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Microsoft Black Tuesday Patches Bring Blue Screens of Death
snydeq (1272828) writes "Two of Microsoft's kernel-mode driver updates — which often cause problems — are triggering a BSOD error message on some Windows systems, InfoWorld reports. 'Details at this point are sparse, but it looks like three different patches from this week's Black Tuesday crop are causing Blue Screens with a Stop 0x50 error on some systems. If you're hitting a BSOD, you can help diagnose the problem (and perhaps prod Microsoft to find a solution) by adding your voice to the Microsoft Answers Forum thread on the subject.'"
Someone right now is looking at that error and figuring out how to exploit it.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
Auto Update on by default, one of the updates bricks your server.
I work in schools, preparing for a huge summer deployment, just re-imaged every PC on-site.
Fortunately, although I pushed the updates out over WSUS, my image was taken BEFORE patch Tuesday. Anything that hasn't been out for a least a month is in beta testing, as far as I'm concerned, and after a month it either "works" (for some definition) or something like this will come to my attention.
Have all the PC's imaged in my rooms, but only have a handful actually deployed at the moment while I test. The very first blue-screen I see, any kernel-mode patch this month will be changed to "Declined" so no further PC's get it.
Yet again, those people who get all stroppy about "you should install updates the SECOND they come out".... real life hits you again. And the downtime from a potential "zero-day" that I'll probably never witeness is nothing compared to potentially rolling out faulty updates to hundreds of PC's that would then have to be re-imaged, and/or having a faulty update inside your images forcing you to reverse changes (in my case, to pre-summer images which is a HUGE step backwards) and re-deploy.
So it looks like certain video drivers are barfing the system (itching the gdi32.dll the wrong way). If you can, roll back to an earlier system restore point, update the video drivers, then re-apply the updates again.
Life is not for the lazy.
If your computer BSODs, then post on a forum about it. Of course, how does one post on a forum if they can't boot up? Might as well add in a www site for network connnectivity problems too.
If I get the BSOD, I'm not going to have a computer that I can use to "drop by" the Microsoft Forum and report anything.
Note to self: Always, always put a Linux partition on EVERY Windoze machine!
Yeah, yeah, I could carry a bootable USB around, but this way, it's always IN the machine.
My problem is this: WHO is going to PAY me for my time? Isn't it time that a consumer watchdog agency said: "Enough is enough, Microsoft. You have cost users countless BILLIONS of hours and money. If this were a car, Ford or GM or Toyota would be BANKRUPTED by the recalls."
*** Don't be dull.***
Gee, I don't like Micro$oft as much as the next Linux Zealot, but let's be fair here...
M$ is darned if they do and darned if they don't. When they hold up patching stuff they get pillaged in the press for not getting the gaping security holes in their OS fixed soon enough. When they release stuff too soon and stuff like this happens, they get racked over the coals for not knowing what they are doing, cannot develop/test/integrate their software. M$ has ebbed and flowed on the quality of their patches in the past, they've been slow, they've released some really disruptive software. Being fair, they don't do too bad on either responsiveness or on the introduction of new bugs.
So lighten up on Micro$oft, at least on this front. Now Windows 8 metro and removing the 'start' button? Fire away at that garbage....
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
This rollback procedure got my Win7 x64 system booting again:
From another system with the same bit width and service pack level, grab the files C:\Windows\System32\gdi32.dll and C:\Windows\System32\Win32k.sys.
Using HBCD or a similar boot disc, boot your defunct system. You can also snag the hard drive and plug it into another working computer.
BACK UP the gdi32.dll and win32k.sys files from System32 to another location just in case. Overwrite those two files in System32 with the ones you grabbed from the other system.
Your system is now bootable, having effectively rolled back the KB2982791 update. This is a quick and dirty procedure and leaves the update itself in an indeterminate state.
Oh wait, I'm on Linux.
Which distribution? I have had issues with Linux patches too.. Not as often as with Microsoft patches, but problems none the less.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
don't kill the persistent task bar and add it + start menu to windows 9.
On my private machines, I have been using Linux and *BSD for more than ten years, and I only once had a problem with an update (and that was on a Gentoo box that had not been updated for more than a year - in other words, it was to be expected). About one and a half years ago, I started working as a sysadmin at a Windows shop, and I have been enraged, shocked, scared, and surprised more or less continuously ever since.
