How to Refresh Windows 8.1 from an Image File

Patch Watch: August's Follow-Up Fixes

I have a phrase I often use with technology: Keep the children on the playground the same age. This means not mixing older and younger groups; they have different skill levels and abilities. The same goes for  .NET 4.7, applications and Windows 7. If you dig into various locations on the web you will see post install side effects such as the following:

• Impacting Autocad and earlier versions as noted in a forum
• .NET 4.7 crashing Quickbooks as noted on a blog
• Possible issues with Arcgis Pro
• May have issues with touchscreen inputs as notes in this post
• Techsmith Snagit impact with .NET 4.7 as noted in this forum

I’ll be investigating and see if the 4.7 update is the trigger for these issues but in the meantime if you are impacted and want to block .NET 4.7 you can use a registry key as noted on the Ghacks site.

• Tap on the Windows-key, type regedit.exe, and hit the Enter-key on the keyboard. This should start the Windows Registry Editor.
• Go to the key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftNET Framework SetupNDP
• Right-click on NDP and select New > Key.
• Name that key WU.
• Right-click on WU, and select New > Dword (32-bit) Value.
• Name it BlockNetFramework47.
• Set its value to 1 (double-click it to set value).

What to do: Consider blocking .NET 4.7 on older operating systems.

Windows 10 1607 Side Effects

The release of 4034658 to Windows 10, version 1607 release had a few noticeable side effects: Naming it wiped out your update history. As an alternative, to see which quality updates have been applied, you can navigate to the inventory by going to Control Panel -> Programs -> “View Installed Updates.” In addition, the update had additional side effects of making any hidden updates pop back up again. So if you hid the 1703 update it will offer back up again. Finally in a network setting, WSUS servers will exhibit increased CPU, memory, and network utilization when Windows Update clients perform their first scan after installing KB4034658.

Remember this only happens with the KB4034658 for Windows 10 1607 update.

Microsoft is tracking these side effects and will report on an update as soon as possible.

What to do: I will be monitoring and reporting on updates.

Windows 7 Preview Updates

The Windows 7 preview for next month’s nonsecurity updates was released this week in the form of KB4034670.

It addresses the following issues:

• Addressed an issue where spoolsv.exe crashes.
• Addressed issue where a DNS server stops working and doesn’t respond to DNS requests in Windows Server 2008 R2.
• Addressed issue where WordPad crashes on launch.

What to do: You will see these in next month’s cumulative update.

Windows 8.1 Preview Updates

Windows 8.1 preview — in the form of KB4034663 — is fixing the following issues.

• This package contains d3dcompiler_47.dll;
• Addressed issue in the event collector data that caused data corruption with % symbols in the user logon events (ID 4624) from other Domain Controllers (DCs).
• Addressed issue where the AppLocker rules wizard crashes when selecting accounts.
• Addressed an issue where spoolsv.exe crashes.
• Addressed issue where unsynchronized access within NTFS may lead to an error.
• Addressed issue where a LUN connection that was received after the buffer allocation during iSCSI statistic collection overflowed the buffer and caused error 0x19. A UI issue that hides the iSCSI targets will be addressed in an upcoming release.
• Addressed issue where an extremely high number of I/O flushes may lead to an error.
• Addressed issue where deleting an object that has many links in Active Directory causes replication to fail with Event 1084, error 8409 “A database error has occurred”. For additional information, read KB3149779.
• Addressed issue with an access violation in LSASS that occurs when Active Directory receives a malformed LsaLookupNames response. The signature of the LSASS AV is “The system process ‘C:Windowssystem32lsass.exe’ terminated unexpectedly with status code -1073741819”. The system shuts down and restarts. Error 107374181 maps to 0xc0000005/STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION.
• Addressed issue where running chkdsk /scan unexpectedly triggers spotfix. Sometimes spotfix times out, and the system goes down.
• Addressed issue where the PowerShell cmdlet export-dfsrclone, which clones the DFSR database, fails for clustered volumes with 0x00000490=ERROR_NOT_FOUND. This prevents cloning of the DFSR databases from volumes that are already clustered.
• Addressed issue with a four to five second delay that occurs when you mount an NFS share on the Network Attached Storage from the client and execute the touch command on a file or folder. The application on the NFS clients crashes because the storage system doesn’t respond to clients for four seconds.
• Addressed issue where an MS Office application stops responding when opening files that are stored on a file server with the alternate data stream (ADS) attribute set on the non-deduplicated volumes.
• Addressed issue where when you enable quota on the storage servers and attempt to do backups on them, a crash may occur that results in data loss.
• Addressed issue where adding a new session host to an existing RDS collection fails. The error, “Brokername unable to configure the RD Session Host servers”, occurs if the UPDs are stored in a clustered file share.

