More Nonsense

After spending hours last month untangling the mess Microsoft made by quietly inserting OneDrive into an active role on my Windows 11 machines, I thought I had finally sorted things out. OneDrive had been redirecting my Documents, Pictures and Videos folders into its own subdirectories and syncing them to the cloud, all under the guise of "backing up" my files. In reality, it was removing them from my control.

After some research, I restored everything to its proper location, removed OneDrive and the equally annoying Copilot, and delayed Windows updates as long as possible (note: Windows 11 Home users can only delay updates, not stop them entirely).

Then last week, updates from both Microsoft and Google undid much of my work. Copilot reappeared, desktop icons went missing, my machine started launching straight into Edge on startup, and OneDrive was back, once again redirecting my Documents, Photos and Videos folders to its own directories. Fortunately it was not uploading to the cloud this time, but the intrusion was unwelcome regardless. 

I am clearly not alone in finding Windows updates frustrating and error-prone. A NotebookLM "podcast"on the topic covers the issue well. I’m very conscious that AI generated content is frequently incorrect, just AI slop, however this is worth a watch.

 

Whilst on YouTube I found a video that explains specifically how OneDrive sneaks back through a backdoor Microsoft leaves open during updates, its longish and detailed with steps to keep it Microsoft at bay at least for now.

If you are running Windows on a computer or laptop, good luck! Make sure you keep a current backup of all your files at all times.

Fed Up with Microsoft? You're Not Alone

Well, it happened again. My Windows 10 office desktop has bitten the dust. This time a mysterious "disc error" that I'm not entirely convinced is a coincidence. Why suspicious? Because right around the same time, I noticed OneDrive (personal) had quietly crept onto the machine and started doing its thing: silently squirrelling files away into its own little kingdom, and generally slowing everything to a crawl.

I'd already watched this happen on my two other Windows 11 computers, after updates, but at least I caught it eventually. After it had renamed/moved My Documents, Pictures, and Download folders and was filling its secret directory and also making a copy on the cloud. Once I untangled the mess, which involved copying files back to where they belonged (not moving, because some weren't being picked up properly). It was a tedious, several frustrating afternoons I'll never get back. Not cool, Microsoft.

This is the fifth time a computer of mine has died shortly after an update. Fifth!!!!!  At some point, that stops being bad luck.

As a retiree, I'm done throwing good money after bad. So here's where I stand: two Windows 11 machines still running, one ancient Toshiba notebook happily air-gapped and ticking along on Debian Linux (doing backups beautifully, no drama), and five dead Windows machines gathering dust in a cupboard.

The dead ones are hanging around partly because they once held client data from my consulting days. I occasionally pull out a hard drive, wipe it, and repurpose it for storage. So there is no chance that their data is accidentally revealed to the public.

But honestly? This feels like the nudge I needed. I'm seriously considering tinkering with Linux or even a Chromebook setup to get at least one or two machines revitalised. Once I summon the enthusiasm, that is.

Microsoft, that was your last chance.

Tales of Woe, and hopefully meeting a new friend

 After many trials and tribulations, so many, I had given up blogging about them. I’ve had a whole series of older computers from my business die off one by one over a few years. The majority have suffered death by upgrade, so i'm starting to fear those massive windows updates that never really worked. I guess one of the big problems was I had older hardware and it was stuck in Windows 10 land and not upgradeable.

I had replaced an old favourite PC in my studio with a slimed-down Lenovo box. It had a small ssd drive, supported by two hard drives, adequate memory, it was an i5 and it ran Windows 11, I love it. It did have problems running a large-screen TV when using the second screen/monitor or projector. But I do love the fact that I can have a large screen TV on the wall, perfect to paint from. Most of the computer gear sits on a narrow shelf and I have a couple of keyboards, one waterproof on my art table and a second wireless., that can be used anywhere. The table is set up such that I can draw and paint on it or I can also use with one of two easels standing up. I’ve also recovered an old sound bar so I can have good quality music as I’m painting. Its also set up for running Zoom meetings and making You tube videos (if I have the time!)

