Evening,

As an FYI I have just had win 10 run a whole load of updates and then be reluctant to start so if you need the pc for anything important, maybe do the important stuff first!

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I have recently experienced something similar with Win 10, bloody Microsoft!

There been a big update where the machine sits on a black screen on startup for several minutes, not very helpful as it doesn't tell you what it's doing. Please just let it get on with it and it will be fine. I have had no end of machines coming in to my work with this 'problem' in the last week (I work as a laptop repair engineer)

I don't know how often you update your laptop, but I run my security software and software updates prior to using the laptop (it gives me an excuse to play World of Tanks on the XBox!) last week I experienced the laptop just shutting down with no warning, black screen for approximately 10 minutes, the circular dotted timer, being told it was updating. After approximately 20 minutes it was back to normal. It seems to be working fine now.

I've noticed that unlike W7 and W8/8.1 which used to have updates released on a Tuesday, W10 updates seem to be released on a daily basis.

M$ have accidentally released a "black" update that was only supposed to go to military, intelligence and certain .gov computers. It might have been installed on yours before M$ pulled it - and be messing them up.

 

Check "The Register" for the story and hopefully enough info to identify and remove it if needed.

 

Here is a short list of other recent updates you should remove.

 

 KB3068708 ("Update for customer experience and diagnostic telemetry" and mandatory)

 KB3075249 ("Update that adds telemetry points to consent.exe in Windows 8.1 and Windows 7") and

KB3080149 (also an "Update for customer experience and diagnostic telemetry", both optional).

 

These are all data-slurps, stealing information (including private information and data) for M$ to sell on to marketing companies. There will be others, but these are the most recent ones identified.

M$ have accidentally released a "black" update that was only supposed to go to military, intelligence and certain .gov computers. It might have been installed on yours before M$ pulled it - and be messing them up.

 

Check "The Register" for the story and hopefully enough info to identify and remove it if needed.

Can't see anything on the Reg about this, any more information?

It was there two days ago, but it looks like it has been pulled.

 

Apparently, if you tried to read the info file about what the update was for, you got a page of mostly garbage characters and a series of .mil, .sci and .gov address segments; I dont know how long the update was "public"; it wasnt on the list of updates I downloaded the day after, although those 3 I mention were - and I forgot - and I had to go back last night and remove them........

No problems here. We took precautions...

 

 

Borked updates are nothing new.

It was there two days ago, but it looks like it has been pulled.

 

Apparently, if you tried to read the info file about what the update was for, you got a page of mostly garbage characters and a series of .mil, .sci and .gov address segments; I dont know how long the update was "public"; it wasnt on the list of updates I downloaded the day after, although those 3 I mention were - and I forgot - and I had to go back last night and remove them........

 

Sounds more like you were referring to this, and the Reg article was probably pulled due to being utter nonsense (if the content of the story was anything like what you said it was).

 

https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2015/10/01/window-7-updates-have-not-been-hacked-after-all/

 

Obviously, any report has to be taken with a pinch of salt, but as a rule I'd put more trust in a technology blog (even if it's Sophos who I haven't had much great experience with) than a known-to-be-OTT media outlet...

Try turning off Automatic updates.

Yes, that is the same "update".

 

I wouldnt dismiss it though, just because M$ say it was all an isolated mistake; werent VW trying to claim the same thing last week??

One final thought; why pull the story? Why not print the M$ excuse as an update to the story, and leave it at that??

Yes, that is the same "update".

 

I wouldnt dismiss it though, just because M$ say it was all an isolated mistake; werent VW trying to claim the same thing last week??

 

If it were just MS claiming it, or an uneducated media outlet like the BBC, I totally agree. But personally, I think security vendors have too much to lose if they don't treat stuff like this seriously.

 

One final thought; why pull the story? Why not print the M$ excuse as an update to the story, and leave it at that??

 

You don't know what they were asked to do. We all know that free speech in the form we would like it to be simply doesn't exist, and the Reg have to make an income. If Microsoft threaten to pull advertising from them or get serious with their legal team, what choice do the Reg have, realistically?

If it were just MS claiming it, or an uneducated media outlet like the BBC, I totally agree. But personally, I think security vendors have too much to lose if they don't treat stuff like this seriously.

 

 

You don't know what they were asked to do. We all know that free speech in the form we would like it to be simply doesn't exist, and the Reg have to make an income. If Microsoft threaten to pull advertising from them or get serious with their legal team, what choice do the Reg have, realistically?

 

I would think security vendors would be more likely to tow the line that the Register, especially if leaned on by by various US TLAs.

 

DO M$ do adverts on their website?? I use ABP+, so dont see any adverts.

I would think security vendors would be more likely to tow the line that the Register, especially if leaned on by by various US TLAs.

