Newsletter Archives

• MS-DEFCON 4: Wrapping up a short month

  Posted on February 28, 2023 at 02:45 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 20.09.1 • 2023-02-28

  

  By Susan Bradley

  February’s patches affected you either severely, or not at all.

  The good news: If you are a consumer, home user, or business that does not use Windows Server 2022 or any version of on-premises Exchange server, you will be just fine installing the updates at this time. Therefore, I am very comfortable with lowering the MS-DEFCON level to 4.

  However, if you are a business patcher with Windows Server 2022 hosted in VMware, you may have been significantly impacted. In addition, patch administrators are still dealing with the side effects of the Exchange updates.

  Anyone can read the full MS-DEFCON Alert (20.09.1, 2023-02-28).

  AskWoody Plus Alert, MS-DEFCON Alerts, Exchange Server, MS-DEFCON, MS-DEFCON 4, VMWare, Windows Server 2022, Windows Update, Windows Update block

• Another dumb block: MS induced “VMware Workstation Pro can’t run on Windows”

  Posted on October 30, 2019 at 08:06 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  I just heard about this from Office Watch, but checking around, it’s also described on Tenforums and on the VMWare blog.

  When you install any of the recent cumulative updates for Win10 1903 (the third cumulative update for September, or any of the three cumulative updates in October, including the most recent one), Windows starts blocking older versions of VMWare.

  

  The reason? MS removed VMWare from the Windows Application Compatibility database.

  Apparently VMWare version 15.5 — the latest version — gets around the block. But if you aren’t willing to pay for the latest version, you’re up the ol’ creek.

  The solution is so utterly trivial it boggles even my pre-boggled mind. You rename the program that runs VMWare, C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation\vmware.exe. The renamed file passes the Application Compatibility block, and you’re free to use the old version. Stupid.

  Does anybody know if there’s a reason why VMWare versions prior to 15.5 are prohibited from running on post-September-updated versions of Win10 1903?

  Windows Patches/Security VMWare