I still use an older Windows 10 HP Pavilion desktop in my office as the master for my network and main computer. It’s also got a small ssd drive but has 2 internal and 3 USB hard drives hanging off it. It is currently doubling as my master media storage, (eg photos videos and music). Unfortunately, it is misbehaving a bit, Finally I do miss my NAS storage, which no longer works on my upgraded LAN (windows 11 is implicated) , I really wish I knew why.

Quite a while ago the battery died in my beloved little HP Spectre. The little two-in-one that I took travelling, sitting on the couch or in fact all over the place. It was getting quite old and only had a small 11” screen but I still loved it and missed it dearly. The ordeal and potential expense associated with trying to get the battery replaced meant it is lying dormant.

I had a corneal graft last year and struggled a lot when one of my two monitors on my main computer decided to go dark, very dark, too dark to read easily. Taking the monitor off the computer and plugging it into something else showed it was fine so I assume it’s the graphics card on the computer, or a graphics driver upgrade issue, just another frustration with the Windows world. I’ve really had a lot of trouble getting used to what now appear contrasty monitors and smaller text (OK it’s the same size text just harder to see without an update to my glasses prescription after the corneal graft]. I can only get about one hour at the screen before my eyes feel strained. Usually not enough time when I’m playing with photos,

So I’ve been looking seriously at different screen technologies and decided I like TVs with OLED screens. I used to like the Apple iPhone style IPS format screens on my phone and Spectre, and was with LCD monitors. So I had begun investigating screen type and size, by actually looking at them in stores. When I noticed an advert on TV about the Lenovo Yoga Range, two-in-one style computers, checking the web there was a model based on an Intel EVO i7 processor with a 14inch  OLED screen. I was at Office Works on a different matter and so I checked it out. It was very easy to read at a standard viewing distance. I didn’t take long to decide it was time to get an upgrade.

So welcome Slaty, so named because it’s very thin, layered and a dark grey. I look forward to you becoming a great friend.

Taking my studio computer off life support

My old but otherwise still useful computer has finally got me to the point of considering Euthanasia. Despite the recent RESET and rebuild with only the minimum software the poor old thing would often start ok but switch into that blue screen with the little spinner and message that it was working on updates, which would eventually lead to the regular desktop, albeit a slowness to do anything.

This was ok  as I only want the big screen (an older TV) to display images for me to sketch or paint and some music. Both don't require anything speedy. My studio is always very messy so no need to look new and flashy.

However about a week ago after shutting down, the very best I  managed to reach is just to say the update has reached 100% (despite letting it run for 56 hours straight). So this afternoon, I disconnected my old friend Obsidian (all my computers are named after rocks), perhaps destined for the storeroom rather than the next hard rubbish collection. Sadly another death by upgrade. Shame on you microsoft.

RIP                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Yet another update issue

 I have come to use OnOne Photo RAW as my go to RAW file editor of choice and when I use it I generally export a "finished" jpeg version but something has gone astray in the latest update. It often reports that the screen resolution has changed and I need to restart the application. I assume this is related to the fact that one of the two screens on my main desktop had died and I replaced it with an old VGA style monitor. The Microsoft update fiasco made this worse, the software would hang and clearly had rendering issues anytime I exported a finished edit.

Initially the response from their support was very non-specific (ie delete OneOne and reinstall it) but I had already done this 3 times. Yesterday I got a real reply it turns out this is a common bug when using two monitors. I had to physically unplug the old monitor and just use a single screen, Magic everything is fine again, albeit with less overall screen real estate.

Am I becoming too cynical or are companies just in such a rush to push out updates to their software they are forgoing testing, and using us as Alpha testers?

Putting Linux to work on my Air Gapped Archive

Yesterday’s realization about Linux, reminded me that I have an older computer dedicated to Linux, the Ubuntu flavour. I only use it occasionally (only 3 times in the last year) and its not connected to the Internet. Its my Air-Gapped Archive. However it is a very important to me. I use this older netbook to handle my photo Archive of original Photographs, including RAW images & photos of my art works.

I choose Linux for a couple of reasons. First the attempts to upgrade my little toshiba netbook to windows 10, initially half worked and progressively slow until an attempted system reset ensured it never worked in Windows again, but I found it worked well with Ubantu . Second Ubantu (and Linux) are Open Source, not propriety operating system so there is less chance of being depricated or abandoned.

