My primary work computer (a Lenovo ThinkPad T440 that I bought about two years ago) has been running Windows 8.1 since I purchased it. Like everyone else running Windows 7 or 8, I’ve been receiving periodic and increasingly frequent popups to “schedule my free Windows 10 upgrade.” I declined those notifications, simply because my plan was to budget for a new computer in 2017, purchase it with Windows 10 installed, and then upgrade several other pieces of software at the same time. Specifically, I still use Office 2010, and I was concerned that the Windows 10 upgrade might not work well with it. However, as far as I could tell, there was no “don’t show me this again” option on the Windows 10 upgrade popup, so I just closed each one as it came up.
Flash forward to Monday (two days ago); I was talking on Skype while turned away from my computer and looking out the window. So I can’t say what happened at the critical moment, but my Skype call suddenly dropped, which of course prompted me to look at the computer screen. And…the Windows 10 upgrade had begun. So I’m not sure if I hit the trackpad with my elbow, or if the upgrade actually launched on its own, or something else; but the point being, there it went, and as far as I could tell, there was no way to cancel or pause it.
After spending a minute or two freaking out (I also had a large translation due Monday night and still needed to finish it), I decided to just run some errands, make some phone calls and get some coffee and try to stop freaking out. In the end, the upgrade took about an hour and a half, but the outcome has been largely fine (other than being up until 11:30 proofreading the translation mentioned above…). All of my software and settings transferred normally to Windows 10, and as far as I can tell, the only blips are:
- The preview function doesn’t work in Office 2010; so for example when you’re attaching a file to an e-mail, you can’t preview it in the file selection pane
- You have to reassign the preferred application for some functions (i.e. always open PDF attachments with Adobe Reader, make Firefox my default browser, etc.)
Aside from that, everything seems OK; I have Trados Studio 2014 SP2, and it’s working fine. A few thoughts on this whole drama:
- The worst part was the unexpected nature of the upgrade and the two hours of lost work time; had I been on an important call with a client, or presenting a webinar, or on a really tight deadline, that element alone could have been a disaster. If you have a Windows 7 or 8 computer, I would recommend doing one of two things: either schedule the Windows 10 upgrade for a time when you are not working (for example run it on Friday evening so that you have the weekend to clean up any messes), or install a plugin like Never10 that permanently disables the upgrade notifications (thanks to Colorado Translators Association member Karen Williams for that tip!).
- The other question is how long the free Windows 10 upgrade period will last and what happens after it ends. No clear answers there.
- And as always, make sure that everything on your computer is fully backed up at all times, in case this, or another unexpected IT event, occurs. I use and love SugarSync (not an affiliate deal) because it keeps my designated folders backed up with no action on my part, but just make sure that you’re doing something bombproof to keep your files backed up.
- Have a disaster recovery plan, at least in your head. As I watched the Windows 10 upgrade roll and thought about my imminent deadline, I also thought, “What am I going to do if the machine doesn’t come back up, or if my old software doesn’t work?” Since everything in the My Documents folder is synced to my cloud storage, the solution would be to immediately to buy another laptop and download My Documents onto it; expensive and stressful, but it would have worked, and worked much better than restarting the 10,000 word translation.
Readers, any other thoughts on this?
The “unexpected nature” can probably be explained by this: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-36367221
Apparently, Windows decided to change the functionality of the red cross button that usually closes a window.
Thanks Carola! Yes, I think that’s it…
You have my sympathies, Corinne. I only hope I don’t try to “close” the box myself in a moment of mental absence.
See: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-36376962
Maybe it would be a good idea to alert all ATA members to this “feature” so they don’t suddenly find their computer upgrading while they’re trying to finish a time-critical job and run the risk of losing a customer or worse.
Personally, I have absolutely no desire to upgrade my computer to Windows 10, not least because of the time needed to change all the default settings so that I don’t become an advertising target for MS. I’d much rather pay for the software and have control over it.
