Windows 8 Customers Fuming Over Spotty Updates

Softpedia is pointing to a rather lengthy Microsoft Answers thread where Windows 8 customers are raging over the latest Patch Tuesday update that was supposed to fix several issues with the new OS. However it's not the first complaint outbreak regarding Windows 8 updates, and probably won't be the last until the platform becomes more compatible with the seemingly infinite number of hardware configurations and Windows 7-reliant drivers.

First let's back up a bit. Many customers got their first taste of the update woes, including myself, thanks to KB2756872 released in the last week of October. After rebooting, this caused the system to stop responding around 13-percent into the update. After more than thirty minutes, the OS would cancel the update, reboot and then try again. After the second failure, Windows 8 would revert back into its original state before it originally began the update process.

Microsoft said this patch problem may be due to possible outdated or not-fully-compatible video and sound drivers, particularly the latter. Users are to uninstall the drivers, install the Windows 8 patch, and then re-install the drivers. Another culprit could be the user's anti-virus solution which may need to be updated before the security patch can be applied.

Now another update show-stopper has appeared, this time with the KB2770917 patch. This one stalls the computer at 12-percent while updating (some reports claim 15-percent). Like before, the attempt will take around 30 minutes, and then the process is repeated a second time. If this attempt fails again, Windows 8 will revert back to its original state before it began the update.

To resolve this issue, customers have discovered that all non-Microsoft services need to be disabled before installing this particular update. To do this, users must load up msconfig.exe, go to the Services tab, hide all the Microsoft services, and then click Disable All. Once the computer is started, some users have reported that the patch can be installed. All services can be restored manually once the patching is complete.

Having received two show-stoppers in a row, many Windows 8 users are now threatening to go Apple.

"I do blame Microsoft because unlike Apple who don't claim to support ever piece of hardware out there Microsoft do actually claim this otherwise they would have gone down the same route as Apple and only built their own hardware," said one user. "So it Microsoft's fault for not having a test pool large enough to stop most people from running into problems like this. It would appear that windows 8 is suffering like Vista did."

"Maybe I should just uninstall Windows 8 and go get a Mac," said another.

Microsoft has seemingly been cast in a negative light since the first complaints about Windows 8 navigation cropped up earlier this year. The lack of a Start menu and the addition of a new user interface have pushed many consumers and businesses away. Even more, Microsoft's own ARM-based Surface tablet hasn't lived up to expectations, and the firing of Windows head Steven Sinofsky seemingly indicated that sales of the new OS fell well below internal projections.

Does Microsoft have another Windows Vista on its hands? It's simply too early to tell at this point.

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