Category Archives: programming

Technical articles about programming

Windows 10 creator’s update creates problems

I must admit that world-wide threads of ransomware make me a little nervous, so I decided to install the Windows Creator’s update on my PC. Did I regret that.

I had two immediate problems:

  1. WiFi connections started dropping.
  2. Hibernate, which is the default setting when I close the lid, started killing all my programs.

It also had some benefits:

  1. … but I didn’t detect any, yet.
  2. Maybe I’m safe for ransomware, though.

The second problem turned out to be the easy one, with the help from this webpage: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-power/windows-10-creators-update-screen-does-not-come/9b000607-de28-40a5-b9ff-0acbdd8a2876

Just switch off some feature that I didn’t know existed. The first problem was harder, though.

I ran some trouble shooters. I followed some step-by-step instructions. I installed some updates. I uninstalled and reinstalled my WiFi drivers. I switched WiFi off and on numerous times in the process, because every other website did not respond. I really got into the habit of switching off and on WiFi between link clicks.
Still no reasonable solution.

In the end, I settled for downgrading my driver, after some tips here: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/27dd19ab-78a2-42fc-accb-34bd949a30a7/windows-10-creators-update-causing-very-slow-wifi?forum=win10itpronetworking

And actually, Microsoft explains you how to prevent it from being “upgraded” again: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3073930/how-to-temporarily-prevent-a-driver-update-from-reinstalling-in-windows-10

I can’t say it feels entirely right, and I will try to upgrade to a newer newer version soon, but problems seem to have gone away for now…

So in steps:

  1. Open control panel.
  2. Right click ‘Device Manager’ and choose ‘Run as Administrator’.
  3. Click ‘Network adapters’ and right-click your WiFi adapter.
  4. Choose ‘Update Driver’
  5. Choose ‘Browse my computer for driver software’.
  6. ‘Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer’ and choose version 17.15.0.5

Now, you still need to prevent Microsoft from updating your drive back to trouble:

  1. Click ‘Network adapters’ and right-click your WiFi adapter.
  2. Choose ‘Update Driver’
  3. Choose ‘Browse my computer for driver software’.
  4. ‘Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer’ and choose any other version than version 17.15.0.5
  5. Install.
  6. Right click your WiFi adapter and choose ‘Properties’.
  7. In the ‘Driver’ tab, choose ‘Roll Back Driver’.

If all is well, this should revert to version 17.15.0.5. But is all is really well, this should also prevent Microsoft Updates from updating you driver to a problematic version.

Hope this helps anyone.