Windows 10 Build 17661 - What a mess
On May 3 - MS released Windows 10 Build 17661 to both Skip Ahead and Fast Ring Insiders. This combined the two tracks and so both will receive the same builds throughout the remainder of the RS5 branch...
The big feature add in 17661 was a new screen snipping and markup capability really focused towards pen based systems. There were also some updates to the new HEIC Video Codec, Sound Settings along with some additional Asian language support. MS also returned to the Sets experiment model - where only some testers will have the feature turned on..
I have a mix of machines I use for testing - some where set for Fast Ring and others set for Skip Ahead...
While not called out at all in the 17661 release announcement, MS must have been attempting a new update process and it was a mess..
On all machines, the "preparing for install" phase in Windows Update stalled at either 80 or 100% and hung there for 30 - 60+ minutes. When looking at Task Manager - you saw two processes Windows Update and Windows Update Orchestration consuming somewhere between 30 - 70MB of RAM depending on the device and 25 - 45% CPU - with no indicated IO of any kind - so no disc or network. So what the hell was this process doing ?
On one machine - I rebooted and restarted the process - when it had hung at 100% and it progressed to 80% then hung again.
Checking with the Feedback Hub - I saw others where experiencing the same issue and so I decided to be patient. Eventually the download started and the update applied - albeit extremely slowly. That method worked for one Fast Ring Update from 17134.5 and one Skip Ahead update from 17655.
With one machine that I use as a daily driver however - the problem was much worse. I experienced the same delay as others - but this time over an hour and then the update started. I made it through the downloaded and installing phases in Windows Update and then the machine rebooted to begin the applying updates phase.
The Apply phase reached 98% and then the machine froze - the dot circle which shows progress stopped, the keyboard back light came on and then nothing. The machine would not respond to any input.
I tried to remain patient - but after about 30 minutes - I decided to power down and restart - hoping that Windows would return to the final phase and try and complete or realize it hadn't completed and rollback..
Unfortunately it didn't - what I got was a traditional welcome screen and login. When I logged in - I got a preparing Windows message and dot circle for several minutes - then all of a sudden the screen went black and I got a pop-up which stated that Windows could not find the desktop profile file. When I clicked okay - I got a "desktop" but it only had the recycle bin, task view, clock and few other taskbar icons. There was no start button - no menu, no app listing, no settings, nothing....
The only key combination that it would respond to was alt+ctl+del which allowed me to bring up task manager. And so the only real action was to shutdown or restart and see if things got any better....They didn't.
So now the troubleshooting / repair process begins. I booted from a fresh 17134 USB and tried to repair - no dice - Windows would state that It was in the process of an install and to let it complete. I couldn't roll-back - because I couldn't get to the UI to allow it. I tried running commands - but also no dice.
The challenge was that even though I had a recent backup - there were some key files I had created in the previous few days that needed to get. So I needed to figure out a method to grab those files and then I could do a fresh install.
Luckily the laptop in question - an HP Elitebook 745 G3 supported both an M.2 2280 SSD and a 2.5" SATA. So I quickly grabbed a spare 2.5" SATA SSD drive and installed, then performed a fresh Windows 10 Install there. Once logged in was able to grab the key files I needed.
I then proceeded to erase the entire device and perform a fresh install of 17134 back on the M.2 drive - an NVMe SSD and went ahead and kept the 2.5" SATA installed and reformatted to use as a target drive for cloud based replication from OneDrive and Box. Thank God I did....
But even then I saw some issues with 17134 that where a little disconcerting. Especially post install. The first was with OneDrive itself which was initially a 2016 version that didn't provide any choice on what to keep in the cloud or not. That meant having to replicate some 200+ GB of content down from OneDrive. If I didn't have that spare 2.5" capacity I would have exhausted the 256GB NVMe drive.
Other capabilities also didn't work immediately - for example the Fingerprint reader would fail.
I was able to get all of my apps back including Office from my Corporate account and what was interesting is that OneDrive displayed a 2018 version and did support the cloud segmentation.
So all of this occurred Thursday. Today - all of a sudden - things started working - so for example that Personal One Drive - updated to 2018. I was able to register fingerprints. But yet there were no updates listed in Windows Update history or Store History. I did see one Intel Network update which I applied and also updated the Video drivers since 17134 had installed some 2015 versions - so when un-docked the screen would flash intermittently.
So remember this was the production April 2018 Release - fresh install OOBE. While I had not experienced these kind of issues during the Insiders builds up to and including 17134.1 and then 17134.5 - I did with a fresh install - not good.
There have been some known issues that have come out of the April 2018 release - for example Google Chrome hangs - which I have experienced. I expect this coming patch Tuesday may see some Cumulative Updates come to 17134.
I've been a member of the Windows 10 Insiders program since it's inception back in Oct of 2014 - so believe me I get it that we're testing pre-release code.
But we're over 3.5 years and 6 major releases into the Windows 10 development cycle - so the kind of crap that occurred with this update is just unacceptable. Sure we've had problem child updates before - but I don't remember one in the last 12 months and I thought we were passed this. especially with a Tier 1 OEM partner like HP.
The experience has actually made me a little gun-shy of attempting to apply 17661 to my HP Laptop. Which is not good. Insiders represent less than 1% of all Windows users - and so when we loose confidence with installing the latest build what does that mean to our promoting Windows at all... Sure I'll probably return the HP to the Fast Ring - but not until the next release.
While I am not privy to the internal organization impact within the Windows 10 team - to me ever since the reorg announcement by Satya Nadella impacting Windows - MS has been stumbling with the product. First was the issues and delays associated with getting the April 2018 update out the door and second was this recent mess with the first combined track release of RS5.