I must admit I have only updated twice so far since setting it up and today will be the third update (effectively I’m averaging every 4 months (not 3 months) and that means each year I will be running through the full cycle of Son – Father – Grandfather. This year I’m using a series of Old Hard Disk, which I have reformatted and now I am copying on the complete back up set a fresh (from the external Hard drives (in this case in the red covers). Its not fast, I expect it will take about 3 hours to copy and verify approx. 2.7TB of data.

I have also downloaded a couple of programs to help me out if I end up with only the LINUX access at any time. These are Linux version of XNView MP, a cross platform version of the popular photo/movie viewer and converter, and DarkTable, an excellent open source photo editor, that is also available on several platforms including Linux. Both can handle jpeg and the three RAW format I have .cr2, .pef .orf, I feel happier being able to see my photos. Even though this archive is essentially a digital dataset, seeing it is the best assurance that it is a true archive.

PS I left the complete rebuild run over night and it seems it took closer to 6 hours o copy and verify 2.8GB of photos & videos

Missing Files after a Windows 10 Update, with the Benefit of Deja-vu

Microsoft could have avoided the brew-ha-ha over missing files, after the latest Window 10 update, if they had bothered to reply to any of my several reports on the problem (to their support sites), all ingored , back in the last update in June. There were probably several hundred others in a similar difficulties reporting to various forums, and microsoft was silent.

The reported discovery that the missing files was cause by the "Known Folder Redirection (KFR) which is supposed to help remove duplicate files, makes sense to me as it was files or folders I had recently been using that “disappeared” during the june Windows 10 update. So this is not really a new issue.

I had a good backup of my working files (on a mirrored NAS drive and a separate external USB drive). I discovered my own work around, just take the affect USB external drive to a different computer, and the missing files were visiable! However I had to go through about 6 weeks of angst and update distress.  Not to mention a total reset and reinstall all my software (and explain to various venders that I need to reinstall software on the same computer (ie without exceeding my install/sites limit). My trust in Microsoft was severely dented and I for one would be happy if I could say NO to any future windows updates. This latest admission is not helping me change my mind.

The big question is how are these problems getting through Microsoft’s testing and their much hyped Insider feedback system? I know, they probably ignored them as well….

Oh Buggar!

Another set of “apparently” near disastrous, problems after yet another Windows 10 upgrade. Instead of just one issue I was confronted by a number or probably interrelated problem but just on my main desktop computer

1. Much of my software, could read files but could not write files (seemed to be folder/directory specific)
2. I was getting windows defender warning when I used a variety of programs (many where about stopping access to files with %userprofile% in a directory name)
3. Several specific directories (housing my photo collection from several specific years) just would not show up in file explorer (or lightroom). This also happened after last windows 10 update.
4. When I plugged my external USB backup drive into they computer the same folders where missing. BUT NOT when I plugged the same drive onto a separate computer.
5. I could see but not write to the Google Drive or OneDrive folders on my computer. Dropbox however worked fine.
6. I could not write Word Documents or Excel Spreadsheet to my Documents folder, but could save them elsewhere.

The first thing to highlight that things where wrong was an attempt to updated my OneDrive cloud photo archive. This is a bit disappointing as the whole idea of the cloud backup was to formalize the “off site” archive/backup and in theory make my computer immune from file lose etc. It does appear it doesn’t! A check from another computer showed everything was fine. I was probably lucky I had chosen the “manu-matic” approach using PhotoMechanic because I saw the warning and error messages straight away. Using a more automatic script/synch tool may have meant such problems might go undetected.

So what is the cause?

I don’t know, but looking at on-line forums I’m not alone. Further I can not find any believable explanation of the cause(s). I just have three personal theories and a cop-out

1. It is a virus, malware, ransomware that hasn’t work (ie I have received a ransom note and the files are actually still around). Windows Defender Scans report no problem. So for the time being my desktop is quarantined (and disconnected from my home Local area network.
2. The problems are related to the unpublicised turning off of the homegroup feature. My desktop was the owner of my homegroup.
3. My desktop computer boots off drive C: an SSD drive but user accounts and software is located on drive E:, a conventional harddrive (might explain the %userprofile Windows defender messages)
4. The ghost in my local area network has returned (meaning I don’t understand what is going on, and probably never will)

Is it time to panic? No, just sigh! Time to roll back the upgrade and stay off the internet. More importantly do all my important work in the meantime on an older (and reliable computer).