Thank you for the sympathy 🙂 I did post a summary of the situation on the Business Practices list, so hopefully that will help other people avoid a similar fate!
Thanks a lot for your post on the BP list, Corinne!
Same happened to me. I’d been refusing the updates then one day it just did it anyway! Fortunately it was on a Saturday! The only problem I have had is with my internet cable which it no longer recognized so I had to go through wifi (and our wifi connection is pretty bad) but I fixed that by installing a new ethernet driver but that took me about an hour to work out. It could have been worse but I was pretty mad at MS that day….
Thanks Julia! That’s interesting…and now that you mention it, I haven’t tried the Ethernet cable on this computer since the upgrade!
Well, if there is a problem, you should be able to solve it by installing a new driver through the Windows update feature (launch it from Start > Settings > Update and Recovery and click Check for Updates)
I am sorry to hear about your travails, but you should have posted this much earlier (last year) when you first started receiving an abundance of Windows update notifications concerning the upcoming upgrade.
I am currently on Win 7 and have had a wonderful experience with it and really did not want to jeopardise my work by jumping into a new OS, that by all accounts had not even had all its bugs ironed out.
Consequently, I made some cursory research and downloaded a program (GWX Get Windows 10), that swiftly and effectively halted all update regarding Windows 10.
After doing this, I created a separate partition of Windows 7 and left that one to upgrade to Windows 10, which turned out to be an effortless process. In this way, you can have a double-boot configuration and carry on your work untroubled. In your free time you can explore Win 10 and get to learn your way around and choose the appropriate time when YOU wish to change over & not when you are forced to do so.
Good luck
Neil
Very interesting! I used to have a dual-boot Linux/Windows machine, but the dual-boot Windows machine with two different OSs is a really neat idea!
Thanks for sharing, Corinne. I’m experiencing the same thing. However, I was lucky to postpone the update a few days. I’ve heard that Windows 10 should be installed without problems, so I hope for the best and keep my fingers crossed ;-).
Thanks Lene; honestly in the end it turned out fine. More stressful than actually harmful; I hope it goes OK for you too!
Corinne, it happened exactly the same to me a week ago!. There was no disable option available and the upgrade started automatically without my approval. Lucky me, it went all well and now I´m trying to get used to it. But I will follow your advice for the backup and the disaster recovery plan.
Best regards, monique
Thanks Monique! Well, at least I know it’s not just me… And yes, I think that a full backup system and disaster recovery plan are really important, unless you *never* work on time-sensitive projects (which is basically no one!).
Hi Corinne,
Thanks for your post. I upgraded my old notebook to Windows 10 last year when it just came out. Everything worked great until about three weeks later when the PC “suddenly ran into a problem” and “we’ll restart it when we collect come info….” Well, it never restarted and I had a translation saved on my hard drive which I did not backup (taught me a very valuable lesson right there). I had to run to the nearest computer geek and thankfully, he was able to figure it out. I ended up doubling his asking price because I needed the computer back that same day. This is what I learned from this experience:
1. It was a BCD boot crash which apparently happened because of the upgrade.
2. I can’t explain what BCD is (not really that much of a computer expert, just an advanced user :-)), but from what I understand, it is some sort of a code (plugin, etc.) unique to every operating system and while Win10 was running on my computer, certain programs were still looking for the BCD from Win8.1 essentially causing the failure.
3. This COULD have been restored if I had the Win8.1 installation disks (which I did not because the companies no longer give you those extremely handy items when you purchase a new laptop). I now have a Lenovo Yoga Pro and it also never came with installation CDs.
4. If you don’t have these installation disks you have to figure out how to get them from elsewhere, download them to a flash, etc. etc. etc….
When I purchased my new laptop I secured a 3-year insurance plan instead of a regular 1-year option for an additional 100 bucks. Hopefully, I never have the same issue again, but in case something of this magnitude ever happens, now I at least have two backup laptops and all my work now goes on the removable drive.