On the one hand, you want to keep your systems up to date. On the other hand, installing updates on Windows is like Russian roulette with five out of six chambers loaded. I am constantly torn between my deply ingrained reflex, acquired on Linux/BSD, to install any update as soon as it becomes available, and painful experiences I've had on Windows.
Can't Microsoft just get their act together and do some freaking *TESTING* before shoveling their crap out of the door, instead of having their customers do it for them?
So lighten up on Micro$oft, at least on this front.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Microsoft just lay off a large number of testers?
So happy I'm running XP right now. No patch for me.
Oh my god... is that Twitter?
You posted something bad about Windows so they very quickly buried you.
I miss when this site had technical users instead of being run by Microsofties.
I think the criticism isn't so much that they're too responsive to consumers or not -- they obviously listen. The criticism is that there are so many holes to begin with and that their attempts to fix things that are obviously broken -- things that their competitors seem to be able to make work just fine -- often don't work or cause other problems. Knowing the Microsoft engineering culture, their stuff is mostly a patchwork of different groups not talking to each other. In the Windows API, there are something like 17 different representations of strings depending on which engineer/department wrote the code!
When you're disorganized like that in a giant company with a giant piece of software, it's easy to see how bugs can get out of hand.
I prefer to play Russian Roulette with a semi-auto with 3 out of 6 rounds loaded. The odds are better.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
I just checked my update history for my Dell XPS 15 running up to date Windows 7 SP 1 and the three patches listed in the OP post were installed and I have no problems. One was recommended and the other two were listed as important.
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell
Mod up. Anyone who has ever been cast from a professional *nix environment into an MS shop has experienced the same horror (raises hand).
And the difference in tool and OS quality between the two environments produces a totally different mindset. Like designing a jet engine vs. building a castle in the sandbox.
Oh, and if you are allowed a 15 round magazine, 3 out of 15 is even better!
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
On the other hand, Apple, Debian and Redhat manage to release timely security patches that don't cause crashing en-masse.
Microsoft has competitors in the OS market???? Uh, no, no they don't. At least nobody that approaches even 1/4 of the market share.
But really the OS market is not Microsoft's primary concern, but a means to an end. There clamp on the market is Office in the corporate environment, which drives Windows to the desktop, both professionally and for home computers. They have no real competitors in either the OS or Office worlds. You might claim Red Hat/Linux has made inroads, but only in the server market.
Yea, I know.. All the Apple zealots are foaming at the mouth now... Sorry, didn't mean to take a swipe at the sacred OSx/IOs cow, but it really doesn't have that large of a market share and most of those systems still run windows on the side...
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
On the other hand, Apple, Debian and Redhat manage to release timely security patches that don't cause crashing en-masse.
Perhaps, but they have a much smaller market share and support much less diverse hardware configurations, especially Apple.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
My win7 desktop is bricked after patch Tuesday updates. Even my win7 install DVD is not working due to Master boot record being damaged. Supposedly the same DVD I used to fix my desktop a few months ago is now not the same version of windows that I installed.
Stop errors 0x50 and 0xc000000f
... Throwback Tuesday!
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Office 2010 is intuitive and looks very damn nice compared to "1990's is calling" and wants libreoffice back including the buggy and crapping all over itself linux.
If it was a M$ gun it would lock up, or empty the entire magazine.
Android Linux moved a billion hardware units last year and this year surpassed the Windows all-time installed base. It is selling above 6x Windows. People using Android have never seen an update mangling this severe, but on Windows it seems a quarterly thing. This whole "Windows rules the world" thing is becoming absurd. Windows rules a small and shrinking backwater - the realm where people are willing to tolerate stuff like this.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Perhaps, but they have a much smaller market share and solely in the case of Apple support much less diverse hardware configurations.
Fixed that for you since Debian and Redhat support more CPU archs than Microsoft plus the x86 world that Microsoft supports.
Last time I installed Google Chrome on my netbook, and used it at the library wireless, every time I went online my packet numbers were huge, and it turned out to be Chrome pulling a daily 50 MB+ update on itself. I quickly stopped any Google related software on my XP netbook. Win XP at least you had the option to download 100-200MB service packs once in a blue Moon, like once a year, and block windows update from constantly fucking with your computer, there is an option for that, but you can't do that with Chrome, they don't give you an option. Which is why I'm not interested in any kind of Google Linux either, if I have to go online with it.
