Windows 10 upgrades are rarely useful, say IT admins

[Karlston]

Windows 10 upgrades are rarely useful, say IT admins

A majority of admins surveyed this summer say Microsoft's oft ballyhooed twice-a-year upgrades for Windows 10 aren't really worth the hassle.

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Microsoft / IDG

 

A majority of IT administrators polled this summer said that the twice-a-year Windows 10 feature upgrades are not useful – or rarely so – a stunning stance considering how much effort Microsoft puts into building the updates.

 

About 58% of nearly 500 business professionals who are responsible for servicing Windows at their workplaces said that Windows 10 feature upgrades – two annually, one each in the spring and fall – were either not useful (24%) or rarely useful (34%).

 

Only 20% contended that the upgrades were useful in some fashion, while a slightly larger chunk – 22% – choose a noncommittal neutral as a response, claiming that the operating system's updates were neither useful nor not useful. (It might be best to consider this answer as undecided since in this binary world if something is not not useful, that must mean it is useful.)

 

The results came from a questionnaire circulated last month by Susan Bradley, a computer network and security consultant who moderates the PatchMangement.org mailing list, where IT administrators discuss updates and exchange information. Bradley also writes for AskWoody.com, the Windows tip site run by Woody Leonard, a Computerworld columnist.

 

Bradley also polled IT personnel in 2018, when she posed many of the same questions as this year. The results then were even more dismissive of the usefulness of Windows 10's upgrades. Two years ago, nearly 70% of the respondents said the feature upgrades were not useful (35%) or rarely useful (34.5%). About 12% called the upgrades useful to some degree, while around 18% were unable to decide one way or the other.

 

Thus, in two years, the not-much-use-for-upgrades group shrunk by 12 percentage points while the upgrades-are-somehow-useful pool grew by 8 points.

 

Even with these improvements, in 2020 a majority of IT was unconvinced that the feature upgrades had significant value. (Only 4% of those surveyed agreed that the upgrades were extremely useful.) That was in striking contrast to the pride of place that Microsoft put the feature upgrades, which continued as the cornerstone of the company's Windows-as-a-service (WaaS) philosophy.

 

If an upgrade is released and no one cares, does it make a noise?

 

"Clearly, Microsoft needs to reconsider its upgrading process ... and make the goals more transparent," Bradley wrote on Askwoody.com (membership required) when she first reported on the poll.

 

There is a disconnect between Microsoft's efforts and expectations – months of development time and testing to produce features and functionality that customers will clamor for – and the reaction by, in electioneering terms, a landslide-sized majority of those customers. In many cases, IT admins simply shrug at what Microsoft trumpets.

 

"I understand the concept of WaaS, and the ability to upgrade the OS without a wipe/re-install is a good concept," one of those polled said. "((But)) let's concentrate more on useful features, like an upgraded File Explorer, a Start menu that always works, and context-sensitive (and useful) help, and less on, 'It's time to release a new feature update, whether it has any useful new features or not.'"

 

Some were considerably harsher in taking feature upgrades to task. "Don't have a clue why they think some of the new features might be worth our time, or even theirs," said another of those polled.

 

And others decried what they saw as wasted opportunities. "It's mostly bells, whistles and window-dressing," one IT admin said. "It seems like no fundamental problems are tackled. Although updates DO every now and then cause new problems in fundamental functionality. Looks like there's at least some scratching done on the fundamental surface – ((but)) without explanation."

 

Or maybe more of a waste of time than wasted chances. "Microsoft spends the greatest amount of development in releasing these twice-a-year feature releases and ... enterprises are not rolling them out fast enough to take advantage of them," noted Bradley in an email reply to questions.

 

Indeed.

 

Because organizations running Windows 10 Enterprise or Windows 10 Education receive 30 months of support for each fall upgrade (but only the fall upgrade; the spring refresh comes with only 18 months of support), it's possible for the most agile IT departments to skip multiple updates, and refresh their PCs only once every two years. (Upgrading once annually is a given with 30 months of support.) What this means is that enterprises and their employees eventually are exposed to all Windows 10 new features. But not a Microsoft's pace.

 

Again, are these upgrades worth the work Microsoft puts into them? Bradley's poll, as unscientific as it was, says, No, no they're not.

 

 

Windows 10 upgrades are rarely useful, say IT admins

 

[Sylence]

whatever comes out of woody's and his team's mouth is anti windows.

 

no one asks whether or not OSX updates are useful, Android updates are useful.

 

features Windows 10 is getting are essential to stay ahead of competitors and be a modern OS with accessibility features that enables everyone to be able to use it.

[Karlston]

18 minutes ago, Sylence said:

whatever comes out of woody's and his team's mouth is anti windows.

 

Gregg Keizer just happens to also be a ComputerWorld journo. He's not part of any "Woody's team".

 

And Gregg's article is simply reporting that...

 

1 hour ago, Karlston said:

About 58% of nearly 500 business professionals who are responsible for servicing Windows at their workplaces said that Windows 10 feature upgrades – two annually, one each in the spring and fall – were either not useful (24%) or rarely useful (34%).

 

... and then analysing why these nearly 500 business professionals have voted that way.

 

And the poll was run by Susan Bradley, a highly respected tech professional, known in the industry as the Patch Lady, for her Windows update experience and knowledge.

 

What sets these three (and some other older tech journos) apart from the younger journo generation is their long industry experience, perhaps they have that thing called wisdom which allows them to see through all the hype.

 

Not saying that all the Windows 10 negativity is justified, just that like all OS's, it isn't perfect and has its share of problems too.

