Recent Windows 10 Patches Causing Problems

[Katheryne Helendale]

Windows patch causes more pain: Start Menu, boot and printer problems surface

Printer problems return after Microsoft releases a Windows update to fix printer problems linked to IE security fix.

www.zdnet.com

 

[Clara D.]

They pulled the "optional" September update that pooched Windows Search if you had the audacity to remove Bing from it.

(I got bit by this, and rather than troubleshoot, I got peeved and reinstalled Windows and skipped the patch. This is why I still have Windows on it's own partition -- if it pisses me off, I just wipe that partition.)

Good luck to those of you with a printer

 

[Sid]

Ah well, printing is so pre 2000-ish.
A pen is the new cool kids tool.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

And there's already the OS to use when your Windows finally blowed up again: Collapse OS!

According to the Collapse OS site, Dupras envisions a world where the global supply chain collapses by 2030. In this possible future -- kind of a medium-apocalypse -- populations won't be able to mass produce electronics anymore, but they'll still be an enormous source of political and social power. Anyone who can scavenge electronics and reprogram them will gain a huge advantage over those who don't. Dupras believes that the biggest problem for tech savvy post-apocalyptic people will be microcontrollers -- tiny computers embedded in circuit boards that control the functions of computer systems.

Collapse OS will work with Z80 8-bit microprocessors. Though less common today than 16- and 32-bit components, the 8-bit Z80 can be found in desktop computers, cash registers, musical instruments, graphing calculators, and everything in between. In a Reddit Q&A, Dupras explained that the Z80 was chosen "because it's been in production for so long and because it's been used in so many machines, scavenger have good chances of getting their hands on it." According to the product page, Collapse OS currently can run on a homebrew Z80-based computer called the RC2014, and on Reddit Dupras said it could theoretically run on a Sega Genesis console.

Collapse OS — Bootstrap post-collapse technology

 

[Sid]

There is no such thing as a perfect OS.

 

[Clara D.]

I need to get a ROM programmer in preparation for the techopalypse.

 

[Essence Lumin]

There is no such thing as a perfect OS.

Hannah Montana Linux?

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Hannah Montana Linux?

Does this turn into Wrecking Ball Linux after the next update?

 

[Clara D.]

Lurvely.

The more recent KB4517389 cures printer issues but can break the start menu again.

While Microsoft has managed to address the printing issues, it appears that some users are still having Start menu problems. Some users have reported on Microsoft community forum and Reddit that Windows 10 KB4517389 also breaks the Start menu with a critical error, and it’s still unclear what is causing Start menu problems.

Windows 10 KB4517389 update is also breaking Start menu

Yesterday, Microsoft released new Patch Tuesday cumulative updates for Windows 10 version 1903 and older versions with a number of fixes aimed at enterprises and general users. According to Microsoft’s updated changelog, Windows 10 KB4517389 finally resolves all the printing related problems...

www.windowslatest.com

Windows 10 gets yet another faulty update with broken Start menu

The last couple of months have been an epic clusterfuck of fail.

As Ghacks reports, Barnacules – aka Jerry Berg, an ex-Microsoft senior software development engineer in testing, who parted with the company in 2014 – uploaded a YouTube video explaining how the software giant had changed its testing procedures compared to five years ago.

Windows 10 problems are ruining Microsoft’s reputation – and the damage can’t be understated

Reputation deflation is the path to damnation…

www.techradar.com

Youtube:

 

[Clara D.]

As an addendum to the above:

I switched back to third-party antivirus from Windows Defender because of the shite updates. If I pause updates so I don't get ass-pounded by the bug--ridden ones it's also pausing security updates. Third-party AV's updates aren't touched if I pause the WinDerps ones for a month or two.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Actually nowadays Windows Defender is amongst the best anti virus products around; the first thing I always do on computers I should lean up/declutter/stabilize is to delete third party anti virus software, and let Defender do its job. So if the updates need improvement, so be it, it is still better than running third party AV!

