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Patch reliability is unclear, but widespread attacks make patching prudent. Go ahead and patch, but watch out for potential problems. |
PATCH WATCH By Susan Bradley Don’t patch! I’ve moved the patching alert status to DEFCON 1. I don’t do this lightly but we are seeing issues with prin
[See the full post at: MS-DEFCON 1 – Blue screens of death triggered by patches]
Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher
Why is a public service announcement for the better of everyone a Plus-only thing? Explanations about changes in the MS-DEFCON rating had always been available for free before the Plus system came in, and the whole idea of Plus was that it would be something extra.
I think that something as important as an emergency change in the MS-DEFCON rating should be publicly available. Not only is this good for non-paying users, but it allows us to link and share the information.
Remember you can be a plus member for any amount of donation. Secondly you can look at the top and see the change so it’s not being limited. Emailing out an alert – which is what these are hooked to – is reserved for those that donate to the site.
Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher
Similar information is already here. The emails that go out to the Plus members are tied to the DefCon alerts and never went to all. The alert has to be tied to the post in this manner. If you want to share you can share the previous post, but this one is tied to Plus alerts.
Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher
askMoody has an element of… 😛
Susan made a post here detailing the issue for free users. A link to Ghacks also provides me with the information I need to know about the buggy patch. So no, I don’t think us non-subscribers are being left out of the loop, even though it might seem that way. Anyways, I can see MS-DEFCON 1—that’s good enough for a non-techsavvy user.
I don’t have a definitive listing of which printers trigger the BSOD. I would hold back at this time.
Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher
Running 20H2 Pro OS Build 19042.867, printer is HP Officejet 8600 All-in-one.
No issues. Printing works, scan to computer works, no BSOD’s.
I’ll see if I can gather a list of machines having issues:
Here’s one: “Kyocera seems to be the catalyst. Install the specific PCL6 driver instead of the universal print driver that seems to be causing the problem”
Another “Reports of printer failures include Kyocera, Ricoh, Zebra, and others”
“It seems that the most affected are Kyocera/Triumph-Adler/Utax/Copystar copiers family.
If you have PC with Win 10 versions 1909, 2004, 20H2 and Kyocera family type 3 KX print driver, after this update you’ll get BSOD APC_INDEX_MISMATCH.”
Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher
If it didn’t trigger a blue screen upon printing, I would leave it.
However to uninstall it, click on start, settings, update and history, view update history, uninstall updates. Scroll to the listing of Microsoft Windows patches and double click. It will ask to uninstall. Follow the prompts and reboot.
Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher
Edition: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
Version: 2009 20H2
Build: 19042.867
Installed: 12/23/2020 10:26
Printer: Brother HL-L2350DW
NO PROBLEMO! 😎
Don’t patch!
Up to now, Windows Update March 2021 presented NO issues whatsoever, that I could see.
I have:
Clevo portable (socalled laptop, purchased new Febr. 2015)
Windows 10 Home 64bit, installed Oct. 2015
now updated to version 20H2, build 19042.867, March 09, 5 PM Seattle time.
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4810MQ CPU @ 2.80GHz 2.80 GH + 32 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M
2-in-1 printer/scanner Canon G6000 series, driver 3.40.2.40
9 (yes nine!) external USB hard disk drives (27 TB in total)
1 external eSata hard disk drive (only connected for system partition images)
With pre-patched images on standby, the following patches were installed
NOTE: both obtained from the MS catalog:
Win8.1 x64 March SMQR KB5000848 (on two devices, haswell desktop and ivybridge laptop) connected to a local Canon Pixma printer (via USB)
Win7 x86 (w/ESUBypass) March SMQR KB5000841 on a core2duo laptop and connected to the printer later.
Findings: NONE exhibit ANY printer printing/comms/crash issues and print queues as expected with no violations via SFC integrity check, all good here.
