Newsletter Archives

• Upgrading from Win10 1803 to 1809 may break the built-in “Administrator” account, but you probably aren’t affected

  Posted on January 2, 2019 at 10:43 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Two good reports over the weekend about a newly-acknowledged bug in the Win10 1809 upgrade sequence.

  Günter Born: Windows 10 V1809: Upgrade deactivates Build-In Administrator

  Martin Brinkmann: Windows 10 version 1809 upgrade could invalidate Administrator account

  Both articles describe a Japanese TechNet “Network & AD support team” official post that describes how upgrading from 1803 to 1809 may “invalidate” the built-in account called “Administrator.”

  Ends up, there’s very little chance that your system will get bit by the bug, unless you have  manually activated the built-in account called “Administrator.” It’s an elusive beast.

  When you set up a new PC, the installation sequence prompts you to create an administrator account — you probably have one with your name (or the name of the person who set up your machine, or the PC manufacturer’s name) on it. That account has all of the normal “administrator” level permissions.

  At the same time, the installation sequence automatically creates a second account, called “Administrator,” that has all permissions. But the installer hides that account by default.

  Few people enable the account called “Administrator.” It’s considered a security risk — for good reason. You can invoke the genie by playing with a Group Policy, modifying the Computer Management/Local Users and Groups/Users setting, or by a command line. No, I won’t show you how to do it.

  If you’ve never enabled the “Administrator” account, you don’t need to worry about the bug. If you have enabled the “Administrator” account, do yourself a favor and disable it.

  If the only account on your PC with administrator privileges is the one called “Administrator,” the upgrade should go through without killing it, according to the MS Japan post.

  Windows Patches/Security Administrator account, Win10 1809 bugs

• New cumulative updates for Win10 1803 and 1709 — and a taste of what might be right in 1809

  Posted on November 28, 2018 at 08:01 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  

  The second monthly cumulative update for Win10 1809 is late. And I say bravo and huzzah.

  (Not a self-portrait.)

  Details  in Computerworld. Woody on Windows

  Windows Patches/Security November 2018 Black Tuesday, Win10 1809 bugs

• Yes, the next cumulative update for Win10 version 1809 will fix the mapped drive and default program problems

  Posted on November 27, 2018 at 21:15 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Microsoft has announced that the Insider Preview Ring-only update to Win10 1809 — the one that’s still being baked — fixes these problems:

  • Addresses an issue in Microsoft Edge with using the drag-and-drop feature to upload folders from the Windows desktop to a file hosting service website, such as Microsoft OneDrive. In some scenarios, files contained in the folders fail to upload, with possibly no error reported on the web page to the user.
  • Addresses an issue that prevents some users from setting Win32 program defaults for certain app and file type combinations using the Open with… command or Settings > Apps > Default apps.
  • Addresses an issue that may cause mapped drives to fail to reconnect after starting and logging onto a Windows device.

  Most importantly, MS has NOT released the fix through the normal Windows Update channels.

  If you’re curious, take a look at that list of bug fixes and marvel at how bad the original Win10 1809 must’ve been.

  Windows Patches/Security November 2018 Black Tuesday, Win10 1809 bugs

• Brinkmann: Add font display issues to the growing number of Win10 1809 bugs

  Posted on October 24, 2018 at 11:43 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Yet another bug in Win10 1809. Martin Brinkmann just published a good overview on Ghacks.net:

  Machines affected by the issue display garbled or entirely unreadable text.

  It’s another bug that was pointed out by Windows Insider beta testers — and Microsoft didn’t listen.

  Other, Windows News Win10 1809 bugs

• If you got hit by the 1809 upgrade file deleting feature…

  Posted on October 6, 2018 at 12:55 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  and you’ve tried using Recuva to get the files back…

  Contact Microsoft directly:

  #WindowsInsiders If you've run into the "missing files after update" issue for 1809/October 2018 Fall update, please call our support line. They have the tools to get you back to a good state. This build is no longer available to download manually: https://t.co/Ce9WVILknp pic.twitter.com/fvisQi1c8g

  — Dona Sarkar (@donasarkar) October 6, 2018

  “They have the tools to get you back to a good state.”

  Like, maybe Hawaii?

  If Microsoft does have a secret tool or two in their hip pockets, I’d sure like to hear about it/them.

  Uncategorized Win10 1809 bugs

• Microsoft yanks the Win10 1809 upgrade

  Posted on October 6, 2018 at 05:12 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  

  UPDATE and some corrections in Computerworld Woody on Windows.

  In the past few hours — very early Saturday morning US time — Microsoft pulled the Win10 version 1809 upgrade package. Details are sparse (yawn, as I grab a cup of coffee), but it looks like the official Download Windows 10 page is on version 1803, and ISOs have disappeared.

  The KB 4464619 article now states:

  We have paused the rollout of the Windows 10 October 2018 Update (version 1809) for all users as we investigate isolated reports of users missing some files after updating.

  If you have checked for updates and believe you have an issue, please contact us directly at +1-800-MICROSOFT or find a local number in your area https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4051701/global-customer-service-phone-numbers.

  If you have access to a different PC, please contact us at https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/contactus/ (link will vary according to country of origin).

  If you have manually downloaded the Windows 10 October 2018 Update installation media, please don’t install it and wait until new media is available.

  We will provide an update when we resume rolling out the Windows 10 October 2018 Update to customers.

  Permit me to provide an English-language translation:

  If you were gullible enough to believe the breathless reviews about a product that’s marginally better than what you have, and you trusted Microsoft enough to install it on your machine as quickly as you could, the joke’s on you.

