Win 10 (1903)........Classic "Catch 22" ?

bertie40

Well-Known Member
Reaction score
426
Location
Leeds, UK
Don't laugh.

No don't :mad:

:)

Got a laptop on the bench, for a 1903 upgrade.

Nothing plugged into it, aside from the usb stick containing 1903.

Upgrade fails.

1903 doesn't like a hardware component.
Doesn't say what though.

I suddenly twigged.
Go on,...... guess what hardware 1903 doesn't like.

Clue : ITS THE USB STICK !!!

Q. How many machines have i used this usb stick on, and how many have "failed", and I've blamed the machine.

(Admittedly a number have passed using it,..... so its not an absolute).
regards.
 
I rarely ever manually upgrade. I usually upgrade through Windows update. If Windows update doesn't offer the feature upgrade even when checking manually then I just leave it where it's at. If it's on a recent version. If it's really old like I had a 1511, I just wipe and fresh load. All mine are done over network.

If I was going to do it manually I would just copy the ISO over to the computer and mount it and upgrade from there.
 
I use the upgrade assistant instead of the USB stick. I can download it quickly, it can be safely used remotely, and it doesn't involve a USB stick to trigger that bug.

I also use GPOs to control how Windows update works, so these feature updates don't show on machines for awhile. 1809 didn't see my gear until YESTERDAY! And my entire fleet has gone from 1803 to 1809 almost without exception in the last 48 hours.

The only two "problems" were machines I accidentally put to sleep instead of rebooting them.

1903 will roll out to my equipment in September.
 
Perhaps I'm spoiled by stupidly quick internet, but I haven't noticed any benefit of using the ISO via USB relative to just running the upgrade assistant.
 
Probably because USB flash drives are slow. That's why I mentioned above that I copy the contents onto the local hard drive first and run setup from the local drive. To make that copy stage faster I copy off an external hard drive instead of flash drive.

Another reason I do that is to reduce the impact on internet speeds (sometimes I'm doing several at once) and download allowance.
 
I recognise the long standing advisories about 1903 disliking usb devices.

I just found it amusing the update not liking the media it was stored on.

Again the reason I used it was because of poor broadband, or time constraints.

But I've copied to files to a Nas drive before, and installed across networked drives from there. Similarly copied them onto a machine desktop.

Installed without problem.

Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk
 
Probably because USB flash drives are slow. That's why I mentioned above that I copy the contents onto the local hard drive first and run setup from the local drive. To make that copy stage faster I copy off an external hard drive instead of flash drive.

Another reason I do that is to reduce the impact on internet speeds (sometimes I'm doing several at once) and download allowance.

I installed WIn10 Pro two years ago from a retail Win10 USB installer to a 960 EVO in slightly less than 5 minutes to first desktop login...

The USB installer is not all that slow for me...(unless installing to a slow spinning drive, of course)
 
Perhaps I'm spoiled by stupidly quick internet, but I haven't noticed any benefit of using the ISO via USB relative to just running the upgrade assistant.

This. Every business (especially a computer repair business!) should have lightning fast internet. I mean, if you live in the sticks and there aren't any options I suppose I could see that, but it's hard to run a computer repair business from the sticks. 99% of computer repair businesses should have fast enough internet to be able to download a new build of Windows 10 in a matter of minutes.
 
Unfortunately you can't take your stupidly quick Internet out on site with you, and if your client has 2Mbps ADSL and no cellular signal then that's when an up-to-date ISO is worth its weight in gold.

Those machines I update in my office, because while that means two trips, it also means I get a change to clean the machine because out in my next of the woods... rural areas are DIRTY and the equipment needs care or huge updates will just destroy it. But I suspect you don't have nearly the issues with dust that I do! :D

But there's nothing stopping you from copying the 1903 install files to the C drive, and running them from there. But even still on connections that slow the monthly updates are an issue all by themselves. I'm not sure how you're supposed to support that short of trucking the machines to a functional internet connection every so often.
 
Last edited:
Unfortunately you can't take your stupidly quick Internet out on site with you, and if your client has 2Mbps ADSL and no cellular signal then that's when an up-to-date ISO is worth its weight in gold.

LOL!!! One of the first Macmini servers I setup was a lawyer with a DSL connection, 1mMbps tops. That was back when the only option to update was direct online. Started it on a Thursday evening and it finished on Sunday. I told him all those hours were billable, kidding of course.
 
@Computer Bloke

It's dangerous to go alone... take this:

Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU]
"AUOptions"=dword:00000004
"ScheduledInstallDay"=dword:00000000
"ScheduledInstallTime"=dword:00000001

Save that in a .reg file, it'll configure the group policy on the station in question to automatically update at 1am. Feel free to change the time as needed. The install day of 0 means every day, 1 is Sunday, 7 is Saturday.

Once set these registry values will override the settings in the Windows Update applet, and I find they do a far better job of keeping machines updated. If the Internet is there at all, these should help.

Oh, and one more thing. This works on Server 2016/2019 as well, so if you want automatic updates to work like they did with Server 2012 and prior... this .reg is how you do it.
 
Back
Top