slow down là right step in right direction. Well done.
That said, tôi now diverge và show you amount of hassle Windows Home user — savvy và determined user — cần go to để prevent system từ automatically updating itself, với all associated perils.
Medic to your medic
Khi Windows 10 first came out, nếu Windows Home user muốn prevent box từ updating automatically whenever có patch, họ có two options. Chúng có thể mark network connection as metered, hoặc stop Windows Update service.
At some point, Microsoft disabled access to Windows Update service — made it run with higher privileges than your admin, nên bạn needed tool như ExecTI chạy services.msc as TrustedInstaller, để stop và disable service. Come one of the Creators updates, có new service — Windows Update Medic, designed start service whenever detected down. Cái này cũng cần extra privileges.
Going through system, tôi discovered still more tools — additional services và scheduled tasks, all designed keep update service running at all costs. Now, tôi understand imperative — unpatched machines can be risky và all that — nhưng we're now in situation where there's half a dozen processes whose only purpose is keep update service alive. Và they work against the user. Ordinary people don't have skills manipulate services, nhưng nếu someone had stopped one, there's a reason for that. System should not pretend to know better.
Bạn có thể nói, but Dedo, malware can do this. Vâng, malware cũng prevents you from stopping it. Symptoms similar, và they create dangerous precedent: 1) users become insensitive to anomalies và ignore real problems khi they do occur 2) users developer distrust toward their OS và thus end up not doing any patching whatsoever.
By adopting self-healing mechanism works against the user, Windows Update accidentally co-equates itself với kind of software you don't want on your systems. Nếu bạn hit software forums discussing Windows updates, bạn sẽ notice prevalent tone among techies who simply end up refusing to do any updates on Windows 10 whatsoever, for fear of their box being changed, hoặc not being able to have control over OS. And this is worse than original state Microsoft tried to fix.
Now, bạn may ask, well, how do you distinguish between tech savvy person making Windows Update change themselves versus bad software altering your system state? Well, first thing one should discuss is not what happens AFTER you contract malware, it's what happens BEFORE you do that. Because once it's on your system, not having updates is least of your problems. Có many practical ways make system secure, như dùng EMET hoặc Exploit Mitigation và running standard (limited) account. Inbound firewall very useful cho home systems, và totally applicable unlike industry where botnet attacks most likely, plus most home users have some sort of router, often features firewall của riêng.
Second, nếu bạn really want to do this, có two ways. One, old method allowed Windows 7/8.1 users make whatever choice they like (still available to Pro users), hoặc perhaps CAPTCHA mechanism on service state change. Ask user authenticate hoặc provide some sort of code, và bạn know that it's deliberate change techie is doing, và then, no reason "heal" their service.
Going back to topic of services và scheduled tasks, đây là what I came up with. First, services, chúng ta có Windows Update và Medic service. Nhưng cũng có cái gọi Update Orchestrator Service, download updates, manages them, và checks integrity. Sounds important. Yet.
Tôi don't recall service này being there in earlier builds of Windows (I might be mistaken), nhưng quan trọng hơn, even với service này disabled state và chỉ Windows Update service manually turned on, tôi ran full sequence updates, và machine able to download, install và configure monthly patches without any problems. Tôi actually bothered by inconsistency giữa written text on net và actual results.
However, service may still be turned on, và đây là nơi scheduled tasks come in. Vậy, Task Scheduler (taskchd.msc) — again, bạn need admin privileges make these changes. In left pane, navigate đến section gọi WindowsUpdate (under Microsoft > Windows). Ở đây, bạn tìm several tasks. Một số disabled for me by default, nhưng hai ở ready state, và chúng would start WU service under some conditions. Tôi looked at Windows 7 box comparison, và these tasks don't exist there.
Sau đó, có section cover Update Orchestrator. Một vài disabled, nhưng có others run checks và whatnot. Đây perfectly fine nếu không phải forced nature của updates could potentially bring bugs (I need system image first), disrupt work (reboot happens middle of nightly backup và kills work session). Vậy là more to disable.
Vậy, để không có system restart at random times và possibly end up unbootable, which can happen và has happened, thay vì dùng official toggle, sanctioned by Microsoft — the way it was before Windows 10 — tech-savvy users now need to dabble in half a dozen services và scheduled tasks để achieve same result.
This actually makes system less stable, less secure, less everything! But giữa potentially losing important data due to reboot và tweaking system, tôi think choice is obvious. Microsoft does seem to realize và understand this, hence the change, which is first step toward winning trust of its users back. Took a while, but it happened, và that's the important thing in this story.
