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Windows10PLAEN

Update 12/24/15 9:06am: An investigation past Ed Bott casts doubt on KB3xxxx being the problem, and points instead to an Role update that affected Function 2010, 2013, and 2016; the Windows 10 update still affects Edge, Outlook, and File Explorer. We stand by what we said about the model Microsoft is using. The original article continues beneath.

Microsoft's latest Windows 10 cumulative update, KB 3124200, dropped final week, but clearly needed more time to bake. While initial reports suggested that the update would ready some issues with WiFi connections dropping out, the latest cumulative update is causing some meaning issues.

Reports indicate that in at least some cases, KB 3124200 nukes all Microsoft Word customizations, including custom templates, AutoText, macros, envelope addresses, autocorrect, and AutoFormat settings. It too reverts whatsoever custom spell check options you lot may have stored. The problem is serious enough that Microsoft has published its own KB on fixing the issue, KB 3129969.

FixProblem1

The problem occurs because the latest update accidentally renames the old file where such information was stored (Normal.dotm) to ane of several alternatives: "Normal.dotm.one-time, NormalPre, NormalPre15, NormalOld, or OldNormal." That's a direct quote from Microsoft's article on resolving the problem, which raises a significant question: Why doesn't Microsoft, which wrote the patch that broke its own software, know what the backup file proper noun is really called? It would be one affair if the files had version numbers that corresponded to the user's Office version, like "Normal13.dotm.old", "Normal10.dotm.onetime", etc. Instead, we get give-and-take salad.

The problems aren't limited to wholesale replacement of Give-and-take customizations. WindowsReport.com has compiled a list of problems users accept encountered with the latest version of Windows ten, including the Edge browser refusing to shut, Explorer, Outlook 2016, and Estimator all refusing to start, and the Windows Shop, Agenda, and Maps applications all refusing to run.

The new update policy isn't working

When Satya Nadella took over at Microsoft, one of his changes was to radically overhaul how Microsoft handled QA (Quality Assurance). Previously, Microsoft had roughly twice as many QA testers as developers working in the Operating Systems Group. Later on the layoffs, that ratio is reportedly 1:1. Developers are now expected to do much of the code testing that was previously outsourced to other groups, even if they don't have much experience in testing lawmaking.

Combine that shift with the new, mandatory update policies and you get the current state of affairs. Because Windows 10 now forces updates past default, the organization will continue to download and attempt to apply KB 3124200, even if the update is repeatedly hanging on install or having other problems. Considering all updates are now rolled into a single parcel, there'southward no way for a user who wants the WiFi set KB 3124200 includes just doesn't want to chance their Discussion customizations to install one and not the other.

For all their decades of close cooperation, Microsoft seems to accept missed a lesson Intel learned 10 years ago. The entire reason Intel uses a tick-tock model in which it shifts to a new node, so deploys a new compages, is because information technology's extremely difficult to implement a new node and a new compages at the same fourth dimension. With Windows 10, Microsoft radically shifted both its software implementation model and its update policies simultaneously.

The nature of these bug is that they affect a minority of people. I have no doubt that the bulk of Windows 10 users have had nothing but smoothen sailing. While I use Windows 7 for my personal machine, I've deployed Windows x on multiple testbeds and had no problems with it to-date. But if y'all're stuck in the minority that'south having a problem, these changes and the opacity with which they're fabricated is infuriating. Information technology'due south become far more difficult to diagnose the cause of these issues and even harder to forestall the software from reinstalling itself (or simply not installing in the commencement place).

Microsoft needs to either drastically overhaul its QA, render boosted flexibility and customization options to average users, or both. The just-trust-the states model isn't working. And I'd accept a peachy bargain more than faith in Microsoft's willingness to fix these issues if the company wasn't relentlessly pushing holdouts to prefer W10 as opposed to fixing the issues with its distribution and testing model.

Information technology doesn't have to be this way.