The big feature add in 17661 was a new screen snipping and markup capability really focused towards pen based systems. There were also some updates to the new HEIC Video Codec, Sound Settings along with some additional Asian language support. MS also returned to the Sets experiment model - where only some testers will have the feature turned on..
I have a mix of machines I use for testing - some where set for Fast Ring and others set for Skip Ahead...
While not called out at all in the 17661 release announcement, MS must have been attempting a new update process and it was a mess..
On all machines, the "preparing for install" phase in Windows Update stalled at either 80 or 100% and hung there for 30 - 60+ minutes. When looking at Task Manager - you saw two processes Windows Update and Windows Update Orchestration consuming somewhere between 30 - 70MB of RAM depending on the device and 25 - 45% CPU - with no indicated IO of any kind - so no disc or network. So what the hell was this process doing ?
On one machine - I rebooted and restarted the process - when it had hung at 100% and it progressed to 80% then hung again.
Checking with the Feedback Hub - I saw others where experiencing the same issue and so I decided to be patient. Eventually the download started and the update applied - albeit extremely slowly. That method worked for one Fast Ring Update from 17134.5 and one Skip Ahead update from 17655.
With one machine that I use as a daily driver however - the problem was much worse. I experienced the same delay as others - but this time over an hour and then the update started. I made it through the downloaded and installing phases in Windows Update and then the machine rebooted to begin the applying updates phase.
The Apply phase reached 98% and then the machine froze - the dot circle which shows progress stopped, the keyboard back light came on and then nothing. The machine would not respond to any input.
I tried to remain patient - but after about 30 minutes - I decided to power down and restart - hoping that Windows would return to the final phase and try and complete or realize it hadn't completed and rollback..
Unfortunately it didn't - what I got was a traditional welcome screen and login. When I logged in - I got a preparing Windows message and dot circle for several minutes - then all of a sudden the screen went black and I got a pop-up which stated that Windows could not find the desktop profile file. When I clicked okay - I got a "desktop" but it only had the recycle bin, task view, clock and few other taskbar icons. There was no start button - no menu, no app listing, no settings, nothing....
The only key combination that it would respond to was alt+ctl+del which allowed me to bring up task manager. And so the only real action was to shutdown or restart and see if things got any better....They didn't.
So now the troubleshooting / repair process begins. I booted from a fresh 17134 USB and tried to repair - no dice - Windows would state that It was in the process of an install and to let it complete. I couldn't roll-back - because I couldn't get to the UI to allow it. I tried running commands - but also no dice.
The challenge was that even though I had a recent backup - there were some key files I had created in the previous few days that needed to get. So I needed to figure out a method to grab those files and then I could do a fresh install.
Luckily the laptop in question - an HP Elitebook 745 G3 supported both an M.2 2280 SSD and a 2.5" SATA. So I quickly grabbed a spare 2.5" SATA SSD drive and installed, then performed a fresh Windows 10 Install there. Once logged in was able to grab the key files I needed.
I then proceeded to erase the entire device and perform a fresh install of 17134 back on the M.2 drive - an NVMe SSD and went ahead and kept the 2.5" SATA installed and reformatted to use as a target drive for cloud based replication from OneDrive and Box. Thank God I did....
But even then I saw some issues with 17134 that where a little disconcerting. Especially post install. The first was with OneDrive itself which was initially a 2016 version that didn't provide any choice on what to keep in the cloud or not. That meant having to replicate some 200+ GB of content down from OneDrive. If I didn't have that spare 2.5" capacity I would have exhausted the 256GB NVMe drive.
Other capabilities also didn't work immediately - for example the Fingerprint reader would fail.
I was able to get all of my apps back including Office from my Corporate account and what was interesting is that OneDrive displayed a 2018 version and did support the cloud segmentation.
So all of this occurred Thursday. Today - all of a sudden - things started working - so for example that Personal One Drive - updated to 2018. I was able to register fingerprints. But yet there were no updates listed in Windows Update history or Store History. I did see one Intel Network update which I applied and also updated the Video drivers since 17134 had installed some 2015 versions - so when un-docked the screen would flash intermittently.
So remember this was the production April 2018 Release - fresh install OOBE. While I had not experienced these kind of issues during the Insiders builds up to and including 17134.1 and then 17134.5 - I did with a fresh install - not good.
There have been some known issues that have come out of the April 2018 release - for example Google Chrome hangs - which I have experienced. I expect this coming patch Tuesday may see some Cumulative Updates come to 17134.
I've been a member of the Windows 10 Insiders program since it's inception back in Oct of 2014 - so believe me I get it that we're testing pre-release code.
But we're over 3.5 years and 6 major releases into the Windows 10 development cycle - so the kind of crap that occurred with this update is just unacceptable. Sure we've had problem child updates before - but I don't remember one in the last 12 months and I thought we were passed this. especially with a Tier 1 OEM partner like HP.
The experience has actually made me a little gun-shy of attempting to apply 17661 to my HP Laptop. Which is not good. Insiders represent less than 1% of all Windows users - and so when we loose confidence with installing the latest build what does that mean to our promoting Windows at all... Sure I'll probably return the HP to the Fast Ring - but not until the next release.
While I am not privy to the internal organization impact within the Windows 10 team - to me ever since the reorg announcement by Satya Nadella impacting Windows - MS has been stumbling with the product. First was the issues and delays associated with getting the April 2018 update out the door and second was this recent mess with the first combined track release of RS5.
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