Newsletter Archives

• Microsoft pulls the KB article for last week’s Win10 1607 cumulative update, KB 3201845, version 14393.479

  Posted on December 12, 2016 at 16:03 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  I have no idea why.

  This is, without doubt, the most bizarre cumulative update round for Win10 that I’ve seen.

  InfoWorld Woody on Windows

  UPDATE: The article is back up again! It’s been down all day, but suddenly re-appeared late Monday afternoon. It still isn’t listed on the Win10 update page.

  Does anybody know what’s going on???

  ANOTHER UPDATE: Microsoft has pulled all of these from the Update Catalog:

  KB 3197868 Nov Monthly roll-up
  KB 3197867 Nov Security-only patch
  KB 3192391 Oct Security-only patch

  They’re still listed on the official Win7 update page.

  Thanks to commenter Todd for the heads up!

  I’ll check again early in the morning.

  Windows Patches/Security KB 3201845, Win10 build 14393.479

• Return of the bogus 3.99 TB Windows Update Cleanup files

  Posted on December 10, 2016 at 03:55 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  The unacknowledged Win10 cumulative update KB 3201845 brings with it another annoying bug. ch100 reports:

  

  Following the installation of KB3201845 on 3 machines, 2 with Windows 10 1607 and the other with Windows Server 2016 and running Disk Cleanup, this comes up consistently on all 3 machines.

  It cannot be right as I don’t even have that amount of storage.

  After running Disk Cleanup with that option selected, it does not come back at next run.

  I am wondering if it breaks anything though.

  It ends up that we saw the same bug in October with both the Win10 1607 patch, KB 3194798, and the Win10 1511 patch, KB 3192441.

  When people talk about “bug regression,” this is exactly what they’re describing – a bug that was wiped out previously, but returns to haunt another cumulative update.

  “Deleting” the non-existent files seems to do the trick. I haven’t heard of any complications.

  Windows Patches/Security 3.99 TB, KB 3201845

• Notification – but no explanation – for the “Wi-Fi doesn’t have a valid IP configuration” bug

  Posted on December 10, 2016 at 03:13 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  

   

  As far as I know, this is unprecedented.

  Microsoft has not only acknowledge the bug I talked about yesterday – the one that knocks out Wi-Fi on Windows 10 Anniversary Update machines – they’ve gone so far as to put a banner at the top of the Windows 10 Update History page.

  

  As mentioned in that article, the easiest way to fix the problem (as best I can tell) is to use the technique posited by SIBIT-UK on the Microsoft Answers Forum:

  Hold down the shift key and then perform a shutdown from the start menu in the normal way – do not let go of the shift key until off.

  That seems to reset the IP address, bypassing Fast Startup, correcting the bug that sets the IP address to 169.x.x.x.

  We still have no official explanation from Microsoft and no solution to the problem, other than manually restarting. Our own ch100 has posed an interesting theory for the sudden appearance of the bug:

  A rogue scheduled task triggered on Wednesday?
  This may explain the rush to release the CU containing the fix early.
  Just speculation

  I continue to get reports that some Win10 1607 users are NOT seeing KB 3201845, the cumulative update for 1607 released yesterday. KB 3201845 and version 14393.479 aren’t listed on the Win10 Update History page although the patch rolled out early Friday morning.

  I’m completely baffled. KB 3201845 didn’t cause the problem. Best I can tell, it doesn’t solve the problem either. (If you’ve seen differently, I’d love to hear about it!) I have no idea why KB 3201845/14393.479 aren’t on the official update list. And a banner at the top of an update history page warning folks to bypass Fast Startup… I’m scratching my head and other parts of my anatomy.

  This may be the biggest Win10 updating screw-up to date. Let’s see how it unfolds.

  UPDATE: It may not be a Win10-specific problem. MikefromMarkham notes in the comments that the banner now appears on both the Win7 update page and the Win8.1 update page.

  I wonder how many tens (hundreds?) of millions of dollars have been wasted on this bug.

  ANOTHER UPDATE: I hear from a very reliable source that KB 3201845 just kicks a reboot, and doesn’t fix the underlying problem.

  YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Abbodi notes in the comments that EVERY support.microsoft.com page sports that banner (although, oddly, the answers.microsoft.com pages don’t). Man. I’ve never seen anything even remotely close to this. Lonnie_L’s post now has 43,000 views (and no comments because comments are closed).

  YAAU: Most of the reports I’ve seen are with Win10 version 1607, but others claim to have internet connections that drop mysteriously, with a 169.x.x.x assigned IP address. For most people the connection doesn’t die immediately after a return from hibernation – it takes a few minutes. Still no description from Microsoft, no explanation, and their only fix is the one linked to above. But there’s absolutely no question that KB 3201845 (which still isn’t documented on the Win10 update history page) is NOT the source of the problem, in spite of what you may have read. Installing KB 3201845 may provide temporary relief, as it forces a restart. But it doesn’t fix the core problem – which remains elusive, undocumented, and quite pervasive.

  Windows Patches/Security 14393.479, 1607, KB 3201845, Wi-Fi doesn't have a valid IP configuration, Windows 10 Anniversary Update

• New Windows 10 version 1607 build 14393.479, KB 3201845, rolling out

  Posted on December 9, 2016 at 07:14 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  It isn’t on the Windows 10 update site just yet (5 am Pacific time), but I’m seeing it on one of my machines.

  The KB article is up. Nothing particularly remarkable, but 1607 cumulative updates at this point shouldn’t be.

  I’ll give it a ride and report on what’s happening in InfoWorld.

  The Reddit thread is up. Expect /u/johnwinkmsft and /u/jenmsft to appear after they wake up.

  The timing’s odd – we’re getting a cumulative update for Win10 on the Friday before Patch Tuesday. But this one’s been baking for a long time. It’s been in the Insider Preview Release ring since Nov. 30 (see Bogdan Poppa’s announcement on Softpedia).

  Windows Patches/Security 14393.479, KB 3201845