Woody’s Windows Watch: More on April’s abysmal Win7 and 8.1 patches

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Six patches. Four antivirus programs. Bluescreens. Slow-as-sludge systems. Conflicting advice. Delayed warnings. Hundreds of thousands of machines put
[See the full post at: Woody’s Windows Watch: More on April’s abysmal Win7 and 8.1 patches]

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abbodi86, Elly, PhotM, rontpxz81, Myst, geekdom

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For years, I played anti-virus roulette: Norton, Kaspersky, AVG, McAfee. All were abandoned for various reasons and one never got out the starting gate as it just would not run.

I currently use Microsoft Security Essentials: fast, easy, cheap, and effective.

On permanent hiatus {with backup and coffee}
offline▸ Win10Pro 2004.19041.572 x64 i3-3220 RAM8GB HDD Firefox83.0b3 WindowsDefender
offline▸ Acer TravelMate P215-52 RAM8GB Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1265 x64 i5-10210U SSD Firefox106.0 MicrosoftDefender
online▸ Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1992 x64 i5-9400 RAM16GB HDD Firefox116.0b3 MicrosoftDefender

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The Surfing Pensioner, Geo, PhotM, woody

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Same here. Everybody tells me I’m running a rubbish AV, but the fact remains that I’ve never had a virus on this PC. I’ll miss MSE when it goes.

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The free and paid versions of Panda AV (now called Panda Dome) work with all Windows, and with both the pre and post Microsoft’s updates which required the special registry key which was required in early 2018. Panda hooks everything without using any undocumented hooks. Nearly all of Panda’s processes are listed as unnamed processes in order to prevent malware from readily identifying and killing the processes since new process IDs are assigned every time the computer is rebooted. I can’t say anything more about the techniques used by Panda.

I am NOT trying to plug Panda, and I am not compensated by Panda in any way. I am simply trying to suggest an alternative to use if one is reinstalling Windows, or if one is using one of the AV products which is known to have issues with Microsoft’s Grand Fiasco in terms of Microsoft’s April updates.

Forum Moderators: Trash or keep. I don’t care one way or the other.

 

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bradam

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I’ve been using Panda on my Win8.1 machine for nearly 3 years, and am very happy with it. Never a problem. It seems to be unaffected by the April patches, so I will wait probably no more than one more week and then install the security-only April update. Meanwhile, been having fun running and learning my new Mint 19.1 on the old (wiped) Win7 machine. It has no AV program ;^)

Windows 8.1, Linux Mint 19.1, NEVER 10. Group B.

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Considering these patches came out April 9th, the AV companies evidently didn’t bother to test them out until they got complaints.  Not just those at Microsoft.

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That is not necessarily true.
Microsoft issues a NON-SECURITY Preview patch 1-2 weeks after Patch Tuesday tor testing of the coming month’s updates. That Preview contains the current month’s Rollup PLUS the Non-security updates for the coming month.

However, the issues were common to BOTH April Rollup AND the April Security-only Update. The SECURITY updates are NOT included in the Previews. So the AVs did not have access to the changes that caused the issues ahead of time.

I am not making excuses for the AVs illegal use of APIs and kernel access. But we are talking of major AVs on millions of PCs/workstations/servers here. And Microsoft DID have the ability to block the ones with the AVs ahead of time. They used that ability after the fact.

If they had tested and/or if they cared about the effects on their customers.

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walker, Charlie, PhotM, Myst, woody

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It’s clearly not black-and-white: Part of the blame lies on the AV companies; part on Microsoft. But the point is that the offal hit the impeller, for whatever reason, and we customers were left holding the bag.

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Charlie, PhotM, Myst

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“I am not making excuses for the AVs illegal use of APIs and kernel access”

What illegal access ? It was approved by Microsoft otherwise is would have been blocked by the OS as trojan, hack…And if Microsoft didn’t know for years about the “illegal access’ to the kernel hackers could do the same.

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GoneToPlaid

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Perhaps it is just me, but I think we are observing a pattern with Microsoft patches/updates where the problems post-release, are not so subtle that a good QA testing program would have almost certainly uncovered an issue. The dropping of in-house dedicated QA testing by MS coupled with the dissolution of the Windows Division is paying predictable dividends. My question is quite simple, namely, how do you approve a patch for release when you do not adequately test it?

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TaskForce141, Elly, SueW, Charlie, PhotM, Myst, woody

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Home users only need the free Defender or MSE.   You can also add Adwcleaner.  I never had a problem .

 

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Hah.

Home users are approximately the most diverse group possible, and one that includes those with the least education and common sense.

Don’t get me started on things like high-end educational preschool letter training games that just happen to require more user rights than a standard-privilege user has -> usually means, admin access. (And then they have web links embedded…)

Assistance technologies for various degrees of disability and age-related issues, as in click on what now…

These are the people who need misclick and accidental malware installation protection the most.

Home users also include the gamers, the skilled hobbyists, the stereotypical (non-corporate-sponsored) open-source coders, a lot of small-time hackers and script kiddies (see http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20010523 ), and…

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I’m so glad that I have Linux on a separate computer I can use to keep going while MS continues to mess up.  I really feel especially sorry for businesses.  Two of my relatives have told me that the companies they work for are switching to Linux.  People are really getting fed up.

Being 20 something in the 70's was much more fun than being 70 something in the 20's.

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TaskForce141

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When a foolish company (Microsoft) destroys its own good name and reputation, it may take years, perhaps even a generation before customers return.  If ever.

I think of American car-makers who produced such terrible junk in the 1970’s, that Japanese competitors took over.  In the years that followed, people and their kids, and grandkids, simply never visited a GM, Ford, or Chrysler dealer at all.  If you bought a U.S. nameplate, you were looked down upon.  Whole families bought nothing but Japanese models.  U.S. car makers did attempt to upgrade and try to fix the worst problems, but never caught up to the likes of Honda/Toyota, who improved their cars even more.  The reputation for unreliable garbage didn’t leave U.S. car makers until recently.

More and more, Microsoft resembles the anti-customer arrogance of the Big 3 automakers of the 70’s and 80’s.  A refusal to admit your mistakes, be open with your users, and make honest changes for the better, that is Satya Nadella’s management style.

It will destroy Microsoft.

 

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Steve, Charlie

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geekdom wrote:

For years, I played anti-virus roulette: Norton, Kaspersky, AVG, McAfee. All were abandoned for various reasons and one never got out the starting gate as it just would not run.

I currently use Microsoft Security Essentials: fast, easy, cheap, and effective.

For years upon years I use the best anti-virus app, Kaspersky anti-virus. Never had a problem. Very effective.
Won’t touch Defender which is mediocre at best, with a 10-pole stick.

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