What could go wrong?

I asked how your Windows 10 Anniversary Edition upgrade went, and my mailbox filled up pretty quickly.

Half of you didn’t get it yet, but want it. Half of you got it and wonder what’s happened.

Interesting!

Use the Upgrade Assistant to get the Windows 10 Anniversary Update

If you haven’t received the Windows 10 Anniversary Upgrade to Version 1607 and you wonder why, here are the probably causes:

• Your computer does not meet criteria (not enough RAM, not enough processing power, out of date drivers...)
• You haven't, for some reason, applied the updates that are prerequisites for the Anniversary Upgrade
• It's less than 30 days since you upgraded to Windows 10 (You'll get it after 31 days)
• You have Windows Update set to defer upgrades (Change the setting in Windows Update)
• There is some problem with Windows Update (Run the troubleshooting tool to try to resolve that)

If you’re sure none of those answers apply to you and you want to get the upgrade, the most straightforward way to do that is with the Windows Upgrade Assistant from Microsoft. Visit the Windows 10 Update History page. Click on the blue box that says Get the Anniversary Update now, and download the file.

When you run it, the Upgrade Assistant will check for compatibility issues and finding none will download the upgrade and begin installing it. Please make sure you’ve backed up your files before you do this upgrade.

Turn off or uninstall your antivirus program. (See this column for more prep information.)

This is going to take some time. You can continue using the computer for the first part of this process, but eventually it’s going to need to reboot several times as the files are installed.

Plan on not using the computer for awhile. One computer here took over two hours. Another was brand new and took about an hour and a half. This isn’t a regular update.

This is an upgrade to the Windows 10 operating system. It takes a long time.

If the upgrade is successful, you need to check a few things, as I noted in this column.

There are still some problems with the Windows 10 Anniversary Update

People who have upgraded in the normal way through Windows Update report that Version 1607 isn’t all rainbows and unicorns.

Problems we had here:

• An older Microsoft mouse that worked fine with the previous version of Windows 10 lagged like crazy after the upgrade. Updating the Microsoft Mouse software and drivers did not help. Replacing the mouse with a Logitech mouse and installing the Logitech Setpoint software solved the problem. Does the AU break older Microsoft mice? That’s hilarious.
• Although I updated all my drivers via the HP site for my HP laptop before the upgrade, the upgrade broke the audio. It would work for a couple of days, then complain there were no audio devices present. I would reinstall the drivers and it would work for another couple of days. HP --- finally --- released a new driver last week (!which appears to have fixed the problem.

Problems reported by readers of this column:

• Upgrade took all night and then failed.
• Lagging Microsoft keyboard. (Did the upgrade break older Microsoft keyboards, too?)
• Windows Update stuck at 32 per cent. (This is almost always a driver issue, but the reader says Microsoft couldn’t resolve the issue. Currently he is running Ubuntu Linux on the computer instead of Windows. Wow.)

Problems reported in other tech sources I read:

Hundreds of users reported freezing and crashing. Yikes.  Microsoft eventually issued a patch, which fixed the problem for most of the affected computers. Prior to that the only way out was to roll back to your previous version.
The AU broke a bunch of webcams. No fix till later this month.

We are back

We had our website overhauled, moved it to a different hosting company and moved our email hosting too.

If you tried to reach me the first part of last week and didn’t hear back, your email is still in limbo. Everything is up and running now; please try again.

Hope you like the new site.

Cate Eales runs Computer Care Kelowna (http://computercarekelowna.com/) a mobile service helping home users and businesses get along with their computers. To arrange an appointment phone her at 250-764-7043. Cate also welcomes your comments and suggestions. Send email to [email protected].

Links

Windows 10 Update History 

Smart Upgrades — Part 1

Smart Upgrades – Part 2 

Windows 10 Anniversary Update freezing on you? Microsoft's looking into it. 

Microsoft fixes Windows 10's Anniversary Update freezing.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.