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Patch reliability is unclear. Unless you have an immediate, pressing need to install a specific patch, don't do it. |
.I pointed to Günter Born’s expose on Saturday. Now we have a full description of the bug — and proof of concept code! — thanks to Christian “NineBerry” Schwartz.
[See the full post at: This month’s Win7 patches KB 4034664, KB 4034679 causing second-screen problems]
‘Added a workaround for a bug in a Windows 7 update – possible rendering issues when KB4034664 is applied to Windows 7 systems that have ‘Desktop Composition’ turned off.’
new version available 2.5.0322.7
Looks like it’s a bug in PDF-Xchange.
Feature that is currently under construction and will be released in the future
So it hasn’t been fixed yet?
Looks like it’s a bug in PDF-Xchange.
No, it’s a Windows patch bug. From the original post –
PDF Exchange update ‘Added a workaround for a bug in a Windows 7 update . . .’
Another data point: We rolled out this patch for Win 7 x64 on Friday. Almost all of the workstations we service are dual or even triple monitor. Not one of them shows any sign of this problem – but then the aforementioned PDF-Xchange is not on our application list. What we do use are Bluebeam PDF products, and some Adobe Acrobat products. We also use most of the AutoDesk building suite of products (AutoCad, Revit, 3dMax etc) and MS Office suite products – as well as a host of custom software for engineering calculations etc.
So I am going to go out on a limb here and make a statement based on long experience with certain (ahem) application developers. It’s one of my pet peeves.
When you code commercial grade software for a large paying audience, there is a right and a wrong way to develop your product. The right way includes (among many many other things) adhering to standards for the platform for which you are writing. That means you avoid “cheats” that bypass supported API’s. I’ve seen time and again where some big company used coding cheats, (and I can mention some pretty big, well known names) then had their product broken when that unsupported method was patched. Sometimes these cheats use what turn out to be security exploits. When those get fixed by the OS development team — the product breaks. I’ve seen this problem happen with applications written for Apple, Microsoft and Linux platforms. I think I’ve recently seen it happen on mobile operating systems (but I don’t have the tool-set to prove it.)
So in this case — until I see evidence otherwise — I am pointing my finger directly at PDF-Xchange as the root cause of their problem.
~ Group "Weekend" ~
@NetDef: So in this case — until I see evidence otherwise — I am pointing my finger directly at PDF-Xchange as the root cause of their problem.
It’s a bit to simple, I guess. If you have read my blog post, not only PDF-Xchange is causing this issue. Also some JAVA applications, Mathlab, IrfanView, ACSee and other tools are coming with redering issues, if ‘desktop composition’ is off.
Don’t tell me, that a JAVA developer has to manage Windows APIs to draw some forms. A German blog reader wrote within a comment:
Dieser Workaround funktioniert. Alternativ lässt sich bei Java-Applikationen auch der Paramater sun.java2d.noddraw=false setzen, um java anzuweisen, die Grafikschnittstelle DirectDraw zu nutzen. Ansonsten wird GDI genutzt, wo scheinbar das Problem liegt.
It mentions a JAVA launch option to force JAVA to use DirectDraw – the the issue is gone. Withount this parameter Windows GDI is used – it seems the issue is within GDI (or WDM).
BTW: Also Office 2013 will have rendering issues on a 2nd monitor. Would you say, that Microsofts Office developers “cheats” that bypass supported API’s?
Just my 2 cents 😉
BTW: The bigger issue with KB 4034664: It breaks again the clients communication with WSUS, as some German blog readers reporting within comments.
Ex Microsoft Windows (Insider) MVP, Microsoft Answers Community Moderator, Blogger, Book author
https://www.borncity.com/win/
Finished a set of tests on several Win 7 Pro x64 workstations on a domain with WSUS 4.x — and the deployment of KB 4034664 does not seem to be impacting the ability of our test subjects to obtain other updates from our WSUS server at all.
Can anyone provide more information about what they are seeing? I checked gborns blog and I did not see the WSUS related comments on the post about this KB.
~ Group "Weekend" ~
No issues at all.
I have written a blog post with some background information on this problem and a list of known workarounds:
Blog Post: Graphics Bug in Windows 7 after installing August 2017 Security Updates
https://www.neunbeere.de/blog/2017/08/graphics-bug-in-windows-7-after-installing-august-2017-security-updates/
We have run into this issue on a handful of systems since applying the Security Only bundle for Windows 7 x64 last week. So far our only report is most of the buttons in the Outlook 2007 toolbar disappear…
None of the suggestions included in the awesome German blog actually apply here since the secondary monitors are not negative (I did not know you could do that). Also, one employee with local admin rights has the issue, but another one on the same hardware and image does not. (Different model monitors of course…and since this issue has occurred some IS folks are tinkering with drivers they would not have played with before).
One employee did have the Desktop Composition disabled and when enabled it did not make any difference.
Lots of head scratching here…
This issue is now documented at https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4034664/windows-7-sp1-windows-server-2008-r2-sp1-update-kb4034664 and https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4034679/windows-7-sp1-windows-server-2008-r2-sp1-update-kb4034679.
isplay in my PC
Display in my PC
I have installed:
2017-08 Security Only Quality Update for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems (KB4034679), Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 11 for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems (KB4034733)
in my Windows 7 x64 HP Pavilion laptop, ca. 2011, 8 Mb RAM, 750 GB hard-disk, I7 4core CPU.
I am using the Glass interface, as it works better with videos. I have my PC connected to a Samsung ViewSonic VX2573, and the settings are as shown in he attached screen grab.
(Unfortunately, I have discovered that cannot insert that picture in this message, sorry.)
I have used both monitors, the ViewSonic replicating the laptops’ screen (as I usually do), both in regular operation, and to watch videos from: YouTube, Netflix, and a movie on a DVD.
So far: no problems whatsoever.
Please, notice that the Control Panel Display adjustment screen does not look like the one in the Germans’ posting. I have no explanation for this difference.
Woody, Microsoft has acknowledged the bug in their Known Issues for August and released a patch! (Not yet tested since I could never reproduce the issue…but can collaborate with co-worker on Monday.)
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4039884/windows-7-update-kb4039884
Wow. One out of three. In baseball if you hit .333 you’re a superstar. In OS patches, I think probably not so much.
I agree with amraybt – it’s a little disheartening to have multiple unresolved issues floating around. Actually, I find it so disheartening that I’m in the process of getting Ubuntu 16.04.2 set up on my 2 Win7 computers. I hate to give up my current hardware, so I hope I can pull it off without it being another hassle that’s equivalent to, but different from MS.
Otherwise I’m going to Apple/Mac or maybe Chromebook (although I personally don’t care for the Google browser).
It’s all a shame because I actually like Win7, and I would have moved up to Win10 if MS had just treated me decently and not tried to ram it down my throat. Well that, and if they hadn’t made such a farce of the product.
Apologies if I’ve gone too far off topic. I won’t be offended if a moderator trashes or moves this post!
I was one of them, refering mysterious BSOD on old hw, this morning that hw/mobo died completely, So false possitive in my case, I guess
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