This is a horror story describing my adventures with the screwed up Windows 10 updates which started in May of 2017 and, Im sorry to say, have not yet finished. I doubt that it ever will finish unless I switch to Linux.

I've got two windows machines here. When it comes to backups I use the belt and suspenders approach, I make multiple file copy and image backups. I really dont like losing files!

The first machine is an I-5 (4 core) based Gateway Model DX-4860-UR10P desktop with 6 GB of ram, 2 internal hard disks, a 1 TB and a 2TB, and originally ran windows 7. It was upgraded to windows 10 about a year ago. I always store any data files on the second internal disk, J:, never on C:. I make image backups of drive C: using Macrium 6 Free to external USB drives whenever I make a significant change to C:. I also make daily file copies of everything that has changed on both C: and J: to external USB drives using robocopy. Then (a second pair of suspenders) I create a daily restore point with the windows restore point program.

The second machine is a Gateway Model NV76R 17 inch laptop with an Intel B960 Pentium processor, 4 GB of ram and a 500 GB hard disk which originally ran windows 8.0. It was also upgraded to windows 10 about a year ago. I almost never store any data files on the internal disk, they get written to external USB drives. Like the desktop I make image backups of drive C: using Macrium 6 Free whenever I make a significant change to drive C:, daily file copies of everything that has changed to external USB drives using robocopy, and daily restore points.

First the desktop got into trouble.

On 4/12/17, Macrium 6 Free failed to make the usual image copy of the desktop drive C:. There was suddenly something wrong with the Volume Shadow Service which enables windows to copy files which other processes have opened. I found references to Macriums problem with VSS on the web. It had apparently been caused by a change to VSS during one of those windows updates. On 4/13/17 I attempted to make an image of drive c: using the old Windows 7 image backup program. It too was unable to create an image, apparently due to the change in VSS. On 4/14/17 I installed the EaseUs backup program and it was able to make an image of drive C:. I began using EaseUs to make weekly image backups from then on.

On 6/2/17, the desktop would not reboot after the weekly windows update. The screen went black soon after the first windows logo appeared. After several power off / on cycles the repair console appeared and started its troubleshooting routine, but it couldnt repair the system. I then tried to restore from the last restore point but that also failed repeatedly with error code 0x80070091.

Woody Leonard published the answer in Computer World ... Microsoft had shot itself in the foot and system restore points would be useless in the future! Woody concluded that system restore could not rewrite the windows apps folder according to kb3213986, and that the windows image program and some other vendors image programs could not make reliable image backups.

http://www.computerworld.com/article/3175040/microsoft-windows/windows-10-update-kb-3213986-triggers-system-restore-error-0x80070091.html

On 6/6 I tried to reload the images I had created with EaseUs but that failed. On 6/7 I tried to reload several images I had created with windows backup but that wouldnt work either.

I emailed Macrium to ask if they had a solution. They told me that their version 7 fixed the VSS problem but it was not yet available in the free edition. I bought a copy of version 7 workstation for about $60.

On 6/13 I installed Macrium 7 workstation on the laptop and used it to make a rescue DVD which contains Windows PE.

On 6/14 I booted the desktop from the Macrium rescue DVD and restored an old Macrium image from 4/8/17 to drive C:. The desktop booted from drive C: but then it immediately began installing a windows update. Apparently the 4/8 image contained not yet executed update files. The update installation took about an hour and then the desktop rebooted.

I figured I was back in business. Everything seemed to be working. I started a bunch of the programs including Word, Outlook, Excel, and the Visual Fox Pro, Visual Basic and Visual C++ compilers, (all of which were contained in the old image files), and they all seemed to be working. Then, because I thought that the boot sectors of drive C: might be questionable, I ran a slow scan of disk 0 using the Western Digital scan program which found no problems on the disk. After several hours of testing I shut the desktop down. The next day the destop would not boot!

After much unsuccessful fooling around with the repair console the only way to get the desktop working again was to use Macrium to restore the disk from the same old 4/8 image and let windows update itself again. 

