Updates for Windows 10

Feature service packs are almost (not quite) like the old Service Packs of the pre Windows 8 Operating Systems, after my first round of feature service packs I found my profile(s) were reset to the default first logon profile. Although I do some customization of my desktop and add some third party applications to change the behavior of Windows 10 it isn't hard to get the settings back. The thing is that I have three separate installations of Win 10 on my tower computer, my Wife's computer has some special settings that almost had me in hot water: "Where are my pictures? What happened to Skype?" Ahhhh. yup, not having looked at her laptop in some time I had to figure out what happened.

Before I get to the way to keep your profile after an update for Windows 10 features a little bit about the actual update.

Two of the Win 10 installations on my tower computer had not been updated for over 280 days, I have automatic updates turned off on those for various reasons. My main Win 10 installation is my work OS, it was updated about 45 days before this one: Windows 10 October 2020 Update; aka Version 20H2. I reset the Automatic Updates for a one time run, I need to see how much this system was behind and how long it would take.

First day of my updates for Windows 10

First problem - the service pack KB5004945, it would download but not install, all of the advice on M$ and other web pages did not cure the 0x8024001e error. After some (hours of)  research I came to the conclusion that the version 1909 was not supported, and even with the vesion20H2 installed this service pack will not install.

Second problem - time, even with a 40 MBit download speed this service pack took almost two hours to download. Then the install, the first time through the "Faststart" was set for my "Experimental" OS and if I didn't watch the menu closely the Experimental OS install would start. I had to set the fast start disabled in the BIOS to stop the other OS from loading before the OS Startup menu would display.

Third problem - When I logged on I was back to square one- the set up page for the fresh install with all the options turned on, not a real problem but annoying. The next page after resetting the privacy stuff was the Edge page then the "Sign on to Microsoft" which I do not have an account with M$ and the computer was removed from the domain! How nice...

Fourth problem - Hardware, my KVM switch had been acting up for some time, all the restarts may have finished it off... The mouse worked but the keyboard didn't, I had to find an old PS/2 style keyboard, it works but my laptop could not see it when it was connected to the tower computer, so I shut down the laptop for a couple of days while I worked on getting the tower back. (I had to buy another KVM switch, this time [knowing what killed the first one] I grounded the new KVM!)

Fifth problem - After going through the new OS setup page I am at the desktop - blank, all my settings are gone.

Note I have two network cards in this computer, a wired NIC and a WiFi NIC, both were activated [normally the WiFi is disabled]. However this computer is behind a firewall so in the internet settings / connections the proxy server was selected hence no connection to the internet. The wired connection is for my business network, the WiFi is for internet and connecting to my Web server via WiFi. If you have this type of setup or are thinking about it you will need a proxy server for the intranet (internal) network to get to the internet (external) if your internet connections are set for the proxy and the internet connection is active it will not connect to the internet, wrong IP address is assigned to outbound connections.

Now I get to go back though all my settings, remove the OS from the domain, restart, bring the OS back into the domain, log on with my domain ID. Some settings are there (primarily those set through the Group Policy from the Domain Controller) but others need to be done again. I have a backup of my theme however I had to go through the change the background color again. For the advanced settings the paging file was set where I had it but the path statements were back to the default. Little things, this urged me to find a way to backup a profile, especially after my Wife's ire over her laptop.

Note: An old IT adage: The last person that touched / worked on the computer broke it! - The problem could have been there for a long time but...

After an hour or so I decided the damage was done so I ran the Autoupdate again, the service downloaded and installed four more service packs. Once the restart and inspection of the OS was done I restarted the computer in the Win 7 OS, then made the first image of the work OS with the update 20H2.

Second day of my updates for Windows 10

Now knowing what the Version 20H2 will do I make backup images of my other two Windows 10 installs: Experimental and Games. Then on to doing the service packs.

First problem  - with the Experimental OS, time - for some reason even on WiFi it will take over four hours to get the service packs, it needs over 20 of them. I have my laptop on the desk and it is under a shelf so to use it I had to pull it out and use the internal video like as if I was traveling...

Once the services packs are downloaded, installed and the restart I am back to the fresh install page, then the Edge page, and then do I want to log on to M$ - no to all the above.

Second problem - Once I log on I am at the default desktop, one of my problems will be this OS and the Games OS are not in a domain, and after looking at the hard drive I find that the install basically moved all the files from the root of the drive to a folder called Windows.old, then created a complete new set of folders from the root down to Windows with all the files. This is why the profile and settings reverted to default.

Third problem(s) - Checking the network properties all the installed network cards are set to enabled, the hardwired NIC, the WiFi NIC and the VM Ware NICs, disable what I am not using and go on to the settings. Unlike the Work OS the Group Policies are not set when the OS is brought into the domain, I have to set those manually. Having a backup of the User and Machine GP settings it is just a matter of copying them to the correct directory then opening GPEDIT.MSC and go though all the enabled and disabled individually to reactivate them, in the days of XP all you had to do was active one GP then restart and all of the others would be activated, not on post XP versions... Reload the theme , reset the paths, then restart.

After restart I am almost back to where I was before the service pack, a few more things and I am ready to make an image of the install, I do not want to go though this again if I can avoid it. Over five hours to get the service packs installed and then recover the OS to where it was before it updated.

Third day of updates for Windows 10

Knowing what is going to happen I could have waited until I found a way to backup the profiles and then save my self some time and aggravation but I decided to get it over with and do the service pack.

Something tells me I may want to set up one of my servers to be the Windows Update Service, this will be down the road time wise, Server 2008 is coming to end of life soon so I will have to consider another upgrade for either 2016 or 2019, which is cheapest?

After the upgrade to the Games OS I went through the same series of problems, knowing what has been remove and what I need to get the OS back to where it was before the upgrade to 20H2.

Coclusions:

To keep from doing all this again on my laptop Win 10 install I have found a way to back up profiles, I tested it on my Windows 7 install on my laptop, however I must tell you the back up it time consuming and will need over 250 GB of drive space.

There are 3rd party applications that will backup a profile, I read about four of them, some were good, some very good, some were not useable. Search for profile backup.

The one I found (and should have remembered) was the "old" Windows 7 program Windows Easy Transfer. If you still have a Windows 7 installation before you upgrade to any thing newer - copy this directory from the Windows/System32 folder: migwiz

Note: I copied the directory to my file server, just in case and have it available for easy access...  [Do you have a server?]

I may do a page on this tool once I have used it more (I have one more Windows 10 to upgrade).

Another thing I am considering doing is using the tool provided by M$ for installing large service packs to more than one computer, this may or may not work on multiple boot computer configurations, I will have to test it, the "Create Windows 10 installation media"

My experience with the almost latest service pack for Windows 10, will I be able to catch the service pack before it happens and do my profile backup or should I do the backup now and any time I do a major change to one of my OS installation profiles?

You may have seen this while reading this web site: "Your recovery is only as good as your last backup! No backup? No recovery..."

So the bottom line is if you customize your Windows 10 installation(s) you will save your self some time and headaches in recreating your profile...