5 ms·

I just want to rant a bit about Microsoft right now. A few weeks ago, Microsoft decided to auto-update my mom's computer to Windows 11, and delightfully the co

I just want to rant a bit about Microsoft right now. A few weeks ago, Microsoft decided to auto-update my mom's computer to Windows 11, and delightfully the computer no longer booted. Even after a litany of different boot keystrokes and automatic repairs and attempted recoveries, it would not boot. I think it has something to do with the utter incompetence of the Windows automatic update process not correctly updating keys to satisfy UEFI but I am not sure. Of course my parents being my parents, there were tons of precious documents that were not backed up anywhere else, so we needed to get them off before doing anything nuclear. After awhile, I was able to talk my dad through flashing an Ubuntu image and I was able to get a live USB going (because as far as I am aware there isn't a legitimate way to do a live USB with Windows), and from there he read me a tmate URL and I was able to mount the drive and rsync all the data to my server. With many, many failed attempts at trying to convince them to install Linux Mint, I eventually walked them through flashing a USB drive with Windows 11, and we were able to nuke the drive and install Windows 11, which seems to be working, so I guess all's well that ends well, but not really. Key point here, before anyone says anything, the laptop is a bit old but it seems to be able to run Windows 11 just fine, it's just the automatic update that broke it. You might be saying "live and let live, if they're happy with Windows then stop trying to force them to use Linux", and to that I would say "it's not just about them". When something breaks on their computer, it's expected that I am the one who fixes it. Microsoft, a for-profit trillion-dollar corporation, is so utterly bad at their main job that they actively broke my mother's computer with an automatic update that she couldn't easily opt out of for an operating system she didn't want, and if she didn't have a son who was a software engineer she would have been forced to buy a new computer. For all I know, another Windows 11 auto update will come in two weeks and break the computer, and I will be stuck going through this nonsense yet again, because I love my parents and I want to help them out. If anyone from Microsoft is reading this, especially if you work on the automatic update or the Windows 11 team, I'm afraid that I have to say that I actively dislike you. You've cost me many days of effort because ultimately I think you are extremely bad at your jobs and you should consider doing literally anything else.

9x39 1y ago
Been there - I help a lot of older folks with their business computers. The desire to make Windows an appliance falls flat when older PCs get on that auto-update treadmill. For example, Windows now comes OEM with Bitlocker drive encryption enabled. Good in theory - when you toss/donate/sell your old PC, normies don't think about their personal lives and banking details being available, so that's good. However, they almost never get backups working right, and this cripples anyone from rescuing them from a drive failure in a critical PC that has their entire business books on it. This is not uncommon. I think it's the unfortunate result of different PMs for different features strong-arming things on, but at different paces and maturity levels, and the result is Windows isn't safe to trust for the non-technical user. My checklist these days when I end up assuming responsibility for someone: Drive encryption off, Passwords into a manager, Backups set, Updates disabled, Remote access installed.
- tombert 1y ago
  The fact that it's 2025 and there's no legitimate way to run a live USB with Windows baffles me. In the case of my mom's computer rescue, as far as I can tell, literally the only legal way to recover my mom's Windows NTFS drive contents was to use Linux. I had to use Linux to fix Microsoft's incompetence. I am quite confident that my mom would mostly be fine with Linux Mint on this computer; 99% of what she does on the computer is use Chrome, which works fine on Linux. Hell, Edge works fine on Linux now if you want to stay in the Microsoft ecosystem. The only blocker now is that I am positive that she will not use a computer unless it can run Microsoft Office directly on the computer, and I have not been successful getting Office 2016 or Office 365 running on Linux with Wine or Proton in my attempts. Maybe for Christmas I will buy my mom a Macbook or something. Then she'll be forced to move to something better.
  - 9x39 1y ago
    Yeah, Proton and Wine seem perfect for gaming, but I have never seen someone get Office right. That might be an audience difference or perhaps MS deliberately frustrates that attempt. You could try 11 IOT LTSC[1] which is super-stripped down like an appliance. Set a few GPOs, get her files synced, set remote access. You could even do something like DeepFreeze if she's prone to clicking on the wrong thing. Restricting her to running Chrome and Office with Applocker is a possibility for her safety - I have literally interrupted scammers "from Microsoft" on the phone with the elderly and naive. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-windows-11-iot-enterprise-ltsc https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-windows-...

9x39 1y ago

Been there - I help a lot of older folks with their business computers. The desire to make Windows an appliance falls flat when older PCs get on that auto-update treadmill. For example, Windows now comes OEM with Bitlocker drive encryption enabled. Good in theory - when you toss/donate/sell your old PC, normies don't think about their personal lives and banking details being available, so that's good. However, they almost never get backups working right, and this cripples anyone from rescuing them from a drive failure in a critical PC that has their entire business books on it. This is not uncommon. I think it's the unfortunate result of different PMs for different features strong-arming things on, but at different paces and maturity levels, and the result is Windows isn't safe to trust for the non-technical user. My checklist these days when I end up assuming responsibility for someone: Drive encryption off, Passwords into a manager, Backups set, Updates disabled, Remote access installed.

tombert 1y ago
The fact that it's 2025 and there's no legitimate way to run a live USB with Windows baffles me. In the case of my mom's computer rescue, as far as I can tell, literally the only legal way to recover my mom's Windows NTFS drive contents was to use Linux. I had to use Linux to fix Microsoft's incompetence. I am quite confident that my mom would mostly be fine with Linux Mint on this computer; 99% of what she does on the computer is use Chrome, which works fine on Linux. Hell, Edge works fine on Linux now if you want to stay in the Microsoft ecosystem. The only blocker now is that I am positive that she will not use a computer unless it can run Microsoft Office directly on the computer, and I have not been successful getting Office 2016 or Office 365 running on Linux with Wine or Proton in my attempts. Maybe for Christmas I will buy my mom a Macbook or something. Then she'll be forced to move to something better.
- 9x39 1y ago
  Yeah, Proton and Wine seem perfect for gaming, but I have never seen someone get Office right. That might be an audience difference or perhaps MS deliberately frustrates that attempt. You could try 11 IOT LTSC[1] which is super-stripped down like an appliance. Set a few GPOs, get her files synced, set remote access. You could even do something like DeepFreeze if she's prone to clicking on the wrong thing. Restricting her to running Chrome and Office with Applocker is a possibility for her safety - I have literally interrupted scammers "from Microsoft" on the phone with the elderly and naive. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-windows-11-iot-enterprise-ltsc https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-windows-...