Windows 10’s broken fall update removes user-installed applications without asking first

Ever since Microsoft declared that Windows 10 would automatically install updates and upgrades by default, the company’s response to user concerns and fears about hardware compatibility and software issues has essentially been “trust us.” The company still allows Windows 10 Professional and Enterprise users to defer and delay certain upgrades, and there are software tools that anyone can download to block certain driver updates, but these have been exceptions to the new general rule.

Unfortunately for Microsoft’s users, this policy isn’t working very well. Earlier this week, Microsoft yanked the Media Creation Tool installer for its latest Windows 10 build (version 1511), but not before a litany of complaints poured in. Now, users are reporting that the latest version of Windows 10 isn’t just buggy — in some cases, it uninstalls user software without the user’s permission.

The complaints aren’t universal and it’s not clear if new installs of Version 1511 or upgrades are more likely to encounter problems. What multiple users have reported is that upon installing the latest version, they reboot and find various applications have been removed from their systems. Reddit user ShotgunPanda reports that:

I booted up my PC today and found message from Win10 saying that CPU-Z is no longer compatible with this version of Windows and decides on its own to remove the program from user space along with other programs that Microsoft doesn’t like and starts replacing them with their own Windows apps. Its even removed AMD Catalyst Control Centre and installed its own Win10 drivers.

Shotgunpanda isn’t alone, a post nine days ago from Reddit user sprutkakka identified a similar problem with CPUID. Reinstalling the application “fixed” the issue, at least temporarily, but the larger question is why Microsoft is removing software in the first place.

About two months ago, torrents and piracy sites were banning Windows 10 over fears that it could be used to snoop on and disable software, thanks to clauses in Microsoft’s licensing agreement that included the following:

We may automatically check your version of the software and download software updates or configuration changes, including those that prevent you from accessing the Services, playing counterfeit games, or using unauthorized hardware peripheral devices.

This is clearly a case of misidentification; Windows 10 is disabling software that doesn’t cause problems and that users are legally entitled to install. The problem, of course, is that Windows 10 apparently makes arbitrary decisions about which applications will and will not be allowed to run, then takes unilateral action without user input.

It’s not clear if AMD’s just-released Radeon Crimson software is similarly affected

There are a number of problems with what Microsoft is doing here. First and foremost, it overrides user choice. The end-user may be aware that an application has problems but locked into using it for whatever reason. He or she may be required to use specific applications for work, or need access to specific program functions. Warning the end user that a given application is causing system instability is useful; disabling and removing
that application without warning is not. Disabling or removing an application by mistake is even worse.

Second, Microsoft’s “solution” may well make the problem worse. AMD’s graphics cards depend on the Catalyst Control Center (or the brand-new Radeon Crimson software stack) to function properly. Remove those applications and you can still load a basic video driver, but you’ve locked the end-user out of all of AMD’s advanced options for controlling monitor settings, 3D applications, or video color and stability controls. Some applications have multiple executables for multiple products in a program family — remove one or two of them in the name of increasing system stability, and you break the product suite. Removing an application like the Catalyst Control Center can break uninstaller functionality if it isn’t removed properly, and video drivers have a reputation for being finicky as it is. There’s a reason why people still recommend the use of third-party uninstallers like DDU in 2015 for AMD, Intel, and Nvidia hardware.

It’s also not clear how this feature functions in corporate environments, but it’s easy to imagine it wreaking havoc on system deployments if the computer automatically removes software on systems where users are either restricted from installing new programs or simply lack easy access to the right application installers. This leaves the IT department playing the ultimate game of whack-a-mole, trying to isolate why some users continue having problems and others don’t.

I’m dubious of whether Microsoft can ever make this system work properly, simply because of the sheer variety of hardware, software, and applications that run on Windows. Android and iOS may dwarf Windows’ install base, but neither hold a candle to Microsoft in terms of backwards compatibility. Windows 10 will run on PC hardware that’s a full 12 years old (albeit not particularly well). But trying to vet precisely which applications should and shouldn’t be allowed to run on the OS and make those decisions automatically? That’s never going to work perfectly.

But most importantly — it’s the user’s choice which applications to install and run. Microsoft may have viewed this as the natural extension of SmartScreen, but this is a bridge too far.