Posted on 01/09/2019 4:38:27 PM PST by dayglored
Quality Assurance? We've heard of it
Microsoft has doubled down on efforts to persuade users to migrate to Windows 10 by breaking Windows 7 networking for some.
Windows Server 2008 R2 is also affected.
While the last few monthly updates for the soon-to-be-obsolete OSes featured a known issue affecting an "unknown" number of "problematic configurations" that require manual reinstalls of network drivers, January's monthly update seems to have upped the ante somewhat.
2019's treat has seen some users finding their shares are now inaccessible, with RDP and other connectivity also suffering.
The issue, which affects both the bonzer monthly roll-up (KB4480970) and the more petite Security-only update (KB4480960, which has no known issues according to Microsoft at time of writing), leaves users receiving an INVALID_HANDLE when attempting to kick off a SMB2 connection.
A bit of sleuthing by a contributor posting on Administrator.de has pointed to the problem being related to Microsoft tweaking security settings in the update, with administrators on the host system being affected.
The post by "Andi" at Administrator.de reckoned it was down to "an extension of security".
This is of scant comfort to users who have had to back-out the patch to get connectivity up and running again. After all, there is important stuff in those updates that really needs to be installed.
The Administrator.de contributor suggested a possible solution, requiring a Registry change around Admin credentials.
Users have reported success, but The Reg has been unable to check it out for ourselves, so try it at your own risk. The usual health warnings apply: fiddling with the Registry could leave your system irrevocably borked.
Others have opted to uninstall and await an official fix to be emitted by Microsoft.
We contacted the Windows giant to find out when such a fix might be forthcoming, but have yet to receive a response.
In the meantime, a Reddit thread has popped up with users discussing their own experience of Microsoft's latest quality cockup, with one wag observing: "We are their QA and I think we do a fantastic job of finding problems. Just not pre-release."
Ouch. ®
All your network shares are belong to Microsoft.
I finally upgraded to Windows 10 because of all the problems. I have to admit my system has been much more stable since. I think they have finally worked the bugs out of 10.
I’m surprised Microsoft is still even maintaining Windows 7 - getting pretty old at this point.
Their cloud offerings are an afterthought compared with Amazon AWS, too.
Microsoft’s car efforts (Sync) were terminated very shortly after being used by Ford. I have Sync and it doesn’t work well.
Microsoft’s entire line of phone OSs were deep-sixed because they were so poor. I’ve had two Microsoft-based phones and they didn’t work well or get decent updates.
I can’t stand the privacy issues and dozens of settings needing to be tweaked on my Windows 10 computers. Consequently, I dual boot into Linux Mint whenever I can.
May Microsoft rest in peace.
Many people don’t have to tolerate Windows at all. There are a couple of great alternatives.
Updates to Windows 7? Reminds me of the woman in a 10 year coma who comes up pregnant.
Never, ever, ever underestimate Microsoft's ability to gummy up something that isn't broken.
Win 7 Pro is very much alive, well,and regularly updated.
I have a Win 7 machine that is 6 years old at least.
I turned off auto updates on it before I ever went online with it. It’s behind a router, I have always run AV and firewall with occasional malware checks and weekly registry cleaning.
MS has never had the chance to break it.
HELP !
That is wishful thinking on your part. No matter how mediocre their efforts in mobile and phone software have been... Microsoft is going to continue to be the leader in desktop and laptop operating systems for the foreseeable future. This is because Microsoft is the standard and so much hardware and software depends on this standard.
Geez, they screwed up Outlook a couple of months back, and now this. Just uninstalled that so-called update.
LOL! How did Bill Gates become one of the richest men in the world by creating a product that is so clunky?
Updates stop in one year: Jan 2020. After that, we’re on our own.
I think you mean horkage.
Are you using a Windows computer? If not, you can skip this thread.
If you are running Windows... Do you know which version of Windows it is? If so, and it’s not Windows 7, you can skip this thread.
If you don’t know what version of WIndows you have, write back and we’ll figure it out for you.
If you know you’re running Windows 7, then this thread is potentially important to you. It has to do with the monthly “Windows Updates” that Microsoft installs on your computer. The January updates have a problem, which is discussed in the article.
I’m sincerely glad you’re finding Win10 works for you.
However, I recommend against complacency with regard to the bugs.
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