As Patch Tuesday approaches, turn off Automatic Update temporarily and — especially — disengage IE

this is probably too late for most users of Win10 to take the steps suggested, but it's 'interesting' reading (if not more than a little depressing).

Tomorrow’s Patch Tuesday and, given all the havoc we’ve seen with the latest Windows patches, you need to get Automatic Update turned off for now. Based on a security report hidden behind a $690 Microsoft paywall, I also recommend that you ensure Internet Explorer is cut off at the knees.

It’s hard to overstate the problems caused by Microsoft’s second, third and fourth September cumulative updates for all Windows 10 versions. For example, Win10 version 1903, the latest and greatest, saw cumulative updates on Sept. 10 (KB 4515384), Sept. 23 (KB 4522016), Sept. 26 (KB 4517211) and Oct. 3 (KB 4524147, which some characterize as a super-early October cumulative update).

As Microsoft kept flinging buggy fixes at the zero-day problem known as CVE-2019-1367, customers kept complaining about problems with:

• Print spooler crashes — No, they weren’t fixed with the fourth cumulative update, KB 4524147, in spite of Microsoft’s assertions. In fact, Mayank Parmar at Windows Latest documents complaints about KB 4524147 breaking PCs that were working after the third cumulative update, KB 4517211. So we have separate printer bug reports for the second, third and fourth cumulative updates. A royal printer flush.
• Start Menu bugs — Click Start on a patched system and you get the message “Critical Error/ Your Start menu isn’t working,” which is my latest candidate for a D’oh! illuminating error message award.
• Older JScript-based program bugs
• Can’t type into the Cortana Search box
• VMWare won’t start, with the warning “VMware Workstation Pro can’t run on Windows”
• Machines won’t boot after installing the fourth cumulative update (see Lawrence Abrams’ report on BleepingComputer), or can’t install the update at all.

Microsoft hasn’t acknowledged any of those bugs, except for the printer spooler bug in the second September cumulative update. Yes, that’s the bug that is known to persist (reappear?) in the fourth cumulative update.

Link: https://www.computerworld.com/artic...-temporarily-and-especially-disengage-ie.html

 

Eureka! I was able to postpone the whole accursed event until Oct 15, along with additional 8-day postponements on two other parts of the process. You have apparently saved my bacon. There is no love lost whatsoever between myself and Win 10.

Gotta set a reminder to take another look next Monday, the 14th. Please add to this thread if you hear about more impending woe/doom in the aftermath of this dodged bullet? Thanks for this one!

 

Just to let you know, I've had all of those updates installed (including just this morning the OCT 8th update) and have had absolutely no ill effects. I have Windows 10 Home on my Desktop and Windows 10 Pro on my writing laptop. Both are Build 1903. Both have (always) had Firefox as default browser. I *never* use IE.

Guess I'm just lucky.

 

I don't usually read news regarding Windows updates or the havoc they cause, nor do I usually shut off auto updates. My laptop is running 1903 fine and it has all of the updates Hook mentions. I also recently installed an SSD to my daughter's laptop, updated it all the way to 1903, and didn't see any problem. Neither of us uses IE, though.

 

I've had trouble twice, each instance requiring a Google Search to find out what had remedied the situations for others likewise afflicted. It wasn't pretty and due to post-trauma amnesia of the particulars, I would have to locate and then consult my notes to say what exactly happened.

Windows 10: I resent not being able to view updates ahead of time and losing the ability to avoid an individual item if it's been shown to cause a conflict until that conflict has been resolved. Win XP and Win 7 offered choice. I'll also say that I was never reckless in my decisions.

 

I've always blindly updated my Windows computers as soon as updates became available. I don't recall having any issues.

 

I should've added YMMV, of course.

 

I too, get the auto updates & so far my laptop running Vista still works great! LOL

Our 2 laptops with Win 10, & my desktop at the office, get the updates. So far so good but I only use Chrome as my internet browser.

Sent from my LG v10 using Tapatalk

 

The lastest update is happening now on my primary PC. This thread is making me nervous!

Sent from my moto g(6) using Tapatalk

 

I'm still on Windows 10 Version 1803, having just installed the cumulative update October 8, 2019—KB4520008 (OS Build 17134.1069). The feature update to Windows 10 version 1903 failed to install on 8/28/2019. I don't know why it failed, and when I check for updates, it says my PC is up-to-date. Oh, well.