Shortcuts & env variable "PATH" corrupted, some applications broken after upgrade to Windows 10 Fall Creator Update

Question

Hi,

My home PC Windows 10 Professional got upgraded to FCU release yesterday and after that my machine is in a big mess. Following are the issues,

1. I had installed man applications such as Visual Studio Community Edition, Notepad++, etc. on E drive. All the pinned shortcuts are not able to find the applications any more.
2. Notepad++, Perforce client, Python32, etc. were installed on E drive and their paths were appended in the env var PATH. These were obviously "E:" based previously. However all the paths in the PATH system variable were changed to begin with "C:". Consequently all my applications are broken at this moment.
3. Previously if I entered "notepad++" in "Run" dialog box (Win+R) and hit enter, it would open Notepad++ application. Now it shows an error message  as below

[Window Title]

notepad++

[Content]

Windows cannot find 'notepad++'. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again.

[OK]

4. Many of the pinned shortcuts on the task bar and the "Most Used" list (start menu) now show a suffix of "(1)" e.g. Notepad++(1), Visual Studio 2017 (1), Firefox (1), etc.
5. On the launch menu (alphabetically sorted menu on hitting Win button), under Notepad submenu I see two short cuts now - Notepad++ and Notepad++(1).

I am not sure how to fix the mess that has happened. Microsoft, do you have anything to advise?

Thanks

Moved from: (Windows / Windows 10 / Install, upgrade, & activate)

Answer 1

Tried one more time and it gave same results - through the Windows Updates in System Settings. Whole download was happening during upgrade.

I reverted back to 1703 and this time I downloaded the ISO for 1709 and did an upgrade using the ISO from the local disk. This time I found that it rebooted lesser number of times than previous attempts and also it showed different messages "Hi!", "We are upgrading...", etc. etc. which I hadn't seen earlier.

I have learnt a lesson, don't try online upgrades. Download the ISO and do offline install, whatever was the reason for previous failures. With ISO the machine is fit and fine. We may want to close this question.

Thanks

Answer 2

The machine was badly corrupted. All the registry entries as well were changed from E: based paths to C: based paths. None of the file extension associated programs were opening. Essentially my machine was in super mess. The whole upgrade experience was as though it was designed and implemented considering that user machines have only one disk i.e. SystemDrive and it has letter "C:"; and as though that no one installs software on other drives E:, F:, etc.

Anyways, post upgrade to 1709, I had not hastily cleaned up the earlier version, at least this time. I was actually going to do that to free space on C:, immediately post upgrade to 1709, but somehow sense prevailed. I have reverted back my machine to 1703 and things are now fine.

I doubt if I will upgrade to 1709 now.

Answer 3

My machine is really in horrible state and I can't imagine how much of work I will have to do to if I were to format and reinstall...

The easiest way to fix notepad2 is to uninstall it, then re-install it.

I know of no easy fix for Point 4.

Since I no longer trust the Automatic Updates, I have adopted this procedure:

1. Disable Automatic Updates. This prevents Microsoft from locking my machine at the most inconvenient moment, and perhaps damaging the existing installation.
2. About once every three months I create a new image of my installation.
3. I enable the Automatic Updates and download/install them until there are none left to install. If things go wrong then I restore the most recent image.
4. I disable Automatic updates.

Answer 4

-> Maybe fixing the path is all that's required.

:-) That is the first thing that I did. But it solved only the issue of firing commands on cmd dialog box. "Notepad++" still doesn't run when typed so at Win+R i.e. Run dialog box i.e. point 3 that I mention. Also the shortcuts are still working crazy (point 4 above. the list of applications there is crazily long).

My machine is really in horrible state and I can't imagine how much of work I will have to do to if I were to format and reinstall...

Answer 5

I am not sure how to fix the mess that has happened.

-> Maybe fixing the path is all that's required.