Third party anti virus products tend to interfere in the inner workings of Windows in unthought/undocumented ways, which might break important programs. And most of them are noawadays convoluted messes of bloatware, where most of the functionality people simply don't need at all nor do understand. Being bloatware also makes them an attack vector for malware due to tons of security flaws.

But you don't have to take my word for this; ex Mozilla developer Robert O'Callahan wrote a well received and wide spread blog post in 2017 about it, being called "Disable Your Antivirus Software (Except Microsoft's)":

"I was just reading some Tweets and an associated Hackernews thread and it reminded me that, now that I've left Mozilla for a while, it's safe for me to say: antivirus software vendors are terrible; don't buy antivirus software, and uininstall it if you already have it (except, on Windows, for Microsoft's).

At best, there is negligible evidence that major non-MS AV products give a net improvement in security. More likely, they hurt security significantly; for example, see bugs in AV products listed in Google's Project Zero. These bugs indicate that not only do these products open many attack vectors, but in general their developers do not follow standard security practices. (Microsoft, on the other hand, is generally competent.)

Furthermore, as Justin Schuh pointed out in that Twitter thread, AV products poison the software ecosystem because their invasive and poorly-implemented code makes it difficult for browser vendors and other developers to improve their own security. For example, back when we first made sure ASLR was working for Firefox on Windows, many AV vendors broke it by injecting their own ASLR-disabled DLLs into our processes. Several times AV software blocked Firefox updates, making it impossible for users to receive important security fixes. Major amounts of developer time are soaked up dealing with AV-induced breakage, time that could be spent making actual improvements in security (recent-ish example).

What's really insidious is that it's hard for software vendors to speak out about these problems because they need cooperation from the AV vendors (except for Google, lately, maybe). Users have been fooled into associating AV vendors with security and you don't want AV vendors bad-mouthing your product. AV software is broadly installed and when it breaks your product, you need the cooperation of AV vendors to fix it. (You can't tell users to turn off AV software because if anything bad were to happen that the AV software mighthave prevented, you'll catch the blame.) When your product crashes on startup due to AV interference, users blame your product, not AV. Worse still, if they make your product incredibly slow and bloated, users just think that's how your product is."

Google lead security engineer on Chrome Justin Schuh also has enough evidence on his own:

 

[Clara D.]

ALL "Suites" are Bloatware. The more crap you add, the more likely something is to go awry.
"Browser Safety" add-ons/extensions -- don't do it, just use uBlock Origin and a script--blocker.
-- if anything is going to be caught off the internet, it'll be detected when it's shoved into cache/temp.
-- Don't click on "ZOMG UR COMPUTER IS INFECTED" links, and add that site to uBlock and/or add it to your routers blacklist.
Norton, McAfee, and ZoneAlarm are godawful for doing terrible things to the OS and are difficult to remove properly.
McAfee and Norton are especially insidious as a PUP in other software and "FREE FROM YER ISP" >_<
I side-eye Avast/AVG/Panda, while they aren't as hard to remove as N,MA,ZA, they're of dubious worth.

The ZOMG RUSSIA* one I use hasn't personally given me any issues issues and it's caught a few things that WinDef didn't.
Unless they're into furry hentai, I don't really do anything of interest to the Russian government, so I ignore the rather unsubstantiated FUD about it, NSA is filtering through everything I do anyways.
[ETA]*On that particular FUD, apparently it was surprising to someone that "Cloud Submission" in a Russian product sends files to . . . Russia. Hilarity Ensued[/ETA]
[ETA2]ProTip: If you're doing sensitive work for the goobermint, don't take shit home with you. I was no-where near the level of the contractor in question, just a lowly manufacturing drone making circuit boards for {redacted} systems in {redacted} vehicle and Immediate Termination was the least of the possible punishments for even discussing what I did with anyone outside the company. I don't know the full details, but the summary: This particular EEDIOT got NSA Malware auto-submitted to Russia.[/ETA2]
---
That said: A more elegant solution would be to just add a Task Scheduler thing that pulls just the WinDef updates. I'll post instructions when I have more time.