At this time I am not tracking any major side effects.

What to do: Look for these updates in next month’s cumulative updates.

Office Update Releases

I’ve not tracked any side effects with the Office updates released on August 8th, so I’ll recommend installing these updates at this time.

Office 2016

• KB3085435 Excel fixes for unexpected crashes
• KB3085403 Fixing PowerPoint crashes
• KB3085425 fixing an issue whereby Pixel length isn’t displayed correctly in OpenDocument Format.
• KB3213656 Fixing various issues in Word for unexpected crashes

Server admins

• KB4011049 for SharePoint Server 2016
• KB4011053 for SharePoint Server 2016
• KB4011082 for Project Server 2013
• KB4011074 for Project Server 2013
• KB4011079 for SharePoint foundation 2013
• KB4011083 for SharePoint foundation 2013
• KB4011073 for SharePoint foundation 2013
• KB4011071 for SharePoint Server 2013
• KB4011076 for SharePoint Server 2013
• KB2956055 for Project Server 2010
• KB2920815 for SharePoint Server 2010

The remainder of the non security updates for Office can be safely installed at this time:

Office 2016

• August 1, 2017 update for Office 2016 KB3203472 This update makes sure announce events for toasts not to use MenuOpened in Skype for Business 2016
• August 1, 2017, update for Office 2016 KB3213650 Fixes opening XML files
• August 1, 2017, update for Office 2016 KB40110378 Adding additional blocked file types
• August 1, 2017, update for Office 2016 KB4011051 Fixes an issue with password notification
• August 1, 2017, update for Office 2016 KB3191930 Languange interface updates
• August 1, 2017, update for One Drive for Business for 2016 KB3191930 Adding additional blocked file types.
• August 1, 2017, update for OneNote 2016 KB4011030 Adding additional blocked file types.
• August 1, 2017, update for Project 2016 KB4011034
• Augus 1, 2017, update for Publisher 2016 KB3178696
• August 1, 2017, update for Visio 2016 KB4011033

Office 2013

• August 1, 2017, update for Office 2013 KB4011080 Improves some translations for the Danish and German versions of Excel 2013
• August 1, 2017, update for Office 2013 KB3172443
• August 1, 2017, update for Office 2013 KB4011070
• August 1, 2017, update for Office 2013 KB4011077 Fixes an issue where sizes of Office dialog boxes are displayed incorrectly in a multi-monitor with high-DPI setting
• August 1, 2017, update for Project 2013 KB4011084 Fixes issues with cut and paste
• August 1, 2017, update for SharePoint 2013 SDK KB3213571
• August 1, 2017, update for Word 2013 KB4011045
• August 1, 2017, update for Skype for Business for 2015 KB4011046

What to do: Install these updates at this time.

Regularly Updated Problem-Patch Chart

This table provides the status of recent Windows and Microsoft application security updates. Patches listed below as safe to install will typically be removed from the table about a month after they appear. Status changes are highlighted in bold.

For Microsoft’s list of recently released patches, go to the MS Security TechCenter page.

Patch	Released	Description	Status
KB4034664	8-10	Windows 7 rollup	Install*
KB4034681	8-10	Windows 8	Install
KB4034674 [1703]	8-10	Windows 10 1703	Install
KB4034658 [1607]	8-10	Windows 10 1607	Install

*Hold: Please note if you’ve installed these updates and are not seeing any side effects you can leave the updates installed. I’m only recommended holding off if you are severely impacted by these side effects.

Status recommendations: Skip — patch not needed; Hold — do not install until its problems are resolved; Wait — hold off temporarily while the patch is tested; Optional — not critical, use if wanted; Install — OK to apply.

Feedback welcome: Have a question or comment about this story? Post your thoughts, praise, or constructive criticisms in the WS Columns forum.

How to Refresh Windows 8.1 from an Image File

An image file can restore a sickly Windows 8.1 environment back to a healthy state.

Your Windows 8.1 computer is acting funky. Maybe certain Windows features aren’t working properly. Or perhaps Windows is freezing or blue screening. Are you up the creek? Not if you have an image file that you can use to recover Windows.

