The highly-anticipated Windows 10 will bring a slew of neat treats, but it's also causing some frustration due to the way it handles updates.
With Windows 10, Microsoft has decided to force automatic updates, which may not be a very big deal if it were limited to just security updates. The Windows 10 forced automatic updates, however, extend to other areas as well, including drivers. This is an issue because it can go head to head with third-party drivers and the conflict between them results in various issues.
As Forbes points out, the issue mostly affects NVIDIA users because Windows 10's automatic updates conflict with NVIDIA graphics card updates that use the NVIDIA GeForce Experience. Simply put, users no longer have control over the updates, as Windows 10 will make them all mandatory - including updates to drivers. This move aims to boost security and stability for PC users, but may also cause some headaches along the way.
If both NVIDIA's own update tool and Windows Update handle driver updates, the conflict occurs when they're not properly synced. Each could consider it has the newest driver and try to install it, which would result in a loop, and users cannot stop Windows 10 updates.
A number of users are already reporting issues with multi-monitor setups, as well as SLI dual-card configurations. Others are also complaining that their PCs are no longer booting properly, which throws them in Windows 10 emergency recovery mode.
A growing thread on NVIDIA's official forums already contains numerous complaints from users and reported issues are piling up.
"I'm still unable to use any secondary GPU/PPU (regardless of PCI-E slot or GPU being used) as a dedicated PhysX. An error code 43 will display in device manager for the secondary GPU (no change from 353.30 to 353.54). I'm assuming this may be related to the SLI issue," reports one user.
"Custom resolution doesn't work with this driver... can i roll back to the old driver WITHOUT WINDOWS 10 installing this driver every time? god damn it's annoying," writes another.
Many also complain about flickering and jittering, which affects the connected displays. For others, a second display doesn't work at all. As much as users try to roll back and escape this issue, Windows Update proceeds to reinstall what it wants and it's back to square one.
"For multi screen users, that driver is flat out broken and it is beyond annoying that windows auto updates to it," another user complains.
The issue is even more frustrating because Microsoft has indicated that users who forcibly stop Windows 10 updates could end up without security updates. It remains to be seen how Microsoft will handle this issue, but it should implement a new system for handling updates and working with its suppliers to eliminate such conflicts. Otherwise, the issues will affect more areas and not just related to NVIDIA, and Windows 10 could significantly lose its appeal.
As a reminder, the latest Windows 10 is all set to roll out to PCs later this week, on July 29, so there's still a chance that Microsoft will address issues before the big launch.
