nospam wrote:

The answer to that objection is that if I had wanted Microsoft updates, I
would have loaded them on my own.

that's not an answer. it's an excuse for foolishness.

If I had wanted Microsoft updates, I would have downloaded them.
It's really that simple.

Just like I do with my iPads to prevent the diarrhea

moving goalposts to trolling.

The point is that there is generally nothing in the newer releases of any
mature operating system, whether it be Linux, Windows, iOS, or Android,
that I care about and that is worth the huge risk, especially with Apple
products which are not tested outside the walled garden, which you're very
well aware of.

It's a classic coding rule to abort gracefully when the unexpected occurs,
which Microsoft did - for years - but not recently.

there's no way to cover every possible situation.

Of course there is. If the answer isn't the expected answer, then you abort
gracefully.

rare ones, particularly ones that are the result of users going out of
their way to break things, are not a high priority.

If Microsoft provides a switch, they should test their software with those
switches thrown.

The poor coding reminds me of Windows iTunes, which will go where you ask
it to go but all the ancillary program bloat that comes along with iTunes
doesn't follow any good coding practices, hence they don't anywhere near
where you told iTunes to go.

in fact, they're best ignored. anyone circumventing the normal update
process should know the risks they're taking and be able to deal with
the inevitable problems that will occur.

In this case, the answer is clear for the tribal knowledge record:
a. If Microsoft Windows Update bricks your system, then
b. First try to recover using all the options in the recovery console
c. Then try those same options after booting to the latest release on DVD
d. Then try those same options after booting to an older release DVD
e. If they all fail, then try to fix the MBR with the BCDEDITE fixboot
f. If that still fails, then start fresh after recovering the data.

To recover the data, any of the following will work:
A. Attach the drive to an SATA/IDE/EIDE/PATA adapter to USB
B. Attach the drive to the motherboard with a SATAIII cable set
C. Access the drive after booting to Windows (either DVD or on HDD)
D. Access the drive after booting to a recovery OS (e.g., Knoppix on DVD)
E. Run any of the following programs, as desired
1. copy
2. ddrescue
3. recuva
4. testdisk
5. photrec
etc.