How can I even tell if windows updates are safe? (Windows 10)

[MonkeySage]

I haven't updated my computer in months. Reason: Every time I have, the update caused me nothing but grief and pretty quickly forced me to restore without the update. The updates do nothing but make my computer worse. So I don't trust them. I don't let it update. I delay updates for a month, then when that month is up and the computer prompts me to update, I delay again. Why should I accept broken updates anyway?

Not a permanent solution, probably not even a smart one. I'm dumb when it comes to technology. I see an update that wrecks my computer, I don't let it happen again. The last time I called customer service about this crap, I told them that the most recent essential update prevented me from even logging in without compatibility mode or whatever it's called. And because I couldn't receive *any* updates without first receiving the broken update, i decided i wouldn't update. Months later, I decide "maybe they fixed the problem?" and allow my computer to update... and once again, it rendered my computer unusable. Not a good look.

Every time since then that I've been prompted to update, I've refused. I want to keep using my computer, and I'm sick of all the broken updates.

So how can I ensure that I never receive a broken update again? How can I safely update my system?

[DeTess]

This is a hard question to answer, as it's to a certain degree specific to your computer. I run windows 10 and have had none of the issues you describe. Others might have had similar ones though.

The two main reasons for your issues I can imagine are:

1. hardware incompatibility: If your computer is really, really old (like, pushing past a decade) there might be issues there. In my current computer I originally planned to have a wifi card. However, I'd just opted for a cheap and already fairly old one, and it just didn't play nice with my OS, in a 'the computer just doesn't get past the boot screen after a major update' way. Luckily I was somewhat tech-savvy and managed to narrow it down to the wifi card fairly quickly, and once I removed it and went back to a good old LAN cable everything worked just fine.

This could be solved by just getting a new computer, but that's not really a solution at all. You could try replacing the part that's causing issues, but you'd need to be fairly tech-savvy to find the part and perform the switch.

2. Software issues: Something you have on your computer doesn't play well with windows. This something might be a corrupted registry entry, or some malware or similar. This can be solved by basically just wiping and reinstalling your computer from the ground up (after backing up the data you want to keep to an external drive or similar, of course). That is a hassle, but might be worthwhile.

[snowblizz]

I've never had any issues that Windows didn't fix itself on restart with Win10.

That said I've seen the worst thing happen, a computer, a Surface Pro (5) so a Microsoft "made" one that was trashed by a win10 update. Seems it was incompatible with the SSD disc and literally break the "disc". Had to send it to MS for warranty replacement.

Unfortunately there's not a lot one can do. It should be rare occurrence that updates don't work.

I would suggest getting a new Windows feature update manually. The feature update is effectively what passes as new version of Win10. If you've not update for a long time odds are there is a "new" Windows10 you can try. Current one should be 1904. If you get the new one as full upgrade you can probably skip the problematic update.

Not sure if I understood it right but if have multiple different updates that mess up the system then it's not the updates but your hardware or software that does it. Ie if it was one update then MS messed up with something for one config of hardware/software. They have once even rescinded an entire feature update (the one who broke the Surfaces) so it is possible the problematic update is gone.The last part is why I'd suggest manually downloading the entire new latest feature update off MS.

[sihnfahl]

I think one thing that'd help is a quick sysinfo. We could see if any gear in your machine might not be well supported...

[Telok]

I almost hate to say it but... It's possible that your best option might be taking to a local shop (reputable, been in business 10+ years, that sort of thing) that does used computer sales and repairs. It'll cost, but not as much as a new computer.

Unfortunately the wide variety of things that could possibly be wrong makes things like this hard to troubleshoot without the fixer having access to the busted computer.

Did you upgrade from Win7? Do you have a disk and a key code? Do you ever make backups of your hard drive or files?