MS-DEFCON 1: Beware of Win10 build 16212

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There’s a lot of confusion at the moment, but it looks like Microsoft released a “rogue” version of Windows to at least some Win10 PCs and many phones
[See the full post at: MS-DEFCON 1: Beware of Win10 build 16212]

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When I saw the title “Beware of Win10 build 1612” I thought it was sort of malware thing. But I don’t use Windows 10.

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That’s a good description, a malware thing.

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I get it, when people say Win7 is no longer the focus, all energies are on Win10 so no one is really watching over Win7, despite contracts requiring adequate support.

Likewise, many individuals are familiar with jails and virtual machines to keep what must be contained separate from what should be protected.

Also, operating system development and testing is a massively complex structure that is bound to go wrong sometimes.

Given all above, and to read this kind of headline, leads inexorably to one question: Who is running this show? Despite my misgivings, I honestly try to see the point of what Microsoft wants to accomplish eventually. But quality and reliability, are not just questionable or humorous anecdotes any longer. This is serious, self-inflicted damage here. Lesser corporations would disappear from the landscape if they showed the track record Microsoft has been displaying.

Edit to add: I recognize that Dona Sarkar, as a spokesperson, has the thankless job of messenger, and is not the recipient of my disgruntled attitude. Whether it should be directed at the CEO or the poor schlub who hit the wrong return key right before uttering the phrase, “oh, sh–“, is too early to call.

5 users thanked author for this post.

Elly, Karlston, HiFlyer, Noel Carboni, woody

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Cascadian wrote:

… so no one is really watching over Win7

What does this topic have to do with Win7?

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It was an example of the population of Redmond devoting maximum effort towards the flagship product…

And still getting it wrong.

If I distracted your thought process, I apologize.

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https://twitter.com/donasarkar/status/870456431870320641

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A FYI –

KB 3150513 appeared last night on my Win 10 Home with metered connection – I checked for updates knowing they wouldn’t auto download on metered connection.

KB 3150513 is already installed from the recent update at Defcon 3.

Will be holding off on any updates until (next) Defcon 3.

Thanks Woody.

PS. KB 3150513 is covered here – https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/2017-05-update-for-windows-10-version-1607-kb-3150513-appears-over-and-over-again/#post-119020

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Admittedly the folks who frequent this site might not be those who most look forward to every new pre-release build flushed out of Redmond, but… Have you noticed we’re not hearing a heckuva lot of excited discussion here on this subject in this thread?

I used to be an enthusiastic beta / pre-release tester; one of Windows’ greatest fans – and critics.

Now I find myself no longer a pre-release tester at all, and begrudgingly testing the latest CB build. Even then, v1703 isn’t exactly knocking my socks off (and I actually had high hopes for it as I am a “Creator”). There is not one thing about it I crave using over my hardware system’s Win 8.1 setup. Not one, and I’m being honest.

I imagine it won’t be terribly long before I feel I’m having to drag energy forth just to bring up the CBB builds when they get promoted.

Somehow the excitement is just, well gone – and I don’t think it’s me…

I’ve been excited about tech since my first computer program on punch cards in 1976. Heck, I have been running Win 8.1 on my hardware since 2013 – that’ll tell you something about how flexible I am, and about what I think of Win 10 (which lives only in a virtual machine here).

And oh yeah, I’m glad I only allow updates when I say so.

-Noel

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Elly, AlexEiffel, Karlston, HiFlyer, BobbyB

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Here’s a couple of links that may be of interest to you. I am currently mulling over adopting this strategy on the Home front and possibly at work for “Field” deployments
I am getting a bit weary here of testing in VHD’s every 6 months the “latest & greatest” offering packed with non descript goodies that I doubt I will ever need or want. Ever mindful of the fact that we sort of need to keep up to date for the latest “Malware as a service” that may come down the pipe in the future.
http://www.computerworld.com/article/3192990/microsoft-windows/faq-how-to-skip-a-windows-10-upgrade.html
http://www.computerworld.com/article/3198468/microsoft-windows/heres-how-windows-10s-rapid-release-works-and-looks.html
Currently trying Win10Edu1703 (VHD) here which they were good enough to send me with the Win media tool (as they do every new ver with the addition of an ei.cfg file) Wasnt going to bother with Win10Edu1703 as its no longer a “Cortana” free zone and I am to old to be a Student, well I might qualify as an (i)mature student 😛 and you can run it for about 6 months with the minimul of “nagging” I thought I would as we are are still at CB.
Any way food for thought hope its of some help 🙂

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Noel Carboni

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Noel Carboni wrote:

Have you noticed we’re not hearing a heckuva lot of excited discussion here on this subject in this thread?

