I wonder if there are some differences between Windows 10 versions (like Home, Professional etc) there. I have never had that happen. I have Windows 10 Pro.
The most recent nag-you-to-use-edge update didn't just forget to restore the defaultness of my Arch EFI entry--a mistake I could forgive--it deleted it. Luckily I could boot into Debian and restore the entry because the asshats at Microsoft didn't expect there to be a second Linux lying around.
Also, it somehow discovered that I'm not I'm Greenwich, and changed my hardware clock to local time (thereby confusing the other OS'es).
Not sure what telemetry mattnewton was talking about, but I can confirm that in general, Microsoft updates are not to be trusted.
I just booted Windows for the first time this month earlier this evening. Saw it installing updates when I shut it down. God knows what messes I'll be cleaning up in the morning.
Admittedly the situation was a bit janky in the first place, so I might share some blame in that case.
Advertisements pop up at random times. I am constantly turning things off, and they get turned back on again. I am diligent about checking for updates at the end of my work day, and then turning off scheduled updates. I cannot afford to wait for a "Do not turn off your computer" screen.
Do you have a screenshot?
If you don't believe me, then just try it. Don't base your decisions on FUD from tech bloggers about how terrible the update process is.
Changing back settings that you already changed once and an update reverted is still an interruption.
Having ads or new social-media-backed login screens shoved in your face when you try to run your software is still an interruption.
Restoring damaged or destroyed data from backups is still an interruption.
Reinstalling a wrecked system because some device driver or anti-virus update rendered it inoperable is still an interruption.
We are far from the rosy future you describe in some of your comments here. You might have been lucky enough not to get caught out recently, but clearly many people and businesses have not been so lucky.
Why do these devices with almost no moving parts need weekly (or monthly) maintenance? We don’t accept that level of neediness from any other household tool.
But consider that you don't use any other household tool for 8+ hours a day, and other household tools are not designed to serve a rapidly moving target of constantly changing application needs.
No, it’s just a reflection that the pace of updates exceeded my pace of attempting to use Windows. These all applied successfully, and an immediate reboot was fine.
> But consider that you don’t use any other household tool for 8+ hours a day
I don’t use my household computer nearly that much, either. At a guess, it sees a comparable amount of use as my dishwasher which demands significantly less attention. (My office computer is a different story).
> Other household tools are not designed to serve a rapidly moving target of constantly changing application needs.
Regardless of its design intent, my application needs aren’t rapidly changing: I use a computer for roughly the same things as I did 1 or 2 or 3 years ago. Why should I pay the time cost of upgrades to enable features I have no intention of using?
I use the computer pretty much everyday. I temporarily turn on the scheduled update every night after work. I wait for it to check, and update and restart if needed. After all of the checks, updates, and restarts I turn off the scheduled updates to avoid the risk of updates occurring during work. So far, good enough.
After a while, certain notifications get turned on again without me having turned them on and without my permission.
The updates turn telemetry on, I haven't even bothered turning it off now, not using Blackbird, or scripting with WMI (you cannot use the Task Scheduler GUI to turn it off ('Microsoft Compatibility Appraiser' under 'Application Experience')), you just get an error unlike everything else.
It used to be quite something to watch the Telemetry read your entire hard drive to do whatever it did, and it did slow the computer down. But it seems to be better now, haven't noticed any performance issues with it at least (Windows Defender is the noticeable one now, but not that bad). Maybe it is better because the EU looked specifically at Microsoft Telemetry and the introduction of GDPR laws, I don't know. It has most definitely taught me to monitor my home PC all the time for things like file access and memory usage.
EDIT: Telemetry may been better for me because it seems it has not been enabled by recent updates (all of 2020), at least for the scheduled task part of it. I was so used to updates re-enabling telemetry that I had assumed that one of them would have after a few months. My bad, and my apologies.