From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-10

How much testing does MS do with its updates? This latest one about
Defender, with random pop-up warnings claiming your antivirus is turned
off, seems very basic to me. It should have shown up at the very
elementary testing level.

When it happened here I never suspected for a second that it could be an
MS bug; and that sent me on a wild-goose hunt looking for a local error
or malware.
Time wasted and the feeling that I need to change my OS given a large increase.

Ed
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From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-10

On Wed, 9/9/2026 8:37 AM, Ed Cryer wrote:

How much testing does MS do with its updates? This latest one about Defender,
with random pop-up warnings claiming your antivirus is turned off, seems very basic to me. It should have shown up at the very elementary testing level.

When it happened here I never suspected for a second that it could be an MS bug;
and that sent me on a wild-goose hunt looking for a local error or malware. Time wasted and the feeling that I need to change my OS given a large increase.

Ed

Another question, is why are some people seeing this, and others are not.

One web site claims it affects a range of Windows SKUs.

It hasn't happened in the room here.

And they don't have a fix yet. Patch Tuesday would have been
a great time to fix it, but it likely isn't Patch Tuesday material.

They have been using AI to do vulnerability scans of the software,
and this could be a change to the Security Center to fix a vulnerability,
that went wrong. So rather than "just fix it", they have to
"fix the vulnerability, without breaking Notifications".

Paul
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From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-10

Ed Cryer <ed@somewhere.in.the.uk> wrote:

How much testing does MS do with its updates?

Windows Home users are involuntary beta testers. Then there is the
Insider program. For in-house QA, Microsoft has changed their paradigm
many times, and during the transition there were bound to be hiccups.

"How Microsoft does Quality Assurance (QA)" https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/how-microsoft-does-quality-assurance --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-10

VanguardLH <V@nguard.lh> wrote:

Ed Cryer <ed@somewhere.in.the.uk> wrote:

How much testing does MS do with its updates?

Windows Home users are involuntary beta testers.

I know what you mean, but the uppercase 'H' in 'Home' is possibly
confusing, because it's not about the version of Windows - 'Home' versus 'Professional' -, but about the type of user, i.e. a 'home user' (lower
case 'h').

I say this, because we have both a Windows Home system and a Windows Professional system and they both get the exact same (Windows Update)
updates at the exact same time (except for device-dependent drivers,
etc.).

Then there is the
Insider program. For in-house QA, Microsoft has changed their paradigm
many times, and during the transition there were bound to be hiccups.

"How Microsoft does Quality Assurance (QA)" https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/how-microsoft-does-quality-assurance

--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-10

On 09/09/2026 8:37 AM, Ed Cryer wrote:

How much testing does MS do with its updates? This latest one about Defender, with random pop-up warnings claiming your antivirus is turned
off, seems very basic to me. It should have shown up at the very
elementary testing level.

When it happened here I never suspected for a second that it could be an
MS bug; and that sent me on a wild-goose hunt looking for a local error
or malware.
Time wasted and the feeling that I need to change my OS given a large increase.

Ed

The general understanding is 3-4 week internal test cycle before
deployment to the public. Though some of the included updates may be in
the testing pipeline for more weeks/months prior to reaching the public.

Some of the included updates are pre-released(not the previews the
public receives) to Enterprise clients (primarily security related)
which are used/deployed in virtual environments for testing and feedback.

The issue of the Defender 'bug' caused by the August 2026 update - about
AV being turned off was made known a few weeks ago(public) and about 4
weeks ago in the Enterprise community.

As Paul noted in a recent reply - some devices did *not* experience the
issue until after deploying the Sept 2026 update(which did not fix the
issue). It's more likely, the issue's mitigation will be a combination
of multiple updates(Windows monthly, AV Engine, and AV definitions)
--
...w-i|#-o-#-n|#
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From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-10

Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> wrote:

VanguardLH <V@nguard.lh> wrote:

Ed Cryer <ed@somewhere.in.the.uk> wrote:

How much testing does MS do with its updates?

Windows Home users are involuntary beta testers.

I know what you mean, but the uppercase 'H' in 'Home' is possibly confusing, because it's not about the version of Windows - 'Home' versus 'Professional' -, but about the type of user, i.e. a 'home user' (lower
case 'h').

No, I did mean "Windows Home", not home users.

