Microsoft will list Windows 10 update details just for 'significant' improvements

First i know its 10 months old, but I am replying for informational purposes. If you believe this information is uselss to us IT professionals, then you are surely mistaken. Even if it says 'patch security hole in IE' it still is extremely useful to know. I will tell you why, there are 10000s of companies that use proprietary software that is specifically built for them, or for their particular business/use. Alot of times such software is so specific to their setup and needs that certain updates can break the use of such software. uninstalling these updates will fix such issues, but if we do not know what updates may of interfiered with the software, it substantually changes the time it takes to narrow down such issues. It is extremely useful to us techs that work with 100s of such businesses, to be able to read on what the updates change. It is true this information is useless to the consumer, but it is still important that if a consumer wants to know such information, that it be available for the consumer to read, because the software may be owned by microsoft, but the computer is not, and a consumer has a right to know what microsoft is putting on their computer. Honestly has nothing to do with the information being useless or not, it has to do with respect and rights, a company like microsoft should not get away with changing your computer without telling you what they are changing, regardless if they own the software or not.

Ok. So yesterday our laptop was indicating 'limited' network connection to the home WiFi. My wife asked me to fix it. Checking Windows update, sure enough there were 3 updates due. After a restart, checking update again, more updates and another restart I managed to get the laptop back in working order.
Two issues: 1) the resolution was far from discoverable. I despair to think how this impacts the less tech savvy. 2) This kind of rigmarole is an almost weekly occurrence on all my PC's. It was on Win7, 8, 8.1. I'm horrified it still is on Win 10.
I'm sure it isn't just me as it is on all my pc's and I use pretty standard settings.
This bullshit user experience is exactly why people are moving away from Windows to IOS, Android and Mac.
I was so hoping the Windows Update model would be fixed in Win 10. Clearly it isn't. This will be the death of Microsoft.

Any additional feature, or feature change is worth highlighting so the tech evangelists have reason to talk about your operating system or a feature that can get non-users excited.

THIS!!

We fixed this bug and that bug and that bug and this other bug.

LOL well said

I mean, no matter how tiny the changes are, I like to know what update I'm downloading. Especially since if something goes wrong, you know where to look.

Do you really help you know where to look? Obviously, if you installed an update and there are issues right after that, you know the update caused it. How does knowing that they patched a dozen bugs in a dozen diffferent apps help you? You just roll back the whole update.

Yeah! Or else those isheeps will dominate more. Come on, youve done it once, Just continue the hype MS!

ISheep don't dominate anything on the desktop, they are an insignificant tiny percentage.

This made me smile :) because it's true! On TV, they're all over the place. But in reality, they're a tiny blip... I was given a Macbook, used for about a week. I was FAR less productive on it than on Windows, so I formated it with a Windows partition and used it only with Windows. Battery life was worse, and it didn't perform so well, but hey! Better than nothing. THEN I got the SP2 :) Probably the greatest PC I've owned :) My fiancee has a SP3 and I want to steal it! haha. Let the hipsters have their iCrap :) Gimme a Windows PC / Tablet / Server any day! 

AGREED! This same philosophy should also be applied to the app store.

Those would qulaify as major changes. Letting you know that they patched a security issue or improved performance in some app doesn't really help you. The only reason to tell you this is to get you to install it. Since it is being installed automatically, why do you need to know?

Sexy Dell laptop.

So how do we identify a problem in case the update messed up my PC?

This

Indeed! We don't want to partake the guessing game.

Maybe for each correct guess you got 1 free apps

Why would i want a feature lacking app. Come on, not even Microsoft's free Mail app offers support to see all inboxes at once. Posted via the Windows Central App for Android.

But it does... on Android and iOS :D

How did you identify it before? Are you telling me that after you installed an an updated that might have included 20 different fixes and something went wrong, you read every KB article that was included in teh update? If you did, you are telling me that you actually found those KB articles useful in identifying the problem? Be honest. I've tried reading those article, They are rarely useful.

Exactly, I dont really see how this is a change. Instead of saying "We fixed a problem that coulld cause problems on your PC", they just dont say anything. Most of the descriptions have been nonsense for a long time anyway.

I can't remember the last time I've seen a changelog on a Microsoft app.

The Health app has one, lol.

I suppose their reasoning is that since you can't opt out of updates, you're going to install them whether you know what's in them or not, so why bother detailing them?

This

Still that doesn't mean that there will be lack of documentation about the updates. Consumers doesn't need to know this at all but there some, especially for technicians and for troubleshooting purposes, this is helpful. Also this gives transparency to the changes in Windows.

Killing off even some of the change logs is a lame move, especially now that updates are mandatory...

Just waiting for the apps to SD option to open up. Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

Microsoft should just put the last date when the apps were updated for Windows 10 store in both PC and mobiles

I can understand providing a slimmed down changelog for the masses, but those of us in the Insider program getting pre-release stuff should be getting the full changelog. We generally are aware of and are looking for changes that would go largely unnoticed to less technical folks.

