Repeated Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile update issues can cost Microsoft consumer trust in the long term

[steven36]

Microsoft’s Windows 10 – dubbed the last Windows by the firm and reporters covering Windows – is facing a crisis of sorts with regards to upgrades, updates and the smooth operation thereof

 

 

 

With Windows 10, Microsoft has implemented auto-updates for users on both its desktop and mobile ecosystems, removing power from the hands of the users and placing it in the hands of the company itself. The power to push and remotely install updates is a great power, with an even greater responsibility accompanying it.   Computers -whether they be in the form of tradition PCs or portable Smartphones occupy a privileged space in the lives of literally billions of people around the world. They can be portable radios, work machines, alarm clocks, music devices, emergency communicators etc. The ability to quickly pick up and use these devices with the expectation that they will remain vastly the same as they were upon purchase is one that I believe is a simple one shared by many. Naturally, this is incompatible with the modern treatment of software as a service whereby OS creators annual change and add features to their devices via software updates over the supported lifetime of the device, but even then, an expectation remains that a software update must add value to the consumer.

 

Windows users are typically not used to having to deal with massive and free major updates over the lifetime of the device. Previously Microsoft did not offer upgrades to newer OS versions for free, but users would have to shell out money or get a new PC with the new version already preinstalled. This worked out for a few years, but Microsoft’s need to turn Windows from an OS that is largely invisible and unobtrusive to one with Microsoft services and apps that users enjoy coupled with Microsoft’s shrinking market share in the OS market created a need for Microsoft to turn Windows into an OS that users “love”.  To be honest, Microsoft’s Windows 10 Updates are typically nice and full of features and bug fixes, but they also come with show stopping bugs as well.

 

Just last week, the Windows 10 Anniversary Update caused several webcams to stop functioning with Windows 10 AU, while this week the same update reportedly causes Kindle devices to force Windows to BSOD (Blue Screen of Death). The Windows 10 November Update similarly had issues where it would reset user set defaults, remove incompatible programs and the like. While this is great news for news sites covering tech, consumers and prosumers are much less amused.

 

The first issue here I can see is that Microsoft is treating its customers – paying customers to mind you – like they are all voluntary participants of the Windows Insider program. When Microsoft is now “forcing” – and I do not use the word “forcing” lightly – tens of millions of users to automatically download updates, the onus is on them to ensure that the updates they are pushing out do not cause the hardware it runs on to fail. As I write, I am typing this on a Simplo equipped Microsoft Surface Pro 3 which routinely takes a stroll from 15% – dead in 3 minutes flat in what Microsoft claims is a “software issue” that was presumably introduced in one of the Surface firmware updates (the alternative would be the unpleasant notion of planned obsolescence) .

 

The point is, with Microsoft updates being automatic and forced – combined with the sheer mass of Windows 10 users – the type of bugs that get through are concerning.  I can’t imagine that Microsoft thought of plugging a Kindle into a PC, or using a webcam as actions that were out there and extreme scenarios, so the alternative is just carelessness. This isn’t fair, not for users of Windows, nor on the engineers who do their best with what they’re given.

 

The second issue relates to a lack of transparency regarding what is removed and what is added. Sure Microsoft adds a lot of features in updates that are beneficial to users, but sometimes they strip things out without prior warning and notification.

 

This is something I noticed particularly in Windows 10 Mobile. Case in point, with the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, Microsoft stripped every Windows Phone everywhere of the FM Radio app – a standard for communication in some regions of the world – citing reportedly low usage. Personally, I don’t care about the FM Radio, and certainly not its removal, what I do care about is that Microsoft a) advertises and still advertises their Lumias as having an FM Radio app and that  users aren’t given any notification that the feature is being removed. It’s just…gone. The same is true for Kids Corner and Skype’s integration with the messaging app on Windows 10 Mobile, it was there one day and gone with an update , no information, no warning, no ability to make an informed judgment on the matter.

 

Sure these two examples may have been limited to Windows 10 Mobile phones, but I selected them because of their visibility and user facing nature. These are two features that aren’t easily replaceable on Windows phones (integrated messaging and FM radio), as well as features that were present on the device when it was sold. We have no way of knowing if that was an issue that swayed many buyers, but I can imagine at least hundreds if not thousands of users may have been swayed by Skype Integration and FM radio functionality on admittedly software challenged devices. Stripping out features like these without prior notification in the form of a PSA or otherwise is distasteful (Yes, I know Microsoft inserted it one of the bullet points in an insider release earlier this year, but that doesn’t help Mom and Pop).  Microsoft now wants everyone to install every and all update, trusting them to make the right call every time. But they haven’t earned that trust yet, no one software maker has. If they are to push out forced updates, in any case, it should prepare an easily accessible changelog that users who would be interested in knowing exactly what they gain and lose can easily view without jumping through hoops.

 

Windows Insiders may not mind having buggy updates -it’s part of the parcel – but regular users do. Even if Windows updates were regularly buggy before (and I’m not sure they were), Microsoft personally taking control out of the users’ hands and into theirs now transfers the blame for buggy updates firmly into their hands. For better or worse, Windows 10 is Microsoft’s biggest consumer play, and it is there their reputations will be built or tarnished. So far, it hasn’t been a good start for users.

