Two More Questions About Windows 10 S (Premium)

Windows 10 S has consistently disappointed. But I keep trying, and in evaluating the latest version, I have some new questions.

As I wrote most recently in the rhetorically-titled Windows 10 S at 6 (Months): Is it Ready Yet? (Premium), Windows 10 S is still not ready for prime time. No one---literally, no one---could use this system without making a lot of compromises and without experiencing a lot of pain. This is irrefutable, and I've made this case many times, so there's no reason to rehash it all here.

And yet. Windows 10 S represents the future of Windows, too, so it is inherently interesting. (Terry Myerson called it "the soul of Windows.") It's not the dumpster fire that Windows RT was, for sure, if only because any customer can painlessly and semi-instantly upgrade the system to the far more capable Windows 10 Pro.

But I keep trying.

Most recently, I blew away the Windows 10 Pro install on my review Surface Laptop with the aim of re-installing Windows 10 S and then moving that to the Windows Insider Preview so I could see how version 1803 is shaping up. As you may know, I am using the current version of Windows 10 S---version 1709, or the Fall Creators Update or Redstone 4---on my Intel NUC, and I use that system for updates to the book Windows 10 Field Guide. So I needed to use a different PC for Redstone 4. And since Surface Laptop comes with Windows 10 S, it seemed like an ideal choice.

The process of getting Surface Laptop back to Windows 10 S version 1709 was surprisingly harrowing. Thankfully, it also raised an interesting new issue with Windows 10 S that is worth discussing.

Any Surface user can visit the Surface support website, enter their PC's serial number, and then download a restore image that will bring that PC back to its stock factory install. In the case of Surface Laptop, that means Windows 10 S version 1703.

As any Windows user could tell you, upgrading that to the latest version of Windows 10, version 1709 plus the January 2018 cumulative update and whatever other Surface Laptop firmware updates are available should be simple: Just check for updates in Windows Update and let nature take its course.

This didn't work, however. Surface Laptop would install a few cumulative updates for version 1703. But the most recent cumulative update kept failing and refused to install. Worse, the device was never offered 1709 at all. Since I intended to install Redstone 4 anyway, I just decided to enroll the PC in the Fast ring of the Windows Insider Program and move along. Simple, right?

Well, that didn't work either. And for the same reason: Error 0x80070659. If you research that error, you'll discover that Microsoft recommends using the system's built-in troubleshooters, which didn't work. Or downloading a Windows Update Troubleshooter tool. Which is a CAB file that ... get this ... actually did run on Windows 10 S. Hm. Also, it found no problems.

OK, that's fine. I resolved to simply install th...

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