Newsletter Archives
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Last call for 1909
PATCH WATCH
By Susan Bradley
All’s clear for updating. Plus, I bid farewell to the man who saved the Internet.
As noted in my Alert last week, I’ve given the all-clear to install updates this month. The printing bugs have been squashed, and no other issues are apparent.
If you have still not installed updates, review your deferral settings. If you’ve chosen to defer updates to a specific date, click on Start, Settings, Windows update. If updates are deferred, you will see a bold notice that updates are paused plus a Resume updates button. Clicking that button will clear any deferrals you have set.
Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.16.0 (2021-05-03).
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Is Microsoft messing with your Win10 Search box?
Howard Goldberg has been discussing the change in his Win10 version 1909 Search bar text, from “Type here to search” (shown above) to “Start a web search.” Digging deeper, it appears that Microsoft is changing Windows Search box builds without telling anybody.
It’s a strange, and very visible, intrusion — and, given the lack of official documentation, your observations may help us understand.
Details in Computerworld Woody on Windows.
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Win10 version 1909 File Explorer search box still buggy — but less so
So you thought the latest “optional, non-security, C/D Week” patch for Win10 version 1909, KB 4532695, fixed the long-standing File Explorer Search bugs?
Think again.
As mentioned earlier, Rafael Rivera picked up more anomalies:
- You can left or right click inside the File Explorer Search box. But if you want to right-click, you must first left-click.
- It takes two clicks at times to reset the caret position
- You can’t delete items in the “remembered” list
Mayank Parmar, over on Windows Latest, has a GIF of the clicking caret bug. Here’s what he says:
File Explorer’s unified search experience is still a mess and it looks like things won’t get better until Windows 10’s 20H1 update is out. Microsoft has yet to acknowledge the new problems with Explorer and there don’t appear to be any workarounds. If you have installed Windows 10 November 2019 Update, you have to accept the possibility of experiencing issues with File Explorer and Control Panel.
A note from the peanut gallery: Microsoft never did acknowledge the problem, except to explain that they fixed “an issue that prevents File Explorer’s Search Bar from pasting clipboard content using the right mouse button (right-click)” and “an issue that prevents File Explorer’s Search Bar from receiving user input.”
The Release Status Information page still stays exactly squat about the bug.
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The latest “optional, non-security, C/D Week” patch for Win10 1903 and 1909 is out
According to the KB article:
- Updates an issue that prevents File Explorer’s Quick access control from pasting clipboard content using the right mouse button (right-click).
- Updates an issue that prevents File Explorer’s Quick access control from receiving user input.
Those are the infamous “who says that’s a bug? we haven’t confirmed any bug!” well-documented bugs in Win10 version 1909 File Explorer Search. As far as I know, the bugs don’t occur in 1903.
It looks like we’re getting a new version of jscript9.dll, so it probably fixes the ADV200001/CVE-2020-0674 security hole. The Security Advisory ADV200001 page does not list this update. It was last updated a week ago.
If you’re running Win10 1903 or 1909, you’ll only get KB 4532695 if you go into the Windows Update setting app and in Optional Updates available part, click Download and install now. It’s just now being rolled out, so your machine probably won’t show it for a few hours. (Mine don’t.)
Of course, I don’t recommend that you manually install it. Let’s see where the fur flies.
UPDATE: Windows uber guru Rafael Rivera has further details:
- You can left or right click inside the File Explorer Search box. (Oooooooh! Aaaaaaaah!) But if you want to right-click, you must first left-click.
- It takes two clicks at times to reset the caret position
- You can’t delete items in the “remembered” list
ANOTHER UPDATE: As of Wednesday morning, it still isn’t being offered on my production machines.
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The “optional, non-security, D Week” cumulative update for Win10 1903 and 1909, KB 4532695, is working its way through the Insider Preview ring
See Günter Born’s post.
As expected, this one’s a combined Win10 1903 and 1909 cumulative update. But if you think both Win10 1903 and 1909 are going to get the same set of new bits, you’re being a bit naive.
This one’s important to me because they may have (finally!) fixed the “who says that’s a bug? we haven’t confirmed any bug!” well-documented bug in Win10 version 1909 File Explorer Search. I don’t see any reports yet about that bug, and whether it’s been fixed or not.
There’s one report on Tenforums that KB4532695 updates jscript9.dll, thus probably fixes the ADV200001/CVE-2020-0674 security hole.
Patience.
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Two major bugs continue to dog Win10 version 1909 — A mysterious persistent wake-up call, and the ubiquitous File Explorer Search bugs
Microsoft said the 1909 upgrade would be easy — a “master switch” change to an already altered Win10 version 1903. It didn’t work out that way.
I see two persistent bugs with Win10 version 1909:
- An uncanny ability, on some machines, to wake itself up every day
- The long-documented File Explorer Search bugs
This, in addition to all the bugs you expect with changed versions — drivers, installation problems and the like.
I think that “master switch” metaphor is yet another piece of Microsoft Marketing drivel.
That said, I fervently hope that Microsoft will revert to one major upgrade a year.
Details in Computerworld Woody on Windows.
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Parmar: A fix for the bug(s) in Win10 1909 File Explorer is on the way
While there have been bugs and complaints about the latest version of Win10, version 1909, the one that keeps coming back revolves around Search in File Explorer.
Mayank Parmar just posted an article for Windows Latest that boldly predicts Microsoft will fix the problem in January.
In the changelog of Windows 10 20H1 Build 19013, Microsoft noted that it has resolved an issue where it is not possible to set focus to File Explorer’s search box… It’s worth pointing out that Build 19013 was shipped to testers a few weeks before the [Win10 1909] November 2019 Update release.
The implication being that Microsoft knew about the bug(s), knew they were in Win10 1909, had two chances to fix it (in the November and December Patch Tuesday volleys), and simply didn’t.
Tell me again how Windows patching is getting better…
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Microsoft to start pushing Win10 1809 customers onto 1909
Nevermind that Win10 1809 Home and Pro don’t officially hit end of service until May of next year…
Microsoft just announced that it’s starting to push machines from Win10 1809 to version 1909.
Current status as of December 5, 2019:
Beginning today, we will slowly start the phased process to automatically initiate a feature update for devices running the October 2018 Update (Windows 10, version 1809) Home and Pro editions, keeping those devices supported and receiving the monthly updates that are critical to device security and ecosystem health. We are starting this rollout process several months in advance of the end of service date to provide adequate time for a smooth update process.
I can understand a month, or maybe two. But five?
No indication how the push will proceed. I guess you wake up one morning to find that your 1809 machine wants to reboot into 1909.
As a service.
Thx Bogdan Popa, Softpedia.