Windows 10 Critical Error!

Hi CB,  I had the same, Win 10 update has an auto time zone detector,  it popped up a time zone reset window - from Atlantic Time - Yes/No,   it wants to reset you to GMT,  no more error message.

Try here

Have you (OK, did you!) disabled the automatic update of device drivers?

Hi Huge,

I'be been in Twitter dialogue with Windows Support for much of the day. Finally got a phone number to call. Will try that next. I'm pretty pissed off that this has been caused by Microsoft and they haven't fixed it properly. There are all sorts of complex CMD prompt strings suggested, but none seem to guarantee a fix. Some render the user's PC completely dead! I've been give this to run in Powershell as administrator, but it's not guaranteed:

$manifest = (Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.WindowsStore).InstallLocation + '\AppxManifest.xml' ; Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register $manifest

Apparently there are over 120,000 users who have registered this problem. Oh and Edge has stopped working too. Luckily my wife has an Apple laptop which means we can still access the essentials such as bank accounts etc.

I don't understand this,  I had the error message, my PC figured it was the new Win-10 auto time zone feature, I set it to automatic in SETTINGS > TIME & LANGUAGE & the problem has gone away 

If VW produced cars that performed as well as Microsoft's Windows 10, they would have a real problem, rather than the trivial one they have at the moment.

When is somebody going to take a Class Action against this persistently pathetic company ? ie Microsoft (not VW)

Mmm... I have the pleasure of being both a Microsoft user and a VW driver.

At least I use Naim and Linn audio equipment. 

Thanks, Mike. My PC is already set to synchronize with time.windows.com. It says "This computer is set to automatically synchronize on a scheduled basis"

The split infinitive appears to be another free feature of Windows!

Well, after 2 hours and 10 minutes on the phone to Microsoft Support (in India, I assume) our PC is now performing a routine to revert to Windows 7. This is rather irritating as I was just getting used to the neat features of Windows 10. Funnily enough, Microsoft had run a check to confirm that the machine was in fact compatible with Windows 10 before it downloaded. Now it seems it is no longer compatible with the latest update.

Whilst the MS technician had control of the machine I saw a window which said that because it was built before 2013, the manufacturer couldn't confirm that it was compatible with Windows 10.

If it doesn't reinstall and work in Windows 7, I'll be getting an Apple!

Clive, do/did you have any other 'user accounts' on your PC?

If so, are the Start menus working alright there? Any 'critical error' being reported?

Bizarrely enough, after your post and uploading the new 'update' this weekend, my Start Menu etc. stopped working completely. But only on my account, it was fine on the others in family. I've done all the suggested 'fixes' on the net but none worked and have ended up creating another account and then migrating all my files/docs etc over to the new one. That was the only suggestion the (helpful but probably pretty stressed out and hacked off) MS employee on chat could suggest...

That's really interesting, Jamie. It was suggested to me today by Windows Support on Twitter that I might try creating another administrator user account. We don't have separate user accounts here, since it is only my wife and I that use the machine, so we just have one admin account. However, at that time I was away from home and the PC was doing a 'Restore' to Windows 7. I am now writing this on Windows 7 (oh joy - what a wonderful operating system it is too!).

At one point yesterday I even entered this monstrous command line in Powershell:

$manifest = (Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.WindowsStore).InstallLocation + '\AppxManifest.xml' ; Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register $manifest

The machine then went off into a multi-coloured routine and I thought I'd cracked it, but alas no joy. That's when the MS technician suggested I revert to Windows 7.

I had left the machine on all last night when it said simply 'Restarting'. This morning I forced a power off and rebooted it whereupon it came into the 'Restoring' mode. And now all is well in the world of Windows 7 (and...relax).

This evening I'm only going to play real vinyl LPs -  I don't want to have anything more to do with computers!

One final thing, when I logged on this evening Control Panel opened automatically, offering me the chance to upgrade to Windows 10 for free! I wouldn't upgrade to Windows 10 now even if they paid me!

Further update on the Windows Update fiasco

The option under <Advanced system settings> <Device Installation Settings...> 'Never install driver software from Windows Update'  DOES NOT WORK.