 

From what I've seen, the Windows 10 "feature updates" have been largely underwhelming. Usually the bugs have been more impressive than the features. 

[Sylence]

@Karlston have you personally encountered any of those "bugs" ?

 

 

[dhjohns]

1 hour ago, Sylence said:

whatever comes out of woody's and his team's mouth is anti windows.

Definitely, he preaches doom and gloom that only a very small percentage of Windows users experience.  Most Windows users are not power users, and accept (as they should) the upgrades as they come, and hardly notice they happened.  I myself live on the cutting edge, and love it.  When I was using Windows 7 (before Windows 8 leaked) I always checked for updates, and wanted to be the very first kid on the block to have them.  I also keep all my software up-to-date.  For me, it just makes sense.

[Sylence]

6 minutes ago, dhjohns said:

Definitely, he preaches doom and gloom that only a very small percentage of Windows users experience.  Most Windows users are not power users, and accept (as they should) the upgrades as they come, and hardly notice they happened.  I myself live on the cutting edge, and love it.  When I was using Windows 7 (before Windows 8 leaked) I always checked for updates, and wanted to be the very first kid on the block to have them.  I also keep all my software up-to-date.  For me, it just makes sense.

 

Exactly, me too.

when I read things they say bad about Windows and then compare them with reality and what I experience, it's entirely different. I'm not even a noob but rather a semi-power user.

 

[Karlston]

21 minutes ago, Sylence said:

have you personally encountered any of those "bugs" ?

 

Nope, safely on 8.1, still supported for another 2.5 years. Next PC will have to be 10, either Enterprise or LTSC.

 

But I can read the problems that real people are reporting, including on Microsoft's own forums.

 

3 minutes ago, dhjohns said:

Definitely, he preaches doom and gloom that only a very small percentage of Windows users experience.

 

Essentially Woody preaches that it's OK to not update Windows within milliseconds of updates being released, that it's safer to wait until the obligatory bugs have been fixed, and then update.

 

Given that Windows users number around 1.5 billion, even a very small percentage is a lot of real people.

 

I remember an update that was supposed to just delete some empty folders. Problem was that Microsoft's update didn't bother to check if those folders actually were empty, a developer cardinal sin IMO. People lost irreplaceable files because of Microsoft's incompetence. For those users, that was pretty doomy and gloomy.

 

https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-confirms-major-windows-data-deletion-bug-sort-and-offers-awkward-fix

[dhjohns]

1 minute ago, Karlston said:

People lost irreplaceable files because of Microsoft's incompetence

No, it was those people's own incompetence for not backing up irreplaceable files.

[Karlston]

1 minute ago, dhjohns said:

No, it was those people's own incompetence for not backing up irreplaceable files.

 

Perhaps they didn't back them up because they trusted Microsoft to not delete folders without checking for files first?

 

The victims don't deserve 100% of the blame, Microsoft should own a fair part of it, they're (allegedly) the professionals who should have known better. The victims were likely just ordinary users with little technical skill who wouldn't know the difference between a backup and a ham sandwich.

 

I never saw an apology from Microsoft either, just some marketing spin starting with their customary "A small number of users..." demeaning.

[Ryrynz]

Might as well never update, if I haven't experienced any issues then I'm never going to. Hurrrr

[vitorio]

12 hours ago, Karlston said:

 

Windows 10 upgrades are rarely useful, say IT admins

Quote

"I understand the concept of WaaS, and the ability to upgrade the OS without a wipe/re-install is a good conce

For me this is basically the reason why I upgrade my Windows 10.

[Karlston]

The majority of IT professionals think Bi-Annual Windows 10 Updates are rarely if ever useful

 

If it was up to IT professionals we would all still be running Windows 7 at work, with the majority unhappy with Microsoft’s Windows as a Service regime of regular and forced Windows 10 updates.

 

A survey by Susan Bradley, a computer network and security consultant who moderates the PatchMangement.org mailing list, where IT administrators discuss updates and exchange information with nearly 500 respondents found 58% thought bi-annual Windows 10 updates were not useful (24%) or rarely useful (34%).

 

Only 20% thought they were useful and a full 22% were neutral on the topic.

 

 

IT admins accused the updates of rarely improving things, but often causing issues.

 

“It’s mostly bells, whistles and window-dressing,” one IT admin said. “It seems like no fundamental problems are tackled. Although updates DO every now and then cause new problems in fundamental functionality. Looks like there’s at least some scratching done on the fundamental surface – ((but)) without explanation.”

 

They felt the updates did not address fundamental issues.

 

“I understand the concept of WaaS, and the ability to upgrade the OS without a wipe/re-install is a good concept,” one of those polled said. “((But)) let’s concentrate more on useful features, like an upgraded File Explorer, a Start menu that always works, and context-sensitive (and useful) help, and less on, ‘It’s time to release a new feature update, whether it has any useful new features or not.'”

 

Another complained:

 

“Don’t have a clue why they think some of the new features might be worth our time, or even theirs.”

 

Microsoft does, however, appear to be winning over IT professionals, if very slowly.

 

 

A 2018 survey found nearly 70% thought Windows Updates were not useful (35%) or rarely useful (34.5%). About 12% called the upgrades useful to some degree, while around 18% were unable to decide one way or the other.

 

The goal of Microsoft’s efforts is of course to prevent the fragmentation we are in the early 2000’s when we had a large number of Windows users on legacy platforms, preventing Microsoft from effectively leveraging their platform.

 

via Computerworld

 

 

The majority of IT professionals think Bi-Annual Windows 10 Updates are rarely if ever useful