Windows 11 leak reveals new UI, Start menu, and more (Discussion)

Same for me , I may be lucky, but I never had any problem with Windows updates so far. But just in case I delay them for 2 weeks and in case of problems, I may wait another week or so.

 

I also think that updates are very important for security and the state of the art of the OS. I had some problems in the past with upgrades but MS was not responsible for them. I always go ahead with updates as soon as they are offered although I always create an image of the OS before updating. I never ever had to restore an image though, it always worked perfectly.

 

I had very minor issues w/updates one or two times. Nothing dism and a couple of restarts couldn't handle. But overall, it's been like others reported here: goes thru uneventfully.

And yes, I accept all updates, esp. since I run the Insiders Beta version of Windows 11.

 

Same here as far back as I can rmember. Maybe more problems occur for those who do system tweaking.

 

I mean, I am counting that LSA bork this past week (where the notif in Windows Security says it's off even when you've toggled it to "on" and restarted).

Good thing this mishap didn't interfere with the rest of the system. It's an annoyance but it seems you can work around it via the Registry, or like me: just uninstall the drive and return to 10.

 

Yes, that is the case. Also it can be issue with some Windows 10/11 privacy tools.

 

Make regular image backups and install your updates. If there is an issue roll back. Easy enough.

 

Cumulative updates preview for Windows 11, no issues.

 

I have already said it in the past, but security updates for home user PC's aren't that important. A good AV + behavior blocker and of course safe computing practices are way more important. I have almost never patched Windows in the last 15 years, and not a single problem. I don't know if tweaking Windows might cause problems when installing updates, but the latest update that I installed on Win 10, broke certain stuff like the Windows Store and the Win Taskbar, but I didn't bother to reset Windows, too much work.

 

I don’t understand why you don’t backup your system before any Windows update, it often takes less than 1 minute for an incremental backup, and less than 3 minutes to restore to a previous state. The proverbial cup of coffee might take longer to prepare…

 

I'm not an expert on back ups, should look into it. I do know that Windows System Restore is complete crap. But anyway, I'm not planning to install Windows updates in the future, don't try to fix stuff that isn't broken, know what I mean? Functionality updates are IMO almost never worth it, and security updates aren't that important on home user PC's, trust me.

 

Whether you believe updates are necessary or not, backing up a system has become very easy nowadays especially for people like you who have a definite good knowledge about computer security. As I said with my new computer, incremental backups take often as little as 20 seconds to create and about 2 minutes to restore an image, it is not rocket science, just a few clicks with any good program. Security becomes a second thought once you know you can recover your system within minutes… Believe me it is an amazing feeling when you know your system can be recovered at any time for any reason...

 

really?

it is not clever to avoid updates because users are not able to see its fixes under the hood. so for me is same as Osaban stated - i install updates and had no issues, even not with the preview updates which are optional.

so you consider windows defender as good:

btw softpedia downloads often contain malware (adware is kind of malware), so there is a reason why defender slows it down.

concerning windows system restore - microsoft disabled it for reason with a fresh install since 1903 (installations from before with upgrades only will have it still enabled). it is known as buggy for longer than 4 years now, it already failed for XP a lot. so what?

 

“Turn on Automatic Updates for your operating system” is often the first rule.

Random example: https://security.berkeley.edu/resources/best-practices-how-to-articles/top-10-secure-computing-tips

 

They are very important.

Safe computing practices are perhaps slightly more important. But both are very important. I stay well away from behaviour blockers, aside from the ones included in antiviruses, because I want to be interrupted as little as possible. Once again, in my experience, it is extremely rare for update to cause issues. So I wouldn't avoid updates just due to a past bad experience.

 

I know guys, but what I'm trying to explain is that most security updates are about fixing so called privilege escalation bugs. The thing is, in order to exploit this, you first need to get malware up and running on the system, via for example browser or document reader exploits. If you block this, then those security updates are not that important on home user PC's. And don't forget, security updates don't help against zero days, it's security tools that are supposed to tackle this.