Subsequent forced windows updates would cause the machine to reboot and fail to start. I would then have to restore from the 4/8 Macrium image and wait for windows to finish the update included in that image. For the next three weeks I had to restore the disk three times until I decided that the desktop would have to remain permanently disconnected from the internet. If I needed a file from the internet I would download it on the laptop and move it to the desktop using a USB drive.

Then the laptop went south.

On 7/30 the laptop would not reboot after an update, it froze at the Gateway logo before it could read the boot sector from drive C:. The repair console could not be started, no restoration from a restore point was possible.

On 8/1 I used the Macrium 7 rescue DVD to restore the laptop drive C: from an old image from 7/18. After getting windows running I tested disk 0 using the western digital scan program which found no problems on the disk. On 8/4 and again on 8/9 the same thing happened, the laptop would not boot and I had to restore the disk from the 7/18 Macrium image.

On 8/10 the laptop downloaded another update and wanted to reboot. I delayed the reboot for a week and called my ISPs (Cablevision) technical support. They told me that Microsoft actually had a technical support department at 800-642-7676 and could probably help me.

I called Microsoft, created support case #1394543359, and their tech started a remote support session, but could find nothing wrong. He then used services.msc to stop the Windows Update service and the Background Intelligent Transfer service and set them to manual start. He said that would stop the update process. He had no idea why the laptop refused to read the boot sectors.

On 8/12 windows re-started the update and BITS services, downloaded another update and wanted to reboot. I delayed the reboot again and called Microsoft, created case #1394823441, and their tech started another remote support session. After a little research he downloaded an ISO file and used it to re-install windows without destroying any of my programs or data. Windows started, did another update, rebooted and again would not reboot, freezing at the Gateway logo before reading the boot sectors. The Microsoft tech told me to shut down the power, restart, and immediately repeatedly tap F8. IT REBOOTED! He said the BIOS setting routine that Gateway used was at fault and told me to contact Gateway at 800-846-2301.

As of 8/20 the laptop has updated itself three more times and would not start windows until I hit F8 as soon as the Gateway logo appeared.

OK, back to the desktop which still wont reboot and is disconnected from the internet.

On 8/14 I called Microsaft support, created case #1395025062, and their tech started a remote support session with the desktop. He poked around for quite a while and decided that I would probably need to re-install windows. He didnt trust the desktop to download the windows iso so he started a remote support session with the laptop, downloaded the ISO and burned it to a DVD on the laptop. He then scheduled a return phone call with a level 2 tech on 8/16 at 12 to 2 pm EST.

On 8/16 a level 2 tech called me at 1 pm. She started a remote support session with the desktop, had me insert the DVD burned on 8/14, and said that it was the wrong ISO. The tech had downloaded version 1703, we needed version 1607. So she started a remote support session with the laptop, downloaded the ISO for version 1607, and burned it to a DVD on the laptop. She then had me load the version 1607 ISO DVD into the desktop and started the non-destructive re-installation of windows.

She said that the installation would take several hours and would download several updates after starting. She believed that the issues with the restore point failures had been fixed. She disconnected at about 3 pm.

The installation finished at about 4 pm. Then updates began installing and that finished at about 6 pm and the machine rebooted and I logged in normally.

I again figured that the desktop was back in business. Everything seemed to be working. I started a bunch of the programs including Word, Outlook, Excel, and the Visual Fox Pro, Visual Basic and Visual C++ compilers. The re-installation of windows had apparently preserved all of my programs. Then I again ran a slow scan of disk 0 using the western digital scan program which found no problems on the disk.

At 9 pm windows update reported that another bunch of updates had been downloaded so I permitted them to run. At 11 pm the updates froze at 88% with no disk activity.

On 8/17 I called Microsoft at 9 am, 2 pm, and 11 pm. Each tech said that a level 2 tech would call back in 2 hours. None did.

On 8/18 I called Microsoft at noon. The tech thought that I probably had driver issues and that the machine was incompatible with Windows 10. He advised me to take it to a Microsoft store 100 miles away and have it checked. I reminded him that the machine had been running Windows 10 for over a year. He hung up.