If it was a M$ gun it would lock up, or empty the entire magazine.
No, they'd just hide the trigger and require you to hit three separate buttons requiring at least two hands to fire it, then totally disassemble and reassemble it between shots... ([Ctl][Alt][Del] followed by reboot)
Yea, I know, OLD NT joke.....But it's still funny.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
If it was a M$ gun it would lock up, or empty the entire magazine.
and auto-aim at one of your pedal extremities.
There is no right to feel safe thru security vaudeville at the expense of everyone's freedom, privacy and tax money.
On the other hand, Apple, Debian and Redhat manage to release timely security patches that don't cause crashing en-masse.
Perspective, please. This seems to be a *very* limited problem and an (as usual) over-zealous Woody Leonhard trying to stir up a controversy.
Infoworld *is* the fox news of tech.
Reading slashdot one-liner: (irm http://rss.slashdot.org/Slashdot/slashdot).rdf.item | fl title,desc*
maybe they should try letting people pick a level of code that they want to update to.
you could have the really overly tested stuff that doesn't break. we'll call this Stable.
then you could have the stuff that fixes the last problem, but might break something new. we'll call this Testing.
then you could have the bleeding edge stuff that you run just because you want the bragging rights of running some truly unstable shit. we'll call this Siri, Sydney or maybe Sid for short.
i'll bet M$ could even patent it.
Yes, but that is because the developers are now required to test their own code before it goes to testing, so that things don't break as much during each sprint of coding.
Updates Win 8.1 x64 all patches. No problems.
Reading slashdot one-liner: (irm http://rss.slashdot.org/Slashdot/slashdot).rdf.item | fl title,desc*
Gee, I don't like Micro$oft as much as the next Linux Zealot, but let's be fair here...
...
So lighten up on Micro$oft, at least on this front.
Still using the dollar sign? Why do you think someone will pay attention to anything you have to say? Particularly when you're recommending people "lighten up". How about you grow up?
Once again, Microsoft discovers what's obvious anyone else who's been in the business for 25 years or so.
You have to have manual and automated GUI testers. Unit testing is nifty, but that's like testing just the spark plug, or maybe the spark plug and the ignition timing. Not a bad idea, but listen. If you knew about a new car, but knew that nobody had ever actually *driven* the car, much less taken it out on the road on a regular basis, would you buy that car?
For that matter, would you fly in a plane tested that way?
Developers testing their little piece of code isn't ever going to cut it. Neither is unit testing. Thinking it will is just managerial fantasy, or an idea that lets you fire a bunch of testers so the books look better and some manager or bean counter. can get a one time bonus.
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
What could possibly go wrong? Oh wait...
I've seen people with shortcuts on the desktop over 50% of the area. I think it's healthy to cover 25% of your desktop with shortcuts, but once it gets to 80%+, that means you have a severe case of depression, and lack of motivation to clean up your computer desktop. If you're a bachelor, without a woman to clean and pick up after you, then I can only wonder what your pad might look like. But sometimes being depressed has very good excuses. Like I noticed this really smart guy, supporting computers, back in like 2001, and it surprised me that his desktop would be full of shortcuts 95%, and obviously a lot of them garbage. I had no idea that he'd be that depressed, and then I realized what a burden he carried on his back, when, recently switching from commercial Unix to Windows, and touting all the advantages and cost savings that would mean, being a huge Microsoft fan, but suddenly shocked at the core, when all the business applications written in Access 97 stopped functioning just 3 years down the road, when Access 2000 came out without backwards compatibility, and broke everything, so you lived in a dual world where new computers came with Access 2000, and apps written for them, but at the same desk there was a 2nd computer, with Access 97 installed, to run the old apps, and interaction between all the business data split incompatible like that was a depressing huge mess. There was tremendous amount of wealth invested into those old apps, hoping they'd last a business career, not a mere 3 years. That's as good an excuse as any to be depressed. Yeah I know commercial Unix was raping everyone in the butt with per seat licenses, so did Oracle, and Microsoft seemed like such a breath of fresh air, back in the day, in pricing, compared to commercial Unix and commercial SQL database vendors, but then they go and totally ignore the customer and his protecting his wealth, as if the customer did not matter. You can't win, Unix rapes you in the ass with cost, Microsoft, when they give you a low cost, they rape you in the ass with fucking up the things that used to work. Even as late as XP there was still a sense of backwards compatibility at Microsoft, but