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gourdcaptain
Nov 16, 2012

Is there anything I can do to speed up Windows Updates? I've got a Windows 10 VM I only use occasionally set up in a VM (I'm primarily a Linux guy) on two of my computers, and recently it's been taking most of an hour for the updates to install while maxing out 2 or so cores on my Intel i7 6800k (it's not disk access speed that's the problem, the indicator lights indicate it's barely touching the CPU) let alone on my tablet with an Intel Core m5-67Y4 (which has a problem with running the VM while I do much else in the first place due to only having 8 GB of RAM). Even if it was accessing the disk, the VM image is on a RAID 10 array or an SSD respectively. I swear it didn't use to take this long, but it's been a long time since I primarily used Windows, and it's just been going up drastically with each recent Windows 10 update. (It's also been crashing a lot on updates, and I've just taken to using VM savestates before updating after I had to just reinstall Windows 10 in one case.)

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Jewel Repetition
Dec 24, 2012

Ask me about Briar Rose and Chicken Chaser.
So what's the deal with the creator's update? Should I skip it? Is it possible to?

astral
Apr 26, 2004

Jeb! Repetition posted:

So what's the deal with the creator's update? Should I skip it? Is it possible to?

If you are using w10 pro, you can defer it for several months if you'd like:

dont be mean to me
May 2, 2007

I'm interplanetary, bitch
Let's go to Mars


Jeb! Repetition posted:

So what's the deal with the creator's update? Should I skip it? Is it possible to?

It's probably fine.

If you're losing sleep over it run a Macrium Reflect Free image off first. THEN if it breaks you can defer the update or whatever. (Or take a second crack at it later; sometimes updates are busted. Or install from media or clean. You still have options.)

redeyes
Sep 14, 2002

by Fluffdaddy
Win 10 has had enough issues I jump at any updates hoping they fixed something.

Magnus Praeda
Jul 18, 2003
The largess in the land.

redeyes posted:

Win 10 has had enough issues I jump at any updates hoping they fixed something.

It feels like they break three things for every one thing they fix, though.

Bloody Hedgehog
Dec 12, 2003

💥💥🤯💥💥
Gotta nuke something
Microsoft is disrupting the OS economy.

Sininu
Jan 8, 2014

I've posted about this before but I was pretty much told to just deal with it but I'll try my luck now when it has gotten even worse after Creators update.
So "System" process is constantly using about 3-8% of CPU never letting computer to idle, used to be just 3% before Creators update. When before my computer shut its fans off from time to time then now they're constantly spinning. I reset windows already to resolve other issues I had with the update.


Looks like multiple ntoskrnl.exe!PoFxReportDevicePoweredOn subprocesses take most of the CPU time - ranging from ~2% to 6%, but ACPI.sys goes above 3% frequently as well.


My old posts about it:

SinineSiil posted:

This "System and compressed Memory" process is constantly using ~3% of my laptop CPU thus generating enough heat to make it spin up its fans for 20 sec every 2 minutes.
What can I do to fix it? I have had this issue before but it fixed itself after a while (couple months), but now it's back.

SinineSiil posted:

4 cores 8 threads too and 16GB of RAM. I had periods of time when it didn't use that much CPU and my computer fans would be off for much longer periods which was nice.


Don't have any HDDs

SinineSiil posted:

I checked on my old computer and there that process uses only 0-1.5% of CPU (usually under 0.5%). It's 2C4T machine with 4GB of RAM. Doesn't make sense that my way way more powerful computer has such high CPU usage for that process.

Sininu fucked around with this message at 22:10 on Apr 26, 2017

dissss
Nov 10, 2007

I'm a terrible forums poster with terrible opinions.

Here's a cat fucking a squid.
What's happening here?



It's really giving the fan on my Surface Pro 3 a workout

Combat Pretzel
Jun 23, 2004

No, seriously... what kurds?!
That's a bug that kept being mentioned during the insider previews. Ought to be fixed, but apparently not. Something something spectrum.exe.

nielsm
Jun 1, 2009



SinineSiil posted:


Looks like multiple ntoskrnl.exe!PoFxReportDevicePoweredOn subprocesses take most of the CPU time - ranging from ~2% to 6%, but ACPI.sys goes above 3% frequently as well.

