Yesterday, on Patch Tuesday, when I finished the following column, complaining about the sad state of the Windows 10 patches and providing numerous examples of very buggy things, a big, fat example landed on my lap (but luckily not on mine) Laptop). . It was announced that Microsoft had accidentally posted news about a new product Server Message Block (SMB) error with maximum severitya.k.a. SMBGhost. The leak also said that this bug was not fixed in the day’s publications.
I’ll come back to this last outrage, but let’s review the past few months first.
I’ve written a lot about Microsoft’s Windows 10 patch foulups. I’m honestly tired of it. But do you know what else I’m tired of? Another month with even more stunning Windows 10 update issues.
And I don’t even use Windows 10 as my main desktop. I mainly use Linux Mint on my desktops and Chromebooks Debian Linux Run on the side as laptops. Woe to everyone who has to rely on Windows at work.
I mean, when I look at the Windows 10 patch landscape, I can almost understand why some of you are still sticking to Windows 7. It may be out of date and prone to potential attacks, but at least when you patched it, you didn’t have to wonder what would happen the next time you restarted your computer.
In February we saw an independent security patch – is that another thing? – – KB 4524244. It was a bastard. It knocked out a number of machines, mostly HP PCs with Ryzen processors. If you had Secure Boot enabled – which is supposed to make your PC “safe” – your PCs would not restart normally, and in the worst case, you would need to restore your system. Oh, and even that could fail. Does Microsoft know how to make fun of us or what?
Microsoft has finally pulled this patch. Thank you guys for closing the computer door after all the bytes have run away.
Then there was KB 4532693. This, says the faithful Woody Leonhard, devoured desktop icons and moved files on Windows 10 1903 and 1909. It also caused Windows Server Container issues up to and including this treat: “32-bit applications or processes that run in the container may fail silently.” I love silent mistakes. Is not it?
And Microsoft silently tried to fix this. As I write this, on March 10th, these problems are alive, good, and cause problems. Aren’t you glad you stopped your updates? Oh didn’t you I’m so sorry.
OK, so much for details, though if you want to learn more about the details of this and other Windows patch gadgets, follow Woody. He knows his way around and will inform you when updates have to be stopped and how to proceed.
What I want to know is why Microsoft Windows Quality Assurance (QA) has become a joke with our machines as the punch line.
I do not get it. Microsoft introduced its Windows 10 Insider “slow, fast and let go” to avoid this kind of nonsense. Windows Insider was launched on September 30, 2014. Microsoft had enough time to fix the bugs in this program.
And the last count I saw was 10 million people signed up for Windows Insider Program. That’s a lot of beta testers. No other software test program comes close to this.
To quote Microsoft: “Slow ring builds include Quality Update service packages to fix important issues and get the latest information Microsoft Security Response Center security fixes shortly after public availability. “Why are the updates failing so hard?
Well, maybe, as Woody – a smart guy, Woody – pointed out a few years ago, the Insider program is a lot more marketing than a beta tester program. His preferred term for beta testers: “cannon fodder”. In addition, Microsoft doesn’t really help insiders to publish helpful beta reports.
And how many of these 10 million insiders provide useful information? Fast! Which Version of Windows 10 you are running? To find out, press the Windows logo key + R, type “winver” in the “Open” field and select “OK”. Did you know that? Without this basic information, an inside bug report is useless. Microsoft needs to make better use of all these brave early adopters.
After all, I don’t know how many people Microsoft is working on Windows 10 quality assurance, how much money goes into the program, and how much expertise they have. However, since the results say more than words, I know that Win10’s quality assurance is understaffed and under-resourced, and employees are not as experienced as they should be.
Now for this SMB bug, the latest bomb from Microsoft. I’m not sure if there is still a patch for it. If you don’t remember, SMB vulnerabilities are responsible for the notorious WannaCry and NotPetya ransomware.
And now when I finish that, it seems that the Patch Tuesday Patch is also delayed. I assume because Microsoft now needs to include an emergency patch in the Patch Tuesday summary.
Come on, Microsoft! Enough is enough. Get your QA campaign together!