these days they see backwards compatibility as their biggest threat in making a living, competing against themselves and their old products, people unwilling to upgrade upgrade upgrade every friggin 2 years, that stops the money flow at Microsoft, and that's their prime objective, making money, not making the customer happy, and sometimes these two things do not mean the same thing, but are exact opposites of each other. All I can say they haven't really provided a good reason to upgrade, at least nothing along the lines of win 3.1 to win 95 with over 8.3 file names, or office 7 to office 97 with VBA, etc. If anything, they are castrating the users ability to get done the things they are used to doing, know how to do, and the newer ways of doing them take two clicks instead of a single click, like a print preview does in Office 2010 vs. Office 97, because they lost the good old menu bar, with that stupid ribbon. That ribbon is not what I call an improvement, to the contrary. So why should I upgrade, when it's worse? At least gimme the same thing, with different colors, like a tuned down version of xp that has 150 KB kernel and still gets everything done, looking and acting exactly the same as the 200 MB version of 2002. That's what I'd call an improvement, speed, where I can keep 50 browser tabs open with animate gifs and flash advertising spinning in all of them, and not slow the computer to a crawl. I can use my terrabyte harddisk for other things than code, such as storing high resolution high color images of butterflies, video footages, data, and not code that works on that data. The bigger the code the more complex and less secure I feel using it. I would actually go out and pay money for a version of XP that was super high tuned on speed and ability, super low size on code, never crashed, and let me keep the user interface and the way I'm used to doing things, on an HP Mini 200 Laptop, because even this thing has way too much computing power already, and anything more only increases the possible future occurrence of AI that may or may not eat me alive for breakfast
Enterprise quality software.
I never understood why drivers had to be on the kernel ring anyway. Every single peripheral (GPU, sound card, etc.) driver I've ever encountered has had a history of stability problems. You'd think the largest point of failure on the computer could be moved to userland and restarted when necessary.
I run Ubuntu on my laptop and there are patches a few times a week for various items and I haven't had any trouble or issues post installation. I can't speak for all Linux flavors, but I can say that for a general purpose web browsing/office productivity laptop, Ubuntu is great.
Micro$oft? M$? Really? It's like I'm reading a comment my pre-teen self made 10 years ago.
No. And HELL NO!
While they keep telling people on why proprietary software is superior to open-source, then they have to take their knocks like everyone else does.
You should also close your /.-account — and never come back, for all I care...
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
There are updates to Android on phones? I'm not sure my 5-year-old phone has ever received one, and I'm sure its security flaws are legion, just given the history of flaws over the past few years.
Still, it really makes you wonder how this BSOD slipped through - it's not like MS doesn't have vast test automation for stuff like this. It really makes you wonder about the recent massive layoff of QA (and the restructuring behind it). Given the timing, that change starts to seem ill-advised.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
They want to force everyone onto smart phones that store all data on the cloud, and do not function off network. Once they capture all your data, it's easy to blackmail you. So Microsoft might deliberately be castrating themselves, to push the IBM mainframe-cloud in businesses, and smart phone could terminals, for everyday users. The cloud the cloud the cloud, you can't have your own data, like on a USB stick no more. Microsoft might be willing to offer themselves as a sacrifice to accomplish this. Which is why it might be an interesting idea to sell short, but that's a really lame way of making money. Ballmer in 2001 or 3 shouter at a dev conference "I love this company." Which means his mentality is not one of sacrifice for greater good, or greater money, but greater ego. Sometimes corporations, that are treated like people when it comes to taxes, take on a life of their own and want to survive even if there are other sub-collective faction interests, that would make the collective more exploitable, like there is a new set of greater predators that would be much better off with the old top predator gone, even if closely related by kinship to the old one, but the old top predator might want to survive anyway, without transformation. The transformation itself would mean Windows Phone always on the cloud, for everyday people, and Windows Mainframe cloud based servers, for businesses. So forget your old desktops, and your old business investments into apps, they are offered as a sacrifice Microsoft and gang to the Gods, burning on an altar, hoping to be forever gone from the world.
