Update on the Windows Secrets merge

We have more than 100,000 user accounts transferred from Windows Secrets to AskWoody. They’re in place right now and, by all appearances, working fine. For those of you looking for your WS account, check out the Windows Secrets landing page. Your old ID should be available here, with “WS” stuck on the front of it. For example, if you had the Windows Secrets account BillGates, it’ll be here as WSBillGates. We DIDN’T bring over passwords. You’ll have to reset your password before you can sign in to your WS account. See the landing page for details.

(If you had the foresight to match up your email address on both sites, you’re already set – everything is being merged into your AskWoody account. Also, those of you who are still using an email address as your AskWoody username, I can switch you over but it’s going to take longer. There’s a reason why I’ve been warning you about it! Priority goes to helping folks get their Windows Secrets accounts shaken out.)

At this moment we have about 20,000 Topics — questions, mostly – that are up and available on AskWoody. BUT… they’re only Topics, not the discussion/posts associated with the Topics (the posts are called “Replies” in bbPress). The Replies come later, after we have all of the Topics in place. There’s a ton of ’em — almost 1,000,000. It’s going to take a while.

You may have noticed that the numbers in the Forum list, down at the bottom on the right side, are swelling. Those Topics are filling right up.

If you’re signed up for notifications when there are changes to a Forum or Topic, hold your breath. We turned those off, temporarily, so you don’t get inundated with ancient relics.

After the Topics and Replies are all merged, we still need to get the old Windows Secrets Newsletters set up. That’s going to take some custom work, so it won’t happen over night. (I hope we can handle Susan’s Patch Watch lists the same way.) I also have a customization ticket in to the devs to get Reply attachments working better.

And then comes the indexing.

We’ve hit a few minor problems, and the site’s been slow, but so far everything seems to be on track. There will be a big sweep of changes after that ol’ whale’s swallowed but for now, you should be able to use AskWoody.com as usual.

Remember: CustomerSupport@AskWoody.com. It’s gonna be a loooooooong weekend.

Missing the deleted Microsoft TechNet and MSDN blogs? They’re all available, archived on OneDrive.

Microsoft recently deleted all of the old Office 2010, Windows 7 and Windows 8 blogs – along with dozens of additional oldies but goodies. (OK, I have a visceral reaction to Steve Sinofsky’s posts, but I’m not complainin’.) Even Michael Niehaus’s old blogs are there. Mark Russinovich’s.

Ever wondered about Error 0xC0000034 during Service Pack 1 installations for Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2? Yep. Gotcha covered.

Anonymous Coyote not only archived them before they were yanked, he (she? it?) has posted an archive of all of the blogs in both HTML and PDF format. On OneDrive, of all things.

An amazing resource, just in case.

Thx, @h0x0d

Patch Lady – so I don’t get it

By now you’ve seen the headlines… we have three antivirus documented as being down for the count when it comes to Windows 7 and 8.1 (and corresponding Server OS as well).  Per https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4493448 , Sophos, Avira and Avast all are causing issues, with machines unresponsive.  Avast in particular has the nasty side effect of “additionally you may be unable to log in or log in after an extended period of time”.

Yet in the patches there doesn’t see to be any extreme changes to the kernel (that my honestly untrained eyes) can see that would cause three pretty common antivirus engines to be totally making computers unusable.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4493472 (the monthly rollup KB) lists ArcaBit as another impacted one.

Windows 10 1809 also refers to an issue with ArcaBit antivirus.  I am not seeing that reported on any other Windows 10 platform.

In the cumulative update model it’s a bit harder to tell what exactly Microsoft is fixing.  Dustin Childs (ex-MSRC webcasts/blogger now at Zero day) lists out the patches in their “code” style not in the patch style.  Normally kernel code changes are the most historically and notoriously at fault for interactions with antivirus.  Because A/V hooks into the kernel, changes to that code often has ripple effects.

Both kernel bugs this month (here and here) don’t give me clues that they might be the ones triggering all of these failures.

Bottom line I’m giving you no answers tonight, just big warnings.  Don’t install updates just yet… but you knew that one already.