 

Source:

http://mspoweruser.com/repeated-windows-10-windows-10-mobile-update-issues-can-cost-microsoft-consumer-trust-long-term/

[straycat19]

From all appearances, and based on all the fixes being released as updates and the functionality being changed via updates the only assumption that can be made is this is beta software and not ready for prime time.  No company in the history of computing has ever released so many changes so quickly for software that is supposed to be fully functional and billed as the greatest Windows package ever.  You do realize that Microsoft Marketing has never talked to the developers of their OSes but puts their own spin on whatever crap is being produced.  I found this out from a Microsoft tech years ago when the minimum system requirements for installing windows were vastly understated in order to sell more copies.  You cannot believe one word of anything that comes out of Redmond nor what a lot of the writers are saying because they are getting their information from the same people.  Microsofts reputation was tarnished years ago, about the time Microsoft BOB was released, and they have done nothing to improve it since then.

[steven36]

38 minutes ago, straycat19 said:

From all appearances, and based on all the fixes being released as updates and the functionality being changed via updates the only assumption that can be made is this is beta software and not ready for prime time.  

Well Redstone 1 was heavily tested  from November 2015 tell Aug 2016 .. The problem is not its beta software all builds of Windows were buggy when  1st released  XP had to have 3 SP Vista had 2 Windows 7 and 8 had one . The problem is  there doing like Ubuntu does and pushing out major updates like two times a year and the Average  Joe  cant afford windows LTSB Enterprise to stay on a old version  .By the time they get  all the bugs out they release a new version full of bugs. Before you had too wait years to get a SP and the most  they ever gave was 3  in 12 years that was XP  .  Theres  already been 3 major updates in  a year on Windows 10

 

I remember  when i 1st started using Windows 7. It  had a bug in it were  it would freeze up if you try to do task on desktop and that was right before SP1 was released and was patched in SP1  thats all SP1 mostly was was hotfixes  of bugs in Windows 7 . Windows XP was dangerous  before they improved  the firewall  in SP2. SP3  made alot of stuff stop working  many stayed on SP2  along time after it was released. Vista had bad compatibility  problems  and after SP2  it was a much better OS.  

[dezsez]

Whether its Beta or not,Some of these programming  BUGs are SHEER incompetence on Microsofts part,SACK the lot of them and get people in From Disney World

[steven36]

1 minute ago, dezsez said:

Whether its Beta or not,Some of these programming  BUGs are SHEER incompetence on Microsofts part,SACK the lot of them and get people in From Disney World

I dont disagree  with you there ,They should of waited and tested it for  2 or 3 years  before releasing it too the public  , It seems Windows 10 is too much too handle for Microsoft .But really there's not much too chose from on desktop here's Windows 7 witch is a good OS witch only gets 4 more years of matinee and there's windows 8.1 witch most people hated  witch gets updates longer  but come October Microsoft plains to mess up updates for these OS too .  There MAC OSX witch is too controlled by apple  for my taste and there's Linux . I can get by with just using Linux if I have too. Really thats why Windows 10 dont bother me I can easily install Linux on this PC if i wanted and my other PC has both Windows 10 and Linux  on the same HHD .

[dezsez]

I don't think Microsoft could afford to wait 2 or 3 years testing Windows 10 not when all other manufactures of  electronic devices are now collecting data on what the user is does.I think collecting data is Microsofts sole objective and everything else comes second.

[steven36]

1 hour ago, dezsez said:

I don't think Microsoft could afford to wait 2 or 3 years testing Windows 10 not when all other manufactures of  electronic devices are now collecting data on what the user is does.I think collecting data is Microsofts sole objective and everything else comes second.

That's all these big companies objective now days All data is not being collected by just Microsoft though  other Ad companies  collect you're data too if you use windows  store apps as well. and they pay Microsoft  for letting them do it. No they could not afford to wait 2 or 3 years because Windows has not sold good since 2013  and people not buying Windows is the reason they became like  the other big companies  and started harvesting data for profit.. If people would of bought Windows 8 most likely Windows 10, would been much different for the good. But no one has bought much since they released Windows 8. 

 

That's why they want a billion users for Windows 10. Windows 10  is a cover up for a big ad campaign . Not much different then what  those guys from Kat was doing they was using people too  upload  files too Kat for free and putting the files on streaming sites  and generating  Millions in profits from ads. Just Windows 10 is Microsoft's  way too do it Bing owned by M$ makes ads and its and everyone that uses windows 10 pays for it forever and its legal because they own the copyright .

 

Google's money cow is ads  there products are a cover up for a ad company because they make ads .Facebook and Twitter  are cover ups for big ad campaigns as well. Only expensive  software people will buy much is games Small companies started this many years ago..They  give you something for free with spyware and some of the small companies growed up to be very large ones  many closed down though  due to legal battles or there product was not very useful .

 

.What makes people so upset at Microsoft is they had been making ad free software for 40 years  and all these other big companies has been using Windows as a vessel  to make money off Ad campaigns for decades .Now Microsoft is getting on board the gravy train . A lot of people who already sold out to other big companies  years ago are screaming bloody murder  but they done sold out way before Windows 10 and dont  even realize it yet.