I seriously hope that this failure did not happen to all people who upgraded their Win systems to Win10, and hopefully this was just my bad luck and not a nationwide problem.
Thank you! Oh my gosh, now that’s a horror story! Hopefully that doesn’t happy to anyone else…
I never upgrade to anything offered for free. It usually has strings attached (either a trial period — often with limited functionality — or other limitations, such as one month or 30 turns-on, at the end of which you are told to buy it).
Or you are made a free test mouse, helping M$ to debug their rotten potato. Remember those suggestions after an application crashes, “Send report to Microsoft bla-bla-bla”?
No, I upgrade anything only when the previous version stops working, deteriorates beyond repair or reinstallation, crashes at least once a day for lack of support, cannot be used coupled with other applications, or cannot access or something online. Don’t fix it if it ain’t broke. Or if a client demand something advanced. But I don’t have such clients for translations. Mine accept all Word2003 (doc) files all right. Once one asked 2007 (docx). I did my translation in 2003 (doc) and then savde the final version in 2007. Or you can simply rename the final file, changing its extension from .doc to docx, and no one knows the better. Doc is as good as docx for all purpuses, but if you are damned advanced as to want docx, I’ll oblige. 🙂
Another benefit of my luddite approach is that you upgrade after the developers have finally debugged their stuff (which happens either in a new version, discarding the buggy one, like Vista) or in a build numbered over 100,000), instead of being a free test animal.
The Never10 plugin might probably be a good idea, but I simply navigated to the place where this nagging Intstall W10 executable file lives on my comper (you can do it through the Task Manager), corrupted it (ie. opened it up in a Notepad, replaced the stuff with the word GFY and saved under the same name) and flagged it as read-only. Whenever a new nagger comes with scheduled MS update now, it cannot intstall overwrite: the file (by the name of it) already exists, and it is protected and cannot be overwritten, updated or replaced by the new nagger.
Moreover, I made a thorough audit for any W10 mentions throughout the system and purged them out. No nagging or sudden unwanted self-activity since.
Thanks for that thorough overview; very helpful!!
I just want to keep Windows 7, so I installed
GWX Control Panel (http://ultimateoutsider.com/downloads/) to get rid of that annoying popup. Haven’t seen it ever since!
P.S. https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/a1/6c/8e/a16c8eebf0ebcb45696271cf770b3e74.jpg … 🙂
Thanks Edith, very good tip!
You do have the option to reverse the upgrade if you do it soon.
Meanwhile, here are instructions on how to prevent Microsoft from installing Windows 10 on your computer, how to avoid being pestered by nag screens, and how to roll back any update that does get installed:
http://download.cnet.com/blog/download-blog/stop-or-roll-back-a-windows-10-update/
Download the blocking software from the developer’s own website, in order to ensure you’re downloading the latest version (Microsoft seems to have blocked the version I got from Download.com from being able to run on my Win 8.1 laptop). Go here:
http://ultimateoutsider.com/downloads/
Thanks Erik! Actually in the end it’s fine, and even eliminated some performance annoyances (for example under 8.1, sometimes my computer did not always shut down correctly, even though it is not that old). But good to know that all of this can be rolled back if anyone wants to!
Hi Corinne, thank you for sharing this! I can definitely relate to the stress you were feeling at that moment. As for thoughts on upgrading to Windows 10, my own experience has actually been a positive one. I decided to run the upgrade on my laptop recently and now it’s behaving like new. I may still get at least one more year out of it.
Thanks Lillian! I think that proactively deciding to run the upgrade is a very good idea; glad it worked well!!
I really enjoyed this very informative blog post, thanks! I wanted to ask you about SugarSync, it looks great and I’ve just signed up for a free trial. I’m syncing my files to it now, will new files I create automatically back up to the cloud or do I have to tick a box or something somewhere to make sure that happens? I know you said it all backs up with no action on your part?
Thanks!
