Resolve Win10 upgrade errors

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@joep bumped into an interesting document that you should stick in your bag of tricks. Officially, it’s a Windows IT Pro Center blog entry. Unofficial
[See the full post at: Resolve Win10 upgrade errors]

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SteveTree, Steve S., Elly

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Given M$’s track record over the life of Win 10, how do we know this won’t make matters worse?

After all, as you say, it’s “From Microsoft, so it has to be right, right”?

Byte me!

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Microsoft has provided this sort of information for previous versions of Windows, too.  What they have now is better than it’s ever been…. In the past, Microsoft skimped on information about error conditions and recovery in favour of telling you about the happy paths.  Frustrating when you’re hip-deep in problems.

Even the 1,100-page Windows 2000 Deployment Guide (which is heavy enough to cause back injury if you attempted to throw it at your monitor in frustration) had pretty much no coverage of errors that’d happen when deploying 2K Server or Active Directory.

Difference back then was, nobody on the Internet could help you either.

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Why not look at the whole article before dumping all over it?

It contains a lot of useful information about general troubleshooting, what error codes mean, how to resolve certain error codes, & what is going on in the various steps of an upgrade.

Believe it or not, it is not in Microsoft’s best interest to have upgrades fail.

--Joe

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warrenrumak, Barry, Elly, CADesertRat, rc primak

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The article has links for even more content, and as you follow more links at the site, you are digging deeper. The base article is useful and helpful. Microsoft is really trying to make our path toward upgrading and updating successfully as easy as possible. This is real progress.

But if you can’t handle more technical aspects of Windows troubleshooting, it’s time to bring your device in to a store to get more assistance. If you live near a physical Microsoft Store, you can get help with upgrade issues for free. I’ve taken advantage of this free service a couple of times over the years.

I’ve also done self-help and self-rescue a few times. It isn’t always easy, but I usually can get myself back to a usable Windows setup. If not, an Image Backup is very handy to have, as well as data backups.

It’s nice to have the main troubleshooting tips all in one place.

FWIW, I did my own 1809 upgrade from 1803, and there were some security related changes. This threw off a few programs with configuration files in directories different from where the program files were. After fixing these issues all seems well. I replaced Avira Free with full-on Windows Defender, including Protected Folders (anti-ransomware). Except for WDO not running on my PC (a preexisting quirk) my security setup and protocols required only minimal adjustments. No data losses, and no outright program failures so far.

BTW, when Microsoft says to update Windows before an upgrade, this also means update as much third party software as you can before the upgrade. Then make your System Image before upgrading. This also means check your drivers, and update any which may need updates. (I use the Intel Drivers and Support Tool because my NUC is almost pure-Intel.) I also run a driver check and update after any Feature Update, and I did so this time. No changes post-upgrade this time, which is a big relief. File Type Associations were also preserved.

I did run O&O ShutUp 10 post-upgrade to restore privacy controls. This was where I discovered that the .exe has to be in the same directory as the .ini and.config. files for that program. This was not an issue in version 1803 for that program. So something may have changed with regard to folder access and security, probably for the better. The anti-ransomware feature of WD is a likely suspect. Again, more good than bad.

The new Disk Cleanup options are present in my upgrade, but not moved (yet) to Storage Sense. I had to pick and choose what to clean up, due to wanting to preserve the ability to roll back if things were messed up too much. So far, so good (fingers and toes crossed).

The Snipping Tool has a Store App available to me now, but the old Snipping Tool is also available. I am indifferent about which version to choose, as they are equally easy to use. But the new tool has more options, and it gets in the way of seeing the underlying window more than the old interface. A little (literal) transparency there would go a long way.

-- rc primak

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warrenrumak, Elly

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If possible this kind of information should be saved to a tablet or phone.

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I have been fighting an Insider Fast Ring upgrade through several Builds. I am currently on v1903 Build 18343.1.  This Insider Preview has survived every update/upgrade since v1607 Build 15042 on 3/6/2017.

Well, it has now crashed and reverted attempting to install builds 18346, 18348, 18351, 18353 and today 18356. These two threads #337639 and #340660 detail many of the things suggested on the MS troubleshooting pages. No joy!

I’ve got to figure MS has changed something (probably added their drivers) that has made this old Insider Preview crash.

Awaiting the next Build.

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The step by step instructions under ‘Quick Fixes’ sure would have been helpful for me to have when W10 was causing havoc on various family and friends computers.

Also, the breakdown of the error codes (showing there is a system to what they are reporting) was very interesting to read… and I’ll probably refer back to it in the future.

The Level 1 (basic) topics and steps are something that this non-techy can still understand and follow instructions on. There are four levels, from basic to advanced… its nice to have them clearly labeled. The things to try under quick fixes, are essentially the same things people here have recommended to try for problem solving.

Interestingly, in doing a quick read through, I’m not seeing the method that Susan Bradley detailed here at AskWoody, in how to update a system with minimum recommended disk space (although she admits this is an advanced technique, at least it worked)… Microsoft just goes through ways to clean up and eliminate unneeded files before updating, in order to get adequate disk space. I tend to focus on disk space, because I’m fairly sure that was often the stumbling block with W10 in the computers that family and friends had problems with.

Definitely bookmarked this for future reference… W10 has definitely challenged this non-techie’s problem solving skills, and being able to find step by step written ways to diagnose and fix is helpful.

One other thing that definitely interests me, is that Microsoft is relating what most often causes certain problems, throughout the documentation I’ve skimmed through. That little hint can save a lot of time when trying to fix something in particular. Have to be grateful that Microsoft has been able to engage my attention by needing to fix so many problems… throwing me into the deep end, and having to learn much more than I ever thought possible!

Non-techy Win 10 Pro and Linux Mint experimenter

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There is only so much I am prepared to do to keep Win 10 updated. With my 30 day delay for fixes and 365 day delay for new versions, should I get stung by an update that breaks my system – all I am prepared to do is reinstall the C: drive from the image I created before installing the update and carry on. This time blocking/hiding  all updates until I feel the need to try again at some future date when the consensus suggests that all will be golden – this time around.

There was at time when I tried to understand everything windows related but those days are long gone. As I approach the end of my days, I have better things to do than deep diving into IT tutorials on how to fix the stuff the Microsoft breaks.

It is up to Microsoft to provide updates that work. If they can’t do that for everyone then they need to state publicly that they are cutting loose older processors and critical hardware combinations. Consumers can then choose the best solution for themselves. As long as one can reasonably expect the hardware they own to be compatible, the onus is on MS to “fix their own stuff” not the other way around.

Just as there is an XP or two still in use out there, I suspect I could survive the rest of my days on Win 10 v1803 just fine. Besides there hasn’t been any new features in Win 10 that are of any significant interest to me since original Win 10 release.

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I think there was another article about the preparing for Win10 upgrade, which may be more fitting to respond to, but this one is close enough.

I noticed on my Win7 machine that C:\Windows\System32\CompatTelRunner.exe was scanning my Program Files (x86) folder. I thought it would only check the windows folder, but it was accessing non-Microsoft files.

Pretty disturbing telemetry.

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