You expect people to get excited about an unintended release which has been withdrawn?

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Link to the blog post:

https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2017/06/01/note-unintentional-release-builds-today/

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ch100

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Luckily they decided not to brick my Lumia 735 :). No builds offered, but I’m not on Insider. If I wanted to be on CU (L735 got cut off, even though it’s capable of running it), I’d have to be on Insider and Release Preview ring, but there is nothing about CU that I would want to have (quite the opposite, actually, when you look at new Maps) – so keeping it on 1607.

 

Meanwhile, on Steam – W10 down for 2nd straight month:

http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/directx/

Fractal Design Pop Air * Thermaltake Toughpower GF3 750W * ASUS TUF GAMING B560M-PLUS * Intel Core i9-11900K * 4 x 8 GB G.Skill Aegis DDR4 3600 MHz CL16 * ASRock RX 6800 XT Phantom Gaming 16GB OC * XPG GAMMIX S70 BLADE 1TB * SanDisk Ultra 3D 1TB * Samsung EVO 840 250GB * DVD RW Lite-ON iHAS 124 * Windows 10 Pro 22H2 64-bit Insider * Windows 11 Pro Beta Insider

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I’m assuming Win 7, 8, & 8.1 users are in the clear with this mess?  Win 10 Beta Testers are the only ones at risk?  That DEFCON 1 only applies to a Win 10 “build”.  This is the first time I’ve seen a DEFCON 1.  Wow.

Being 20 something in the 70's was so much better than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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The DEFCON 1 applies to all the patches released AFTER the DEFCON number was changed. That means, any patch with the release date 6/1/2017 and after.

It does NOT apply to the patches that have already tested safe – the May patches (and anything before that has not been deemed problematic) are OK and not to be avoided.

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Elly, HiFlyer, Cascadian

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woody wrote:

You’re glad that you have automatic updating turned off, yes?

Any Windows Insiders who have automatic updating “turned off” aren’t really Windows Insiders.

Did this issue really affect anyone else in a harmful way?

Can’t see any sense in your comment.

(Or the DEFCON-1.)

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It was anecdotal, granted. But Woody had first hand testimony that the initial advisory, as released, was not trustworthy. In a move of caution, that most of us appreciate, Woody put out a warning in keeping with long standing, er, standards he has maintained for this blog.

You have been here before, yes?

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Elly, HiFlyer

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I have to admit that I didn’t know anything about this issue yesterday or this morning, and it’s easy to view the risk implications totally differently with hindsight.

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Cascadian

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True enough, sure. But I’m not sure hindsight is very helpful in reducing the magnitude of “OOPSY” involved here.

Not possessing a damaged system is very helpful in mitigating my response. However, I still retain the ability to recognize the impact on others less fortunate, and a pattern of irresponsibility where Microsoft is concerned.

It leaves consumer level users feeling that without 25 units in their fleet, they just don’t matter to the behemoth that made IBM play fair back in the day. Sort of a goes around, comes around affair.

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It’s time for the DEFCON number to go down anyway, not just because of Build 16212. New patches will be released Tues for Office non-security, at least. And people shouldn’t jump to install unproven patches. Tues. IS A Tuesday, you know, and DEFCON 1 or 2 IS appropriate.

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Elly, ch100, HiFlyer

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Except, when it becomes Tuesday in Redmond in some parts of the world it’s still Monday, and in many becomes Wednesday soon after. 😉

And , don’t get me started on “Fall Creators Update”, which is “Autumn Creators’ Update” in most of the Northern hemisphere and “Spring Creators’ Update” in the Southern hemisphere. Fortunately, the Firefox addon FoxReplace let’s me see the latter.

Microsoft’s “internationalisation/internationalization” and punctuation understanding? Pffft… ’bout as good as their update quality 🙂

Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

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Next Tuesday is the Patch Tuesday for the Office Critical Updates, so be prepared to wait for few days at least, preferably longer and install all patches in one batch later in the month.

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PKCano

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