Visual Studio 2015 Update 3 Shenanigans

Day 3 of what the hell happenned to my productivity.

After my little victory of disposing Windows 10 into the pits of hell where it came from, it seemed that yet another Microsoft update-to-break scheme was just waiting to destroy my peace of mind.
As much as I praise Visual Studio's intellisense, the dot Net framework, C sharp, dolphins and a lot more coding conveiniences in its very capable IDE (perhaps the best IDE in this part of the galaxy, at least the best free IDE), it is unfortunate that this too have to suffer with if it's-fixed-break-it mantra of recent updates coming from Microsoft.

As it turns out, the reason it is taking centuries to re-install Visual Studio from my offline installer is because it is being online behind your back. And deploying  bazillion gigabytes of stuff beyond what you thought was just the offline installer.

Out of frustration, I had to violently kill the sluggish installation, because suddenly I had the urge to kill something, if not someone. Forunately I'm not the first one who have to suffer this madness and there have been documented ways to avoid or fix this.

• The aborted installation I killed with blissful pleasure can be somehow cleaned up by re-running the installer with "/unisntall /force" options. To get the most satisfying feeling run it in an admin command line.
• There is a tool called the Visual Studio Uninstaller that futrhter can clean up this mess https://github.com/Microsoft/VisualStudioUninstaller/releases. This indeed appears to remove more stuff beyond what the forced uninstall can do.
• The "/noweb" option should prevent the visual studio installer from installing more stuff out of thin air.  But as this magic fix looks to be good to be true, and since violence is more satisfying and appropriate for moments like this, it would be better to totally disable your network connection (via ncpa.cpl, or phyiscally). What was the point of having an offline installer in the first place anyway?
• In case you're wondering where or what is this so-called offline installer, visual studio can be instructed to just fetch the files and dump them on a specifed foler using the "/layout" option.
• For maximum satisfaction reboot Windows in every possible opportunity while doing these magic tricks.
• In the same, spirit, automatic broken updates can be disabled via "Options > Environment > Extensions and Updates".

Finally had enough of shitty Windows 10 updates!

It doesn't matter how careful I am when using my computer. Window's 10 updates will break it for me. It's not enough that time is already wasted waiting for updates to download, install and repeatedly restart your computer.

Fortunately, I already had a bad feeling before I first upgraded to Windows 10 and had backed up the Windows 7 to a disk image using Macrium Reflect. The first sign is their insistence on a UI that does not know whether it is designed for a desktop or a phone. Even Windows 3.1 had better looking window borders. Not those flat retardedly large buttons that were meant for fat fingers touching the screen. Apple got this right by having Mac and iOS as separate things. And yes, I am writing this rant on a MacBook that never had such stupid shenanigans and had always respectfully asked my consent when updates are available.

Although Apple is not without its fault as I just equally detest how U2's songs of experience ended up in my phone. They did a great job turning U2 from a band that I didn't bother about to a band that I hate, as I now associate them with the out of place mood-ruining noise that randomly vandalizes my classical/instrumental shuffled playlist. Still, Apple offered a remedy to this, though it took me a while to be aware that it can be purged out of my phone.

Going back to Microsoft, it is possible for aesthetics to be forgiven in time, when we just give up caring about it. What can't be forgiven is how, without doing anything out of the ordinary, your Windows machine, left on it's own will become a headache inducing,  booting-to-nothing, broken system. Sure there are ways to disable updates. But the fact that you have to disable updates to avoid this nightmare is already indicative of a deeper, bigger problem.

There are many times that I feel like punching my computer screen, when I'm suddenly greeted by an installing updates when I wished to work ASAP. Even worse, is when the reboot takes forever after the said updates. But punching my machine will only destroy my machine not the culprit of the problem.

Again, to be fair, Windows 7 also is "capable" of updating to a broken state. However, the user had more control over this insane behavior. This was made more confusing to correct on Windows 10.

In the end, I have to ask myself, what does Windows 10 do that I cannot do in Windows 7? I remember being blinded by the promise of the lower audio latency promised in Windows 10. But I'm not doing audio in my machine that broke. And even in the machine where I do audio, it was actually already fine as Windows 7 with the proper drivers and ASIO configured. Beyond that, nothing really impressed me. To hell with Cortana, mobile integration and all that whistles and bells whose absence in past operating systems do not make less useful as a desktop environment. In fact many things become less efficient as I often have to struggle with the inconsistent GUI.

The programs that I use in Windows 10 also have their latest versions available for Windows 7. Even if Windows 7 will no longer be supported by 2020, it is far better to have an expiring stable Windows 7 than the latest Windows 10 that will auto break itself 479 times before reaching the year 2020.

In the past, what made me jump to the Windows 10 bandwagon was the scare tactic of having a one year limited window for the free upgrade. As it turns out this was a downgrade. Upgrades should be about improving what is already there, not changing things into something you didn't ask for. Upgrades are not just about getting newer files and higher version numbers.

I'm glad that the Macrium restore process worked smoothly. I'm still cowardly backing up my current Windows 10. Just in case. You know. Reasons. Who knows, Windows 10 might be better than Windows 19 in a hypothetical techno-dystopian future where Windows 7 would be the spiritual equivalent to DOS.