I have a Lenovo Yoga2 Pro with Windows 8.1 since Feb 14. I have always been on windows and very recently also got a MacBookPro for my work. I love both equally coz i think both do a fabulous job in their own segments. I have been following Windows 10 for a while and wanted to ensure that I get it in time. Thats when I discovered it wasn't easy, especially due to the state of my laptop.
The Symptom
After buying my Mac for work, I handed over Yoga to my 8 year old son. He has been using it for about 4 months now and he loves it too. Its when I tried to register for Windows 10, I realised something is wrong with my laptop. Whenever I tried to do "check for updates", it would just run for hours and do nothing. On the Lock Screen there will be a small notification indicating I have new updates to install and that I should go to Control Panel and get them. But when I try doing it, nothing happens!
The Problem and What It took to Solve.
Upon investigating, I found that this happens because of the following. I had my settings in Control Panel set to "Allow Automatic Updates". This means Windows will download updates when available and install them "Without" asking you. During these updates, it tries to restart the computer and if it fails to do a clean restart during updates, it corrupts the registry which results in failed updates. One of the reasons for a failed restart would be loss of power, or my son shut it down not knowing the importance of the update. The actual problems starts now.
Windows 8.1 classifies updates into 2 categories; Important and Recommended. For some reason, Important Windows updates are chained! Which means update 5 would need update 4 and update 6 would need update 5. So if update 4 fails, you cannot get any more important updates! Update 5 cannot correct what went wrong with update 4!
To set this right, the first thing I did was to switch the option "automatic updates" off and take a more sensible option of "automatic download and then ask for updates".
Next I had to do a "Refresh" of my operating system in which I get to keep the data but loose all my softwares including MSOffice! But I still did it. However, I was expecting that once I refresh and then start the updates, I will get the Final Build and all the updates in between in 1 go. Well thats not the case apparently. After the refresh, the system identified I had 3 important updates which I happily finished. After finishing these 3, it said I had another 5 to go. So I did, then it said, I had another 147 to go! And it went on for a total 18 hours! Some of the lag I can attribute it to England's slow internet service specially over the weekend.
Finally I got to the build where I got the Windows 10 icon for registration.
Questions Or Suggestions
- UX - Can the update process make updates Non-Chained. If I have update 4 and the latest update is update 127, then download everything in 1 go and update in 1 go and then restart?
- UX - Should "Automatic Updates" be an option at all if it has such painful consequences even when the user is at fault?
- Engineering - Can the update process not check for Power Levels, disable Power OFF and change options to "automatically never Sleep when lid is shut" during the upgrade process.
- UX & Engineering - Send Alert notifications on emails / SMS to parents immediately to prevent such pain later on.
After all this, I hope the new version is worth the pain!
-Vihang
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