Microsoft Removes Antivirus Registry Key Check for All Windows Versions (bleepingcomputer.com)

Microsoft has decided to remove a mandatory "registry key requirement" it introduced in the aftermath of the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerability disclosure. BleepingComputer: Microsoft used this registry key to prevent Windows updates from being installed on computers running antivirus software incompatible with the Meltdown and Spectre patches. Antivirus vendors were supposed to create this registry key on users' computers to signal that they've updated their product and will not interfere with Microsoft's patches. This was a big issue because incompatible antivirus products would crash and BSOD Windows systems. [...] The OS maker removed the registry key check for Windows 10 computers last month, in March, and has announced yesterday that the key is no longer necessary for other Windows operating system versions -- 7, 8, 8.1, Server 2008, and Windows Server 2012.

Comments

Great!

[thegreatbob]

Now can they remove the horseshit, seemingly purely consumer-hostile, blockade on updates to older versions of Windows running on newer CPUs?

Re:Great!

[DarkRookie]

Because 7 was the last decent version of Windows
10 is a bloated messy spyware program and not an OS.

Re:Great!

[DarkRookie]

You can get around this. I have seen people demonstrating it.
Also, IIRC, its M$ that blocks those and not the CPU manufactures.

Re:Great!

[Anonymous Coward]

Because 2000 was the last decent version of Windows

Fixed that for you.

Re:Great!

[Mashiki]

Win 7? the version of windows along with 8.x that have vram limits only allowing the total space to 4064MB to be allocated? Because both OS's blew their shit all over the place and all that. Which is really, like really, really good if you have a single, pair, or more video cards with 8GB of onboard memory that can't be fully used. Maybe you can get developers to use vulkan more and that won't be a problem for gaming, or well development, or even cad programs.

Re:Great!

[thegreatbob]

It's not always a matter of want. I'll leave the other possible reasons as an exercise to the reader, as they've been played out in the comments a million times over.

Re:Great!

[UnknownSoldier]

Why do you want the run the latest spyware from Microsoft?

1. Are you offering to verify and test all our drivers and apps will be still be functional after upgrading to Windows 10 ?

2. "Old" is a red herring fallacy. The wheel is thousands of years old -- you don't see people bitching about that.

3. "Don't fix what ain't broken"

Stop drinking Microshit's Kool-Aid (TM)

Re:Great!

[FilmedInNoir]

Yes, or just use DX10/11.

Re:Great!

[Mashiki]

So use vista, win 8 or win 10 is what you're saying.

Re:Great!

[Mashiki]

That only affects DirectX 9, which games haven't used in many years and the old games that are DirectX 9 based don't need access to that much VRAM. It's a complete non-issue.

"Old" You mean like Skyrim? How about GTA V? GTA IV? Witcher 2? Anno2070? Various Batman games? Civ V? Deux Ex:HR? Dishonored? Mechwarrior Online? Metro games? Red Faction? World of Warcraft? New Xcom games? How about ENB's that use custom shaders and effects but a dx9 core? No?

Re:Great!

[ArchieBunker]

Other than gamers, who is going to be running over 4Gb of video ram under normal circumstances? Nobody.

Re:Great!

[Anonymous Coward]

Skyrim is 7 fucking years old and supports DX11, dumbass.
GTA V is 3 years old and ONLY supports DX10 and DX11, dumbass.
GTA IV is a decade old and maxes at 512MB VRAM, dumbass.
The Witcher II is 7 years old and maxes at 512MB VRAM, dumbass.
Anno 2070 is 7 years old and supports DX11, dumbass.
Batman: Arkham Asylum is 9 years old and maxes at 256MB VRAM, dumbass.
Batman: Arkham City is 7 years old and supports DX11, dumbass.
Batman: Arkham Origins is 5 years old and supports DX11, dumbass.
Batman: Arkham Knight is 3 years old and supports DX11, dumbass.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution is 7 years old and supports DX11, dumbass.
Dishonored is 6 years old and ONLY supports DX10 and DX11, dumbass.
MechWarrior Online is 5 years old and supports DX11, dumbass.
Metro 2033 is 8 years old and supports DX11, duimbass.
Metro: Last Light is 5 years old and supports DX11, dumbass.
Red Faction is 17 years old, ONLY supports *DX8* and needs *64MB* VRAM, dumbass.
World of Warcraft is is 14 years old and only needs *64MB* VRAM, dumbass.
XCOM: Enemy Within is 5 years old and supports DX11, dumbass.
XCOM 2 is 2 years old and supports DX11, dumbass.