  Moral of the story: Listen to what the experienced Windows folks say. It’s happened before, and it’ll happen again.

  This time it’s particularly dire, because I have no idea how Microsoft is going to restore the data it deleted.

  My Recuva trick for restoring deleted data doesn’t work all the time. Recuva itself doesn’t work all the time, even in the best circumstances (particularly on solid state drives). This isn’t one of those best circumstances.

  Note the strategic timing of the announcement. Microsoft has known about this bug since October 2. I reported on it, along with a workaround that works most of the time, on October 4. They waited until early Saturday morning, October 6, to acknowledge the problem and pull the plug.

  Anybody who tells you to install patches immediately should be drawn and quartered.

  Windows Patches/Security Win10 1809 bugs

• WHY are 1809 upgraders getting their files zapped?

  Posted on October 5, 2018 at 05:58 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  I’ve been looking at reports from all over the world, and can’t find a pattern. Some people got hit, others didn’t, and I have no idea why.

  If you had your documents, pictures, or other files deleted on the road to 1809, please post on this Reddit thread and help Microsoft figure it out.

  And make sure to tell your friends that all is not lost. A quick run of Recuva should bring the deleted files back.

  UPDATE: There’s some question as to whether Recuva can recover 1809-upgrade-deleted-files from an SSD. Lots of moving parts. If you’ve hit the 1809-upgrade-deleted files problem, and they were deleted from an SSD, I’d appreciate your advice!

  After that, you can roll back the upgrade. Which ain’t a bad idea.

  Windows Patches/Security Win10 1809 bugs

• Patch lady – Icewarp warns of issues for 1809

  Posted on October 4, 2018 at 10:41 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  Patch Lady here – with another report/reinforcement of why deferring feature updates is wise.  Icewarp is an email platform that some small businesses use.  They are reporting issues with 1809 and interaction with Outlook 2010:

  Windows 10 Update Error

  Hello Susan,

  The new Windows 10 update called “October 2018 Update” (Windows 1809) has recently been released. Unfortunately, it brings a critical problem to older versions of Microsoft Outlook (2010 and older) that can negatively affect our IceWarp OutlookSync plugin and the synchronization of data may possibly end up with an error. The IceWarp support team has also received reports from our customers about smaller issues with newer versions of Outlook (particularly Outlook 2016) after updating Windows 10 to “October 2018 Update”.

  The IceWarp development team is currently working on a patch, which will address the described problems from the side of our OutlookSync plugin. We are confident this patch will be released late next week.

  In the meantime, we recommend you to postpone the “October 2018 Update” for your Windows 10 users, or roll-back the update if you are experiencing the temporary synchronization issues as mentioned previously.

  Thanks for your patience and understanding while we address these issues.

  Windows Patches/Security Patch Lady Posts, Win10 1809 bugs

• Win10 version 1809 buglog – including troubling tales of lost user data

  Posted on October 4, 2018 at 08:05 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  I’m keeping a log of bugs that are uncovered in the just-released Win10 version 1809. Not that I recommend you install it, mind you — quite the opposite. But I figure the world could use a one-stop bug shop, to stay on top of things.

  So far, we have one officially recognized bug:

  Intel Audio displays an intcdaud.sys notification. Microsoft and Intel have identified a compatibility issue with a range of Intel Display Audio device drivers that may result in excessive processor demand and reduced battery life. As a result, the update process to Windows 10, version 1809 fails (KB4465877).

  Customers who see this notification when setting up their Windows 10 October 2018 Update have an Intel Audio Display device driver (intcdaud.sys, versions 10.25.0.3 – 10.25.0.8) installed on their systems.

  On the “What needs your attention notification”, select the backbutton to remain on your current version of Windows 10.

  And a bunch of unacknowledged problems, with the most distressing involving deleted user data:

  • I’m seeing reports all over about user data getting deleted during the upgrade. Still don’t see a unifying cause. (Brad Sams has an independent report on Petri.com.)
  • Various user folders (in this case C:\Users\Public\Documents and C:\Users\<user>\Documents) disappear.
  • Entire user profiles disappear. In this case, the problem may be with the Group Policy setting “Delete user profiles older than a specified number of days on system restart.” But this thread says that’s bunk, because the problem occurs on Home machines.
  • Deleted almost all the data on a solid state drive. It’s possible that the data was shuffled off to OneDrive, and is sitting there awaiting a full sync.
  • There’s the always-reliable problem set with the installer trying to bring in bad drivers.
  • The installer uninstalls CCleaner — which may be a bug or a feature, your choice.
  • If you disable IPv6,  the Edge and Microsoft apps won’t connect to the Internet.
  • Some issues with dark mode file explorer.

  The known problems with Task Manager are supposedly solved in the next-next version of Win10, RS6 version 19H1, which moved to build 18252 yesterday:

  • We fixed the issue causing Task Manager to report inaccurate CPU usage.
  • We fixed the issue where the arrows to expand “Background processes” in Task Manager blink constantly and weirdly.

  Of course, that doesn’t fix the bug in Win10 version 1809, but it’s likely that we’ll see a fix in the first cumulative update (which I expect next Tuesday).

  There are the usual problems with PCs that don’t upgrade properly — an HP notebook, for example, that hangs during the upgrade process and another report blaming UX Patcher.

  Have you hit a bug? If so, please reply to this post and include links whenever possible.

  (edit: Added link to ipv6 issue and dark mode)

  Windows Patches/Security Win10 1809 bugs