Well MSFT have ‘fessed up to the APC_INDEX_MISMATCH error with a blue screen when attempting to print for the following:
Affected platforms:
Client: Windows 10, version 20H2; Windows 10, version 2004; Windows 10, version 1909; Windows 10, version 1809; Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2019; Windows 10, version 1803
Server: Windows Server, version 20H2; Windows Server, version 2004; Windows Server, version 1909; Windows Server, version 1809; Windows Server 2019; Windows Server, version 1803
Source MSFT
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/release-health/status-windows-10-20h2#1570msgdesc
Why is a public service announcement for the better of everyone a Plus-only thing?
We have not changed the behavior. When newsletters and alerts go out, they are numbered, such as 18.9.0, 18.9.1, etc. 0 is a newsletter, higher digits are alerts. If the suffix of an issue is a digit, it is paid content. Always has been, as best I can tell.
If the issue number is something like 18.9.F, that is free content.
Why paid only? Because it’s not free for us to do the mailing – we pay every time we mail. Without the community support, without your donations, we couldn’t do any of this.
Remember that two things are always public. The first is the MS-DEFCON banner at the top of every page on the site, accessible not only to paid and registered members, but to anyone who visits. We invite everyone to stop by, at any time, to see Susan’s take on patch safety. The second is this very forum topic, also accessible to all.
Insiders don’t test security patches. Insiders test the NEXT version of windows. It’s totally not the same code.
Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher
Win 10 PRO 2004 Installed this AM and no issues.
However, this patch was forced download and waiting to install this AM.
I have had this PC set to PKCano settings to allow only “downloads available” for all of 1909.
Late last month I decided to upgrade to 2004 and ever since it seems 2004 is ignoring all my previous, and re-set after 2004, settings.
I did not Pause as I did before using PKCano settings as there was no need but I will go back to that if 2004 and onward is going to ignore our settings.
I will follow up on PKCano’s KB and see if maybe I have missed a new change.
see and evaluate the updates queued for installation before I press the Go button,
In GP set ‘notify don’t download..’ = 2 and you will get the list of updates waiting to download on Windows Update page.
After going over the list of updates you can run WuMgr and hide those you don’t want to install (drivers, Intel microcode…)
Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows Update
Configure Automatic Updates = Enabled, value = 2 (notify download/install)
https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/2000016-guide-for-windows-update-settings-for-windows-10/
Also, as Susan Bradley has mentioned a few times, the “Select the target Feature Update version” setting underneath that in “Windows Update for Business” can prevent unwanted feature updates. I’ve set that to 20H2 (after having it set to 1909 for over a year).
I also set “Select when Quality Updates are received” to give me a two-week buffer between when Microsoft publishes an update and when a machine thinks it’s available. While we use WSUS for most of the network, I use WuMgr to manually install updates when I’m ready to on some critical machines.
Alex,
I changed the settings as suggested however KB5000802 still downloaded and installed. Here is what the Windows Update page looks like:
Should I also set the 7 day pause?
There are screenshots demonstrating the settings below the instructions in AKB2000016. Scroll down if you need help finding them.
Many thanks! That was certainly intuitive…, NOT! 😉
I uninstalled update KB5000802 just to be on the safe side.
Should I uninstall the other two updates?
KB4601382 (Servicing Stack Update?) and KB4589212?
KB4601382 (Servicing Stack Update?) and KB4589212?
The March CU, KB5000802, is most likely the cause of your problem.
KB4601382 is a Feb Preview CU and KB4589212 is Intel Microcode.
If the problem has gone away, I’d leave these two alone.
Agreed. KB5000802 is the one with print driver problems.
Also, NEVER install “preview” updates. Ever. Don’t even fantasize about it. If the thought enters your mind that it might be a good idea, consider taking a vacation, instead. Leave them for the people whom Woody called “unpaid beta testers”.
I don’t think the printing “bug” is a bug. I think it is a Microsoft’s new feature to ‘save the forests’ /s
I installed the March 2021 updates on a personally built PC tower.
