Windows 10 was released in July 2015 and there were plenty of reasons to be excited. If you have been around for the last few versions of Windows dating back to Vista, you may have a love/hate relationship with Microsoft.
Windows Vista, for instance, was once known as the biggest failure Microsoft had experienced. That is, until Windows 8. Just using the adoption numbers, it’s clear that Windows 8 was the least successful OS that Microsoft has ever released.
So, Microsoft and their users had many reasons to be excited about Windows 10. Microsoft assured users that Windows 10 would be a return to the golden standard of Operating Systems: Windows 7.
As with all releases of a new operating system, there have been some issues. Some of these problems are indicative of a bigger problems while others are standalone issues.
With a myriad of different types of problems that have surfaced over the last couple of years, Windows 10 may be the most problematic OS of all-time.
Since launch, Windows 10 has had some very unusual problems. While it is almost expected for issues to arise with a new OS, the frequency and type of problems is what’s disturbing. The issues have ranged from broken drivers that leave devices nonfunctional to our latest and greatest issue: the deleted documents folder.
A few times a year, larger updates called “Feature Updates” are released. In April 2018, there was an update that would incorrectly create a duplicate of your documents folder. A lot of these folders were empty and had no real purpose.
At this point, Microsoft decided to implement a fix with their next feature update, due in October 2018. The “fix” would remove the duplicate folder.
There was one very large issue with this. The update did not check if the folder was actually empty before deleting it from your system. People all over began reporting the issue where, all of a sudden, their files were gone.
Once reported, Microsoft acted quickly to halt the update before further systems were affected. The update would still download but would not apply. It was necessary that the access to the update be stopped to save additional systems from data loss.
A strange side effect of the update being put on hold was the failure to apply the downloaded Windows updates.
This resulted in much longer shut down/restart times as the update would attempt to apply, then roll back once it failed. This also provided users with another reason to be frustrated.
The issues are now resolved. The fix has been implemented and there is no more possibility for further data loss.
For what it’s worth, Microsoft also asked for users who lost data to reach out, and they would try to recover it where possible.
It seems like the least they could do considering the issue was created due to poor planning, poor programming, or some combination of those.
When possible, look into deferred updates. Let the problems work themselves out before taking on the unnecessary problems.