Microsoft won't fix the most frustrating thing about Windows

Found on CNet News on Sunday, 29 January 2017
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Windows will take control of your computer, force-feed it updates, and flip the reset switch automatically -- and there's not a damn thing you can do about it, once it gets started.

With no warning, a prompt pops up on your screen telling you that your Windows 10 laptop is about to restart. Even though you know you're about to lose access to your computer, there's not a damn thing you can do about it -- the buttons are all grayed out.

When I ask my fellow CNET staffers, many of them chime in with stories, too: how Windows decided to reboot in the middle of a liveblog, or an expense report, or while taking notes in the middle of an interview -- or in the airport, right before boarding a plane, without enough power left to actually finish the install.

That's why it has (sadly) become a good habit to immediately disable automatic updates after the basic install. In the recent years, Microsofts update strategy has turned into a nightmare of less tested pieces that get shoved down the throats of the users. With Windows 10 making it even harder to avoid updates and the inability to deselect single updates, the next options to remain is the firewall on your router; because you can be pretty sure that using your hosts file to blacklist windowsupdate.microsoft.com will be ignored.