It's not actually the PoFxReportDevicePoweredOn routine those threads are running, rather something that follows it in the binary image. You can tell by the +0x7d0 after the name that the entry point for the thread is not the exported entry point to that routine. I'm just not strong enough with the Windows debugging tools to know how to look up what the actual entry point should be.

However assuming related functions are grouped together in the binary image, there's a good chance the entry point is also something power management related for drivers, so my first thought is some driver is misbehaving with power management.
Does this happen even right after a clean reboot? What if you've had the system in suspend or some other low-power mode?

I'd ask you to get a stack dump from one of the threads in question, but that's quite difficult to do for the kernel on a running system...

Sininu
Jan 8, 2014

nielsm posted:

It's not actually the PoFxReportDevicePoweredOn routine those threads are running, rather something that follows it in the binary image. You can tell by the +0x7d0 after the name that the entry point for the thread is not the exported entry point to that routine. I'm just not strong enough with the Windows debugging tools to know how to look up what the actual entry point should be.

However assuming related functions are grouped together in the binary image, there's a good chance the entry point is also something power management related for drivers, so my first thought is some driver is misbehaving with power management.
Does this happen even right after a clean reboot? What if you've had the system in suspend or some other low-power mode?

I'd ask you to get a stack dump from one of the threads in question, but that's quite difficult to do for the kernel on a running system...

It happens right away after reboot or turning on from hybrid shutdown or sleep. I have fast startup on because if I turn it off my computer will be unable to shut down... Which is exact opposite of the behavior before Creators update where I had to turn it off for my computer to be able to shut down properly.

Anyway, the drivers I installed myself are for Intel and Nvidia GPU drivers and sound, everything else is using what came with Windows or what it "helpfully" downloaded.

Thanks for responding!

pofcorn
May 30, 2011
I swear I've read somewhere that 1703 would be the last big update, as in, the next updates would not produce a Windows.old folder and be more like regular updates. I can't find that info anywhere. Did I dream this?

Combat Pretzel
Jun 23, 2004

No, seriously... what kurds?!

SinineSiil posted:


Looks like multiple ntoskrnl.exe!PoFxReportDevicePoweredOn subprocesses take most of the CPU time - ranging from ~2% to 6%, but ACPI.sys goes above 3% frequently as well.
I suppose something's wrong overhere on my end, since I have like 2350 threads in the System process?!

Most are on ntoskrnl!KeIsAttachedProcess+0xf0.

What the gently caress.

--edit:

Combat Pretzel fucked around with this message at 22:29 on Apr 27, 2017

Sininu
Jan 8, 2014

Combat Pretzel posted:

I suppose something's wrong overhere on my end, since I have like 2350 threads in the System process?!

Most are on ntoskrnl!KeIsAttachedProcess+0xf0.

What the gently caress.

--edit:


I have about 45 of those. How many processes do you have running? I have 173 atm with bunch of programs open.

I like what I'm seeing. Still, I want to figure out what is misbehaving for first 3 hours of runtime.

I just discovered that my problematic threads seem to disappear completely after ~3 hours of uptime. Of course they come back after restart.

Edit: Spoke too soon, it came back two hours later

Sininu fucked around with this message at 00:49 on Apr 28, 2017

Jewel Repetition
Dec 24, 2012

Ask me about Briar Rose and Chicken Chaser.
I installed the Creators Update and now my sound doesn't work so that's pretty fuckin cool

Sininu
Jan 8, 2014

Jeb! Repetition posted:

I installed the Creators Update and now my sound doesn't work so that's pretty fuckin cool

I had similar problem, audio from audio jack worked but internal speakers were dead, I even reset whole Windows install to fix it (and other things), which didn't actually fix this one. Turning off audio enhancements solved it for me.

Try it: Right click on speaker icon -> Playback devices -> Right click on speakers or whatever audio output device you have -> Properties -> Advanced -> Disable audio enhancements

Jewel Repetition
Dec 24, 2012

Ask me about Briar Rose and Chicken Chaser.
All I had to do was change the default playback device from "Speakers (Avnex Virtual Audio Device)" which Windows had changed it to without asking me, back to my actual speakers and it works fine.

The Wonder Weapon
Dec 16, 2006



What the hell did I do? It does it in a Facebook Messenger Chrome plugin, and it half does it in Google Drive Sheets, but not normal Chrome or other programs.

The Wonder Weapon fucked around with this message at 00:51 on Apr 28, 2017

Last Chance
Dec 31, 2004

The Wonder Weapon posted:

What the hell did I do? It only does it in this Facebook Messenger Chrome app.



Wow, thanks for passing along whatever gypsy curse you've acquired by posting here..

edit: Maybe check language/keyboard settings in Windows to see if a right-to-left language was set somehow?

Van Dine
Apr 17, 2013

Is there some decent way to disable Windows Update for a while? Some kind of reliable free program. I want to wait a few weeks until the Creators' update has had more of the bugs ironed out of it, but I can see my computer is already trying to download it.

Edit: ah, I think I found something that might work. I set its startup type to disabled in the services list. I'll just have to remember to turn it back on in a couple of weeks.

Van Dine fucked around with this message at 02:17 on Apr 28, 2017

astral
Apr 26, 2004

Van Dine posted:

Is there some decent way to disable Windows Update for a while? Some kind of reliable free program. I want to wait a few weeks until the Creators' update has had more of the bugs ironed out of it, but I can see my computer is already trying to download it.

Edit: ah, I think I found something that might work. I set its startup type to disabled in the services list. I'll just have to remember to turn it back on in a couple of weeks.

yes

Van Dine
Apr 17, 2013


I'd do that if I had Windows Pro, but unfortunately I don't. It'd be great if there was an easy way to defer just the feature updates without pro. As it is, I'll just have to hope that disabling Windows Update entirely will work. It can't be left like that for very long because of the security risk, but at least (assuming that what I tried does in fact work) it'll mean I can pick a better time.

bobfather
Sep 20, 2001

I will analyze your nervous system for beer money

Van Dine posted:

Is there some decent way to disable Windows Update for a while? Some kind of reliable free program. I want to wait a few weeks until the Creators' update has had more of the bugs ironed out of it, but I can see my computer is already trying to download it.

Edit: ah, I think I found something that might work. I set its startup type to disabled in the services list. I'll just have to remember to turn it back on in a couple of weeks.

Windows Update MiniTool solves updates for good.

Totally disables automatic updates, lets you use the program to scrape Windows Update Service for all current updates, and then lets you install only what you need, and hide what you don't.

Combat Pretzel
Jun 23, 2004

No, seriously... what kurds?!

SinineSiil posted:

I have about 45 of those. How many processes do you have running? I have 173 atm with bunch of programs open.

I like what I'm seeing. Still, I want to figure out what is misbehaving for first 3 hours of runtime.

I just discovered that my problematic threads seem to disappear completely after ~3 hours of uptime. Of course they come back after restart.

Edit: Spoke too soon, it came back two hours later
Bunch of random poo poo running. The count however goes constantly up. When I checked this morning, around 6 hours of telling the computer idle after posting that screenshot, it went up to 4400. I've been uninstalling tons of poo poo, removing driver crap left over by other apps, and been using the shotgun on processes via Process Explorer. It's still going up. The only things left to do is to disable my Soundblaster card and run the Realtek one on my mainboard, to exclude that driver. What remains would be the NVIDIA drivers, which I've already done a clean install with. Last resort of fresh install of Windows, which I don't want to do for the same reasons you don't move someone's car seat.

MikusR
Jan 5, 2008

pofcorn posted:

I swear I've read somewhere that 1703 would be the last big update, as in, the next updates would not produce a Windows.old folder and be more like regular updates. I can't find that info anywhere. Did I dream this?

Yes you dreamt it. All they said was that the downloads will be smaller for the big updates. Also twice a year March and September.

Gunder
May 22, 2003

I've been using Crashplan since moving from Win7 for my hourly backup to an external hard drive. Is the Win10 built-in backup solution robust enough/reliable enough to allow me to stop using Crashplan? I just want hourly backups of my User folder, plus a couple of other folders outside of my user folder.

Junior Jr.
Oct 4, 2014

by sebmojo
Buglord
Please please PLEASE tell me there's some software I can download to remove (most, if not all) the new privacy invading crap on the Creators Update. Microsoft are seriously taking this too far with tracking my location and IP, and now knowing which EXACT FILES I'm running.

