Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 18875 (20H1) released to FAST & SKIP AHEAD rings

See [url=https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2019/04/10/announcing-windows-10-insider-preview-build-18875]Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 18875[/url] for features, fixes, and known issues.

NOTE: This build merges SKIP AHEAD back into FAST. So, both rings will receive the same builds going forward.

What this means for 19H2 (the release due this fall) is anyone’s guess. All Microsoft has said is that more will be said about 19H2 “in the coming weeks”.

Widespread reports of freezing with this month’s Win7 Monthly Rollup, KB 4493472, and Win8.1 Monthly rollup KB 4493446

Spiceworks has a nearly-feature-length litany of problems with KB 4493472.

DON’T let Windows Automatic Update get to your Windows 7 or 8.1 (or Server 2008 R2 or Server 2012 R2) machines. But you knew that already.

Thx @BoltsfanKevin (that’s Kevin Hughes)

UPDATE: Server 2008 R2 machines are falling left and right. From the Sophos Endpoint Security blog:

SAV service was logging lots of error messages in event log. Event IDs : 7022 (service hang), 80, 81, 83, 85, 82, 566, 608, 592.

The server became unresponsive, no rdp, no file share access, Ctrl Alt Delete not working.

Only solution is to uninstall the patch. Which may be difficult.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Sophos has posted an official acknowledgment, putting the blame on both the Win7 Monthly Rollup and the Win 8.1 Monthly Rollup, KB 4493467:

If you have not yet performed the update we recommend not doing so.

If you have performed the update but not yet rebooted we recommend removing the update prior to rebooting.

If you have performed the update and have rebooted, triggering the issue:

Boot into safe mode
Disable the Sophos Anti-Virus service
Boot into normal mode
Uninstall the Windows KB
Enable the Sophos Anti-Virus service

It’s still much, much too early to tell if the same change in Win7 and 8.1 will also clobber other software. Just sit tight and wait for the MS-DEFCON level to change.

More details (including a question about precisely which patches are breaking Sophos) in Computerworld Woody on Windows.

UPDATE: We’ve had several reports that Avast customers are experiencing the same symptoms. Avast has a mea culpa:

Windows machines (particularly those running Windows 7) are becoming locked or frozen on startup after Microsoft updates KB4493472, KB4493448, and KB4493435.

April Patch Tuesday Windows and Office patches are out

Martin Brinkmann has posted his synopsis on ghacks.net:

• Microsoft released security updates for all client and server versions of Windows.
• Other Microsoft software with security updates: Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Exchange Server, Team Foundation Server, Azure DevOps Server, Windows Admin Center, Microsoft Office
• Microsoft fixed many long standing known issues.

Dustin Childs’s usual pack-leading analysis on the Zero Day Initiative blog paints a tolerable picture: 74 separately identified security holes. Two actively exploited, both of which seem to be used by nation-state attackers.

Worthy of note: Win10 1903 — which hasn’t been released yet to the hoi polloi — has its own security cumulative update.

As expected, Win10 1607 and 1703 are getting their last patches.

The sole new Security Advisory, ADV190011, talks about the April 2019 Adobe Flash Security Update.

Looks like a dull one. Leave your blocks in place, there’s nothing much to see here.

We’re staying at MS-DEFCON 2.

There’s a reason why your Win10 1803 machine hasn’t been pushed onto 1809

Microsoft gave up.

The 1803-to-1809 push pace has gone from slow to glacial.

Gregg Keizer has the details on Computerworld:

According to AdDuplex, … Windows 10 1809 powered just 26% of surveyed Windows 10 systems as of March 26. The gain from February to March, only 5 percentage points, was about half the increase from January to February, illustrating the slowing of 1809’s adoption.

I don’t trust AdDuplex’s numbers, of course, but the trend is unmistakable. Microsoft’s pulling back on 1809.

I would submit that, with the redirection of the Windows Insider Release Preview Ring — used to be Win10 1809 cumulative update previews and now it’s Win10 1903 beta build — we’re seeing a full-on retreat. I fully expect that Win10 1909 will be nothing more than “Win10 1903 Service Pack 1/2” in fact, if not in name.

Which is great. Perhaps Microsoft is pulling back from its insane twice-a-year Windows update pace.

If you didn’t get your Newsletter this morning….

Neither did PKCano or joep517, two of our most prolific contributors, or Tracey our editor in chief!

I’m futzing around with something called a DKIM and CNAME and TXT records. Lots of fun because the instructions from our email provider don’t match up with the conventions used by our domain provider.

Anyway, it looks like all is copacetic now. With a little luck, you should receive the next Newsletter or Alert properly.

The first “RTM” build of Win10 version 1903 goes out the Release Preview ring

I’m not seeing it yet, but Brandon LeBlanc has officially announced:

Right now, the May 2019 Update (Build 18362.30) is being rolled out to the Release Preview ring starting with seekers… we’re planning to move Windows Insiders in the Fast ring forward to 20H1. We will also be merging the small group of Insiders who opted-in to Skip Ahead back into the Fast ring. We are looking to make this change in the coming weeks… If you are an Insider who wishes to remain on the May 2019 Update – you will want to switch to the Slow or Release Preview rings.

Which matches what I mentioned late last week.

If you have a spare machine — fer heaven’s sake, don’t do this on a production machine — LeBlanc has detailed instructions for joining the Insider program, then joining the Slow or Insider Preview ring, either of which will get you up to Win10 1903 build 18362.20.

Let us know if you hit any snags.

MS-DEFCON 2: Get your machine braced for the Windows and Office patches due tomorrow

It’s that time again.

With a little luck, we’ll have more options by the time the May or June Patch Tuesdays come around, but for now it’s the same-old same-old.

Details in Computerworld Woody on Windows.

A beta version of the new Chromium-based Edge is available for testers

But only for testers.

Mehedi Hassan has a good overview on Thurrott.com.

I think it’s great that the world’s moving to a “standard” browser rendering engine. But it’s hard to imagine this move will make much of a dent in Edge’s adoption rate.