Paul Thurrott just spoke of this on Wednesday. Episode 427 Windows Weekly

Buying Nokia was one of the biggest mistake ever made by Microsoft... A total loss of money.

And, in the given context, your point is...??

Lol wrong article?

Yeah, wrong article and wrong about Microsoft buying Nokia....long term it will make money as with the Surface and Xbox that also had large losses but now making profits.

Cool for Lenovo..best

Crappy move my MS. Alienates those in the IT side of things that need to show and prove why an update needs pushed thru. For general customer this is fine, for enterprise customers this is going to be a very bad move.

Cool for cats....they rule YouTube.

Changelogs for small things? Waste of time for both parts, in hindsight.

I'm sure there are already internal change logs. But it probably comes down to making them public freindly and multi-lingual.

Still no fix for realtek ethernet problem :(

PC crashed during an update system restart w8 style. Does refresh do a destructive restore

Insiders, lets change this! :)

You got to trim the fat too make a profit. Humans are expensive. Easy place to save some money.

I hate writing change logs myself but I do it anyway.

Cry if you do. Cry if you don't. MS can't win with some people.

Then, Microsoft told us of the significance... https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GUS3ZpgMORg

Please fix the damn Edge on winmobile, it sucks big time.

That XPS 13 is looking really good

I'm sure enterprises will get full changelogs, the consumer... perhaps it's not that important

At least the insiders should be able to read the change log..

is direct NSA connection significant feature?

If it's there do you really think they will tell you in a change log? Google updates chrome automatically all the time. Scanning a person's social activities is probably more useful than scanning the docs he has on his computer. you think the NSA might be using Chrome to see if someone is using a jihadist website? Any good conspiracy theory will have no proof and any denials are viewed as companies protecting themselves. The only right answer for a conspiracy theorist is one the confirms their suspicions. The snowden leak included google, Apple, and other tech companies. What make you think that siri and google now are not directly connected to the NSA?

You have to install it to find out what's in it. So Microsoft has put Nancy Pelosi in charge of updates?

When Apple does an update, they say that there are hundreds of improvements, but they will only discuss the major user facing features they added. No one has a problem with this. Why do you all need to know about every bug fix and patch? How on earth will it help you in any way? People install updates. If everything works, they are happy. If something doesn't work, they hit the tech sites to complain and then wait for a fix from Microsoft or any work arounds people discover. Guess what. None of that will change. You only care about what's in an update if something goes wrong. When it does go wrong, those change logs aren't going to help you. In the past, they might help identify a particular patch and you can roll back the update if you know the update dealt with same area that you are now having problems with. However, the updates are coming as cumulative updates. You would have to roll back the whole thing. The change logs won't help you at all. They are only useful to let users know of any new features or UI changes.

Not good at all. I'm afraid of what MS is becoming.

Yes,​I am a bit disappointed. Wil make troubleshooting more difficult. And even with release of windows 10 bugs and issues to solve have not become any easier to solve. It's still a game of communities and forums. I haven't seen big changes with Microsoft support in my experience. Sorry for my pessimism. It's difficult to not ignore reality. Also no changeligs in windows 10 store is sometimes frustrating. ​ ​ ​ ​

How is dell 13 7000series ? Am thinking to buy one plz help....

How about asking in the forums instead of the comments on some random article.

To me, the bigger issue are the updates that Microsoft may be stealthily downloading to my computer without any notification or history of files being added, patched or replaced. My last recorded update was KB3081438 on 8/15/15, yet my nearly barebones desktop gets unresponsive at times and HDD activity suggests something is going on.  A check of the likely culprit during those periods, my antivirus, reveals it is not to blame. I suppose it could be any number of things but the fact that Microsoft has the ability to invade my computer at their whim, to check for needed updates, or to look for pirated software just adds to the Orwellian nightmare that we in America are experiencing lately. I guess it's true... sometimes free isn't necessarily better. I've been strongly considering going back to Windows 8.1 for the last week.  I may just make the jump this weekend.

Please read the pirated software section in the service agreement again. You will notice it is talking about services, not software. That agreement came from xbox and refers to blocking pirated software on their xbox live service. They are not going into your computer to erase pirated games. They have been doing this on xbox for years and since everything is merging, it was added to windows 10. You can read articles from Paul Thurrot or Mary Jo Foley that expalin this. I believe there was an article on this site as well. However, I'm sure you prefer to get your news from two bit bloggers who post click bait articles to get views and don't have the slightest clue about how technology works. Checking for updates is a normal function on most software. Most software checks for updates. Antivirus, Adobe, Intuit, Java, etc all check for updates. Why would you expect you OS to not stay up to date?

Something installed

They are probably updating their spy ware ;) Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

How to activate calendar and other notification in lock screen?...There are no such option under settings on my Dell Inspiron 15, running Windows 10 Pro.