Recent Microsoft Patches Causing System Crashes
Recent Microsoft Patches Causing System Crashes
Posted 11/30/2009 at 2:56pm
| by Bart Salisbury
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Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: a security patch issued by Microsoft on November 10 is causing some PCs to crash. Not a simple blue screen of death, mind you, but a black screen of death. Operating systems affected include Windows 7, Vista, and XP; probably so that no Windows user will be denied this blessed experience.
Jeremy Kirk, of the IDG News Services, reports the problem to be linked to Microsoft’s monkeying about with the Access Control List (ACL). The ACL is a list of permissions for the logged-in user. It interacts with registry keys to create visible desktop features, like the sidebar.
The patch changes some of those registry keys, which messes with certain installed applications. These applications are unaware of the registry changes, don’t run properly, and, in a fit of pique, bring the PC to a crashing halt. According to Mel Morris, the CEO of Prevx, a United Kingdom security firm: “If you’ve got this problem, it’s masively debilitating.” Prevx, at its web site, offers a fix for the problem.
Image Credit: Anakin101/Wikipedia Commons
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fry
November 30, 2009 at 10:09pm
Not the posters fault, but there seems to be very little detail on which software is affected.
Third-party devs possibly writing software that depended on keys it shouldn't have, or was it Microsoft's fault?
Zoomer
November 30, 2009 at 10:09pm
Though I wasn't experiencing the black screen, I had random video lockups and sound skipping (that would always correct itself within about 10 seconds, then start again a few minutes later).
The fix seems to have corrected this and made my system faster on bootup.....?
Anyway, I reccomend running it even if you have no problems, though I can't say for sure it will really help anything. ^__^
LVmonkey
December 01, 2009 at 4:42am
I wonder which OS your running as my GF Dell laptop seems to do that on vista.
Zoomer
December 01, 2009 at 9:19pm
I'm running 7 HP x64, but 7 is based on the vista core, and therefore it could help you as well. ^__^
mkarias1
November 30, 2009 at 7:04pm
Wierd but I have no updates from 11/10 on my W7. All i had that day was Definition Updates for Windows Defender.
lhatten
November 30, 2009 at 6:52pm
So, the updates were rolled out on November 10th, almost 3 weeks ago, and we are first hearing about this now. I don't know about the rest, but I updated on November 10th, a Vista machine and an XP machine. Not problems, nada, zip. This looks like someone trying to sell some bogus "fix" for a nonexistent problem.
K0BALT
November 30, 2009 at 6:03pm
Not sure but in the past couple weeks my Firefox has been crashing alsmost every other time I'm browsing..... which comes out to be around 3-4 times crashing daily. I have the latest version and all Windows updates. I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit..... maybe this is related somehow? Not the exact symptoms, but meh...
B10H4Z4RD
November 30, 2009 at 5:27pm
NO MICROSOFT!!! YOU CANT AFFORD THIS KIND OF CRAP RIGHT NOW!!!
______________________________________________________________________
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero. Chuck Palahniuk, FIght Club.
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downlinx
December 01, 2009 at 5:22am
i wonder if we need to back to the 6 month rule for microsoft updates.
1) if the update is 6 months old ok install it
2) if your computer is messing up go check your updates, if it is less than 6months old, unistall it.
well, its looking that way. i dont know if many of you remember when this was a problem but i do.
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