A recent Windows update is locking up some PCs, here’s a temporary fix

3 Barely or never heard of Antivirus apps... big deal. And the bug is with their shit from the sounds of it.
 
Saw this shit torch about 10 Server 2008 servers over the last 2 days, instant BSOD on boot. Thankfully you can boot into safe mode and uninstall it.

Test environment / WSUS? Never heard of it.
 
The way Windows has been rolling out the updates has been screwing stuff up.

A friend's newer Touchscreen HP laptop was working fine before an update (I was right there when the update downloaded)... updates and restarts and keyboard no longer works and cpu usage was pegged at 100%. Rollback wasn't available. Removing the "forced" AV programs (like how Mcafee gets pushed on you when you update Flash, don't forget to uncheck that box!) fixed the 100% CPU issue, but keyboard was still borked which required the actual keyboard drivers from HP before everything was backed to normal.

Second was an older P67 running a 2500k I built for my dad that has been running fine for years. Wasn't until the recent win10 updates that the system began to bogging down. 100% Cpu utilization again, Only this time removal of Mcafee wasn't working. Fresh install... no go, still pegged at 100%. All the other drivers had been updated, even the Intel ME. The actual fix came from a bios update released 6-7 years ago that was released to fix forward compatibility issues with Ivy Bridge processors... seemed unrelated cause Sandy is not Ivy, but it worked.

You're just not visiting the right sites or downloading the right files.

Lol yup. Anti-virus programs really only work for people who don't understand the internet. Even then, the good malware just disables or interferes with AV programs, so avg joe consumer will never know whats going on. I think a strict browser policy goes a lot further to protect you from malware than most AV programs do.

i like to leave my machines unpatched for so long that the vulnerabilities pile to the point where it actually becomes dangerous to compromise the box

Just like an Egyptian tomb. Opening it could expose you to 3,000 year old Smallpox immune to all known medical treatments and vaccines. Better just to leave it well alone...
 
I'm half joking - but realistically, they probably force the updates partially because people took it to the extreme and literally never patched their shit and wound up as part of a botnet.

Unfortunately, Microsoft still seems to have some truly dog shit QA.
 
I'm half joking - but realistically, they probably force the updates partially because people took it to the extreme and literally never patched their shit and wound up as part of a botnet.

Unfortunately, Microsoft still seems to have some truly dog shit QA.

Becoming part of a botnet is exactly what is happening, and I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft isn't being "nudged" by big brother to resolve this issue since the vast majority of desktops/non-mobile systems out there run windows.

I used to have a couple older win 95/98 and XP rigs that I kept running because certain DOS games played better on those than using DOSbox at the time. My biggest frustration with the systems, and ultimately why I abandoned them, was they kept getting infected with malware not long after being connected to the internet. After a little searching, I found that people were using programs to simply scour the internet for devices with certain known exploits, and since I was using waaaay outdated OSes and programs, there was no hope. That was like 10 years ago.
 
I'm half joking - but realistically, they probably force the updates partially because people took it to the extreme and literally never patched their shit and wound up as part of a botnet.

Unfortunately, Microsoft still seems to have some truly dog shit QA.
Not sure what one has to do with the other.

That some people ignored endless updates & reboots on earlier Windows, is not an excuse for firing the QA team and getting sloppy about properly testing patches.
 
I worked in tech QA - just wanted to point out that rarely is it on QA. Usually any and all people and departments above QA are the ones at fault and QA is just told "ignore it" and "ship it". TImeline and undedicated management is the typical fault. QA always gets the blame, regardless.
 
I'm half joking - but realistically, they probably force the updates partially because people took it to the extreme and literally never patched their shit and wound up as part of a botnet.

Unfortunately, Microsoft still seems to have some truly dog shit QA.
They did it because of that, and because windows critics bitched incessantly about malware affecting PCs.

Also, this is pretty easily fixed just like you'd fix it in 7 or XP: system restore (and in some cases you can use add remove programs).

That said, no issues here. There has always been issues with patches on every platform and in most cases it affects a small subset of users.


I worked in tech QA - just wanted to point out that rarely is it on QA. Usually any and all people and departments above QA are the ones at fault and QA is just told "ignore it" and "ship it". TImeline and undedicated management is the typical fault. QA always gets the blame, regardless.

When you have a a near infinite number of configurations, it's virtually impossible to find all the bugs.

FFS, Apple has issues with every IOS release, but in most cases it only affects a small % of the user base, and that's a relatively homogeneous hardware and they control what can be run on the platform. However, unlike Windows, you can't always roll back an IOS update and if you've avoided a few updates, you certainly can't go back to the one that worked.

That said, I have no issues with the update system, because it asks me if I want to install. If I say no, I can tell it to wait a week (or is it longer?) before installing and I can keep delaying that if I so choose. I rarely do, because, as I said, if there's an issue, I'll just use system restore.
 
I worked in tech QA - just wanted to point out that rarely is it on QA. Usually any and all people and departments above QA are the ones at fault and QA is just told "ignore it" and "ship it". TImeline and undedicated management is the typical fault. QA always gets the blame, regardless.

Yup! Just because testing found the issue, doesn't mean the issue gets fixed. It's usually someone else's decision if it gets fixed or not. Someone who prioritizes new features or a deadline over quality.
 
I LOL'd at the image headlining this story on Extremetech:

Windows10PLAEN-640x353.png
 
You windows people make me laugh with your auto-updates and virus scanners. :LOL:

Mac/*nix people make me laugh when you confuse uninteresting with invulnerable

I have had no bank robber in my house, you should store all your valuables with me it much safer than a bank...
 
You windows people make me laugh with your auto-updates and virus scanners. :LOL:

LOL have you ever had to keep a ubuntu server updated to keep the vulnerability scans clean in the monthly management meetings? They release patches like 1-2 times a week for just critical/high vulnerabilities..... Nothing like patches all your boxes only to have a new vuln come out the next day when they before they run the vulnerability scan. *nix systems are still painful keeping updated/secured, and that's not even considering the hell you can get into with package updates and broken dependencies that take a lot of time to diagnose/fix.
 
Companies saved from ransomware because of AV would probably disagree, but yeah, they can definitely cause problems at times. This doesn't really seem like an AV issue, though, it's a Windows patch issue.
There's no AV that has good ramsomware protection.

I've had several customers with a variety of AV from Sophos, Symantec, AVG you name it, that have been infected by ransomware.

Just this past 2 weeks we had a couple of customers with Sophos and TrendMicro getting infected. Fortunately we had backups so downtime was minimal, but still...
 
Speaking of AVG. . .years ago I was using it and stopped because it would regularly stop my NV drivers from installing. I'd set up exceptions/allows for it but every time it updated I was back square one for whatever next NV driver came out. Back then it was a total PIA(pre geforce experience), nowadays I'd get a laugh out of it considering how times in the last few years a NV driver broke something.
 
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