Windows 10 update broke my computer?

It's in your Settings. Here's a link to instructions. Hopefully, the link works. 

laptopmag

Firstly I apologise for this verbose story , but , I think it may share with others that the problems they have faced are not always of their own volition as some of the assistive replies may suggest. I am a Microsoft user since the first DOS and was brought up on DGs and  floppy disks pre Winchester era.

I am a computer and software professional, my living depends on how I manage my systems and the data it contains, and to date I have followed best practices of maintaining data and structure and strongly advocated others to follow the advice of updating their systems regularly and maintaining a clean system. however , like others here  the last update completely killed my home machine.

However I had cloned the hard disk  ( three times at various time intervals as I had old hard disks available ) and also had stored recovery points and regular  backups. I was ready...not !!. The recovery process did not function correctly, I could only restart in safe mode, I installed the most recent  clone hard disk , that was updated with the new update and it was destroyed. I had done my Chkdsk and sfc options on the clone before I connected to the internet so there were no errors.

So back I went to Clone 2, except I then re-cloned this update so I would not have to go further back than needed if it arrived at the same outcome if and when it updated. Lo and behold it did, and again wipe out the system again, unable to reboot unless in safe mode.

However when once again re cloning the hard disk I verified again that there were no disk or structure issues, fully reformatting it before cloning . So I tested this disk again off the internet and it performed perfectly in all bios and hard disk integrity testing.

Finally I looked at the log of my original clone and it was when I updated to windows 10 from windows 8 , so again I cloned this and ensured that everything was functioning ,  I blocked all updates to the new disk , and , it works perfectly, true I don't get updates , but it works .

One could argue that the later versions became corrupted and I thought the same , so , being an engineer who likes a technical challenge   I cloned the original again , and let Windows do its thing, updating merrily , after numerous updates and resetting restarting and working away ,

I returned with my cup of coffee to find, it had failed again and it was stuck in the same loop. 

After 6 weeks of spending spare time redoing this numerous times , I have spent enough of my time.

So I now cloned the upgraded  original and that's it , I bat away everything I can from Microsoft for updates. Disappointed is probably the best I can say, but honestly if I performed to the standard Microsoft perform I would be justifiably fired from all the support and engineering contracts I have.

I get it if Microsoft want to upgrade the systems that makes older models before 2015 redundant, sometimes backwards compatibility to legacy systems means that the upgrades become overly cumbersome and ineffective. However that does not permit them to just release poor options , have the courtesy and business acumen to at least tell your consumers, and have the forethought to allow them to choose to not upgrade the software. But hey ,,, what am I saying , this is Microsoft 2019

When a computer is correctly installed and correctly maintained afterward the chances of harm caused by an update are dramatically reduced.

Indeed..however in my case, I keep mine tidy on a regular basis. And put off the march 2018 update intil april because I hadn't had chance to clean it up. The win 10 install was in the laptop from new in october 2017 and had run perfectly until the update. After the update it was garbage, and even after a reinstall of win 10, all drivers, etc it now runs slower, takes much longer to boot up and is just generally poorer. 

The average computer user isn't meticulous ir has the time and inclination to make sure every i is dotted and t crossed on a regular basis, just as the average driver isn't a mechanic. MS screwed up (I was as much as told this by the CS manager I spoke to), and know it. They just know most will put up and shut up...or run linux, or buy a mac.

No one is really sure why it affects some the way it does. I thought it was older laptops until I started seeing the posts of people with brand new ones. Mine has now updated several times since then and not had any problems so I am not sure if they fixed the problem or took that particular update down. I work with several IT people, as well as a son with a computer engineering degree, so it isn't like we didn't know what we are doing so to speak. Also, a guy at my husband's workplace that writes programs and such that is a wiz said it was in the program itself or something like that. Anyway, thanks for the response. I was able to retrieve my "life" off the laptop and then do a completely new install. : )

I know your frustration for sure. I've done a clean install a couple of times. I had to run out and buy a flash drive in order to accomplish this. After much effort, I got it working for a few days the first time. The second time it lasted about a day and a half.  It worked so good, that I made sure to "create a restore point". That same night, my mouse started flashing and acting weird so I did a troubleshoot. I assumed it needed an updated driver since I did the clean install.  I was instructed to reboot. Oh boy, I knew that would be a problem and it was.  Rebooting my computer has always caused me trouble, from the day I updated to Windows 10. I've had the blue screen of death on my computer many times over. All it took was a Patch Tuesday.  I tried to roll back to my restore point, well...it timed out and failed. Anyway, the laptop's hard drive is damaged now. I've had to shut down the computer hundreds of times, and finally the hard drive went. It was perfectly fine until the February 2019 update. I'm currently shopping for a new laptop, but I think it's the wrong time of year so I'll just have to wait a bit for a sale. Ok, that's the story on my home laptop. Now for the story at the office...I have come in twice this year to find my printer settings removed. (We're using Windows 7 there.) I would go to print and the IP address had been wiped out. I had to have a professional IT guy assign an IP address. The first time he uninstalled some files from the update or something. What he did to get them operating again was way above my pay grade. Microsoft should be held accountable for these problems and should be held responsible for the cost to fix them. There's something wrong with this whole picture. I haven't been this angry with Microsoft since they forced us out of XP. That was one of the most unfair things that a company could do, especially to small businesses and individuals.