Did they finally take that ribbon crap out, then?
I agree android and linux is moving by leaps and bounds and the best part is almost any company can compile it. Hardware is even running smart altered Linux software these days with built in apps and gui. Windows is on the verge of imploding because they can't seem to do things effectively with all their dang employees lol. Every time they start going in the right direction they screw it up.
Microsoft gets no pass! I generally give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt, but there are too many instances of this. I am going to go off on a bit of a tangent here, but the fail to eat their own dog food. They come up with Best Practices, and they do not even follow them internally. There is not an internal body at Microsoft that enforces uniform standards. They have it setup that way to mitigate risk to the company. If they had a single body responsible for maintaining order, they open themselves up to the risks associated with the failure of that body. So instead, they just compartmentalize and each team ends up doing their own thing. Therefore the inevitable fallout is contained.
That organization strategy causes problems like this. They restrict their ability to test patches across the groups. They have damned themselves. And they have done it to cover their own asses. Therefore, they get zero sympathy.
It is never going to happen, but they need to modify their business model. Instead of forcing people onto the upgrade treadmill, they should move over to a maintenance subscription model. Doing that would allow them to continue to improve the products, and stop focusing on pushing out new features all the time. For the most part, Windows, Office, Exchange and SQL server are "good enough" in terms of feature set. Now they just need to focus on making them stable, and improving the tooling that is already there.
THAT'S WHAT THAT WAS?! I thought it was just a problem with our new computer. For the record, it only happens upon login when a computer is running a fresh install of AutoCAD 2014. At least that's been my experience. I need to go block this from WSUS immediately.
Yes, but that is because the developers are now required to test their own code before it goes to testing,
Well that explains things. Apparently prior to this, developers would just deploy their code without ever testing it. No wonder they had so many bugs!
Out in the real world, developers test their code before submitting it to source control. They write unit tests to verify the functionality. QA verifies that the functionality works after that, still finding bugs that weren't obvious to the developers. For example, what happens when you run code on a variety of chipsets. If you're really lucky, a SDE-T might write some of the unit tests for you.
A BSOD that only happens to some people is a great example of something that rigorous QA should catch but that developers are likely to miss. Developer testing is not a replacement for QA. They should be doing both.
As someone who manages about 1500+ Mac's with JAMF Casper (and another 6000+ windows machines with System Center) - you are talking out of your arse.
In my experience - MS actually issues more patches and actually has a better track record than Apple - for example I've seen them issue firmware patches that have bricked machines (to the point where they had to be repaired) - its enough of a problem I actually now wait a month before releasing firmware patches Apple delivers to see if any issues arise. I've also seen them release patches that break core OS functionality like SMB, and printing - or release patches that seemingly munged Wifi prefs.
Last year I recall one patch MS released that could cause some machines to stop booting. So far this year is the only warning I've seen from any patch they've released.
Considering the kinds of hardware MS has to support - I think thats a pretty darn good track record.
Same here. XP became a whole lot more reliable when Microsoft stopped messing with it. I will upgrade my toy operating system when the next Windows version is no longer updated, and it runs as well as XP on my (then) current hardware.
(and keep using Linux for more serious work, and when I don't feel like tying with an operating system)
... there are something like 17 different representations of strings depending on which engineer/department wrote the code!
That can't possibly be a good thing. What's worse is, there's no reason to think that any of the code checks to see which type of string it's been passed instead of just assuming that it's been sent the One True String.
Good, inexpensive web hosting
Only problem with that is that MS mixes the security and feature updates. If you don't install the latest "service pack" your pants are down and your netbook is a zombie. Presumably you know that and don't mind, as long as it hides its network traffic from you...
90% of Android users don't see an upgrade, period.
Gee, I don't like Micro$oft as much as the next Linux Zealot, but let's be fair here... M$ is darned if they do and darned if they don't.
Unless you said the bolded portion gleefully while grinning and rubbing your hands together, you don't really hate Microsoft as much as the next Linux Zealot.
