back to article It's a patch bonanza as Microsoft showers its OS platforms with update love

Microsoft issued a whole bunch of updates last night, including one to deal with an alarming bug in Windows Server 2016. Tucked innocuously among a swathe of fixes ranging from dealing with Russian time zone changes to fixing wobbly Hyper-V servers is the text: "Addresses an issue in File Explorer that sometimes deletes the …

  1. big_D Silver badge

    1809 patch

    came through on my normal machines this morning.

    1. quxinot

      Re: 1809 patch

      I'm sorry.

  2. mark l 2 Silver badge

    I got the update and ended up with a black desktop with the error:

    C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\systemprofile\Desktop is unavailable and a desktop screen where explorer is borked and you cant use the start menu.

    From Googling it appears that rolling back to the previous Windows version is the only fix so that is around half a day of my time wasted on the POS operating system.

    1. Hans 1
      Windows

      I had that half a dozen updates ago (TBH, it might even have been Windows 7, I mean ....), I created the C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\systemprofile\Desktop folder in question, waited a few seconds, then HARD reboot, and all was good ... memory vanes, but I think I could access task manager (taskmgr.exe) and from there get to elevated cmd.exe to create it ... then again ... if they re-implemented this "feature" it might actually be by design ... nobody knows ... these cheeky buggars, making our life harder after each update. I am tempted to switch to Linux, but there is not fun in that, <sarcasm>"it just works!"</sarcasm>

      1. Uncle Slacky Silver badge
        Linux

        There is a certain irony in seeing all these fixes requiring the command line, after all the (misplaced) criticism of Linux for supposedly always needing to use the command line to fix things.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          There is a certain irony in seeing all these fixes requiring the command line, after all the (misplaced) criticism of Linux for supposedly always needing to use the command line to Do Anything.

          TFTFY

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            You can do everything using the command line, but you don't need to.

    2. Tony Jarvie

      Is this the one where you get a box with a "Hard Error"?

      I fixed it by grabbing the Update Assistant from the Windows site on another machine, copying to a USB stick, transfer the program to the C:\ drive and running from there in a command prompt (might have been an elevated prompt) called from Task Manager. It was a week or so ago, so there might have been a couple of extra steps, but that solved the issue on a machine here. Hope it helps.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Let's be fair to MS (thought experiment)

    Even back in 198x, we learned that *software* testing, as opposed to hardware testing was fraught with complexity. Starting with the impossibility of being able to produce the full spread of possible conditions that might occur in even the simplest set of code.

    So it's hardly surprising that come 2018, the complexity involved has increased exponentially - which is quite a staggering thought. Call it the revenge of Moores Law.

    What is surprising is that given we all know this, MS insist on making each iteration of Windows *more* complex and interconnected, rather than a *less* complex mesh of smaller modules.

    The problem is, given this trajectory, it's entirely possible - probably even - that we will never see a stable version of Windows again. Which I think is big enough news.

    1. Jay Lenovo

      Re: Let's be fair to MS (thought experiment)

      Stability for an OS, doesn't equate to revenue as it once did. Issues ensure that you remain paranoid enough to stay on contract.

      Windows 10 is now just a software casino game, with the product ensured to be as stable as the satisfaction with the latest earnings report.

      1. a_yank_lurker

        Re: Let's be fair to MS (thought experiment)

        "Issues ensure that you remain paranoid enough to stay on contract." - What if one says enough and goes out to find a stabler OS? That would point to a marketing failure.

        1. JohnFen

          Re: Let's be fair to MS (thought experiment)

          "What if one says enough and goes out to find a stabler OS?"

          That would happen if things get bad enough, but I don't think things are anywhere near bad enough yet. Windows users tend to have a very strong case of Stockholm syndrome.

          1. Mark 85

            Re: Let's be fair to MS (thought experiment)

            Windows users tend to have a very strong case of Stockholm syndrome.

            That and Windows has been around and dominant so long that the average person doesn't know any better. Most haven't a clue how fix or even make minor changes to improve things. They don't know about sites like this where prudent people will sit back after an update is released and what breaks or test it themselves. I think the term "Sheeple" is how MS views it's users/customers.

            1. Giovani Tapini

              Re: Let's be fair to MS (thought experiment)

              [They don't know about sites like this where prudent people will sit back after an update is released and what breaks or test it themselves.]

              What, you think techie muggles should asking for help here? They'll get 105 downvotes and about 30 sarcastic remarks before someone posts a link to a fix or simply says, you shouldn't have done that ... Dave...

    2. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Re: Let's be fair to MS (thought experiment)

      In MS the complexity involved has increased exponentially, mainly due to MS firing half their QA.

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

    3. Jove Bronze badge

      Re: Let's be fair to MS (thought experiment)

      utter tosh.

      Are you on a commission?

  4. Dave K

    "...to be told initially that the behaviour was by design..."

    I HATE when MS pulls this crap. They did exactly the same thing with the Windows Explorer "folder jumping" bug in Windows 7 (expand a folder in Explorer and it scrolls the view up so you can't see the contents of the folder you've just expanded - a bug that can be fixed with Classic Shell thankfully). It's not an excuse to say that a bug is "by design" just so you don't have to get off your arses and fix it.

    Thankfully in this case, common sense has prevailed, however MS needs to be a lot more careful about using the "by design" excuse to avoid having to fix annoying (or sometimes dangerous) bugs.

  5. Morten Bjoernsvik

    run windows insider preview edition instead

    and you get a lot of other problems, last month wsl failed to start, new version of hyper-v making all my vms unbootable, had to upgrade them to v9, but then you cant go back. bluetooth driver suddenly failing. I rather put my precious stuff in containers running on debian or ubuntu.

  6. Kev99 Silver badge

    I actually get tired of getting updates for countries other than my own. Why I need the Bulgarian language update when I don't know or use a dram of Bulgarian is beyond me. Same with Russian & Moroccan time zones.

  7. Jove Bronze badge

    issue in File Explorer that sometimes deletes the permissions of a shared parent folder ...

    I have seen that in older versions of Windows, but is comparatively recent feature as far as I recall - it would seem to have been introduced, from what I have seen, in the last two to three years or so.

  8. Jove Bronze badge

    Help someone in need this Christmas ...

    Help someone you know break the habit of addiction to Windows this Christmas.

  9. Carl D

    Whatever happened to Patch Tuesday?

    Was nice while it lasted. Just one day a month to worry about installing Windows Updates (plus a day or two afterwards to deal with all the usual WU issues).

    Now, it seems every day of the month is Patch Tuesday. Especially if you're using Windows 10.

  10. Anonymous South African Coward Bronze badge

    C:\WINDOWS

    C:\WINDOWS\CRASH

    C:\WINDOWS\B0RKS

    C:\WINDOWS\ADMINS\COMMIT\SUICIDE

    C:\OS2\RUNS

    \dev\sda1\linux\runs

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