Thurrott Daily: December 19

Tech tidbits from around the web.

12/19/2016 8:22:32 PM

Fixing a "stuck" Windows Update on Windows 7

This probably warrants a full article, I know, but I am so over Windows 7 and its inability to find and download Windows Updates. That said, if you're having this problem, I think I have the solution (and no, it's not "just upgrade to Windows 10 already"). Thanks to a few readers who noted my complaining, check out this Reddit thread, which I'm told just works.

Set Windows Updates to 'Never Check For Updates' and Restart

Install KB3020369 & Restart

Install KB3125574 & Restart

Install KB3138612 & Restart

Install KB3145739 & Restart

Install KB3172605 & Restart

We have Offline Updater setup on a server here at work. At this point I run that and let it install whatever updates it finds. Restart. Repeat until Offline Updater doesn't find any more updates. This step is optional, and you can skip to step 7 if you want, but it makes things easier/faster if you do a lot of Win installs.

Check for updates through Windows. As of 7/21/16 when doing above steps it's finding the remaining updates VERY quickly (less than 10 minutes), and only finding a half dozen or so updates (if you did step 6).

*If you are using images for your installs and your image is less than ~6 months old it's probably quicker to skip step #2. CLEAN INSTALLS SHOULD ALWAYS DO STEP TWO!

Thanks everyone. I'd love to never, ever address this topic again. 🙂

Coming OneDrive UI is an exact copy of Dropbox

While I understand the logic of "there's only so many ways you can design a thing," I'm not on board with a coming UI change to OneDrive, which doesn't just mimic Dropbox, but actually copies it outright. MSPowerUser covered the new UI last week:

[Microsoft] is currently A/B testing a new OneDrive flyout design which you can see in the … screenshot that provides a cleaner experience and offers slightly more information. As you can see in the above screenshot, the OneDrive flyout now displays the recently uploaded/downloaded files on your OneDrive which can be a bit useful. Previously, the flyout would only tell you whether your OneDrive is synced or not.

What they don't tell you is that this is a copy. Here's the screenshot they allude to:

And here's what Dropbox looks like:

Microsoft Lumia 950 XL [was] available for just $299 in the US

Not to belabor the point, but I am the Belaborer in Chief: This is the price this phone should have been a year ago. Anyway, MSPowerUser reports, and I shall otherwise ignore because buying this phone would be a huge mistake. (And because it looks like they are both out of stock. Which means that, yes, the swamp has finally been drained.)

Microsoft Store is now selling the Lumia 950 XL device for $299 (was $499.00) in the US. You can also save up to $60 by creating your own Lumia 950 XL accessory bundle. It seems like Microsoft Store has very less [sic] units of Lumia devices in stock, if you are interested, you need to order it before it goes out of stock.

Find the deal at Microsoft Store using the below links:

Lumia 950 XL – $299Lumia 950 – $249

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Source: Thurrott Daily: December 19