I say this, because we have both a Windows Home system and a Windows Professional system and they both get the exact same (Windows Update)
updates at the exact same time (except for device-dependent drivers,
etc.).

Except with Pro you can user configurable settings for when to update,
like using a policy whereas that editor is missing from Windows Home.
All policies are registry entries, so a self-motivated and educated user
can do registry hacks to effect policies. Home users (and that's
"Windows Home" users) have to resort to tricks, like registry edits, or tweakers. With Home, you can repeatedly pause when to apply updates
(already pending on your host) for about a week, but you'll have to
remember to re-pause before the latest date you preiously selected.
With Pro, you can pause updates for 25 days, although there is a
registry hack to pause for something like 20 years, so effectively pause forever. I only remember it was a registry edit, so likely a policy,
which means not intended for Home users. That was in Win10. In Win11, Microsoft allowed 1 to 5 weeks to pause updates, and maybe that was for
both Home and Pro; however, this is the Win10 newsgroup.

https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-delay-windows-10-updates

That mentions the registry hack to up the pause delay for a year. That
article first mentions using the policy editor. Well, Home users don't
have that, so they have to defer to registry edits to effect policies.
How many Home users edit the registry? Yeah, they shy away from that.
While the article mentions how to use the policy editor in Pro, it
doesn't mention the registry value that changes that could be altered in
Home.

There have been other tricks in the past to disable updates, but many
were killed off by Microsoft by incorporating updating in other
services, or having updates then use yet another method. You have to
dig into the inocuously named services to figure which can spur updates,
plus check for [new] Task Scheduler events (some of which are encoded to disallow user editing).

Found the following, but haven't tested to verify you can pause updates
for 10 years:

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/discussions/windows11/how-to-get-rid-of-windows-update-on-windows-11-permanently/4551665

Registry Method: Pause Updates for Up to 10 Years

This is a clever "official backdoor" that extends the default 5-week
pause limit to a maximum of 3650 days (~10 years).

- Press Win + R, type regedit, and press Enter to open Registry
Editor.
- Navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsUpdate\UX\Settings
- In the right pane, right-click > New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
- Name it FlightSettingsMaxPauseDays.
- Double-click the new entry, set Base to Decimal, and enter a value
like 3650 in Value data.
- Click OK and close the Registry Editor.
- Go to Windows Update settings; you should now be able to pause
updates for the extended period.

I did the above, but the update delay duration did not increase. I
suspect a restart of Windows is required to reread the registry to apply
this change in a new session of Windows.

This is what Home users have to do. How many would even try? Pausing
updates in Pro is much easier. You can do Pro tasks in Home, but
through circumvention to the normal blockage in Home.
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-10

On Wed, 9/9/2026 1:47 PM, Frank Slootweg wrote:

VanguardLH <V@nguard.lh> wrote:

Ed Cryer <ed@somewhere.in.the.uk> wrote:

How much testing does MS do with its updates?

Windows Home users are involuntary beta testers.

I know what you mean, but the uppercase 'H' in 'Home' is possibly confusing, because it's not about the version of Windows - 'Home' versus 'Professional' -, but about the type of user, i.e. a 'home user' (lower
case 'h').

I say this, because we have both a Windows Home system and a Windows Professional system and they both get the exact same (Windows Update)
updates at the exact same time (except for device-dependent drivers,
etc.).

Then there is the
Insider program. For in-house QA, Microsoft has changed their paradigm
many times, and during the transition there were bound to be hiccups.

"How Microsoft does Quality Assurance (QA)"
https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/how-microsoft-does-quality-assurance

The names of the SKUs have changed a bit over the releases.
On WinXP, there might have been a Starter (with a 3 application limit at runtime),
as well as a Home. On another OS version, Home was referred to as Core.
It would be pretty hard for anyone writing an article like this,
to get all the details right.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_10_editions

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_11

"Other editions

Other editions include...
These editions remain fundamentally the same as their Windows 10 edition counterparts."

As for how to test, any time peripherals are involved, there
is a certain amount of peripheral test going on. A business can
have room after room, with tables and racks set up, and
they buy one of every printer and the printer is available
for test. The equipment and the space used, are a drain on
the business. Not all test, is just "pure software" and
"test benches". The WHQL Microsoft does, likely involves
a large collection of hardware. If Microsoft does printing frameworks
as a software, they could test for regressions on their printer collection.