 

DO M$ do adverts on their website?? I use ABP+, so dont see any adverts.

Just installed ABP+ thanks for the tip.

Sadly with regard to the personal information / data points harvesting, that is just the world we live in now  . You can try to stop it here and there, but ultimately I don't think 99.9999% of the population can effectively have anonymity or privacy in any form of technology. 

I would think security vendors would be more likely to tow the line that the Register, especially if leaned on by by various US TLAs.

 

DO M$ do adverts on their website?? I use ABP+, so dont see any adverts.

 

Ditto, I use an adblocker, but I'm sure I've seen them when I happen to be on a PC which isn't mine. There's also the various ads-disguised-as-articles which everyone does.

 

As for security firms, I'd disagree. Selling products to protect against complex intrusions is their core business so in my opinion they NEED to be bang on in their reporting because to be inaccurate would hurt their reputation and ultimately the sales of their software. It's bad enough not being able to trust your OS maker, let alone not being able to trust the vendor who are protecting you from deliberate/accidental flaws in that OS, and there's a lot more choice in AV software so it's much easier for a consumer to vote with their wallet. If anything, if they were going to bull**** this update business then they would likely have gone the other way and claimed that it WAS a hack that their security software could have prevented.

 

As for the involvement of US TLAs, Sophos are headquartered in Oxford. Kaspersky are Russian. Eset are Slovakian. A surprising number of security vendors hail from outside of the US and it should come as no surprise that these are the vendors who often get favourable reviews compared to Symantec/McAfee which are both American. I don't understand all the nuances of international law, but I think (or maybe hope) that it would be quite hard to get them to comply given that there's no monetary incentives. Again, as long as the report is accurate, anyway. Like I said, I personally would put more trust in the word of a security vendor than an online newspaper.

MS strikes again. It's shades of a few updates from long forgotten OS versions. last I remember was XP, where I had used to religiously update weekly, and after one problem;em update, which took me days to isolate, I had a post it note on my screen with the KB number ,to remind me to reject it from update. the problem that a few mags are coining in from is that W10 default is auto updates. Great if you've got a mega high speed BB and totally unlimited download capacity.. But for those of mere mortals on say 6 MB speed and 2-3 GB/month, that's not on.

This rush to get an OS out and thn flood the market with updates/ fixes is not the preserve of the computing industry. Years ago, I made a very lucrative income working for a firm that managed the maintenance contracts ( insurance based ,of course) on a brand of new office equipment. If truth be told, most of the faults were down to a mad rush to sell the product before another company brought similar out. A fax machine, that locked up on send due to static. Cure was to cut earthing links . Then there was a PSU problem on the power board. The bean counters had decided that one brand of capacitor was better (simply because it was cheaper), and in the end, we spent hours replacing this with a better quality component. Production cost saved was lost on repair and damage to company name.

Then we return to the old song "WHEN WILL THEY EVER LEARN?"

The register quite often pull BS stories.

This has all the hallmarks of Internet BS

And now for the reality

http://news.softpedia.com/news/microsoft-pulls-windows-10-update-kb3105208-due-to-bsods-495231.shtml

Runs a beta gets problems.

 

MS strikes again. It's shades of a few updates from long forgotten OS versions. last I remember was XP, where I had used to religiously update weekly, and after one problem;em update, which took me days to isolate, I had a post it note on my screen with the KB number ,to remind me to reject it from update. the problem that a few mags are coining in from is that W10 default is auto updates. Great if you've got a mega high speed BB and totally unlimited download capacity.. But for those of mere mortals on say 6 MB speed and 2-3 GB/month, that's not on.

 

I lost 3Gb of my 5Gb monthly allowance in the first three days of September. I usually use no more than 2Gb in a whole month.

 

Luckily I was checking my usage via My3 and spoke to them about this. They refunded £5 (I only pay £8 anyway) and advised me to turn off my automatic updates. (The only problem with this is remembering to update windows and your security yourself) blaming windows 10 updates.

I run windows 7 at present and only understand the basics of IT, unfortunately.

Edited 25 October, 201510 yr by Tilt

I lost 3Gb of my 5Gb monthly allowance in the first three days of September. I usually use no more than 2Gb in a whole month.

 

Luckily I was checking my usage via My3 and spoke to them about this. They refunded £5 (I only pay £8 anyway) and advised me to turn off my automatic updates. (The only problem with this is remembering to update windows and your security yourself) blaming windows 10 updates.

I run windows 7 at present and only understand the basics of IT, unfortunately.

 

If you use Win7, you should be able to set the Updates program to notify you there are updates, but not download them; that way you can ignore cr@p you dont want like IE, and all the spyware, and just download the genuine security patches. it should be the third of four options in a pull-down menu in the middle of the panel.