 

Can you recommend some apps? I'm guessing you're talking about so called imaging tools. At the moment I simply copy and paste important files from my Documents and Downloads folder to my external SSD about once a month, which isn't the best approach of course and won't help in case I get hit with ransomware or if Windows gets corrupted. I did use Rollback RX back in the days, but I removed it when people posted negative things about it.

 

in this case i know what you may to explain. some windows updates have negative impacts, in such case it is recommended to install updates a week (or more) later - windows HOME cant do that without tool(s), for pro and above it has visible options.
same for half year updates - watch it, then decide. i ran Windows 11 22H1 a long time, after Image i decided to upgrade to 22H2. no impacts yet, but if, i can go back to my image (22H1) which gets updates for 1 and a half year (more or less) like windows 10. there are no worries to prevent certain updates for a limited time. (optional updates are only previews, either user have luck, or go worse -> this is the time to use telemetry). no telemetry - no optional updates.

 

Copy and paste important data to an external drive is an excellent method to protect anything sensitive not only against malware but especially for redundancy. In my case I have about 350 GB of photos in TIFF format copied to several USB drives, they can’t all fail at the same time.

The biggest problem of digital photography is that it has no physical support like the good old negative. But the OS needs an imaging program and nowadays we have the embarrassment of riches in terms of choices. I can only recommend the one I use, Macrium Reflect which has an excellent reputation here at Wilders. They have recently discontinued their free edition, but I’m sure it probably can be found by searching the internet.

I’ve been using it for many years, restoring the system hundreds of times without a single failure, it just works. Keep in mind that extreme speed is only available with the paid product. Once you get the hang of it, you don’t have to worry about the system malfunctioning for any reason, restore an image within minutes and you are good to go again, no hassles.

‘Image for Windows’ by TeraByte Unlimited, ‘Drive Snapshot’ are other programs with an excellent reputation… I can help you with Macrium Reflect if you decide to try it out. There are many free alternatives, you should check the Backup, Imaging & disk management forum for reference but I can’t recommend any as I haven’t tested them.

Actually I almost forgot, I do have a free imaging product that I use to 'backup' Macrium in the very unlikely event of failure, namely 'Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows' it works, but it's not fast, I don't know about the paid version though.

 

@Osaban
Great advice on disk imaging!

Especially the TeraByte Unlimited. I've been using their 'Image for Linux' on all my systems running Windows and SSD's. 'Image for Linux' is also outstanding when it comes to RAID.

 

henryg, you are welcome!

 

It's not just that, there are bug fixes too and sometimes even increased performance. As an example one build of Windows 10, possibly Creators Update, had better improved performance than previous builds. Anyway considering that the chance of an update causing a serious problem, is in my experience, exceptionally low, I don't know why you would avoid them. As has been previous mentioned, if you have an issue you can restore from a working backup. Creating regular backups of your system is something that everyone should do and I'd strongly recommend you do that too, even if you continue to avoid updating Windows.

 

Yes, but what I meant is that if you do it only once a month, you can still lose data in the mean time, let's say your SSD dies or you get hit with ransomware. That's why I'm also looking into cloud based services.

OK thanks, will take a look at Macrium Reflect, these type of tools have always looked a bit complex to me, that's why I never bothered with them. Rollback RX was very easy to operate, but not always reliable according to certain reviews. But anyway, this is off topic.

 

Yes correct, but for example Win 10 1909 works just fine. I really don't need any performance or security updates. The only reason why I decided to update is because the Microsoft Store couldn't install certain videogames, perhaps because of my tweaking, who knows. But it ended up causing even more problems. Good to know that updates almost never causes problems for you guys, but just the read all of the articles from the last 10 years, know what I mean?

 

They don't publish articles on the stuff that worked. Which gives the impression that nothing does.