Think how crusty the File Sharing test area must be...
Versions and Dialects, the same fucking bugs present year
after year after year... When you make a fresh connection to a machine
that has shares, the machine has responded, it has 1 to N shares on it,
you click on a share and "nothing happens". That's an example of a bug
that's been around for more than a decade now. Eventually the share
responds after a protracted delay. The condition is not always
reproducible. Sometimes the response is instantaneous (just to annoy
you more, when it doesn't work).

Paul
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From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-10

MS got rid of its QA back in 2014 according to https://duckduckgo.com/?q=microsoft+eliminated+QA+team. :(

Ed Cryer <ed@somewhere.in.the.uk> wrote:

How much testing does MS do with its updates? This latest one about Defender, with random pop-up warnings claiming your antivirus is turned
off, seems very basic to me. It should have shown up at the very
elementary testing level.

When it happened here I never suspected for a second that it could be an
MS bug; and that sent me on a wild-goose hunt looking for a local error
or malware.
Time wasted and the feeling that I need to change my OS given a large increase.

Ed

--
"Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love, and in endurance." --Titus 2:2. Star Trek & Adam Sandler R 60! Green owl should sue Apple 4 using his Duo name!
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://aqfl.net & http://antfarm.home.dhs.org.
/ /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
| |o o| |
\ _ /
( )
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From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-10

On 10/09/2026 in message <1intrjpiqs5wp$.dlg@v.nguard.lh> VanguardLH wrote:

Except with Pro you can user configurable settings for when to update,

Pro has the RDP sever as well of course, Home only has the client.

On the subject of updates why oh why can't we have the Win 8.1 option of downloading updates but not installing them until we choose to?
--
Jeff Gaines Dorset UK
If you ever find something you like buy a lifetime supply because they
will stop making it
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From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-10

VanguardLH <V@nguard.lh> wrote:

Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> wrote:

VanguardLH <V@nguard.lh> wrote:

Ed Cryer <ed@somewhere.in.the.uk> wrote:

How much testing does MS do with its updates?

Windows Home users are involuntary beta testers.

I know what you mean, but the uppercase 'H' in 'Home' is possibly confusing, because it's not about the version of Windows - 'Home' versus 'Professional' -, but about the type of user, i.e. a 'home user' (lower case 'h').

No, I did mean "Windows Home", not home users.

I say this, because we have both a Windows Home system and a Windows Professional system and they both get the exact same (Windows Update) updates at the exact same time (except for device-dependent drivers,
etc.).

Except with Pro you can user configurable settings for when to update,
like using a policy whereas that editor is missing from Windows Home.

But the OP was about "How much testing does MS do with its updates?",
not about whether updates could be delayed/prevented.

[...]

With Home, you can repeatedly pause when to apply updates
(already pending on your host) for about a week, but you'll have to
remember to re-pause before the latest date you preiously selected.

With Home (and Pro) you can pause for 1-5 weeks.

[...]

That was in Win10. In Win11,
Microsoft allowed 1 to 5 weeks to pause updates, and maybe that was for
both Home and Pro; however, this is the Win10 newsgroup.

AFAIK, also in Windows 10 you can pause upto 5 weeks (perhaps not in
the very first versions of 10, but surely later). But I can not be
bothered to try to resurrect our Windows 10 systems to check this.
Perhaps another Windows 10 Home user can confirm/deny.

BTW, your pcmag.com reference clearly says: "In Win 10, click Pause
updates for 7 days up to five times for a total of 35 days. You can
also click Advanced Options ...", so this is a non-issue AFAIC.

As to "however, this is the Win10 newsgroup": I think this was posted
to the wrong group, because, as said, the OP was about "How much testing
does MS do with its updates?", which, in combination with the mentioned Defender problem, seems to refer Windows 11, not 10 (Yes, I know about
ESU), but only Ed can tell either way.

https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-delay-windows-10-updates

[Much more stuff about delaying updates deleted.]

This is what Home users have to do. How many would even try? Pausing updates in Pro is much easier. You can do Pro tasks in Home, but
through circumvention to the normal blockage in Home.

The 'Pause updates' section (for both Home and Pro) now has 'Pick a
date' with a 36-day calendar, not really rocket science, is it!?
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-10

Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> wrote:

AFAIK, also in Windows 10 you can pause upto 5 weeks (perhaps not in
the very first versions of 10, but surely later). But I can not be
bothered to try to resurrect our Windows 10 systems to check this.
Perhaps another Windows 10 Home user can confirm/deny.

