I have a dual-boot machine with Win10 on one partition. This morning, Windows installed a large update with the comment "your machine will restart several times". Sure enough, the update took forever, and afterwards...there's only Windows 10 left.
I haven't yet gone spelunking with a LiveCD, but Win10 updates have been known to nuke entire partitions, not just the bootloader. Time will tell...
For what it's worth, the Windows update history shows: KB 3176937, 3176935, and 3193494. This would appear to be a group of updates that lead to "Windows 10 version 1607".
This week, Microsoft pushed out another cumulative update and reports of installation problems are widespread. While I don't know how many users are impacted, based on comments sent to me, it's certainly widespread enough that this is well beyond an isolated issue.
The update that is causing the problem, KB3194496, is not installing correctly for users. The update, when it does fail, is causing some machines to restart, often multiple times, as Windows 10 attempts to remove the failed update. Worse, after a restart, the file will attempt to install again resulting in the loop of failed install, reboot, re-install and failure again.
Some users have reported that the cumulative update did install correctly on the second or third attempt while others have said that it fails every time.
[...] Microsoft is pushing the idea that you should always patch your machine on the day the update is released as they often release security patches that fix vulnerabilities. But, until the company can get a handle on their quality control issues, such as the Anniversary update breaking millions of webcams, it feels like every time you run Windows update you are rolling the dice.
Some have found a solution to their problem here.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 03 2016, @03:19AM
Feels like? You ARE rolling the dice every time Microsoft forces a cumulative patch on you. There's been plenty of times already where the patches have broken a lot of computers. It's not like it's new, there have been bad patches back in XP and since. But back then you could just not accept the patches immediately and delay your update until Microsoft has recalled and sent out a patch of the patch. Now that they're forcing everyone into an all or nothing deal, the damage done each time is pretty much maximized.
(Score: 2) by vux984 on Monday October 03 2016, @05:43AM
I don't disagree. But i do find it interesting that this is also how mac OS, OS X, macOS or whatever they're calling it this week is also delivered, and nobody seems to make such a fuss about it. They do control what hardware it runs on, so its a much smaller QA project, but still they've botched things before and nobody ever once said... gee i wish it was like Windows XP or Windows 7 where you can select what patches to install, and roll them back separately, etc etc etc...
Now that they're forcing everyone into an all or nothing deal, the damage done each time is pretty much maximized.
On the other hand, they don't have to worry about people with Patch A, B, C, but not D, but have E, but opted out of F,G,H and then tried to install J .... so they've dramatically reduced the QA combinations of patches they have to worry about.
(Score: 3, Informative) by butthurt on Monday October 03 2016, @07:29AM
> [...] i wish it was like Windows XP or Windows 7 where you can select what patches to install, and roll them back separately [...]
In actuality, it's going to be the other way around. The patches for Windows 7 are going to come in the form of monthly roll-ups, beginning this month:
Microsoft will issue the first monthly rollup and security-only update for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 on Tuesday, Oct. 11.
-- http://www.computerworld.com/article/3121732/security/microsoft-wont-bundle-ie-patches-with-new-cumulative-updates-for-windows-7-and-81.html [computerworld.com]
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Monday October 03 2016, @07:31AM
SN carried that story in August.
/article.pl?sid=16/08/17/0830223 [soylentnews.org]