PS: Ok there is a problem staying off the internet and rolling back a windows upgrade, you can’t! (yet another buggar)

Windows 10 Update woes continue :: Catch 22

After struggling through a couple of weeks with three of my computers effectively unusable because of the windows 10 update loops and related update problem, I bought out and old HP desktop (old being about 5 years , its 64 bit has 8GB of RAM) and was using it to give me capability top work email and do some photographic work. It did update itself twice without any problem to 1703, then the dreaded update loop started and it lost access to the setting app. Which was a pain as I wanted to print something and could set up a printer. I got over that issue by writing my word document to my google drive converting it to a google doc and printing it to the printer from my android phone via WiFi.

Please note Microsoft : the lack of microsoft tools used in this totally unnecessary work-around.

In the last days of last week I was able to nursed my newer computer back into usefulness, I had my computer access back so I should have quit while I was ahead. Instead before I put my old reliable computer back in the studio driving my copy stand and sometimes a music playlist I figured I should to should try an “in place” reset, which turned into a Windows fall update (version 1709) and took over 9 hours (at one stage it may have been waiting up to 30 minutes for me to hit return n “the update now” prompt). It finished late last night and I had a quick look and it seemed ok. So I shut it down and went to bed.

It wasn’t Ok of course, now I have a different problem a lot of the standard apps are greyed out on the start up menu.  They can’t be run from the all apps list either. That sounds easy enough to fix just download them again from the App Store. Wait the app store doesn’t work either. Oh Dear, Yet another Catch 22!

Where is your Shame Microsoft?

Did Windows 10 have an accomplice?

I have slowly got my two very sick Windows 10 computers back to health (one by a full reset and the hassle of reloading all my software and data and the other by a in place reset). Its taken the best part of four days and a decent amount of angst. I’m none the wiser of the cause, but I’m slightly worried one of the software packages I’ve recently installed (or more particularly related drivers) might have cause some incompatibility. I had really only installed a number of photo software Luminar (as a windows beta version) On1 RAW Photo 2018 (as a trial version) and Aurora HDR 2018.

The Windows beta of Luminar didn’t seem a real candidate because I had been using it for a while and it was installed on the another windows 10 computer that didn’t exhibit the update problem. Aurora hadn’t been installed on this computer and when I tried to install On1 Photo RAW 2018 it reported that the computer was not compatible with Open GL 3.3 (yet I use mining software on that machine that relies on Open GL and currently uses version 3.3). On1 Photo Raw also proved essentially unusable on the HP spectre small screen and frequently froze in tablet mode. Frustration overload

I have purchase Aurora HDR and love it, so I’ll be making sure it works fine before I try reloading either of the other programs. I do like Luminar but it doesn’t yet do any file management or cataloguing so I’m still stuck with lightroom for the time being. I also like On1’s stuff, especially its layering, masking including great luminosity masking tools and blending, but if it only works on one of the three machines that I will be using, it is definitely off the potential purchase list for now (so I’ll stick with On1 Photo 10.5 for now)

Time to get your act together Microsoft

Yes I do know this computer (which is less that 6 months old and came with windows 10 is not able to update itself. I am painfully aware that in fact it has trained and fail  over 36 times. Further my poor little HP spectre had tried 49 times before it died, that is stop being able to be used in Windows 10.

After 6 weeks of  fruitless trying Microsoft’s Windows update trouble shooter and then searching of apparently sanctioned microsoft user forums (and convincing myself most of the advice was bogus, microsoft really need to moderate this drivel better, and carefully trying the advice that seemed safe and logical but just didn’t work either. I started asking around the technical folk I trust and the only suggestion was to find “Windows update assistant” on the official microsoft site. Yes I an cautious enough to check which links I follow and what I download.

So In anticipation of finding the right solution I downloaded and ran the assistant. It told me about my installation and that I should update, So I started the update and several hours and many restarts later My system started and reported that the fall update was loaded and try to get me to use edge (which I really think is still very ordinary compared with chrome still. I also got a message to register the computer with HP (obviously windows 10 thought this was a brand new computer but I did re-register it anyway). Then I noticed I was left with a plenty blank screen, just the first time install blue window background.