BTW, your pcmag.com reference clearly says: "In Win 10, click Pause
updates for 7 days up to five times for a total of 35 days. You can
also click Advanced Options ...", so this is a non-issue AFAIC.

https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-delay-windows-10-updates

[Much more stuff about delaying updates deleted.]

This is what Home users have to do. How many would even try? Pausing
updates in Pro is much easier. You can do Pro tasks in Home, but
through circumvention to the normal blockage in Home.

The 'Pause updates' section (for both Home and Pro) now has 'Pick a
date' with a 36-day calendar, not really rocket science, is it!?

No, not rocket science, but I have NEVER seen a "pick a date" calendar
appear when pausing updates. Must be a Windows 11 option. In Windows
10, I see a drop-down list of available dates to which updates can be postponed, and that drop-down list is limited to the next 6 days, so 1
week with today included.

https://i.pcmag.com/imagery/articles/05RLWuLPB1BAjwlWX52nivd-23.fit_lim.size_1152x.png

Maybe in Windows 11 the "Select a date" option is listed in the
drop-down list. It isn't there in Windows 10 Home 22H2. Below are
screenshots of what *I* see when I pause updates:

Option to "Schedule the restart" to apply updates (updates have
already been forcibly downloaded with prompt, and await a restart):
https://imgur.com/a/P7RIK7p

Pause wizard (after picking to schedule a pause):
https://imgur.com/a/NuWlrx4

Showing a list of pause choices:
https://imgur.com/a/toOjbvW

I have 2 pending updates. They were downloaded without prompting for my permission to do the downloads. So, they sit in readiness awaiting a
restart of Windows to commit the updates.

I don't have a Win11 host to test, but Microsoft's own article at:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/updates-lifecycle/pause-updates-in-windows

says:

Windows 11 - Pause up to 35 days
Windows 10 - Pause up to 7 days

I have Windows 10 Home 22H2 at home, and I can only pause, by default,
for another 6 days out, not for 35 days. I can revisit (before the
current defer expires) the update wizard to keep moving out the end of
the pause, but only a week at a time, not for 5 weeks all at once.

Having to remember to re-pause before the current one expires to accrue
up to 35 days total is obviously a ploy to accomplish the update. How
many users keep revisiting the updates wizard to re-pause? You don't
get 35 days straight away. You have to accrue it over several pause
renewals. Each re-visit to the update wizard says:

Pause for 7 more days
^^^^

In Windows Home, you don't get a choice of 35 days all at once in ONE
pause. In Windows Pro, you can use the policy editor to pause updates
for 1 year. Since all policies are registry entries, you can use a
registry hack in Home to get the same 1-year pause (all at once, not in
1-week increments of renewing the pause).

There are tricks that can make Home almost the same as Pro, but with
lots of hacks; however, those hacks highlight that Home was not intended
to be Pro. While many updates are offered concurrently for Home and
Pro, Pro users can defer much more easily. I'm not saying deference
cannot be equated between Home and Pro, but that it was intended for
Home users be the involuntary beta testers by making pausing more
cumbersome and obtuse.

Instead of you choosing to leave an elevator, some huge guy is pushing
you when the door opens. The vast majority of passengers will get
pushed out early rather than when they choose. Home is the [post-]beta
testing platform for Microsoft.

Note: After performing the registry hack previously mentioned, there is
a workaround. Instead of clicking on "Schedule a restart", and picking
a date only 1 week out, click on "Advanced options" where you can pick
an overall pause interval. I already did the registry hack, so I can
elect to pause for 3650 days (10 years). I don't know what the default interval is without the registry hack. I picked Aug 11, 2027. Back in
the update wizard, the "Schedule a restart" link is gone, and there is
instead a "Resume updates" link. So, how far out does Advanced Options,
by default (no registry hack), let you elect to defer updates? How many
users go to Advanced Options to set the pause interval there? Obviously
not many. Even you didn't mention it.

If you discover Advanced Options along its own pause setting, what is
the DEFAULT max pause interval available *without* doing the registry
hack to up the value of FlightSettingsMaxPauseDays? Maybe it's 35 days,
but in Home you have to keep incrementing at 1-week intervals, and
remember to increment before the current pause expires.
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