I need to have a rant.

Dervious

Dervious

Dervious

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Microsoft, why do you torment me so ?

I`ve long been moaning about Windows Vista. Several times I`ve had to "fix" this OS, usually by carrying out a total re-install.

Sorting out a friend's laptop right now. Got the call "something's wrong with my laptop". Sure enough, 13 updates to install, installed them (successfully - so it says), only to reboot and find that they actually failed. Did the google thing, tried a few suggestions (as usual, I found umpteen possible solutions) without success. Oh joy, a clean install is required.

Started yesterday evening at around 8pm, about an hour to carry out Toshiba's restore, then a couple of hours of updates before tiredness and the boredom of watching "1 of 39 updates, please do not switch off or unplug your computer" kicked in. Started work on it again at 8.40 this morning. Several reboots later (and a couple of "some updated failed to install") and I'm still having to keep going back to the machine to see if "preparing to install updates" has advanced to actually installing them.

So, around 7 hours later, the laptop is still not ready to be returned to it's owner, and I'm wondering if I should refuse to work on any Vista based machine ever again. I wouldn't mind, but the laptop is pretty decent - dual core Pentium and 3GB RAM. Can't blame slow downloads, as my connection is around 10mb. And at the end of all this, I wonder how long it will be before I hear that "updates are failing" again ?

Rant over.

I'll no go and see if the 1 update it started a few minutes ago is the last one (I doubt it).
 
Update on the updates.

Switched laptop back on, clicked "Windows Update" and ........

Computer is up to date !

Now, going by past experience, it's best to check for updates, just in case.

It has now been checking for updates for several minutes. This begs the question, why does it take so long to find out if there are any more updates ? I would have thought that Microsoft would know better than me, but what on earth is it doing while it's checking ? Surely a list of successfully installed updates is be kept on the PC (I know there is, I can view the update history), and MS must have a list of important updates for each OS. How long does it take to compare two lists ? Even with my rather average programming skills, and a slow Celeron CPU, I reckon it should be done and dusted in around 3 seconds (including the time taken to download the latest list from MS).

I'll never do another Vista re-install again. Until the next time :rolleyes:
 
It's not just comparing updates for Windows but any other components installed, .net framework, Office, Moviemaker etc.

Limited by speed of the PC and connection to/from MS. No idea why you're installing Vista anyway, tell your mate to upgrade to 7 or 8!
 
He's currently not in work after surgery, so I'm trying to help him out. Anyway, he's paid for Vista, so I think he would expect it do the job for him.

Adding fuel to my fire, I`ve just checked "progress" and there is another update. I forgot about the dreaded service packs. Service pack 1 seemed to install very quickly, and is listed in the update history (twice ???) as a successful install. Checking Control Panel > System does not state "Windows Vista, Service Pack 1" like I believe it should. This doesn't seem right. :mad:

I might just have to tell him that he needs Windows 7. Good work Microsoft, more money coming your way (to replace one of your very dodgy products).
 
Halfmad said:
It's not just comparing updates for Windows but any other components installed, .net framework, Office, Moviemaker etc.

Limited by speed of the PC and connection to/from MS. No idea why you're installing Vista anyway, tell your mate to upgrade to 7 or 8!
Click to expand...

Surely lists for other products can also be kept and used. Even if I need to download a gigabyte of updates, the time on my connection would only be about 30 minutes(ish). If there was the option to just do a block download of updates, then let the PC sort them out, it would be a lot more efficient. In fact, I`ve suiggested before that there should be some facility to download all updates for every OS, so that people carrying out updates can have them on disk, instaed of having to download them every time.
 
Somewhat odd, what was actually wrong with his PC?
You said something was wrong, then seemed to suggest that installing windows updates pretended to succeed, but actually failed.

Was this what was wrong with his machine? Or did it have an actual fault?
 
Hikari Kisugi said:
Somewhat odd, what was actually wrong with his PC?
You said something was wrong, then seemed to suggest that installing windows updates pretended to succeed, but actually failed.

Was this what was wrong with his machine? Or did it have an actual fault?
Click to expand...

He kept getting messages about 13 updates need to be installed (these were genuine). The updates seemed to install correctly, but on next reboot they popped up again.