Black Viper & deeper look at the services
At some point, tôi even decided consult Black Viper's guide on Windows 10. This dude became famous in XP era khiเขา viết guide on which services you could safely disable to improve performance và minimize system footprint, memory và security wise. Tôi looked, và went through services để see what other entries showing there và had no applicability in my setup, namely a local account with no use of online store hoặc any purpose cho touch-optimized universal apps (UWP) hoặc whatnot. And remember, I'm saying this as a happy Lumia 950 user. In mobile space, Windows Phone là most elegant OS ever designed, với best ergonomics và layout, và whole paradigm makes total sense. It's a tragedy Windows Phone will be EOL-ed at end of year. But on desktop, there's no value to touch apps, as they are inferior to their desktop counterparts in every way.
Among first entries, bạn có AppXSVC. Service này deploy Store applications. Nếu bạn dùng local account, thì bạn can't really install Store apps anyway. Vậy purpose của này trong local setup, for instance? Even với service stopped, Metro apps launch và run just fine really.
Tôi found another — Capability Access Manager Service. Now, bạn need this để actually read và set access permissions cho UWP apps, như Mail, Calendar, v.v. This affects what you see in Settings menu, và với service turned off, toggles won't display. Nhưng rồi, nếu one has everything tweaked to Off anyway, và không dùng any of these apps, does this service need to be running, why can't it be set to Manual?
Another Store-related service: ClipSVC. This for apps bạn bought in Store. No problem, nhưng we go back to issue of local versus online (Microsoft) account. Nếu bạn không có one, bạn can't shop. That's fine too, nhưng service not required unless one has online account, has one associated with Store, hoặc has purchased apps through Store. I'm not opposed to this at all, I'm just seeing no purpose in having service up and running nếu user cannot take advantage of functionality.
Tôi actually love to be able to use store in Microsoft a-la Synaptic, Software Center, KDE Discover as in Linux, but that just doesn't really exist. The mobile-thingie apps in Windows Store aren't the classic desktop apps you want. You just can't have the full desktop programs. Nếu that existed, that would be really neat. Alas.
Anyway, tôi came across something gọi Geolocation. Why would this be useful on a desktop? Tôi know Gnome offers something similar, và there, question also remains. This useful nếu bạn on the go, hoặc travel abroad, và then you might want localized results. But in most cases, it just doesn't really make any sense.
Sau đó, tôi finally stumbled upon an oldie but goldie — SSDP Discovery — unplug 'n' play dynamically opens ports cho bạn, để bạn game và such without manually tweak applications. This didn't make sense on XP, và still doesn't on Windows 10, và won't work nếu bạn có router that has UPnP disabled, which you should nếu bạn actually trying to do something practical from security point of view, for a change.
Sync Host — syncing mail, contacts, và other user data. Sync where and how? Nếu bạn không dùng online account, this won't work, so there's no purpose to this service. Tôi cũng discovered I couldn't really stop it, which is another interesting facet. So much potential, so much goodness made sense on the Phone, nhưng doesn't fly on the desktop.
Và có tons more other services, all of them geared toward a model simply isn't applicable to typical desktop user. The thing is ... Windows XP had hardware profiles, nơi bạn actually boot machine vào different configurations, so bạn could have gaming profile, sharing profile, security profile, v.v. This could have been used to provide practical configurations thay vì generic permissive setup không really give any advantage. Ví dụ, local account không cần any online-aware services. Too much stuff running could actually harm performance. So not having extras is win-win situations both from functionality và philosophy perspective.
But you hate tweaking!
Yes I do. Nếu bạn read my articles going back to 2006, bạn sẽ see tôi opposed to tweaks. Có few systems changes that I believe should ever be made, và yet, tôi found myself taming Windows 10 quite extensively, the very thing I promised myself not to do. Và yet, tôi had to do it, để ensure I have right level of control to manage system if và when I deploy it in my production environment. There will come a day where I will probably end up using Windows 10 (Pro), và tôi need to make sure I can maintain a sane, stable, robust, quiet, và effective setup.
What Microsoft aims to do in their upcoming release là first, important step toward restoring some of the awesome quality they used to have in their systems. Kudos, và let's hope this is a beginning of a positive change back to the slow-and-unbreakable philosophy.
Kết luận
Bạn có thể feel this article all over the place — nhưng it's not. It's a culmination của about four years of a process ended up being rather superfluous. Automatic — và forced — updates did not yield better quality, stability or security to Microsoft Windows users, something vendor acknowledged và is gradually rolling the clock back from agile to awesome. In this regard, there are almost no documented cases where giant corporations admitted mistakes và managed to steer themselves to a different track. So this is hugely important, no matter what you think or feel about Microsoft.
That said, there's still a lot more to be done to regain the legendary quality of yore — và also restore the user trust. Updates are a first step on that journey. For me, the end will have been achieved when I realize I need not make any changes to the system defaults ever again. And if Microsoft plays their card right, they can win big here. Because mobile systems are all about being closed and locked with little to no user control, so Microsoft has the opportunity to do the opposite. We're not there yet, the hope is strong, the perils high. But for now, as far as Windows Updates are concerned, it's a step in the right direction. One small step for man one giant leap for ... whatever.
Cheers.