20H2 (OS build 19042-867) was -804.
I downloaded the March update from the MS catalog and installed while not using the PC for anything else. Rebooted after the install completed. My normal practice.
No blue screen so far with printing but I did lose my HP LaserJet M203-M206 PCL-6 Ethernet connected printer. “No driver” I had to “remove” the printer and re-install the driver to get it to work again.
Alex 5723 is right on, just remove the update, now all’s well w/ printing Dymo labels & all other printing.
thanks
Heads up!
Microsoft have released a temporary fix for the printer bug within kb5000802. From that page:
This issue affects a subset of Type 3 printer drivers and does not affect printer drivers that are Type 4. If you are unsure which type your printer driver is, use the following steps:
1 Press the Windows key+r or select Start and type run and select it.
2 Type printmanagement.msc and press enter or select the OK button
3 If Print Management opens, continue to step 4. If you receive the error, Windows can not find ‘printmanagement.msc’. then select Start and type manage optional features and select it. Select Add a Feature and type print, select the check box next to Print Management Console and select install. You will now need to start at step 1 again
4 Expand Print Servers, expand your computer’s name, and select Printers
5 You can now see the Driver Type for each of your installed printer drivers.
More info and thanks to Martin Brinkmann over on Ghacks.net
I purchased a Dymo LabelWriter 450 Turbo a couple of days ago and got around to installing it hours ago. When I went to the Dymo website to register the product and download the Dymo software the following message was displayed atop their website:
“DYMO Software compatibility issues with Microsoft Windows Update.
The latest version of DYMO Connect and DYMO Label Software is not compatible with Microsoft’s recent Windows update and consumers may have user experience issues. Please follow the instructions available here to solve the issue of printing blank labels.
Thank you for your understanding and our sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused.”
The solution is either (1) uninstall the March Win10 update, or (2) uninstall the latest version of the Dymo software and install an earlier version, a link for which is provided. Even though I had not installed the Win10 update (we are in Defcon-1, after all). I downloaded and installed the older Dymo version. I then successfully printed out a label.
Now I don’t know what would have happened had I installed the March update to Win 10 Pro (2004) and the newer Dymo software version. Does “user experience issues” mean a BSOD? I dunno. But you can add Dymo to the list of printers experiencing issues caused by the update.
Microsoft has released out-of-band emergency updates to fix BSODs (error APC_INDEX_MISMATCH) caused by the March 2021 Patch Tuesday updates when printing to certain printer brands, including Kyocera, Ricoh, and Dymo. See Sergiu Gatlan’s 15-Mar-2021 BleepingComputer article Windows 10 Emergency Updates Released to Fix Printing Crashes for more information. According that article emergency updates have been released for multiple Windows OSs from Win 10 v1803 Enterprise to Win 10 v2004/20H2.
Kudos to bjm_ for posting a link to this BleepingComputer article <here> in the Norton Tech Outpost board.
————-
64-bit Win 10 Pro v2004 build 19041.804 * Windows Defender v4.18.2102.3
Dymo is now offering new versions of its software that will solve the BSOD issue in most instances. Here is notice from their download website–
“The latest Windows update has caused some issues with printing from our software. Our team has been able to fix the issue of printing blank labels from our DYMO Connect and DYMO Label Software by introducing a new update. In order to run the latest software update, please open DYMO Connect, click “Help” > “Check for Updates” and download the latest version. Alternatively, you can download the newest version of our software here. In order to download the latest DYMO Label software update click here.
Please be informed that the update did not fix the issue of printing blank labels from our latest versions of DYMO ID (XTL). You can still use our software, if you follow the instructions here.”
My HP Officejet J3600 series printer has a type 3 driver.
I’ve also found that the Microsoft XPS Document Writer uses a type 3 driver.
Is there any way to test if my system is part of the effected subset before the March patches are installed?
Would installing the blue-screen fix hurt anything even if it wasn’t necessary?
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