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Do you have a link or instructions how to spoof a CPU in VMware? I believe MrBrian has given instructions for spoofing Kaby Lake within VirtualBox, but I am using VMware Player (I do not know whether spoofing is possible at all in Player).

Thanks!

Yeah, it happened to me on occasion too. It could be solved by a confirmation question “Are you sure you want to post as anonymous?”. But then I do not know how easy or hard this is to implement.

But do bear in mind that, according to the tweet, the chart is base on public info. It is not the result of testing done by Efrain Torres.

Thanks for your reply. I was trying to estimate the urgency of my migration, not panicking fortunately.

I am familiar with the upgrade process and do know that a fresh install is better. However, since I have a lot of software and adjusted a lot of settings I want to go the upgrade route. I plan on a fresh install somewhere in the future, but because this is my main machine, everything has to work to keep my business running.

The installation already was from a computer that crashed some time years ago and I restored it on a newly bought Dell Latitude laptop, which originally had Windows 7 on it. It was quite a challenge to restore Vista on that machine, but Dell had published most drivers for Vista and the ones missing I downloaded from Intel and Nvidia. My efforts have really proven to be a life saver.

I have both a Samsung 850 Pro SSD and a 2 year old hard drive for data in that laptop, so the current status is fine. But thanks for your tips, I appreciate it much. Since about 5 years or so I have Hard Disk Sentinel on my systems to continuously monitor the status of my hard drives and SSD’s. It has proven to be a good investment on a few occasions where I replaced a hard drive after a warning. In most cases it was only a pending sector and after performing a surface test these sectors appeared to be good, as they were not flagged “bad” after the test but were restored. In other cases it was a faulty hard drive and another case I still have to investigate. That hard drive is not in use until I finish that investigation.

And last but not least: I do have a strict backup policy for both my data and systems. Ever since I started doing that I never lost data and have always been able to recover my system in case of an error. I can absolutely recommend having a good discipline and preferably backup “system”. I never panicked when something happened, I have only been frustrated because of the time lost

anonymous wrote:

For all we know, the chart above merely assumes that Vista is vulnerable due to the lack of a definitive statement by Microsoft.

The vulnerabilities in the chart only has a Y for issues that have been fixed (see the Notes column that states the corresponding bulletin which describes the issue and the released patches). The three vulnerabilities I was referring to do not have a Y for Vista, but neither for Win7. Please also note that the tweet states “based on public info”.  In other words, it is a summary of public info, but not the result of a separate investigation that was carried out.

I know, but MS’s statement re Shadow Brokers was made after April 11th (Vista EOL). That is the reason why MS does not state anything about Vista, because as far as MS is concerned they do not care anymore about unsupported OS’es. The point I was making that even though Vista has been patched on April 11th, on April 12th MS gives up on it. It is just like Security Essentials stopped working right after April 11th. In theory Vista would still be versions (sort of) as secure as other Windows until the next patch is issued for those other Windows versions, which Vista then misses.

I am not sure whether MS really says that three exploits are unpatched in Vista: EnglishmanDentist, EsteemAudit, and ExplodingCannone. They said that these three exploits were not reproduced on supported platforms. They may however also not reproduce on Vista, but MS simply will not state that as, I assume, they only make announcements about supported platforms. MS is sneaky enough to issue patches for Vista on April 11th and then state on April 12th that it is unsafe, while not supported. This would only be true to the extent that Vista did not receive an update that would otherwise have been released. normally that would be the next Patch Tuesday.

I am trying to evaluate my situation, as my migration from Vista to Windows 7 takes a bit longer than anticipated and therefore am still running Vista. How much hurry is there for me to upgrade to Windows 7 ASAP, even when that means not fulfilling some of my other obligations towards clients on time, or should take it a bit more relaxed and if I upgrade over the next 2-3 weeks or so, it will be all right?

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woody

I can confirm the behaviour as noted on bleepingcomputer that MSRT keeps offering itself continuously in WU, even though it has been installed before. This issue has been present on my Vista x86 laptop since about 10 months or so, although I do not recall the moment it started exactly. This did not happen on my Vista x64 machine. Because I have WU set at notify, but not download and install, it did not give me any problems. I just ignored it

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HiFlyer

Actually, MS has not communicated anything about Skylake computers that are not on the list, as far as I can tell. I am in the same boat as you and have been reading a few weeks ago what I could find about those computers. What they said was that Skylake computers on the list will be supported until 2020 (Win7), but absolutely nothing about other Skylake computers. That is why I am following the Kaby Lake issue with interest, as the block may well happen soon and unexpectedly for Skylake computers that are not on the list too.

But what I have been wondering is if and how MS is able to check whether a computer is on “the list”. I know they can check for the CPU by checking the CPUID, but can they also check for the brand and type of computer?

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woody

PKCano wrote:

Now, processors later than SkyLake (Kaby Lake and Ryzen), will probably still be out of luck.

I get everything you say, apart from this last sentence. Why do you think Kaby Lake and Ryzen will probably still out of luck? It seems to me that the process you describe might also work on those systems (theoretically).

Well, you answered most of them and the main question remaining I do not seem to have asked in the form of a question… When you write “that message” was it the message that Windows Update does not provide updates for your hardware anymore, or “The update is not applicable to your computer”?

I am surprised they even publish an optional update like that with EOL just 3 weeks ahead…

Thanks for the update anyways.

If MS ever answers you, they will undoubtedly refer to the footnote on the same page:

*Prior versions of Windows, including Windows 8.1, have limited support when running on new processors and chipsets from manufacturers like Intel, AMD, NVidia, and Qualcomm. For more information, please see the Support Lifecycle FAQ.

What I understood from your other posts was that you installed KB4012218, got an error message but in the end that was an message stating “The update is not applicable to your computer”. Did you receive that message when trying to install KB4012218 or another update? Did you uninstall KB4012218? If you did install KB4012218 were you able to search for updates afterwards? It is my understanding that performing a WU search using a Kaby Lake system immediately results in a warning and error message. If you did not get those and the WU process ran normal, WU still works. The proof is that there probably are optional updates available.

So in your case too (judging from you other posts) Windows Update still works with Skylake?