Breaking, literally: Microsoft's fix for CPU-hogging Windows bug wrecks desktop search

The Register ^ | Sep 11, 2019 | Thomas Claburn

[dayglored]

One step forward, er, one step back. Nobody gets too far like that

Microsoft's build 18362.356 (KB4515384​​​​​) for its Windows 10 May 2019 Update (version 1903) rolled out on Tuesday with security improvements for Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, networking tech and input devices – and a CPU usage fix that, for some, has broken desktop search.

The security tweaks address a variety of speculative execution side-channel vulnerabilities known as microarchitecture data sampling (MDS) for 32-bit x86 versions of Windows. Intel dealt with the CVEs at issue – CVE-2019-11091, CVE-2018-12126, CVE-2018-12127, CVE-2018-12130 – in May.

The update, released concurrently with Build 17763.737 for the Windows 10 October 2018 Update (v1809), also includes security enhancements for assorted Windows components.

Microsoft says its update fixes a high CPU usage problem associated with SearchUI.exe reported by a small number of users who disabled searching the web via Windows Desktop Search.

But its fix has nixed SearchUI.exe for some. Those griping claim SearchUI.exe, a part of Cortana, won't launch after installing KB4515384.

"What a mess – I had the original issue with SearchUI.exe and it sending my CPU to unparalleled heights and showing a big black pane of nothing," wrote Reddit user cyrenaic101 in a complaint thread. "So I uninstalled that turd. And then here comes the 'fix' KB4515384. Search completely broken…"

Similar complaints surfaced in another Reddit discussion of the updates.

Among those who claim to have undone the snafu, solutions involve either reverting to an older build and blocking updates, enabling Bing search via the Windows Registry or replacing the Cortana Cache folder with a version from a previous working build.

In November last year, Microsoft published a blog post from Michael Fortin, corporate vice president of Windows, addressing concerns about the quality of Windows updates after a series of problems that culminated in the re-release of its Windows 10 October 2018 update.

Despite the problematic release, Fortin maintained that the quality of Windows releases has been improving. "Over the last three years one of our key indicators of product quality – customer service call and chat volumes – has steadily dropped even as the number of machines running Windows 10 increased," he said.

Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment. ®

[Openurmind]

Yes, give it a shot! It sounds like the one file is the right one.

[Openurmind]

Windows always tells you 4 hours at the start of a 2 gig download, but as it goes along this “time” drops significantly and it doesn’t end up actually taking that long unless you are on a slow speed connection. :)

[Windflier]

Well, that didn’t work, either. I swear, I’m about ready to shoot this computer.

Throwing away another disk and starting all over again...

[Openurmind]

Double check the size of that file, if it is not around 1.9 gigs then it is not a full download like we want. And if you didn’t get it from through the linux site and one of their mirrors then it might not be a verified file and guaranteed to work.

It does take awhile to download these ISO files because they are not compressed, not compressing them makes the download more reliable with less chance for errors or glitches in the transfer.

[Openurmind]

Please be patient, I was hoping you would PM me before starting this, I could have gave you heads up about each step. I’m in it for the long haul. I’m going to PM you if you don’t mind. :)

[Windflier]

Double check the size of that file, if it is not around 1.9 gigs then it is not a full download like we want.

Yes, that's the size of the file. I got it from one of the sites listed at the main Linux page.

I've now burned a third copy of this OS to disk. Only thing now is to see if I can boot the computer from it.

[Openurmind]

If it doesn’t then the boot order is wrong and has to be fixed. You want it to boot from the CD first anyways.

[Windflier]

Are you familiar with getting into the BIOS setup on that machine?

No, it's been many years and many machines ago, since I've done that. I don't have the first clue how to go about it.

Here's the make and model of my computer:

Make: Hewlett-Packard laptop
Model: 15-db0xxx

[Openurmind]

OK hold on, it should be the same as my HP I am on now. Let me search to make sure. :)

[Viking2002]

I use a program called Rufus - it’ll make any media bootable and install the the OS to the destination drive. Easy to use with a flash drive - I’ve never tried using it to install an actual OS to the flash drive and booting from there, but I guess as long as the flash drive itself is bootable, I don’t see a reason why it wouldn’t load the OS behind it. I used to fiddle with Linux back in the day (Mandrake, Red Hat, Mandriva, Kubuntu, Goblin, Xandros) but that was back when you had to manually partition the hard drive and name each one, and there were the usual command line routines and packages to pick out. My main monitor is a 32” flat panel, I guess the only thing holding me back is motivation and a KVM switch.

