Windows Updates, the terrible future of M$

I was in the middle of this post and made the terrible mistake of running Windows updates while typing, but I haven't had issues in some time so I figured 'whatever.'

A terrible mistake

IDK WTF is going on at M$... but wow. \

Your recent update not only removed my MBR (as in, completely fucking deleted it), it also managed to blork the bootrec tool. After digging up my disc and getting it to work and fix my MBR issue, I come back to the wrong date and time (2008?) and this BS:

which I didn't install, and isn't on my add/remove list. Thanks M$, really.

This is 'testing' in the new age for M$. Just leave the user to figure it out.
I wouldn't doubt that I'll get calls for something like this later this week if it happens elsewhere.

I constantly see posts here and elsewhere dealing with issues like 'I now get BSODs frequently' or 'My device drivers are missing' or 'I didn't install that'
or, let's not forget my personal favorite:
'the new update made my machine unbootable'
which is like every windows 10 machine I've dealt with.
Its funny, because I have many users who say things like 'but I barely used it' and its difficult to explain to them how a shitty OS update caused the problem. Its hard to convince end-users they should keep their machines updated with shit like this happening constantly.

On the other side of the coin, I'm complaining a lot but dumb stuff like this keeps me in business, with a constant flow of customers willing to pay 40$+ just to fix issues like this in a timely manner.

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Welcome to the fucking future!

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I whine about it a lot and i charge 75 pop for basic maintenance :) Which, as far as i am concerned. Isn't enough verses the time spent. Windows 10 is gonna make raise my price :)

I'd charge $150. Double that price.

Offer discounts on Linux transitions too.

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Our local one shop is 125 and they suck. Very sloppy work with no tools for the user to use for themselves. Needless to say, they hate me :) My customers after awhile stop coming for basic maintenance and bring me real problems to solve.

You know oddly, I have had ZERO problems with customers and Windows 10 updates. I myself haven't had any problems with the most recent updates minus what I noticed with the latest update. You can no longer press a key and or use the other tried and true tricks to restart without updating Windows.

That bothers me, but it's not too big. I've also not noticed programs being added to my machine without my permission. I monitor all my applications, and haven't seen anything. I swear, when it comes to OS problems I get the weird ones instead of the common ones.

I'd still raise your prices. They won't be super happy, but bring your price up to $120. You're still below the local shop and you provide a better service. Don't under-sell yourself, that's how you stay poor. You can make a living doing computer support freelance. Learn to support small businesses in your local area and you'll start making bank.

Don't charge them hourly. Get them on a support contract. EX:

$500/mo gets the business 12 hours of support and business hours monitoring of their production systems.

Obviously, this needs to be tailored depending on what the business has, but I supported a couple of small law firms in High School and when I was failing at college. Switched their backend systems over to Linux and stopped getting support tickets because everything just worked. They also appreciated the reduced cost of infrastructure since no Winblows licenses.

Half the time, if you do your job well, you won't hear from them all month but you'll still collect $500 for doing nothing. Good passive income to start covering your auto and general liability insurance.

Oh yeah, definitely get general liability insurance. It's super cheap and protects you in case you make a mistake like drop an iphone you're restoring data from, cracking the screen. Stupid stuff like that can dip into your profits quite a bit.

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Never really intended to do what i am doing :) You are right, if you do not value your time no one else will :)

I see more stuff that gets uninstalled then anything. My favorite programs is missing. Man, they are pissed. I don't blame them. Boot loops and driver issues.

I've got a friend making almost 70k a year doing what you're doing. Definitely not bad.

Is this something you are happy with for the forseeable future? I may do an article on this in the future.

Never intended. Consider it sanitation. Making the internet a cleaner place and empowering the average person as I continue to learn and grow my own skills. In my area, that is very needed. If i did that, it literally would have to be small business support or you would be stuck in feast and famine.

Wow really? I need to get on that. I have a business and yeah, makes me think I'm kind of undercharging for things. Maybe a up charge is in order.
I mean stuff like this annoys me but keeps me in business. Lack of user knowledge means you will have job security

It really depends on a lot of things.

let's put it this way: the higher the cost of living, the more you make and the more spending money you can have.

What do your prices currently look like? I'd definitely encourage anyone who's not really sure what they want to do with their life to start with PC support as a means to pay for college or just start making money. (I can totally see someone paying for about 1/2 of a 4 year uni if they start doing PC support at 16)

Yup. Read that. This whole stupid driver fight with windows 10 just keeps taking this to stupid land. Every month :( You will buy all new and only use the software we tell you to ..............

I've been using W7 with the updates turned completely off for over a year now. The stuff they have been pulling recently is ridiculous. I can't imagine using Microsoft's current OSs for my every day driver. They are off the deep end with this nonsense.

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Absolutely agree. I also turned off the updates.

I don't consider myself a professional by any means, but I am that guy that everyone comes to when they have PC problems, need it upgraded or a new one built.
The last 6 months I've been turning down anything that involved Win10 or Skylake (the latter mostly due to all the hoops you have to jump through if you want to install Win7 on it). Don't care if that killed any chance of turning it into a profession.
I like Linux and use it on a regular basis, but am nowhere near good enough to do tech support on that platform and my "customers" wouldn't jump ship because of their games anyway.

It's gotten so bad that I'm in the process of rethinking my PC's entire setup. I'll probably put Linux on the NVMe drive and use the hotswap bay for when I need to run Windows. I'll just put Win7 on an SSD and insert that when I need to do something that I really can't do in Linux. That should solve my update woes once and for all.

The biggest ill I am running into is every month. They undo some if not all that has been done to fix an issue. You just can't allow windows to update at all :( Ya , hot swapping my windows drives. Win 10 has been demoted to a 64 gig ssd :) My linux distros get 120.