BTW. One of the updates was Internet Explorer 9. He was already running version 9. I tried disabling this update, but the other 12 kept on failing. Tried Microsoft's "Fix It" tool with no success. Even tried deleteing a couple of folders which apparently store info on updates. Still no joy.

This is not the first time I have encountered update problems with vista. Several times I have had machines that repeatedly fail to install certain updates. Googling the problem reveals that this problem is not exactly rare.

Yes, disabling update may have been an option for my friend, but I`ve always advised that updates should be carried out, as many are security related and I assume MS don't issue them for the fun of it.

Only ever had one or two problems with Win 7 updates, about a year ago there was a problem that caused an update "loop", which I and a few friends/customers experienced. It pretty well corrected itself, so no cause for a rant !
 
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Dervious said:
Surely lists for other products can also be kept and used. Even if I need to download a gigabyte of updates, the time on my connection would only be about 30 minutes(ish). If there was the option to just do a block download of updates, then let the PC sort them out, it would be a lot more efficient. In fact, I`ve suiggested before that there should be some facility to download all updates for every OS, so that people carrying out updates can have them on disk, instaed of having to download them every time.
Click to expand...

You can download them individually if you want, but when you check for updates the idea is that it gets ALL updates it can in the correct order and applies them in the correct sequence, covering potentially hundreds of different applications, versions, drivers etc.

Windows server update services is a more local version of windows updates but works essentially the same way with the client checking what updates it should have then applying them.

If you were updating Windows 7/8 it'd be far more streamlined, Vista is an old OS.

Remember nothing stopping you pre-downloading service packs, which in themselves hold a huge number of updates.
 
Get him onto firefox and only install security critical updates (and any essential hardware drivers), everything will work fine I wouldn't get too hung up installing every single windows update going.
 
Speaking to a friend yesterday, he is on a windows 7 OEM, he was complaining of 13 updates that fail, so it is not Vista specific and he is on a desktop. Anyway as I did not do the original install and do not live locally, I passed this on to another friend who did and does.

Seems like an issue with some machines. Windows update fail? turning it off does not solve the issue.

I am waiting for some feedback on this from said friend.
 
I had this issue with updating win 7 before and the only way abeit tiresome to get them to install was to do them one by one and reboot after each one. :( I did this and it worked.
 
theheyes said:
On the bright side, updating Vista is about as bad as it gets. It only gets better. :o
Click to expand...

Thanks for your words of encouragement.

Maybe it'll help me cope with the task of finding out why Update History now shows Service Pack 1 being installed succesfully 5 times, yet Windows Update is telling me that 1 important update is available. This important update is............ Service Pack 1 :confused:

There was me thinking that carrying out a clean install would be an easy, albeit time consuming process. :mad:
 
Well, I've followed Microsoft's advice, and run Fix It. It now says that -

"Windows update components must be repaired Fixed (tick)".

Hurray ! Thanks Microsoft for fixing a problem that I shouldn't have ahd in the first place. ;)

I am almost certain it hasn't fixed the problem, as I tried this earlier.
 
theheyes said:
It could be a bad disk in that laptop you know.
Click to expand...

Could be.

I hate letting things like this beat me, and I really want to help out my friend.

I think I'm going to do another factory restore, and let Vista do it's updates in it's own time (I`ve been rebooting and selecting Windows Update from the start menu). Maybe I`ve been trying to rush the process, but surely it should cope with "an eager user".
 
On your side with this one- Vista RTM and Vista SP1 seemed to always have trouble installing certain updates. One of the reasons I think is because the new Windows Update introduced in Vista sometimes got "confused" during downloading / installing service packs.

If you can - grab an ISO image of Vista SP2 (slipstreamed or official) of course legally. Either OEM or Retail and install from there. Do not use the factory partition on the laptops - usually it's heavily customised and they are a real pain the behind area.

You can also use update rollups too. Or just install the SP1, SP2 iso straight away and skip most of the updates.
 
Thanks jake.

I'm using a Toshiba restore disc, as supplied with the laptop.


Why, oh why, are Microsoft allowed to get away with having sold an OS that appears to have serious flaws ? OK, they no longer support it (did they ever ?), but there must still be millions of people using Vista (or trying to use Vista) which they have paid for. Why should Microsoft's customers be faced with buying a newer product, simply because the old one is a pile of **** ?
 
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