/Linux sorta-Zealot
You grew up and $tarted buying people, didn't you, you money $ucking whore.
you don't really hate Microsoft as much as the next Linux Zealot. /Linux sorta-Zealot
I never said I "hate" Microsoft. I said I don't like them. I have been actively advocating Linux professionally for nearly 15 years now, so I consider myself a Zealot because I would NEVER suggest to a customer that they use windows except, perhaps, on the desktop. But you have to admit that Windows is here, it's what folks understand how to use and you have to do what the customer asks, even if you think something else is better. So Zealot I am, but I'm tolerant of those who don't see things as clearly as I do.
Besides, life's too short to hate any thing except real evil and M$ is not the corporate embodiment of evil some seem to think it is.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
I hadn't heard of the big problems w/ Apple. So scratch them off the list.
That leaves the various Linux and *BSDs as managing to not cause mass crashing. Note I don't claim they're perfect, since nothing is. I just claim they do much better at it.
I've seen people with shortcuts on the desktop over 50% of the area. I think it's healthy to cover 25% of your desktop with shortcuts, but once it gets to 80%+, that means you have a severe case of depression, and lack of motivation to clean up your computer desktop.
Actually at my last job I frequently would fill up probably 25% of my desktop (1280x1024) in a day... saving java heap dumps to analyze, terminal session logs, etc - so that by the 'end of the work day' I'd have a pile of things to dig through and 'resolve'... certain things might stick around a few days in case I was asked questions (example: I'd analyze java heap/thread dumps, dig into their code to point out some issue(s), keep it around a day or two in case they had questions). Was a good reminder to have them on the desktop "right in front of me" - and after a day or two I might move them elsewhere to save for a few days, or just delete them, depending on importance.
Yeah, it could get 'cluttered' at times, especially on a "SHTF" type day where "anything and everything" went wrong and I was off in a dozen different directions - you 'fix' them by getting it running again and promise to 'dig into it' and email them later with your 'findings'. Actually some days I was way more productive after 5pm when everyone started to go home than I was during the day "putting out fires".
Really? Debian supports x86 (32 and 64), various arm, mips, etc AND s390 among others. In other words, a much LARGER variety of hardware than Windows. The cherry on top is that it's a volunteer effort.
There seems to be a new limited problem every month.
There is something running on this computer, that comes directly from HP, on their recovery DVD, I mean I tried to uninstall all the crap and garbage software and leave it almost bare bones, then there are some folders like C:\ae343455df3fbb332c23a33d... etc, that you cannot erase even in safe mode, and you have to boot into Lighthouse Puppy 4.1.2rc1 and nuke it from there, together with system volume information, and recycled, and while you're at it, go under C:\Program Files\xerox (like why the heck would I need that?) and Microsoft Frontpage, and netmeeting, and msn gaming zone, and outlook express and windows media player, and erase those folders too, that you cannot from windows, even in safe mode, and you can't simply erase them because on next boot they reappear, so you have to place blank files called C:\Program Files\xerox so that no directories with the same C:\Program Files\xerox can be created on bootup. Simply trick saves a lot of headaches, and then you can go through C:\Documents and Settings\... and clean up that too, but when you think you cleaned everything up, plus have the last nondotnet version of zonealarm (of course dotnet, windows live, practically everything uninstalled except the video, sound and network driver), and block every friggin thing that runs on the computer under program control, except csrss, and similar. I also left "Microsoft Works" there because neither openoffice nor gnumeric for windows can handle csv files properly. I also run Opera 12.10(it's showing its age), not anything newer, and even Opera wants to autoupdate, so does flashplayerupdate, but have zonealarm hose them too, same with ctfmon, never run internet explorer and the like that have built in backdoors. And I don't run virus scanners, what a waste of time that is. But even after a full cleanup to barebones plus zonealarm, fully blocking media player and internet explorer, something still starts chewing the harddrive in the background, and sometimes somebody logs on to your computer and modifies your file names to silly names, so it's still not secure, but oh well, c'est la vie, I did what I could. If they really want to snoop on me let them snoop on me, I don't really care, as long as they do it without my consent. Because I'm not consenting hereby. But the NSA would really freak out if they could not find a way to snoop on somebody logged onto the internet, browsing the web and residing within the US. I mean you can probably run offline computers that they may not be able to snoop on, but a whole lot of those have spying chips built into them that spy on you wirelessly, and give access to where they can modify files, or block actions on your computer, even while you're in DOS or Linux, oldschool, newschool, whatever, so what. Don't ever think nobody's watching you you can get away with something dirty. The computer is always watching, or more like 1984, big brother is always watching you through the computer. I still put a piece of tape over the camera and microphone holes on this netbook, because I know even when it says it's off and the LED next to it does not shine, it's still on, and watching you. It's a spying totalitarian's power's dream come true, cameras on every intersection, cameras looking at the user on every laptop, making the user think he's not being watched, cameras on every cell phone. Hey I got an old verizon LG that has no camera. What a gem. But the newer LG for tmobile gets a piece of duct tape over the camera hole. They are watching you and all that, messing with your computer files, oh well, but you don't have to cooperate or consent to it. So that's where that game stands.
