A reasonable position to take, JBR, and I think MS is swinging towards “optional updates” more & more.
They need to describe the options better, and suggest possible improvements, so that users can make the choice, IMO!
Thanks for the info Mart, you have certainly made me think differently about updates.
Since I purchased this laptop with Windows 10 I’ve had very little trouble with it. I love the way it boots up quickly, and I’ve been able to view footage from my dash cam, something that I was unable to do with my old netbook running windows 7, although the netbook itself was probably more to blame that Windows 7.
I wasn’t looking forward to downloading the recent update which talked about re installing an updated and newer version of Windows 10. I had visions of files and programmes disappearing and never been seen again…It took over thirty minutes to perform and I expected a totally new look, and having to waste time bringing it back to my personal preferences.
Surprisingly, nothing has changed except now I don’t get pestered by ‘One Drive’ which started to interfere every time I transferred photos from my camera. I’ve always preferred using the cameras own software and viewing and editing in microsoft office picture manager. Call me old fashioned…
So if microsoft want to bung a few updates my way occasionally so be it…
Mart, when I opened the post entitled “Can I refuse to Update My Windows PC/Laptop?” the purpose was to discuss the practical aspects of doing that when using Windows and outline the consequences & legalities of so doing.
Getting 3 pages of Linux update stuff was not on my agenda, as an answer to the question posed.
Perhaps it should have been.
But I don’t see how.
But I apologise for the tone of my response!
Gimp is OK but not as good as Photoshop. I had a free version of professional standard photoshop but it stopped working after an update. There’s no way I’m going to buy it.
Linux had already entered the conversation as an alternative OS and the thread is about updates. It’s always going to be a possibility that one platform will be compared to another when this topic arises.
Oh well, at least that pile of horse crap has made people aware that Linux receives updates even more frequently than Windows does and shows what updates might consist of.
Made it a challenge to read on my mobile phone…!
Oh, mine is Photoshop Elements and is far cheaper than the full version, though it does everything I want and need.
In fact, I probably wouldn’t understand most of Photoshop (full version)!
Unless I’m mistaken, Linux updates are not compulsory and that’s important to me.
I don’t like being dictated to! 
I think the thing that sticks in most people’s teeth, is the fact that things that were once bought, were owned outright by the purchaser. You bought a vinyl record or a cassette tape, or a CD and it was your piece of music for life.
Now, why buy it when you can listen to any music on youtube or spotify, but you never own it.
It’s the same with operating systems, you owned Windows 98 or Vista or Windows 7 etc, and you had the power to do with it as you wish.
But now, you never own windows 10, it always remains the property of microsoft.
Actually, I’m not sure, but I suspect that the earlier versions were also the same.
It was easy not to accept the downloads JB, I don’t think I ever had one update in the five years I used Vista, or the five years I used Windows 7. When I first used windows 10 last year I was so surprised to learn that my use of ‘Office 360’ was subscription only…:shock:
I’m still using excel on my desktop pc running Vista. The computer is incapable of connecting to the internet and it makes a good safe haven for my important stuff…
I was just about to play the pedant, but I got out my Ancient Frank Sinatra Disks & there are no warnings, about copying or selling on, written on them.
I think I agree with your old versions but, how would they get at you if there are no warnings?
:shock:
Control of Windows Updates (and by that I mean does the user have control or Microsoft) is an ongoing battle fought through many rounds over many years
Some years ago, disabling the updates was simply a matter of stopping a service
Microsoft retaliated and added a schedule to re-enable the service.
So now the fix was to disable the service and the schedule.
…and so the cat and mouse chase starts.
The last time I looked at this the latest mouse was to remove certain permissions from the folder that Microsoft use to download the updates to, rendering that unusable to the update system and hence halting the updates
Yes, sensible.
I keep all my stuff backed up on two external hard drives, so I feel quite happy that my stuff is safe.
Not being expert enough to do such things, the best I have come up with is to adjust my settings to show that I am on a ‘metered connection’ (which I’m not!) and that my hours of work are from 0800 to 0200. They can download updates, then, between 0200 and 0800, but as my computer is never turned on during those hours they cannot do so.
It has worked so far, and the best Microsoft can do is to keep sending me ‘reminders’ at increasing levels of frequency. The most recent ones appeared every hour until I eventually got fed up of declining them and accepted an upgrade (2004) which, incidentally, took about an hour and a half.
Thanks for that interesting link Mart. I am running Mac OS Catalina 10.16.7 and I’ve not experienced any problems with Mac updates. For that reason I’ve never had to check anything out, perhaps I am just lucky in that way? I usually wait a week or so to see if there are any serious problems with any update, there seldom are. If there are none in that time I download the update.
I reckon it’s not worth risking any security problems by totally ignoring the updates. 
I must be lucky with W.10 updates and don’t seem to get any of the reported problems. I think what Bruce has said (somewhere) in the past is right. The problems encountered only apply to a small proportion of the total number of users.
I install updates for all devices that are in the household as soon as they become available. These use Windows, Android and Linux platforms. We did have a Mac tablet that gave good service but it has become old now and isn’t used any more. Updates were always accepted while it was in use.
Windows 10 has 1,000,000,000 users - if my calculations are correct then if 1% are affected by an issue that’s 10,000,000 … :!:
Or it could be that the updates go out early to “Windows Insiders”, and other pre-arranged trial groups , before they are “staged” out to the everyday user.
That way, fixes could be already being included before the updates reach a high percentage of the “masses”.
My advice, “Wait to update - update late”
:shock:!
Baz,
My sneaky streak says that, if I have to pay twice the price, of a W10 PC, to buy a MAC, I’d buy two W10 PCs and update them, one at a time to avoid trouble.
I, also. thought that Mac users could, more recently, be allowed to install W10 as a secondary system, maybe I’m wrong on that, but if they can, won’t they get the nasty updates?
:twisted: