Do we still skip every second Windows?

[AustralIan]

So I've been trained to skip every second windows, as MS seem to use their B-Team developers.
Eg. Skip win ME, straight to XP. Skip vista, use 7, skip 8...
But win10 they stopped changing the name so I've lost track of what the good version is.
1. Do we still skip the second?
2. Is the second always more buggy? And with features not as well thought out?
3. If 1 OR 2, how do I identify which to skip and which to keep?

 

[BobB]

10 Pro x 64 bit and x 32 bit is very stable. Have been using it virtually since it came out.

 

[rdrast]

I don't know where the horror stories about Windows 10 came about.
There have been a few mildly annoying bugs in patches, but they always seem to be fixed quickly.


Like BobB, I've been using Win 10 Pro at home since it came out, with no issues, also on my Surface at work for years, and more recently on AdvancedHMI PanelPC's hosting both FT View SE (garbage) and Ignition, with no issues.


Note that aside from the View HMI terminals, I do run VMWare Virtual Machines on my development machines, and ONLY install Rockwell nonsense in the VM's. I would never let Rockwell Anything infect my base development desktop, or my troubleshooting laptop or the Surface tablet.


The HMI terminals do run SE raw on them, but when they blow up, I just pump a fresh backup image out to them and keep going.

 

[sigmadelta]

One thing I recommend for Windows 10 is to set it to notify of updates, and not to install them automatically, so that they can be installed at your leisure, and not in the middle of development or running a machine. A major update caused me tremendous grief because I had to wait over an hour for it to install.

Make Windows 10 notify you before downloading or installing Windows Updates

 

[rdrast]

@sigmadelta that is a good point...
I do all of my updates in the office, before actual installation of a new floor PC.


Once it's on the floor, I just disable updates, as the machine network has no way to dial out of the plant anyway.

 

[JesperMP]

+1 to what has been said about not installing every update immediately.

Microsoft has announced that "Windows 10 will be the last Windows". What they mean is that instead of releasing completely new versions like in the past with 2000-XP-Vista-7-8-8.1-10, they will release small incremental upgrades, and the name Windows 10 remain.
So there wont be any versions to skip in the future.
Just be careful and wait a while before installing windows updates, and because of that be extra careful with what you do on the internet.

 

[Aabeck]

I got hit by Windows 10 update on 2 computers doing the same thing.

When rebooted as soon as the lock screen appears all the monitors except 1 shut off. My main PC has 5 monitors.

Windows then reports that the video cards reported a problem and stopped them. I have to go to Device Manager and uninstall them then scan for hardware changes for up to 10 minutes until all the monitors come up again. Another PC did exactly the same, but that one did another Windows update the next day and cured it. That one only has 2 monitors.

And, if it needs to reboot for an update it makes sure to interfere with network connectivity to force you to.

No one at Micro-sloth has been able to figure out why.

Also, on my main PC occasionally after an update the volume slider and sound mixer pop-ups no longer exist until the next update. I hate rebooting that computer and don't unless I really have to.

 

[NetNathan]

Win10 Automatic Updates has caused some grief..ie...Customer's HMI computers shutting off in the middle of critical logging operation to reboot.
I found to how to turn it off by going into Group Policy and turning off Windows Automatic Updates. I only get them when I want to get them now.
Version 1903 was biggest pain of an update, it takes hours.

If you want to know how...
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-stop-updates-installing-automatically-windows-10

 

[AustralIan]

So today I have done the math.
...
5 (XP) good
6 (vista) bad
7 good
8 bad
9 (doesn't exist) good
10 bad

As they won't be releasing a Windows 11, by my math we need to move from Windows 7 to Linux.

 

[the_msp]

I don't think 10 is bad. I prefer it to 7 for daily use. OK, some software doesn't play nice on it, so just VM 7 for that.

 

[NetNathan]

Yes... I have found out the same thing....every other Windows release seems to be the best...Odd

 

[ASF]

I just went straight to Windows Server 2019. It's just like Windows 10, except it doesn't come with 30GB of crapware pre-installed, it's much faster as a result, and you have proper control over things like automatic updates. I'm a big fan so far.

Seriously, my new WS2019 VM has RSLogix 5, 500, 5000 (versions 10 through 32) all installed along with FTView SE, CCW, RSNetworx and a few other things - and it's 10-15GB smaller than my old Windows 7 Rockwell VM which had fewer things installed. And it boots three times as fast.

 

[Bit_Bucket_07]

Yes... I have found out the same thing....every other Windows release seems to be the best...Odd

Even back in the days of DOS, the odd versions were the best.

 

[geniusintraining]

I am surprised how many people still are using XP... once a week I have to help customers with drivers and XP

I like running 10 and 7 in the VM, I do let my machines update automatically and only once have been burned by it.

 

[NetNathan]

The Win10 Version 1903 upgrade broke all my Intouch licensing. I had to go back in and re-initialize the licenses.