This is why everyone should make backup images.
Going back would have been very easy.
More on that in a second. Right now, I have no backup arrangement other than haphazard manual file copies. So I'm going to pull back from the thread for a couple of days as I comb through the files that I can collect on flash drives before a 23H2 install.
The rest is unrelated to the thread, but context on how I got to this point, if anyone wants to skip the rest of this post entry.
I'm not saying this for drama or validation but I've had horrid experiences with backups beginning 10 years ago with Acronis, so bad that I'll never use that brand again, but I haven't identified a replacement. Long story, but it includes THEIR uninstall leaving important things nonfunctional on one box; and on a W7 that I still use daily, startup now flashes something like "snapshot manager failed to load" when powered on from shutdown, and Restore Points don't work - but Acronis refuses to even restore files (I'm using god mode anger restraint right now). SO I just am not backing up right now, and I know that some of you want to just slap me. I'm just freaked out from bad experiences and am frozen in analysis paralysis with finding a smart interfaced backup (and need to find someone to repair that W7 - it's apparently too big for me to solve).
I'm also intimidated by the whole backup paradigm now, where I gather that it's modular and SOME of it is ghosts/images and some is just collections of files and folders. And 99.5% of everyone I know just does "full restores" from a day or week or such ago backup when they see something go wrong. I change so many files every day that I want fine control, and I just haven't identified which backup to use. SO... I am not using ANYTHING right now. Just Restore Points (except where I can't), and haphazard flash drive copies. I know it's madness but that's where I'm at. (I wasn't always such a dweeb. I used to have a dozen guru friends who got me reading Peter Norton and me programming Assembler. TC2.01, TASM, TD, I gorged on it all. 3 hours a day on USENET. FASTBACK was my favorite backup. I see a Colorado Trakker tape drive over on a bookshelf in the corner now! But my human network disappeared and I slowly sank and my current expertise is silly putty. Everything used to be linear and straightforward; it may feel that way currently to others, but not me.)
And because of adventures like this one with 24H2, I have automatic updates turned off; almost never take them until they put a gun to my head; and that strategy has worked. Updates and upgrades change things that are costly and painful to readjust to. Sometimes you just lose capabilities. This happens a lot, a ton, which is why I more enjoy using my 2004 Compaq Presario with XP than any of my 4 other devices; after many painful updates and restores from backups, I said no mas to ANY updates I could. And never CARE about EOL because I never want their help or updates or anything at ALL! - just to leave me alone totally. Like I wish they would with W11.
So I'm going way against the grain. And I've endured more times than countable "you need to get out of your old fashioned ways. EOL exists for a reason and you're just beating yourself up by defying it." "Grow up." But bottom line, I am doing as few updates as humanly possible. And until I find a backup with interface that I LIKE and understand, I'm living like a non-backed-up madman. And to me "recommended updates" means "avoid if human possible".
Just giving more context than anyone cares about, even if some quietly react with "to heck with this loser".
I need to regroup for a day or two to prepare and absorb the tremendous assistance given so far before I begin surgery. THANK you, and TBC.
