Windows 10 issues

[rick gurnee]

This is the first year I have used Windows 10 for my show computer and I have an issue that others might also have.  This forum has been so helpful over the years I thought I would give back with the solutions I have found.  The problem is Windows 10 does automatic updates to its operating system when it wants to and this often results in a reboot of the system.  Even if this reboot does not take place during the show, it leaves the PC waiting for the user to login.  If you don't notice this when the next show is suppose to starts, it won't because you haven't logged in.

I have three solutions for this.

First, set your "active hours" to include your show times.  Windows will not update your PC during your active hours.  This can be done by going to Settings (right click on the task bar and select Settings) select Update and Security and select Change Active Hours.  Note, you can have a maximum of 12 hours active.

Second, if you want to stop Windows from doing any updates (and I don't necessarily recommend this) you can go into the network settings and set your WIFI connection to metered.  If a WIFI connection is metered, Windows will not download any updates, instead it will notify you that updates are available and you can manually download them when you want.  Do this by going into Settings and selecting Network and Internet, select Show Available Networks and select your network and select properties.  The last property is Metered Connection.  Set this to On.

Finally, you can have Windows automatically log you in after a reboot so that the reboot can happen without your intervention.  This can be done by holding down the Window key (the button that has the Windows logo on the bottom left corner of the keyboard) and typing R. In the window that pops up type: NETPLWIZ and select OK.  At the top of this new window is a box that is checked that says "user must enter a user name and password".  Uncheck this and select OK.  it will prompt you for your user name and password that will be used to automatically login from now on.

I am using the first and third solution and it seems to be working well.

[75redman]

Thanks for the info.  I right now use an older computer with win7 to run my show and a new computer with win10 that I do all my programming on.  Next year I will be using my new computer to run everything so thanks for the heads up. 

[Brian Mitchell]

I do not have my show computer connected to the internet.   It creates too many variables.

I have an old beater computer running my show perfectly.  It's got a little 20 gig hard drive and runs on Windows XP.     If you aren't heavy into pixels, almost any old computer will run a show.

[bobschm]

Once the computer is up for the season, I turn off the wifi. I also tell it never to sleep. The only network windows sees is the LOR Ethernet with no internet connection. So it can't do any updates without me there. 

[bobschm]

Whoa! I have to correct myself here!

This is the first season running Win10 on the show computer. I noticed that every morning, it was totally locked up.  Even though all sleep and power down modes were disabled and automatic updates were off, I suspected it was stalled waiting for internet access. When I say locked, I mean LOCKED. Not even ctrl-alt-del worked. No response from mouse or keyboard. It had to be unplugged to power it down and reboot.

Turned on wifi, and thus internet access, and it hasn't stalled in several days. 

So maybe Win10 MUST have internet?