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Anti-Cheat Software Causing Big Problems For Windows 10 Previews (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Windows 10 Insider Preview Slow Ring -- the beta track that's meant to receive only those builds that are free from any known serious problems -- hasn't received an update for months. While the fast ring is currently testing previews of the April 2019 release, codenamed 19H1, and the even-faster skip-ahead ring is testing previews not of the October 2019 release, 19H2, but of the April 2020 release, 20H1, the Slow Ring is yet to receive a single 19H1 build. This has prompted some concern among insiders that perhaps the ring has been forgotten about, and it has even caused a few complaints from companies that are using the Windows Insider for Business program to validate new Windows releases before their launch. Without Slow Ring builds to test, there's nothing to validate, meaning that they'll have to delay deployment of 19H1 once it ships.
Microsoft's Dona Sarkar, chief of the Windows Insider program, explained yesterday what the problem is, and in many ways it's a throwback to Windows' past, before the days of DEP and ASLR and PatchGuard and all the other measures Microsoft has implemented to harden Windows against malicious software: the build is crashing when some unspecified common anti-cheat software is used. Sarkar's tweet says that the software causes a GSOD, for Green Screen of Death; the traditional and disappointingly familiar Blue Screen of Death, denoting that Windows has suffered a fatal error, is colored green for preview releases so they can be distinguished at a glance from crashes of stable builds. Fast ring builds have the same GSOD issue, and indeed, it has been listed on their known issues list for many months. Sarkar says that the fix must come from the third-party company that developed the anti-cheat software. In an update, Ars Technica's Peter Bright says Microsoft has pushed a build to the Slow Ring, number 18342.8, but the GSOD issue remains. "To avoid crashing machines, the build won't be offered to any system that has the offending anti-cheat software installed," Bright writes. "It's not clear why this approach could not have been used months ago."
Microsoft's Dona Sarkar, chief of the Windows Insider program, explained yesterday what the problem is, and in many ways it's a throwback to Windows' past, before the days of DEP and ASLR and PatchGuard and all the other measures Microsoft has implemented to harden Windows against malicious software: the build is crashing when some unspecified common anti-cheat software is used. Sarkar's tweet says that the software causes a GSOD, for Green Screen of Death; the traditional and disappointingly familiar Blue Screen of Death, denoting that Windows has suffered a fatal error, is colored green for preview releases so they can be distinguished at a glance from crashes of stable builds. Fast ring builds have the same GSOD issue, and indeed, it has been listed on their known issues list for many months. Sarkar says that the fix must come from the third-party company that developed the anti-cheat software. In an update, Ars Technica's Peter Bright says Microsoft has pushed a build to the Slow Ring, number 18342.8, but the GSOD issue remains. "To avoid crashing machines, the build won't be offered to any system that has the offending anti-cheat software installed," Bright writes. "It's not clear why this approach could not have been used months ago."
Why does what amounts to spyware get preferential treatment?
The solution to this is simple: games shouldn't be loading their own kernel drivers.
"Screw Sun, cross-platform will never work. Let's move on and steal the Java language." - Visual J++ Product Manager
Three sides of the same coin.
At least it doesn't give BSOD.
Don't do your banking on a Windows 10 PC.
Part of the plan to lock out steam and others!
Ms wants to make it all locked down MS store / Xbox that they get an 30% cut.
It will be nice to have easy force uninstall for that and other stuff like starforce
I'd prefer an ultra Ultra slow and very stable tested train of updates.
You know maybe even give it a name, a more simplified ui, call it something like windows 7 or something like that.
the reasons that Windows 7 Pro will most likely be my last Windows Workstations (have 2) when it goes EOL.
;)
At that point, I am thinking bye bye Windows/Microsoft everything. So you know what, I don't much care. After all, they really are heading to remote monthly subscription based everything anyway.
I refuse to use any of that kind of stuff in "my" business. Basically, limited accounts to deal with client work. And when the time comes I will let those clients go elsewhere for that work.
Just my 2 cents
go play the original COD Modern Warfare, Not even sure if you can actually, but last I heard (2014...ish?) it was less a game and more an exercise in how far you could push online cheat engines. There were accusations that Activision ignored the cheaters so people would move on to the current release (now with more Microtransactions(c) ).
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Because cheating is rampant in online games, and anti-cheats are needed to even have a modicum of fair play online. Unless you're one to believe the only way to play online is consoles only and basically the PC should be discarded as a gaming device.
Play on PC with people you know from outside the game who can be trusted not to cheat.
I would jump ship off win 10 so fast. It has to be the worst OS since Vista. I mean if it were a pure OS it would be great as it does some things really well. But since MSFT decided that windows won't be just an OS anymore it tries to do things it should not do. I don't need my OS to spy on me or update at inopportune times.
>_ the traditional and disappointingly familiar Blue Screen of Death, denoting that Windows has suffered a fatal error, is colored green for preview releases so they can be distinguished at a glance from crashes of stable builds.
That's how you know you're using Windows' stable version...
I have a few tools that require licences and the licence checking software occasionally breaks when their is a windows update. I would prefer it if the makers of the tools actually gave an update when windows broke things as opposed to thousands of developers scrambling and wasting hours on these problems.
Well, it could have, but I assume that Microsoft alerted the company involved and had expected a fix to be released.
What's not clear to me is why Microsoft has failed to provide a workaround for this. The only reason I can think of is that the software has a vulnerability which is deliberately asserted.
Don't forget: anti-cheat is key to online games that rely on online economies chased with real world dollars. If anti-cheat breaks, there's gonna be some severe heartbreak for the heartless.
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It's a test build, it's even states that the build shouldn't be used for day to day operating. And isn't the problem here the anti-cheat software, so shouldn't THEY fix the reason why that particular version of windows is crashing (unless ofcourse they are using the API's as they should be used and not do something they shouldn't)?