Who gives a fuck about ENB? It's not a part of the games and the most any of the DX9 only games in this list use is 512MB VRAM, so there's still a lot left over, dumbass.

You really are out of touch, dumbass.

Re:Great!

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

Say what now? I'm typing this on a Windows 7 machine with DX11.

Re:Great!

[thegreatbob]

Indeed, it's more like a paper tape saying 'do not enter', as it's pretty easy to bypass (though it does require bypassing windows file protection to patch and/or shim some DLL(s) which were modified by MS to basically say 'nope'). Otherwise, I'm not entirely sure what you're talking about.

Re:Great!

[bloodhawk]

or use Windows 7 with DX 11.1. seriously did you bother checking anything before posting this.

Re:Great!

[AHuxley]

Just use Win 10 for games.

Re:Great!

[Mashiki]

You really are out of touch, dumbass.

So who's the dumbass again? Oh right, that'd be you. Just to point out exactly how out of touch you are. Skyrim is DX9 only. Skyrim:SE is DX11. Guess which one is still modded the most? Yeah...so out-of-touch. Guess that's why it also top(ed) out on steams concurrent players well...nearly every week. That's the DX9 version.

Re:Great!

[Mashiki]

You mean partially supported right? And because the functions are limited, and non-supported in the drivers it still doesn't work properly.

Re:Great!

[Mashiki]

or use Windows 7 with DX 11.1. seriously did you bother checking anything before posting this.

You're saying that a partially supported api, without proper driver feedback is working properly? Win8 is the first version with proper api support in the OS itself that allows full calls. Did you even understand what you're talking about? Probably not, though a decade ago I would have expected someone on /. to understand this natively.

Let me make this clear. Win7 only got partial DX11 support, around half the functions *revert* to DX9 via compatibility. In other words, if you're still using Win7 and think you're getting full support you're either an idiot or badly misinformed. OGL has better and fuller support under Win7 then DX11.

Re:Great!

[Mashiki]

The original version of Skyrim maxes at less than 1GB of VRAM

Wrong dumbass. Skyrim maxed out at 2.84GB of vram, stop showing your ignorance you've already lost.

Wait, what if I have no antivirus?

[Zorpheus]

The article does not mention if Windows checked first for an incompatible antivirus software. Sounds as if it just waits for this key to appear.
So without antivirus it will never update? And if there are two antivirus softwares it will update as soon as one is compatible, making the system crash due to the other?

Re:Wait, what if I have no antivirus?

[ElizabethGreene]

It does still check for known-incompatible AV software, just not the opt-in key. It has minimum version requirements for Avast, AVG, and others.

You can see it in the Wsus metadata.

Re: Wait, what if I have no antivirus?

[Zorpheus]

Ok the new way seems fine, I just wonder if they old way was really this stupid.

Re:Wait, what if I have no antivirus?

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

There was a lot of concern about the "no antivirus" case when this first rolled out, exactly because it would apparently have prevented updates from installing.

This is supposed to have been fixed by a more recent update, but for those who install the monthly security-only roll-ups it still doesn't seem to be clear exactly what should be done and in what order even now.

Lots of folks used this key

[rsilvergun]

to prevent the patches from loading so they wouldn't take the performance hit.

Re:Lots of folks used this key

[ElizabethGreene]

A better* way to prevent the performance hit is to use the "To Disable the Fix" registry keys in KB 4073119

https://support.microsoft.com/...

This lets you install updates to protect against the other security vulnerabilities besides S&M.

Re:Lots of folks used this key

[thegarbz]

If they did then they are idiots. There was a documented and official way to achieve the same thing.

Re:lol

[Anonymous Coward]

Windows 7 had (has) telemetry. When you set Windows 10 to 'Basic' it is very similar to the checks Windows 7 already did when it went to update your system every time it ran Windows Update. Although the list published recently seems long, most of the so-called "spying" just returns NULL to Microsoft that the particular device and/or configuration is not present on the system - and there are a lot of them because the Windows eco-system is vast. If it is present, Windows Update will check to see if the driver is up-to-date. No biggie.

Otherwise, if you want to avoid the actually "spying" just delete the Windows-store style apps that come pre-installed, etc. They're the ones phoning home on you. There's also a privacy panel in Settings you can go through to turn off anything else. And, of course, use a local account.

Re:lol

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

Any of which can be changed in Windows 10 by the next update, which you can't stop from installing without jumping through extensive hoops at best.

Compare this with Windows 7, where I have no telemetry at all running by default (because I could choose never to install those updates) and I can install the monthly security-only roll-ups so I don't get all the other unwanted junk destabilising my system.