This poo poo just makes me want to switch to Ubuntu instead.

Last Chance
Dec 31, 2004

MS will probably buy Ubuntu in the next five years

nimper
Jun 19, 2003

livin' in a hopium den

Junior Jr. posted:

Please please PLEASE tell me there's some software I can download to remove (most, if not all) the new privacy invading crap on the Creators Update. Microsoft are seriously taking this too far with tracking my location and IP, and now knowing which EXACT FILES I'm running.

This poo poo just makes me want to switch to Ubuntu instead.

You figured out your computer is broadcasting an IP address but did you know that your phone is too?

fishmech
Jul 16, 2006

by VideoGames
Salad Prong

Junior Jr. posted:

Please please PLEASE tell me there's some software I can download to remove (most, if not all) the new privacy invading crap on the Creators Update. Microsoft are seriously taking this too far with tracking my location and IP, and now knowing which EXACT FILES I'm running.

This poo poo just makes me want to switch to Ubuntu instead.

There's nothing that's going to remove your brain bees, might as well throw out your computer all together.

Im_Special
Jan 2, 2011

Look At This!!! WOW!
It's F*cking Nothing.

Junior Jr. posted:

Please please PLEASE tell me there's some software I can download to remove (most, if not all) the new privacy invading crap on the Creators Update. Microsoft are seriously taking this too far with tracking my location and IP, and now knowing which EXACT FILES I'm running.

This poo poo just makes me want to switch to Ubuntu instead.

Try this, https://fdossena.com/?p=w10debotnet/index_1703.frag

Though I would probably just disable the services and not straight up delete them like the guide says. Then again you can't really screw up Windows 10 anymore. So whatever.

A good poster
Jan 10, 2010
I've got my current installation of Windows set to place the Users directory on a drive other than C. If I install the Creators Update, will that revert the setting and make my computer poo poo itself?

redeyes
Sep 14, 2002

by Fluffdaddy

A good poster posted:

I've got my current installation of Windows set to place the Users directory on a drive other than C. If I install the Creators Update, will that revert the setting and make my computer poo poo itself?

Probably not, but you never know. How do you even do that?

Im_Special
Jan 2, 2011

Look At This!!! WOW!
It's F*cking Nothing.
Guessing he used a symbolic link/junction point.

Col.Kiwi
Dec 28, 2004
And the grave digger puts on the forceps...

Im_Special posted:

Guessing he used a symbolic link/junction point.
It's much easier than that nowadays.


edit: oh wait I'm dumb he said the users folder as in the whole users folder. I was gonna point out how you can put documents/downloads/etc wherever you want with a setting. Entire users folder might be a symlink thing still yeah i don't know

Col.Kiwi fucked around with this message at 04:55 on Apr 29, 2017

Gynovore
Jun 17, 2009

Forget your RoboCoX or your StickyCoX or your EvilCoX, MY CoX has Blinking Bewbs!

WHY IS THIS GAME DEAD?!

Last Chance posted:

MS will probably buy Ubuntu in the next five years

How do you buy something that's free? No wait, don't tell me, Microsoft will find a way.

dont be mean to me
May 2, 2007

I'm interplanetary, bitch
Let's go to Mars


[img-uhd-:v:]

He probably means Canonical and hell, they might.

Combat Pretzel
Jun 23, 2004

No, seriously... what kurds?!
So, I'm tired of my system racking up kernel threads to its imminent death. I want to reinstall and figured to try the Reset PC option. Apparently you can keep your personal files intact. What does that mean? Just everything in My Documents or other folders littered over the system drive?

MikusR posted:

Yes you dreamt it. All they said was that the downloads will be smaller for the big updates. Also twice a year March and September.
IIRC there was talk of delta updates. Right now it downloads a complete image and installs it.

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Ghostlight
Sep 25, 2009

maybe for one second you can pause; try to step into another person's perspective, and understand that a watermelon is cursing me



It keeps user profile directories and everything stored there, kills the core windows directories like program files and program data, and moves windows to windows.old like an update. Directories that aren't created by a windows install aren't touched providing they are outside of the windows structure that gets nuked - so like c:\porn\ is safe but c:\program files\porn\ isn't.

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