Well that's something that mega corp definitely needs more of, is people on slashdot who leap to the ready when they feel Microsoft's honor has been sullied.
Android is an OS for toys, it doesn't count.
Yes it does.
https://play.google.com/store/...
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
The upgrades come in Google Play Services now, so OEMS and carriers can't block them. 85% of Android devices are updated by Google now.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
The way to fix this is to delete \Windows\System32\FNTCACHE.DAT. The file will automatically be regenerated on the next boot.
(Information found on Microsoft Support Forum and used to successfully fix my own system.)
How do you delete the file if you can't boot?
(1) Press F8 during boot to get to the Windows boot manager advanced options screen.
(2) Select "Repair".
(3) Provide password for a local account that's a member of the Administrator group.
(4) Select "Command Prompt".
(5) Find drive letter assigned to Windows partition (may not be C: in the repair environment!).
(6) Delete \Windows\System32\FNTCACHE.DAT.
(7) Exit command prompt and reboot system.
(8) Fixed!
----------
And now, since this is /., here is the required Windows bashing...
This bug demonstrates the danger of running your GUI in kernel mode (win32k.sys). One stray pointer can ruin your whole day. In this case the pointer was sufficiently invalid to cause a bugcheck. A stray pointer that silently scribbles on other kernel data structures is even worse.
"Those who would give up essential Safety, to purchase a little temporary Performance, deserve neither Performance nor Safety."
The key sequence to access my Slashdot bookmark in Firefox is Alt-B-S. I don't believe this is a coincidence.
No, it was mostly marketing and middle managers.
Jesus Christ, you fuck up your computer like that, and still try to blame MS?
I'm not aware of QA layoffs, I just started a new QA position at MS!
the layoffs were mainly Nokia, marketing, and middle managers from what I've read.
Android is an OS for toys, it doesn't count.
Yes it does.
https://play.google.com/store/...
Well, aren't you just the smartass? :)
"City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......
You might want to check out minimsft.blogspot.com
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Actually the Android apps available to the average user on Google Play far outstrip anything that has been available on Windows. By a factor of 3x. With a trusted repository too, which is something Windows never had.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
I was in a refinery that produces paint pigment last week and watched the operators control the whole place from Android phones!
Hello,
I know that Slashdot loves to bash Microsoft, but calling it's monthly patching cycle "Black Tuesday" is pushing it. Black Tuesday was the name for the stock market crash that preceded the Great Depression, and for all the negativism about Microsoft, I have yet to hear of someone committing suicide over a Microsoft patch.
Frankly, using Woody "I'm a Windows victim" Leonhard as a source of information about Microsoft patches isn't a good idea, at least until he stops grinding whatever axe it is he has against Microsoft. Go read Microsoft's Security TechCenter if you want to know the patches are for, or at least blogs like ComputerWorld o ZDNet's r>Ed Bott, both of whom are more likely to put facts ahead of opinions. Even Paul Thurrott provides some good coverage, although I think he often is the opposite of Woody Leonhard, e.g.doesn't critical enough coverage.
Regards,
Aryeh Goretsky
Dexter is a good dog.
I knew there was going to be some angry Ribbon comment in response.
Angry ribbon? like angry birds? :)
Ribbon is as crap as slashdot beta. LO is good
aaaaaaa
I remember I have problem with kernel updates in RHEL5, that caused the server unable to boot too.
Fortunately it is easy to recover by just reboot and choose another entry in GRUB...
