What You Should Know If You Buy A Windows Phone

Earlier today, I did a brief write-up about the Lumia 550. I probably should have included some verbiage about how a Windows 10 Phone isn't for a newbie.

Windows Phones don't come out of the box with the latest software. After setting up two Lumia 550s, (one for me and one for my stepson), I have the process you should follow down. I hit a few roadblocks and spent hours watching update status sit at 0%.

Here is a process I found after some trial, error, and Google.

First, take the phone out of the box and turn it on. Log in with your Microsoft account, or create one if you don't have one.

Next, launch the Store app. Go into Downloads and Updates. Pause everything BUT the Store update.

Once the Store app updates, reboot the phone. Now, relaunch Store and download the rest of the application updates.

Reboot again to be safe (this is Windows we're talking about).

Now you can go into settings and check for a System Update.

Let that install. Reboot.

Now, you can start using the phone.

Don't know why, but this is the process that works. Unlike iOS, you're not going to get a Windows Phone out of the box with even the newest update to the Store.