[Viking2002]

iPhones. Meh. At my age, all I need a phone to do is make a call, send a text, take a picture, maybe check my e-mail. I don’t need 75 apps and the whole world crawling around in my pocket. When old-school flip phones come back into style (as all things eventually do), I’ll be ahead of the curve. I don’t want to launch a moon mission, I wanna call AAA because I broke down on the interstate. LOL

[Bob434]

did you get it going? Looks like maybe you went to pm’s with openurmind? Hopefully you got it up and running- it’s a great os- and much safer online than windows=-

[Bob434]

I think i had heard of that one before- I use Brasero in linux mint- with the flash drives, I think ya gotta use something like unetbootin to make it bootable, then set the boot priority to flash drive- not sure- I’ve always used CD’s and DVD’s which my computer was just set automatically to boot to- and i didn’t need to make them bootable like you have to with flash drives i believe?

Yeah, linux used to be a pain to deal with- I tried it back in the 90’s, wow! Back when i had 27k dialup internet connection lol- I hated it then- but these latest renditions like mint are awesome- pretty easy to use-

[Viking2002]

Yeah, as long as the media is set active in the BIOS, it’ll check down through the boot list to find the first available boot device. Now, I don’t know how the flash drive should be formatted when it comes to Linux - I usually do x32/x64 OS copies, or if the BIOS has to be set for Legacy or UEFI. I think I still have several old bootable and portable copies of Linux I burned somewhere around here in my CD library, so maybe Legacy would work. A matter of a little bench testing with the newer versions. Or, just reading the documentation first. LOL I’m bad about that.

[Bob434]

[[Or, just reading the documentation first. LOL I’m bad about that.]]

LOL Me too- no patience for instructions- which is odd because it takes me MUCH longer to figure the issue out without the instructions lol-

[Viking2002]

Well, I was/am in IT for 20 years. We spend so much time thinking we can rassle the bear, we forget that the bear might not be the average one and it steals our pic-a-nic basket. LOL

[Bob434]

lol that’s a good way to put it- This is why i get lost a lot driving lol- but i do get to see country i never woudl have had i actually used a map lol

[Viking2002]

I learned to NEVER use the GPS from a damn cell phone. I did that once at Christmas because my wife just had to try it out on her new phone, and we ended up out in the West Virginia sticks so deep, I swore a Sasquatch was going to jump in the road and flip the car. And I was born and raised in the area, so that ought to tell you where that infernal thing steered us, looking for a back road shortcut. It's a thirteen hour drive from here to the Maryland hills, and that jabbering utensil added an extra two hours to it. It rained all the way to Virginia and was pea soup fog through the WV hills and hollows, and by the time we got home, I was so fatigued and shell-shocked, my entire body was shaking. I'm amazed we didn't crash. She did the same thing to me again two years ago, driving to a Christmas concert in Birmingham. I swore from that day on, I drive the route I know, not the route she thinks is quicker. Just sit there, play a card game on that thing, and shaddup already. LOL

[Windflier]

did you get it going? Looks like maybe you went to pm’s with openurmind? Hopefully you got it up and running- it’s a great os- and much safer online than windows=

Hey Bob. No, we got as far as creating the boot up disk and re-setting the boot order in the bios, but for some weird reason the computer won't boot up from the disk.

I'm having so many headaches with this, I'm thinking of just biting the bullet and switching this machine to Linux, permanently. That's IF I can ever get this machine to boot from the disk.

[Bob434]

hmmm- did you let it boot for a couple of minutes once hte screen goes black? It does take awhile for the linux boot screen to come up as it’s running from the DVD- Does it just boot right into windows? (if the disk has the info actually burned onto it, it should just sit at a blank screen OR go to the boot screen for linux)

If the screen boots into windows, then it’s likely the disk is blank- if you get a message that says something like ‘No media’ or “No operating system’ or something like that- then the disk is either corrupt or nothing is on it- Did you verify that the iso actually got burned to the disk?

I suppose it’s possible your CD player isn’t working too- can you play or view content on a disk when in windows? (just a thought- it probably works alright)

I assume you got the boot priority worked out to boot from CD first, right?

Some com-uters youmust press a key while it’s booting in order to boot from CD

Here’s a list to work through- but most i said already:

https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000217.htm