Would you believe it-a built-in never being able to update Windows 10 to new Versions

There was a Windows 10 version, 1511 hat was one of the initial versions of Windows 10, during the time when the offer was available to go from Windows 7 or 8 to Windows 10.  In fact, the general release schedule is:

• Version 1507, released 5/29/2015, retired 5/9/2017
• Version 1511, called "the November Update" released 11/10/2015
• Version 1607, called "the Anniversary Update" released 8/2/2016
• Version 1703, called "the Creators Update" released 4/5/2017

The problem is, if you  want to update from Version 1511- yes update, not upgrade- to Version 1607, you can't!  For some reason an update route is not provided!  If you want to update to Version 1703 from version 1511, you can, but you have to wipe away all your installed programs; data is saved, but not programs.

So, even if you had automatic update on the entire time from the installation of Version 1511, as I did, Version 1607 may not have installed.  Why?  There is no rational reason that Microsoft can give.  If you don't have Version 1607 installed, you can't ever get to any future version of Windows  without doing a "clean install," where you have to reinstall all of your applications.

To find this out, I spent 2 weeks with Microsoft support, first at level 1 for a week, then at level 2, then doing phone tag for a week to get a level 3 person to talk to (that is about as high as you can go).  The total number of hours spent by Microsoft support was probably 3 hours.   However, the total time for level 3 was about 30 seconds, not counting having to listen to my consternation that the situation I described above actually exists.  At the beginning of the conversation I told the level 3 person what my version was, so the conversation would have been 10 seconds, but that person still logged on to my computer and checked the version for himself.  Then he just said that I couldn't update to any level without deleting all my programs.  That was all!  When I asked if I could see a knowledgebase article describing this situation, he said there was an internal article, but not an external article.  When I asked why it wasn't publicized, there was no answer.  (Ha!)  When I asked why level 1 didn't know about this, he said he didn't know.

That's two rants this week.  I must not be in a good mood.

By the way, no native English speaker in the chain of support, which I bet is part of the problem.Level 1, 2, and 3 could be continents away. Is that right, Microsoft?