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Windows 7 Users Who Installed January Update Report Network Issues; Some Say the Update Has Also Incorrectly Flagged Their OS License as 'Not Genuine' (itpro.co.uk)
Some Windows 7 admins are feeling the pain of Microsoft's latest updates in this week's Patch Tuesday releases. From a report: Users who've installed this Tuesday's KB4480970 cumulative January update have been complaining of network connectivity issues on those devices based on a network that uses the SMBv2 file sharing protocol. Microsoft released its update to fix several identified vulnerabilities, including a remote execution flaw in PowerShell and to add robustness against side-channel attacks like those targeting the Meltdown and Spectre flaws. But a number of users immediately complained of networking issues, with Microsoft confirming there are now three known problems with the January patch. The other issues comprise an authentication error, and a file-sharing issue affecting some user accounts. ZDNet adds: Regarding the 'Not Genuine' Windows 7 error, Microsoft confirms that "some users are reporting the KMS Activation error, 'Not Genuine', 0xc004f200 on Windows 7 devices". "We are aware of this incident and are presently investigating it. We will provide an update when available," writes Microsoft on both KB4480960 and KB4480970.
These "patches"are getting to be almost as complex as the feature updates. Why would security updates be changing so much? Even mitigating a complex attack shouldn't require a registry hack to fix broken functionality.
Looks like Home and Pro users are guinea pigs for more than just the semi annual updates now. How did this even make it out of testing?
Turn off auto updates
Check for updates by hand
Only if the update was at least a week old update at a time of my choosing
Of course when I tried this on windows 10 check for updates is now check for the latest alpha updates and immediately apply them.
Did you know 80 to 90% of the moderators on slashdot wouldn't recognize a troll even if one dragged them under a bridge.
Deja vu all over again.
At this point, it's difficult to distinguish Microsoft's own ineptness where they put out updates that break things, and actively trying to break those systems so people have to upgrade.
Unfortunately, after many years in the industry, I have learned with Microsoft to never attribute to incompetence what can be attributed to malice.
My cynical view here is that someone issued a directive to break Windows 7. I could be wrong, but I don't extend the goodwill to Microsoft to assume I am.
Experienced this issue with remote desktop which the update killed. Found others were experiencing the same. Uninstall the update and remote desktop works again.
I copied a 2 GB file, and it took nearly threee weeks. It finally completed and the md5sum checked out, but that's ridiculous. I don't need to access our Windows file share often, but some of my coworkers do. It's driving them nuts.
Win98 SE was your idea of "stable?" I'm guessing you never tried to get more than 64 hours of uptime from it.
You're remembering wrong. I would still get blue screens every month or two with 98SE. The NT kernel is a lot more stable - even with all the junk getting piled in on top.
I didn't with SE, but your experience was dependent on the quality of your hardware drivers. There were no guard rails there, and lots of drivers that weren't reliable especially when in combination with other iffy drivers. (One can break the rules without symptoms, several breaking the rules shows you why they're there. Vendors don't care when the user doesn't have a way to know they're responsible)
I know I've pulled a random relative's Windows 7 computer out and turned it on after a random amount of time, reinstalled the system with the key on the system, and got it flagged as not genuine.
I think Microsoft just wants you to call up their activation helpline in these edge cases, for a variety of small reasons. Not the least of which would be subtle pushes to want an upgrade on old systems.
But for systems you just want as a garage tool system, or something like a Plex or random file server a relative can maintain, there's no real desire for that.
Ryan Fenton
Should happen sometime in the next six months.
64 hours was fine. The figure you're thinking about is 49 days.
A 64-hour limit would've been a major issue. A month and a half, however...well, 98 already had enough problems that already made it unlikely you'd ever run it for that long for *that* issue to be a problem.