There is no start menu, I can get the tool bar to appear but the start menu and cortana search panel don’t work only the file manger icon seems to still be work, and the only Icon on the screen Windows Update Assistant tells me my system is up to date! it doesn’t mention the computer is effectively unusable

Welcome to the NEW Windows 10 Blue Screen of Death by frustrations.

Have you No Shame Microsoft?

BIG #FAIL Microsoft & HP over update KB4041676

Unfortunately I have been complaining about the endless update and undoing changes loop that two of my computers go though everytime they are restarted sometimes they initial it themselves it all to do with the fact that windows cummulative update KB4041676) can not be installed on either of my new HP computers. Also my HP photosmart printer has decide to stop working in sympathy!

Sure a month of problems and hundreds reporting similar problems across every forum of the numerous I checked would force either HP or Microsoft to do something about it. Also Looking through all the (user supported) help forums has not bought to light any sensible explanation of satisfactory solution. Infact it has convinced me that most posts are really uniformed and these are dangerous places to seek advice. So where is the place I can actually Email my problems and expect to get a reply from a real person who might know where to find the answer or better still help me with a simple solution. Note I am not trying any more of those Chat supports places, with workers following a script which does include the problem I wish to discuss, so they quickly get stuck in a loop, that’s if I even understand their accent over all the background noise and chatter in there remote offshore bunker (aka call center). Asking to speak with their supervisor just means getting put on infinite hold if not disconnected, This is a mess that needs attention

I think you should be ashamed Microsoft, and HP how about helping out your (once) loyal customers, if you don’t have a fix put pressure on microsoft. Just do it!

The Never Ending story

The frustration continues as the update KB4041676 insist on being installed, then fails, then undoes the changes (35 times and still hasn’t realised!)

More Windows 10 Update Angst

I was starting to relax about Windows 10 and got a late night HP Service center request that I needed to reboot my little HP spectre. The on/off setting had an update and restart message (I’ve seem plenty before it was a microsoft windows 10 update I thought. Ok restart and the expected cycles of updating percentage displayed on the screen in fits and starts and the don’t turn your computer off warning. Then a restart and similar update message BUT then a final message that the update could not be installed and it was undoing changes. Not the time of day to investigate so I did a shut down, more updating messages.

In the light of day I restarted and went through the same cycle. I had to restarts twice and go through the updating and undoing changes charade two more time before I could finally log in. nothing seems wrong (ie I am back where I was. However trying to shut down I still see the Update and restart warning! Am I destined for an endless loop of annoyance?
But why?

Flickr’s new profile page

I noticed a short post today on the Flickr blog post (yes I read it) that they have updated the profile page. I don’t think it has changed since I joined over a decade ago. So I excited went over to my profile (boy is it embarrassingly out of date) and sadly its the same as it ever was …no About section.

The blog post does say they are rolling it out slowly, but I found Thomas Hawk must have seen it already and had posted a comprehensive personal view. It does look nice and I’ll just have to be patient, until my profile becomes an About page.

Such a complex web of Niggles

Whilst I was away my home computers (yes there are a few) where all turned off. When I turned them back on the performance was abysmal. Perhaps it was caused by the anniversary update of windows 10? Perhaps there were a lot of updates that need to be installed and that tied up both band width and computer cycles? Perhaps there are now a few driver issues, perhaps with time things will fix themselves (ok that’s not going to happen!) perhaps, perhaps, perhaps ,,,

Instead I am slowly working through the following glitches, which were not glitches before.
1) Scanner not saving files (required software reinstall but fixed now)
2) Network printer not appearing on most computers (possibly fixed but turning printer on/off several times and reconnection on those machines it was missing)
3) Windows app store (and several app that I use like OneDrive & OneNote) missing on one windows 10 machine.
4) Windows machine continuing looking to restart and update.
5) Google Chrome frequently crashing on two of the windows 10 machines
6) My Netgear network “mirroring” backup running but not storing files recently updated files.
7) Google Drive has stopped working on all windows 10 machines but works on Vista machines.
8) I have to relog into one drive each time I start a  computer
9) Emptying the recycle bin does not clear all the deleted files on Windows machines?

It is hard to believe that a bit over a month turned off could lead to so many fundamental problems.
Am I missing something?