 

[Katheryne Helendale]

As an addendum to the above:

I switched back to third-party antivirus from Windows Defender because of the shite updates. If I pause updates so I don't get ass-pounded by the bug--ridden ones it's also pausing security updates. Third-party AV's updates aren't touched if I pause the WinDerps ones for a month or two.

Honestly, I'm just going to stay on my Mint Linux laptop while Microsoft unfucks themselves. Seems far less likely for something to go wrong that way.

 

[Casey Pelous]

Honestly, I'm just going to stay on my Mint Linux laptop while Microsoft unfucks themselves. ...

So you know when the coast is clear, I'll keep an eye on the Redmond campus for you -- do you think they'll send up a white puff of smoke or something?

 

[Clara D.]

Honestly, I'm just going to stay on my Mint Linux laptop while Microsoft unfucks themselves. Seems far less likely for something to go wrong that way.

I hope you really like Mint, then Using your entire userbase as beta testers seems to be industry standard for games, browsers, and now Windows.
Hence the prevalence of the [ ]Provide Feedback To ____ option...

If I wasn't expecting to do support for a living, I would've done away with W10. I'm not really interested in being an unwilling infinite beta tester, but this keeps me on my toes as far as "oh, blah happened," you need to remove KB9079878976 or "hack this into your registry."

I'd be far happier to just be able to install updates automagicially, but now it's "push it back two weeks and then google it to see what it fucks up before letting it install." And this is from a "power user" whose usual computer habits involve a certain amount of "kids, don't try this at home" and would give an professional a facial tic. (I do behave in a professional environment, but everthing that gets fuckered up on my personal machine is a learning experience and/or an "opportunity" to reinstall Windows AGAIN I'm also not a Complete Numpty -- I have yet to lose any data from getting myself haxxored or infected.)

I don't have a lot of respect for a company the size of M$ who suddenly made the keystone of their OS (start menu) incompatible with . . . printing.



Back on the topic of leaving updates disabled without losing WinDef updates, detailed instructions:

Update Windows Defender even when Automatic Windows Updates is disabled in Windows 11/10

Make Windows Defender in Windows 11/10 update its definitions even if Windows Update is not set to Install updates automatically.

www.thewindowsclub.com

That link just saved you from my WALL-O-TEXT(tm) instructions

Though a couple of things that I'd do a bit differently and/or he left out:

When inputting "c:\Program Files\Windows Defender\MpCmdRun.exe" include the quotes

Leave other settings as is, but change:

{General}
[Change user or Group]
----system
----[Check names]
-----(system should now show as SYSTEM)
-----[OK]
[X] Run with highest priveleges
(So it doesn't require a particular user to be logged in)

{Conditions}
[ ] Start the task only if the computer is on AC power
(So your laptop still updates on Battery)

{Settings}
[X] Run task as soon as possible after a scheduled start is missed.

[X] Stop the task if it runs longer than [1 hour]
(Workaround for the "task" continuing to run after executing the program and possibly never running it again, 1 hour should be adequate to get the updates)

 

[Clara D.]

So you know when the coast is clear, I'll keep an eye on the Redmond campus for you -- do you think they'll send up a white puff of smoke or something?

Usually that white puff is the magic smoke coming out of a critical electronic component

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

I hope you really like Mint, then Using your entire userbase as beta testers seems to be industry standard for games, browsers, and now Windows.

Back in the good old Commodore 64 days we called this banana software - it's being shipped green and by sheer magic turns yellow at the customer.

 

[Kara Spengler]

There is no such thing as a perfect OS.

Except BeOS.

Is is saying something about windoze that I had to look at the date on this thread? I wish I could just turn off updates. I have it sandboxed in a virtual machine anyways and typically is just used for games and reading a couple announcements about said games ... so that limits what it can do.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

How about Haiku OS, Kara?

 

[Free]

Except BeOS.

Too soon!