Computer Update Causes Despair Yet Again

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I'm in the middle of preparing for a large cross-country move, which is already anxiety inducing. I've been working all week at this which is mentally taxing and I finally broke down and said I just need to stop and draw. I open my laptop and as always it wants to update. I set it so it won't update for a week. 15 minutes of drawing in Photoshop when the whole computer slowed to a crawl. 30 minutes of trying to make it work. Hard restart with the power button. It's the update. It's like an hour later and it's still updating.

I HATE computer updates with every tiny ounce of my being. I felt so much powerlessness and despair, I laid down on the floor for a few minutes. I'm back sitting up now, but the computer is still not working yet and I'm watching the precious minutes tick away.

Apparently, there's a way to permanently disable these things. I will look into how to do that. Another dull chore to add to the endless list.

I am very bothered by updates too. They make you feel helpless and are very frustrating! You're just waiting and waiting, or they interrupt you at an inconvenient time. On my old computer you could schedule updates but then they never happened at the scheduled time.

If it's Windows, I hate updates too, and I've heard a lot of horror stories about them messing up people's computers. So I use this:

https://www.grc.com/incontrol.htm

It allows security updates (which most people see as a good thing, and hopefully they don't do any damage), but it stops all the other ones.

There are other things you can do, but that's a fairly simple one and I don't know why anybody doesn't use it.

You can also set Windows to "metered connection" which tells Microsoft that you're paying for big downloads, and apparently that scares them out of forcing them onto you.

https://ipstarbroadband.com.au/support/ ... indows-10/

Don't know if it's the same method for Windows 11, but I doubt it's very different.

Anyway, that's 2 fairly easy things you can do that ought to stop updates being such a problem. If you don't like them, you can easily reverse them.

As a geek I fully endorse what ToughDiamond said.

I don't use Windows at all where possible. At work we have a Windows environment; just about everything I can't run in the cloud (AWS, EC2, etc.) I run on Git Bash (which is basically Linux).

The only reason I have a Windows machine at home is to run World Of Warcraft.

I work with (Windows) computers so I feel your pain. I always try and have a backup activity if they start doing stuff as waiting for them is so frustrating.

When I am relaxing I usually use an iPad which I personally like because they switch on and switch between applications with virtually no wait time.

I agree with every word the OP wrote. When this happens it takes every joule of energy in my body to avoid picking up the computer and smashing it into the wall (and once I actually did). I do not generally have anger issues; I'm normally very calm and don't get upset--except when computers are involved. I think it's funny how people worry about computers taking over the world. They already have. They control every aspect of our lives. I can name a few times in my life when a person has made me cry. Computers accomplish this at least once a week. I absolutely loathe them and yet I cannot live without them.
They say all the computing power it took to send people to the Moon is contained inside my phone. I say that's not possible because with that much computing power you could make a phone that makes an ounce of sense.

Thank you for the understanding replies, everyone.

Yes, a big part of my frustration was that it acted like it allowed me to reschedule, let me get into drawing and *then* slowed to a halt and forced me to update.






Thank you both. I will look into those solutions. I am pretty good with general usage of computers -- i.e., I can draw in Photoshop with a mouse -- but not with the technical maintenance stuff. I think the default mode of computers should be "functional."

Someone on a Facebook group recently helped me a great deal on a similar problem. My computer took forever to "warm up" after I turned it on and even then was extremely sluggish. I discovered it was using 90+% of the disk with no programs running! So this person told me how to go in and turn off all these background functions that were set to start automatically (that apparently did nothing important?) and my computer has been running much better...unless it wants to update. And it always wants to update!



Having a back up activity is a good idea. I guess coming here to vent on my phone was my backup activity, haha. I was already frustrated because we were supposed to get boxes to move with and the person who repeatedly said he would bring them didn't bring any. (I finally got boxes myself today.) So I felt like I should be doing something related to the move, but pretty much couldn't and that's when I turned to the thing I really wanted to do...only to have the update stop me. I did eventually get to do some drawing on there much later.



I'm not usually an angry person either. I've often fantasized about smashing the computer, but have avoided it thus far. However, I once became so frustrated with my wireless printer/scanner for not connecting to my laptop that I ripped the print tray off the back!

It's amazing that computers work at all, but they're very frustrating in the many ways they don't work. I became obsessed with Photoshop due to how it allows me to edit my artwork (i.e., erasing totally.) However, I've sometimes considered going all traditional media due to how frustrating computers are. Even then, though, I still edit my traditional art in Photoshop before posting it online.

What really frustrates me is when websites for vital services are, to my mind, designed like horrifying labyrinths that I must bump around aimlessly for an hour in order to find their most basic function buried in a vaguely named sub-sub-sub-sub-menu.

I tried to update my old windows 10 laptop to windows 11, but I didn't know my laptop wasn't compatible. So, it tried to update, I got a notification it couldn't update to windows 11 and that it was undoing changes. I initially thought oh well, I guess I will just have to wait till I can get a new computer.

The problem was it then kept trying to update to windows 11, which got really obnoxious...I thought of taking it to a computer repair place or something to see if they could get it to stop doing that. But then soon after it kept constantly disconnecting from the wi-fi for no reason(none of the other online devices were having issues)...and I figured that would then be too issues so maybe cheaper to just get a new laptop.

Well, that laptop sucked and now I have a gaming PC because of tax return money, but that's a whole different story. But I can say I for sure am no fan of computer update troubles.

perpetual frustration, but I would not like to be without having a computer. Its a fight worth fighting when you are able.

You can use a firewall or a DNS hack to disable updates:

https://superuser.com/questions/363120/ ... ows-update

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troub ... leshooting

(Search the second page for "Device can't access update files", and block all those addresses listed)

You can change the IP address of the hostname to 127.0.0.1 in

C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts


https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/win ... 1de0bf20b0

https://superuser.com/questions/947466/ ... -etc-hosts

I feel your pain.
I'm a luddite who works in audio, which requires a lot of file management: I constantly have to look up the many-stepped processes of getting my computer to perform a simple function, but I'm working on not letting it impede my work flow. Much easier said than done.

Yes it can be a lot of work whacking a modern Microsoft operating system into submission. I still use Win7 for most things, and even that has given me trouble from time to time. I started out in the Win98 days, and it became obvious when XP came out that things were getting worse as well as better. I feel sorry for anybody using Win10 or 11 who hasn't been able to neutralise the potential problems those monstrosities cause.

ToughDiamond, do not use violent analogies in non-violent situations...

What, whacking into submission?