What's more Windows can also re-enable device drivers that have previously been manually disabled.

This is utter crap, and because Microsoft are damaging the functionality of peoples computers, this quite possibly contravenes the misuse of computers act.

Windows Update has become a virus.

Huge I hear ya,  but none of this has happened to my PC & I load each & every update automatically,  or more likely I will check to see if there are new updates & load them manually.

Mike if Windows 10 correctly identifies your system devices, then you'll most probably not have a problem.

In my case windows 10 incorrectly identifies the audio hardware and force loads an incompatible driver over the top of the correct one; there is no way to prevent this incorrect action.  This is an unacceptable practice.  Microsoft are just plain wrong.  They are routinely damaging my system.

Fortunately it's the audio not the video driver that is incorrect

Even with the video driver an update to that was force loaded a few days ago.  The abuse here is that I use a Certified FirePro V driver and it loaded a non-certified early release driver over the top of a stable certified driver.  The pro device drivers should NEVER be automatically loaded as Widows Update doesn't take into account what software I use and therefore cannot check the certification of that driver for that software.

This is routinely damaging the stability of my system - I take measures to ensure a stable platform, even using Pro Workstation Graphics and ECC RAM (it used to stay up consistently for months, only needing a reboot when force by Windows Update).  Now it needs to be rebooted every week or so due to repeated damage to the configuration cause by Windows Update.

Yep, I have a driver and a piece of software on my PC that a paticular Windows update changes, for the driver, and totally stops working for the software.  On WIndows 8 I disabled that update but to my joy I find I can't on Windows 10 and it is forced on me.  Total pain

Is there any such reports publicly posted on the MS www or the various help forums.

If its as bad as you indicate I would expect the 'net to be full of unhappy users.

As it happens only this week I went thru all my devices (in device mngr) to check & if available updated to the latest software - only the Intel devices had updates.

Mike, it's worse than I thought.

On doing further checks on the ATI website, the driver that Windows Update has installed on my PC hasn't been released by ATI for use with my FirePro card.

Windows 10 has force installed an unapproved (and possibly even unreleased) driver.

My sound & video drivers are both ATI Radeon & they don't seem to be detrimentally affected & have been updated - not by me - on 29/10/2015

I also note ITA have an AMD (Driver Autodetect) tool.  It can only be used on Microsoft Windows operating systems.  Might be worth looking into as it might be a way to turn this off.

Mike, there are complaints...

http://winsupersite.com/window...r-updates-windows-10

http://www.forbes.com/sites/go...tic-update-problems/

Mike, from the AMD Website...

"Our Autodetect tool can only be used on systems running the Microsoft® Windows operating system and/or AMD Radeon™ graphics. It does not work on Linux® systems, Apple Boot Camp systems or AMD FirePro™ graphics products."

I use a FireProGL V card, so no use to me.

One of the advantages of the FirePro cards is that ATI only release the drivers when they are 'known stable'.  Microsoft are now releasing ATI's drivers BEFORE ATI have finished testing them and declared them 'known stable'.  This defeats part the objective of using a proper workstation card in place of a games oriented (i.e. performance optimised over stability) card.

Microsoft are now overriding the marketing strategy for other organisation's products without their consent and to the detriment of users.

So now Windows 10 has forced revision 1511 on me, and despite having set it not to install device drivers, guess what; it replaced a load of drivers.  

It installed incorrect drivers for my keyboard, mouse and audio subsystem, and removed my printer driver without installing a replacement.  
Another great 'improvement' over Windows 7 (which worked because it didn't always assume it knew better than the person who specified and built the PC).

Have to say love Windows 10 and the only issues I have had is freezing of certain icons i.e. click them and programme not loading but usually resolved by shutting computer down and reloading.

What do you call a piece of code that:

Replicates itself around the internet by peer to peer sharing
Automatically runs on your computer outside of your control
Caries a payload that can damage your computer

A virus or Windows 10 Update?

I have heard also some negative feedback of my colleagues on the Windows 10 update - with total crashes etc. So I will stay away from it for now.