I called again at 7 pm and spoke to a manager. She told me that case #1394543359 had been closed so she re-opened it. The desktop had been frozen at 88% for 40 hours so she told me to shut down and restart. It would not boot. After the BIOS screen it displayed the Windows logo then went to a black screen with a frozen wheel. She also thinks it is a driver issue due to the old hardware.

She emailed me a list of the six services you need to stop and disable to stop Windows Update from installing automatically:
	1. Background Intelligent Transfer service
	2. Cryptographic service
	3. Windows Update service
	4. Windows Module Installer
	5. Windows Installer
	6. Volume shadow copy

She had no further ideas.

At 11 pm another manager called and scheduled a level three session for Tuesday 8/22 at 4:30 pm.

The level 3 tech, Haseeb, called on 8/22 and suggested that I restore the disk from the 4/8 image and said he would call back on 8/23. I restored it to 4/8, it updated three times as usual, I cleaned up the desktop and waited.

Haseeb called on 8/23. We set six services mentioned above to disabled. He looked for defective drivers and found none. The machine rebooted while he watched but could not load my profile. I logged off and back on and it found and loaded my profile. He said he would refer the problem to the developers.

I sent Haseeb a zip file containing the Belarc report files on 8/24. He replied on 8/25 asking if it reboots. On 8/26 I attempted to reboot, it froze on the restarting screen after 30 seconds. I shut down, restarted, the repair console started, the troubleshooter found nothing. I shut down, restarted and it booted normally! I ran the WD disk test on C: and found nothing wrong with the disk. I emailed Haseeb with the results. 

Haseeb called on 8/29. The engineers wanted event log files. He said we have to reboot so we rebooted and the machine failed to start normally or in safe mode. We got it to boot into safe mode from the Windows ISO DVD and got a command prompt, but were unable to find the event files and copy them to a USB drive.

On 8/30 I restored the image from 4/28 again, let it finish updating, found the event files in c:\windows\system32\winevt\logs, and copied them to a USB drive.

Haseeb called at 3 pm, ran msdt and uploaded numerous event files to Microsoft. He called back at 5 pm and said that a level 4 technician would call me.

On 8/31 Manta Chauban a Support Escalation Engineer called, 1-425-704-3638 X 2262141, checked for the model number and said that the desktop is not compatible with windows 10 and is no longer supported, the device drivers are out of date and new ones are not available. She said that she could re-install Windows 7 for me. She recited the company line that they must continue to modernize windows to provide the customer with the best possible experience.

Back in February 2016 I ran a microsoft compatibility check program before installing windows 10. It reported that the machine was compatible with windows 10 so I upgraded from 7 to 10. Windows 10 ran perfectly from February 2016 until April 2017. Microsoft installed updates between February and April which broke windows 10 thereby destroying the usefulness of this perfectly good machine and possibly destroying my office pro 2013 and vfp9 installations.

On 9/1 I contacted Acer support. I had been told that Acer had bought the Gateway name out of bankruptcy and were taking over support of Gateway computers. They informed me that they were not supporting older Gateway models which had been delivered with Windows 7 or 8 which included both of my machines and that they did not have updated driver programs available.

On 9/4 another Microsoft engineer called me. He wanted to make an appointment for 9/5 to run a support session and install Windows 7 on the desktop. He said that this would have to be a clean install which would destroy my compiler installations. It was not possible to re-install windows 7 and preserve the user program installations. I told him Id get back to him via email.

I capitulated and bought a new Dell i5 desktop which came with W10 installed. I havent started it up yet. The problem with the old desktop seemed to be caused by out of date drivers which are not being updated because the computer assembler Gateway went out of business. I doubt that this will happen with the new machine since Dell is not likely to prematurely stop supporting this machine wih drivers or go out of business.

I recently found that Raxco software makes a program called perfect updater which purports to be able to find updated drivers for anybodys hardware. I called them and they told me that they have a money back guarantee  if it cant update my drivers they will refund my purchase price  so I bought a copy. I will let it attempt to find new drivers for the old machine after I get my software transferred to the new one.

Stay tuned for further updates.

Paul in NY

