Microsoft: Windows needs at least 8 hours online to update reliably

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-windows-needs-at-least-8-hours-online-to-update-reliably/

by kungfudoi • 4 years ago

42 17 4 years ago

Jaysus

t00• 4 years ago

Compare that to Arch Linux on 100MBit connection To update reliably, it requires between 10 seconds daily, 1 minute weekly to about 5 minutes monthly internet access.

perihelions• 4 years ago

Try Debian Stable -- we only need milliseconds!

(Current machine saw exactly one, 45 kB patch in the past week).

Avamander• 4 years ago

That reminds me how Ubuntu's release upgrader says that an update will take x days on a 56kbps modem (or was it 1Mbps connection, something very slow) as a "relatable" estimation on how long the update will take.

bscphil• 4 years ago

It's worse than that, because updating a Linux system is updating ~every application on your computer, not just the operating system. If you were just updating the core system, it would likely be even faster than that!

seanw444• 4 years ago

On Arch, installing new kernel releases takes like maybe a minute including download time and reloading the kernel modules. At least on my 1 Gbps internet. And I'm not locked out of my own system while it does so. It baffles me how Windows could possibly be so slow.

moistly• 4 years ago

So… enough time online to get pwned? Grrrreat, just great.

kirenida• 4 years ago

How come this is still an issue today? What makes Windows update so slow/complicated that it takes so long?

autoexec• 4 years ago

All the personal data collection and ad pushing? It sure doesn't take that long to download a patch.

ratg13• 4 years ago

The headline and article are written poorly, but it's clear that this is intentional behavior.

It's a timer meant to wait for the computer to have stable power before installing updates.

It doesn't take 8 hours to install updates, it just makes sure your computer has been online for 8 hours

sdflhasjd• 4 years ago

Seems like a bit of a meaningless number without a connectivity speed, surely?

Someone• 4 years ago

FTA: “Microsoft says that Windows devices need to be online for at least eight hours to get the latest updates and have them correctly installed after they're released through Windows Update.”

I think you can also read that as “after we release an update, it can take 8 hours for it to get to all machines needing it”

I guess the X million Windows installs poll Microsoft servers for updates at (somewhat) fixed times that, to even out load on their update servers, vary by machine during the day.

Possibly still less than ideal (couldn’t a machine that sees it has been offline for X hours poll the moment it’s connected to a network?), but not _that_ weird.

crumbits• 4 years ago

This has to be a prank article.

rsynnott2• 4 years ago

The wording is fascinating; it reads like this is a natural law that Microsoft has discovered through experimentation, rather than, like, a major bug that they should fix ASAP.

fuzzfactor• 4 years ago

Exactly what I found so bizarre.

Approximately 50% of devices not on a serviced build of Windows 10 do not meet the minimum Update Connectivity measurement.
Approximately 25% of Windows 10 devices on a serviced build but have security updates that are more than 60 days out of date have less than the minimum Update Connectivity.

Are these numbers not huge?

Obviously somebody should have made certain since the beginning that previous connectivity status should not come close to becoming a show-stopper if updates are to be considered important.

"When troubleshooting update issues, we have found it is best to select devices that have sufficient Update Connectivity," Guyer added.

Wait a minute aren't the other users the ones that need the troubleshooting more than anyone else?

And Microsoft is nowhere near being able to help users having the easier-to-solve problem yet either?

"If a device has insufficient Update Connectivity, then investigating other update issues is complicated because the low Update Connectivity can create new issues that go away once there's enough connectivity."

It's not too late to fix this with proper engineering, these issues which are not supposed to be there are exactly what need to go away regardless of total connection hours.

rsynnott2• 4 years ago

The sense I get from the way they’re describing it is that they don’t understand how the update system works at all, and are treating it as a black box… It’s a really odd way to talk about one’s own system.

peakaboo• 4 years ago

Linux daily updates takes about 15 seconds (if you are on Arch) and can be done whenever you want.

Maybe that should be called a feature now in 2022, when comparing to Windows getting worse and worse.

Microsoft: Windows needs at least 8 hours online to update reliably

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