Thanks Lucy! I have SugarSync installed on my computer, and then you get a menu item that allows you to designate folders to sync. Check if you have that?
It all seems to be syncing OK but suddenly this morning I can’t open any files on my computer, or even download files from e mail. The little circle twirls round and round and does nothing. I don’t know if it’s link to SugarSync, it seems to be any files in any format, whether they are synced or not. Argh!
Ooh, that doesn’t sound good! I hope it resolves!
I guess I was lucky that I’m running Windows 7 in Parallels and the Windows Update process that searched for updates in the background was not compatible with Parallels. At least it ate virtual memory and CPU like crazy, so I disabled the update many months ago.
You can disable the update process by unchecking “Give me recommended updates the same way I receive important updates.” and “Never check for updates” (instead, I set a reminder on my Mac to periodically run a manual check for updates) in the Control Panel > Windows Updates > Change Settings.
Also, I uninstalled Windows Update KB3035583, which seems to be the root cause of the issue. Of course, all that only helps if the Windows 10 update hasn’t already been scheduled/started.
I didn’t want to install that GMX blocking software, because that’s yet another thing by yet another developer to worry about.
However, as another thread in another forum just alerted me, there seems to be a way to restore the original Windows OS before the Win 10 upgrade:
http://www.howtogeek.com/220723/how-to-uninstall-windows-10-and-downgrade-to-windows-7-or-8.1/
(use at your own risk).
Thanks! Very interesting!
This morning when I got on my laptop, I was welcomed by a message from Windows 10 update. The unsolicited update had begun and the “legal” message was asking me to accept or decline the update. After much thought, I decided to decline. The next message said if I decline my old version of Window will be reinstalled. I confirmed the decline. After about 20 minutes, I got my laptop back, so far no problems.
I guess I’m different to everybody here: I updated to Win 10 as soon as I could. I have been happy with it and I think it’s a better OS than 8.1 that I had earlier (and a lot more convenient than 7 that I used a couple of years ago).
No issues with any translation tools, but some with Outlook. Apparently some folder user rights and/or default folders were changed, which caused Outlook to complain that I don’t have sufficient rights to create new ost/pst files. I could continue using what I had, but not change the configuration. BTW: I didn’t notice any change in the preview function of Outlook 2010, but maybe I missed that. Have upgraded to Office 2016 since that.
Anyway, based on my own experience I would definitely recommend an upgrade despite the minor hiccups with Outlook.
Thanks for that update (so to speak!); interesting about the Outlook functionality!
Good to hear the upgrade (which I’ve avoided with the GWX Control Panel others mentioned) didn’t end in tears for you, but please remember, a sync service is **not** the same thing as a backup. Any problems (e.g. corruption, accidental deletion etc) that occur with a file on one device will simply be replicated on others!
I was working on a long-term project, with files stored and shared in a Dropbox folder. Near the project end I went back to the files I created in the beginning… and they were gone! Weeks of work. From every device with Dropbox and the Dropbox website itself. I don’t know what happened: maybe an accidental deletion that had happened over 30 days previously (DB’s undelete time limit). Fortunately I was also using a genuine backup service that truly preserved files rather than just syncing to whatever I had currently, and that saved the day. (I now regularly copy my Dropbox folder over to an external hard drive and also burn it onto a DVD every month.)
Yes, thanks for that clarification! It is an important difference.
Aggravating is the nice word for it, Corinne. Whatever happened to “never touch a running system” or “don’t fix what ain’t broken?” Oh well. I guess once we’re in that Microsoft escalator there’s no turning back!
Thank you for the post Corinne
My only thought is that Microsoft is evil, but that’s not a new thought; everyone should have recognized that by now. I only use Windows 8.1 to run memoQ (everything else is Apple — now there’s a really sinister mega-corporation!), and so far I seem to have escaped the involuntary uplift to Windows 10; I don’t know why. Perhaps it’s because I dip into Windows only occasionally and Microsoft hardly knows I exist.