In Windows 8.1, you can use a special command-line utility called recimg to create an image file of your entire Windows environment. Then if something goes kerflooey, you can restore that image file to get Windows 8.1 up and running again. For that reason, you can and should run the command on a regular basis so the image file is always up to date. How can you create this image file and then use it to recover Windows 8.1? Let’s take a look.

Since the recimg utility in Windows 8.1 is a command-line utility, it can be quicker to use versus a full GUI program where you must go step by step. Further, simply refreshing your PC without specifying an image file retains your Windows 8.1 apps, your personal files, and customized settings. But it does not retain your desktop applications or your PC settings. Resetting your PC brings it back to factory conditions, so you lose all your applications, personal files, and settings. Instead, by regularly creating a system image and restoring your PC from that image, you can recover your desktop applications and other settings that normally would be lost.

You can create and maintain more than one system image and set one as the default. You must store the image file on a fixed disk, such as your hard drive or a regular USB drive. A flash drive won’t do the trick. If you choose to create it on your C drive, you should copy or move it to an external source for safekeeping in case you’re unable to access the file or Windows itself on your primary drive. Yes, if Windows failed to boot or your hard drive crashed, you’d likely need to reinstall the entire operating system. But then you could run the recimg command to restore your system from the image file if you had saved the file on an external source. So, for those of you running Windows 8.1, recimg is a handy and effective way to back up and restore your entire system. You just want to create the image when your system is healthy and do it on a regular basis so the file contains the latest changes to Windows.

To get started, right-click on the Start button. From the Power User menu that pops up, click on the command for Command Prompt (Admin). Answer Yes to allow the following program to make changes to this computer. At the prompt, type recimg. Windows serves up a description of the command followed by its various options.

Okay, now let’s create the system file. By default, Windows gives the image file the name of CustomRefresh.wim, which you can’t change. However, you need to create a folder in which to store the image file and you can choose a name for that folder. A good rule of thumb is to append the date to the name of the folder so you know when it was created. Creating the image file folder on the root of the C drive makes it easily accessible. For this example, we’ll name the folder imagefile-6-27-2017. At the command prompt, type recimg /createimage c:imagefile-6-27-2017. Windows tells you that it’s creating the recovery image and the snapshot and then starts writing the image.

Depending on the size of your Windows 8.1 environment, the image writing process typically takes awhile, so now might be a good time to go for a long coffee break. After the process has finished, a message pops up that says: “Recovery image creation and registration completed successfully.”

Your next step is to set the image file in the folder you created as the default recovery image. To do this, your run the setcurrent command pointing to the folder. At the command prompt, type recimg /setcurrent c:imagefile-6-27-2017. A message appears that says: “Operation completed successfully.” Your image is now set as the active and default image. Type exit to close the command prompt.

If you create the image file on your C drive, you should now copy the file to an external source as a backup. You can copy it to a USB drive, flash drive, network drive, or somewhere else safe. As you install more applications and make further changes in Windows, remember to regularly create a new image file. You can use the same name to overwrite the existing file or create a file in a new folder with the new date as part of the name. You don’t want to juggle too many image files, however, since they do take up disk space, and you may forget what each image file contains. If you do create new image files with new folder names, remember to run the recimg /setcurrent command to set your latest image file as the default.

If you forget which image file is the default, open a command prompt again and type recimg /showcurrent. That command will then display the name of the folder for your current default image file.

Now let’s say Windows 8.1 is giving you trouble so you want to restore your environment from the image file. Open the Charms bar. Click the Settings icon. Click Change PC Settings. In the PC Settings screen, click the Update and recovery category and then click on the Recovery option. Under the line to Refresh your PC without affecting your files, click on the Get started button.

At the next screen, click Next. At the Ready to refresh your PC screen, click Refresh. A message appears that Windows is ready to refresh your PC. Click Refresh. Windows 8.1 automatically refreshes your PC from the image that you set as the current one. Windows restarts. A message appears that Windows is preparing to refresh and then starts refreshing your PC, accompanied by a percentage showing the status of the refresh.

Windows reboots your PC once more and brings you to the Lock screen. Press any key to get past the Lock screen and then log in to Windows. You can now snoop around Windows to make sure everything is working and that your environment reflects the image file you used to restore it.

Finally, if you’d prefer to use a GUI program rather than the recimg command to create and manage your image files, a good choice is RecImgManager from SlimWare Utilities. Through this software you can back up your system to an image file, manage and maintain multiple images, and restore your Windows 8.1 environment from any image file.