I use my laptop at night. Last night I could not get in at all. Constant upgrades or updating. 45 000 it said. Then I was offline. Then once online again, my screen sent blank. What is this. Why am I paying for something that does not work. I need my laptop to be working all times.
Boy, you get real touchy when people speak the truth. The truth is that Micro$haft has significantly raised prices on EVERYTHING, and then delivered nothing but junk. They have taken every opportunity to reduce productivity and then crow about their wares as if they are the best in breed. The truth is that they are just a huge money pit and the quality of their stuff has significantly gone down. Today's latest screw up is just another indication of this.
Oh no, it's not fucked up at all. I love it like this. But somehow disabling msdrm_v2.dll or something similar named also kills my IDT audio, I mean it acts like it works as far as the drivers are concerned, volume control, etc, but no sound comes through the speakers. Damn drm. I like peace and quiet though, in fact the radio hasn't worked in like my last 3 cars. But that's the only thing I hate about this netbook, the IDT sound chip, but it's a worthy sacrifice in the name of running an Intel Atom ver 2 chipset using like 5 or 8 watts of total power, not just the CPU, but the whole friggin chipset + CPU, and get like 7 hrs on pure batteries at the library, even without a socket. If I could ask for anything, it would be that they make a detachable screen, where I can take the small one on the road, but when I use this thing at home, I could hook up a 21 inch screen to it, of course offset a little farther back. In fact that's what you'd call a docking station, or this thing does have a video out, but the little screen is in the way, else how do I type, with the screen down? Even if I could flip it all the way around back and tuck it under, with a protective cover, that would be nice. And if they had one of these 21 inch screens foldable into 4 where I could put it in my backpack together with the HP Mini 200 with a fully back flippable screen, and fold it open at the library, or anywhere I can sit at a desk, that'd be awesome. I'm the customer after all, and I have needs and wishes.
Yeah well those are obviously not shortcuts to program icons. Your icons would look all similar, being the same filetype, which is a totally different case, than different colored actual icons pointing to programs. I've been in a habit of putting all recent stuff I work on into C:\000 instead of the desktop (or D:\000 partition labeled DATA when I was dual using linux and windows, but now I don't want to reserve like 10GB for XP in a working partition, when most of that would be empty, because I do fill up the 160 GB harddisk with data so I need those last GB's before having to backup, and reinstall the computer fresh and empty), that way it's easy to find, or archive, and I ended up with C:\000\001\, C:\000\002, C:\000\012, etc. Recently I switched to C:\aaa\a01, a02 as the archive, and C:\000 as the garbage working folder. Anybody is like that, has a temp directory where the garbage piles up, or a desk where the papers pile up, but on a computer there is a difference between stuff you're working on, and has all the same icons, compared to different colored pretty icons, which means you installed some app off the Internet or something, and never bothered to uninstall it. I have yet to meet a person whose computer needs require filling the whole desktop with icons, as opposed to tucking them neatly away in the start menu, and just keeping a few of them on the desktop. It's all a matter of style, and taste, I guess, and you can't really argue about that, but I don't think a desktop completely full of icons looks pretty. But I like searching for things alphabetically in a list format, as in Windows Explorer I always have Show Details, and then I can quickly scan down the filenames if sorted by name, and find what I need, as opposed to zigzagging my eyes side to side across the screen looking for where N ends and O begins in the names, they are not neatly lined up under each other. Though Lighthouse Puppy 4.1.2rc1 besides KDE 3.5.10, which I used like Windows Explorer, it also has the speedy IceWM file manager, which is impossible to use this way, and you have to use it as icons, not via show details list, and I do use it, but I don't like it. I don't think it gets any better than show details in Windows Explorer in XP or Konqueror in KDE 3.5 (which is whole lot slower, but has a bit more features - but when backing up command prompt runs circles around both) when it comes to file management.
Have you ever heard of paragraphs?
Use them...don't be lazy.
Very rare compared to how it used to be (situation normal on XP early on) maybe but not imaginary. I've had a couple of users with blue screens in the past few months, and there's only about a dozen MS workstations in the place. The problems went away after fully applying updates but they were real. Maybe it's the culture of people not rebooting their machines for months due to it being a *nix shop that resulted in the people on MS not shutting their machines down for updates every week.