Actually RDP also broke in win10 with KB4483234 ... (as well as win7)
instead of uninstalling the patches, you can fix it like this:
Run gpedit.msc
Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Credentials Delegation -> Encryption Oracle Remediation
Change it to Enable and in Protection level, change back to Vulnerable.
enjoy! :) (and yes, as a sysadmin, I'm really tired of MS bs patching)
Which is probably why it took 5 years to notice the problem ...
> I was able to roll back the updates and even disabled future updates, but that poses security issues.
Major security issues. If you're not being targeted by the NSA, the vast majority of attacks on Windows machines are taking advantage of known issues that have been addressed via updates. So lacking the updates makes a big difference to security. The "mean time to compromise", how quickly an internet-connected machine is hacked, is under 10 minutes for an unpatched Windows machine.
DX12 is largely ignored by most gaming companies. Most used is DX11, with second most used being DX9.
Just yesterday, I was fixing a computer of an acquaintance whose HDD started to make weird clacking noises and would not boot their Windows 7 Pro any more.
Ordered an SSD, downloaded the latest Win 7 Pro 64 image and created a bootable usb drive. Installation of hard and software went without any issues. Fortunately the new install would recognize the old drive. So I ran ProduKey which found the old key.
Activation would not work. I called the helpline (which is usual here in Germany for activating OEM Windows, therefore I've lost count of how often I've done this), followed the robocall instructions. It said the key was invalid and let me talk with a technician. The technician with the funny accent then told me that the key was blacklisted and that I should contact the system vendor and hang up.
Now I know for a fact that their licence was genuine, because we found the original key later. Well, thanks for nothing Microsoft helpline.
Fortunately acquiring a new, genuine OEM key costs only something like 5€.
The ability to authorized an operating system is clearly a national security risk. Once a operating system is paid for, there should be not allowed way to deauthorize--else or enemies will surly take advantage of it.
Additionally, this happened with the last update on my machine; is Microsoft testing rolling operating system blackouts?
https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM
I stopped updating my old Win7 box when an update blasted me off the net and I had to recover with a System Restore point.
I recently went full time to Linux Mint and I plan on running Win7 in a VM for a few older Windows programs I still have to use.
Microsoft is, in my opinion, deliberately crashing older versions in order to force people onto Windows 10. That's just never going to happen on any of my computers, never never never.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
> Maybe for non-power users. Who let every JS ad script run by default and open every email attachment without a care.
Careless users are a problem, a mostly separate problem. No it is needed. The MTC figure I mentioned is for an unpatched Windows machine simply connected to the internet, with no user doing anything.
One thing stupid users can do is turn off automatic updates on Windows. Another stupid thing that stupid users can do is enable (or leave enabled) UPnP. Those two combine to virtually guarantee the machine is compromised quite quickly.
Some games have DX12 support, but most don't. And those that do have DX12 are new games, and new games aren't as good (just like Hollywood movies). The number of users who can tell the difference between a high quality DX11 and DX12 version of a game is not that large.
Same here. I'm running Win7 on 4 systems with updates off.
Been doing it for a few years. Typically, MS updates either decrease performance or break things (or give you an OS you don't want).
When I can't use Win7 anymore, it'll be Linux.
Now if you're counting in septenary, on the other hand...
> Manually check every Tuesday ... If you are incapable of remembering to perform one task a week, please give your computer to someone not quite as mentally disabled.
Patch Tuesday is second Tuesday of the month, not every Tuesday.
Once or twice a year they do one on a fourth Tuesday.
You were saying people who are too "mentally disabled" to know when to update Windows shouldn't touch computers? I assume you'll be unable to reply to this since you'll have to "give your computer to someone not quite as mentally disabled."
You'd be surprised, but it seems that gamers tend to hold onto some pretty old stuff. I remember being surprised at how long it took before games finally started shipping on DVDs (instead of multiple CD sets). Heck, Steam only dropped Windows XP support this year. Yes, as in 2019.
I'd actually be surprised if they are many non-Microsoft owned games that don't target Windows 7.