Posted April 16, 2021
Carradice: Some say that shutting off works now a bit like hibernation in the sense that some memory is copied to disk? And that therefore a restart may be required to start clean. Do you know anything solid about that?
Yes, it is called "Windows 10 fast startup". It can be disabled in the power options of Windows 10 (and it is a bit hidden, you must check some "Show the hidden power options too." or something...). Whenever I am using a fresh Windows 10 installation, even if it is me installing Windows 10 to some other person, the first couple of things I always do are:
1. Disable "fast startup" in the Power options.
2. Set the power button option to "Shutdown" instead of "Sleep" (so that as a last resort in dire situations, you can always try to shut Windows down gracefully by just hitting the power button, instead of having to do a hard cold power off).
3. Disable all the "shut down hard disk after 10 minutes" etc. for the "plugged in" power options. I consider such options useful only when on battery power, in order to save energy.
Half a year ago I was troubleshooting my friend's Windows 10 mouse problems in his work laptop, and he said that even shutting down Windows doesn't fix it. That sounded odd... until I realized that of course he had that stupid "fast startup" enabled, so when he powered up his Windows, it would just come back to the same error state.
So I told him to run the restart instead, and yep, problem solved. He said he never knew there is a difference between shutdown+start and restart, and I am pretty sure most others also think (wrong) that they are the same thing.
Well, they are the same thing, as soon as you disable that stupid fast startup feature.
Carradice: What I am doing is delaying updates as much as possible, so that if they f*ck it up there is a chance that they fix it or freeze it... Still... Also, not touching some generic drivers that just work: Incredibly, there was the advice of doing so instead of using those of the maker, since the latter might cause trouble O.o
Luckily I am using Windows 10 Pro where there is indeed a way to disable automatic updates completely, so that Windows will NOT install any updates before you run the Windows update manually. I don't think it is possible on Windows 10 Home, at least not without some more serious hacking and/or third-party tools. But of course MS has hidden that "complete option" behind some services application etc., you have to know where it can be disabled. Merely going to the Windows Update page and "disabling" it there doesn't disable it completely.
Post edited April 16, 2021 by timppu