MS-DEFCON 1: There’s no reason to stick your finger in the pencil sharpener – DON’T UPDATE

We have confirmed reports of six bad patches this month – Monthly Rollups and Security-only patches for Win7, 8.1, Server 2008 R2, 2012, 2012 R2 – and troubling reports of a slowdown with the Win10 version 1809 cumulative update.

Who should be testing this stuff? The answer’s not as straightforward as you may think.

Details in Computerworld Woody on Windows.

I’m moving us to MS-DEFCON 1: Current Microsoft patches are causing havoc. Don’t patch.

Surface Pro 2017 firmware updates – there’s a potful of them, and they’re confusing

Barb Bowman has the best explanation I’ve seen:

Yes, @Surface did release 20+ firmware updates for SP2017 5th gen on April 6 that showed up with way old dates. They've now documented https://t.co/BK3n6v5dMY but without dates attached. Am told we should go by version numbers. pic.twitter.com/Uew2vbqWGo

— Barb Bowman 🌷💙💛 (@barbbowman) April 11, 2019

Here’s the link to the Surface Pro (5th Gen) update history

Avira confirms that this month’s Win7 and Win10 version 1809 patches slow down PCs running their AV products

Details on this are a bit sketchy, but Avira just posted an explanation saying:

Why does my system run very slow?
We could reproduce the described behavior.
This is occurring because of a current Windows Update.

… and goes on to specify the Win10 version 1809 cumulative update KB 4493509, and the Win7 updates KB 4493472 (April Monthly Rollup) and KB 4493448 (Security-only) can lead to the slowdowns.

As was the case with the first mea culpa from Sophos, I have to wonder if that’s the full list of bad patches.

I also wonder why Avira’s reporting a slowdown, whereas Sophos and Avast report freezes on startup.

There are no other details I can find. Microsoft certainly hasn’t acknowledged anything other than a slight misunderstanding with Sophos. C’mon, Softies. You say you’re going to give us better accountability for patches and improved guidance when things turn for the worse. We could use a big dose of that right now.

The next time somebody tells you that you have to install Microsoft patches as soon as they’re available… oh, nevermind. I guess it’s good that some folks volunteer to test this stuff.

Good synopsis from Lawrence Abrams on BleepingComputer.

Reports of this month’s Win10 version 1809 cumulative update, KB 4493509, causing extreme slowdowns

We had an anonymous tip yesterday pointing to two posters on Tenforums who reported that they’re machines were turned into molasses after installing the Patch Tuesday updates for Win10 version 1809.

Bogdan Popa has a roundup this morning of various additional complaints.

No acknowledgment from Microsoft just yet – and I don’t see a pattern. Do you?

Pardon our dust as we merge WindowsSecrets.com into AskWoody.com

Things are going to be a little stranger than usual over the next couple of days, as we kick off the long-long-delayed merger of the two sites.

While we’re merging and molting, you should expect slowdowns and some inexplicable behavior. If you’re trying to use your Windows Secrets account over here (possibly with a “WS” on the front of the username), patience, please. Details for Windows Secrets transplants are here.

I’ll be taking the CustomerSupport@AskWoody.com helm for the foreseeable future. You can contact me there. Don’t forget to bring your sense of humor: We’re all in this together!

Most of all, I’d like to thank the people who kept the Windows Secrets Lounge going for so many years, in spite of the slings and arrows of corporate culture. You’re heroes, one and all. And I’m very proud that you are making this leap with us.

OK now. Roll up your sleeves. Let’s see what this puppy can do…..

UPDATE: Yeah, there’s a reason why all of those posts – even the old ones – are important. Consider this:

MSDN recently deleted thousands of MS blogs, as part of a huge housecleaning project. Except for backups and partial wayback caching, 15 years of employees’ thoughts and pictures and answers and lives are gone.

Now I feel crummy talking about it

— Ned Pyle (@NerdPyle) April 11, 2019

UPDATE: We’ve officially turned off posting on WindowsSecrets.com. (Thanks, Joe!) If you want to post something, by all means, register for an account here (click Register in the upper right corner) and take it away. There are worthwhile details and a forum-to-forum cross reference list on our Welcome! page, as well as specific instructions on the Windows Secrets landing page. And there are lots and lots of Windows Secrets folks around who would be happy to help.

UPDATE: The merge of Windows Secrets users has begun.