Well, Microsoft has now released their massive annual Fall update for this year.
They’re referring to it as the Windows 10 October 2018 Update, and as usual they’re preparing to roll it out to user’s PCs in stages.
This update is already available for folks who want to install the update manually instead of waiting for it to “roll out” to their machines via the regular update cycle.
Lots of folks have already installed the update on their machines with with no problems whatsoever, but others haven’t been so lucky.
As I mentioned in this post, there is a serious issue with this update that affects computers that have less than 10GB of free space available on the C: drive.
In a nutshell, if there isn’t enough free space for the update to complete as it should, the PC will fail to boot up into Windows after the update has been installed.
Since that post was published I’ve been swamped by messages from readers asking what they need to do in order to avoid a failed update catastrophe. This is what I recommend:
1 – Before you do anything else, follow the steps in this post to create both a ‘System Image Backup’ and a ‘System Repair Disc’.
Having these two items on hand should allow you to fully recover your Windows 10 installation if the update process ends up trashing it.
2- (Optional) If you’d prefer to postpone the installation of this update until Microsoft (hopefully) comes up with a fix for this issue (which they created in the first place), you can set your Internet connection to “Metered”.
Since non-essential updates won’t be downloaded over a “Metered” connection, this is an effective way to at least postpone this year’s massive Fall update until Microsoft (hopefully) comes up with a fix for the insufficient disk space debacle.
If you decide to set your Internet connection to “Metered”, you can do so by following the steps in this post.
And now, one final warning…
Do you have one of the inexpensive laptops that came with just 32GB of flash storage space on the C: drive?
If so, it’s going to be extremely difficult (and maybe even impossible) for you to free up 10GB of free space on that drive. Just sayin’.
If you find yourself in that situation I strongly recommend that you complete BOTH of the steps listed above right away!
Hopefully you’ll be able to postpone the installation of the Windows 10 October 2018 Update until Microsoft (hopefully) fixes this very serious issue.
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