patch

A Windows 10 update causing problems is no surprise, but the two latest glitches will be familiar to long-time users. Both can lead to the dreaded "Blue Screen of Death," indicating a significant problem. The first problem affects users who run the ... built-in CHKDSK utility, which scans hard drives to look for errors. It appears that running "chkdsk /f" via command line (after the new KB4592438 patch has been applied) can cause the file system to corrupt, which then might result in Windows not able to boot at all. Microsoft says a fix has already been rolled out through an automatic ... (view more)

Microsoft has warned users of a significant unpatched security flaw in Windows. It's offered some key steps to take while the problem is being fixed. The problem affects all currently supported versions of Windows, though Windows 7 and 8 machines ... are affected 'critically' according to the Microsoft advisory bulletin. Attacks on Windows 10 machines are considerably more constrained due to its enhanced security features. Microsoft says its currently only aware of targeted attacks on Windows 7 machines, though that could change now the bug has been made public. (Source: microsoft.com ) Adobe ... (view more)

If you're still on Windows 7 or earlier, you need to make sure you have a recent security patch installed as soon as possible. It fixes a very serious operating system exploit, dubbed "BlueKeep". Note that a firewall and antivirus will not block ... operating system exploits , which is why using an unsupported operating system is incredibly dangerous . The bug is in the way that Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) works. Remote Desktop Protocol lets somebody on one computer see and control another computer in another location. It has some extremely useful applications such as working away ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Tony G. writes: " Dear Dennis, Thanks for your previous article regarding RDP Wrapper , which allows me to connect to my media PC using more than one RDP (remote desktop protocol) session. This is incredibly convenient because the ... kids can be watching a movie on the media PC, I can still login to it through remote desktop without interrupting anything. The issue I'm having today is that Windows 10 recently updated to 10.0.17763.316 , and now RDP Wrapper is broken . I have gone to the RDP Wrapper website and found other users complaining of the same problem. Many forum posts ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Joe P. writes: " Dear Dennis, I have Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit. I am trying to install 'ON1 Photo Editor' on my machine which requires Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable. The installer package for the ON1 Photo Editor ... includes the Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable as part of the installation. During the installation, however, the Microsoft Visual C++ hangs during the install and does not proceed. I have let it sit for over 24 hours and nothing happens - the installation hangs and ultimately fails . I should also mention that my Windows Update is also broken ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Michael B. writes: " Dear Dennis, Thank you so much for helping me to patch my Windows 2003 Server against the SMB attacks and for removing Windows_Update.exe virus a few weeks back . A have yet another problem that is causing ... high CPU usage! In Task Manager of Windows Server 2003, I see two processes that are eating 50% of my CPU each, namely: SystemTask.exe and SystemTaskInfo.exe . If I try and delete either process, it simply comes back and starts eating my CPU again, which makes everything else on the server painfully slow. Can you please help? " My response: I asked ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Sam T. writes: " Dear Dennis, I recently upgraded my motherboard and CPU to the Intel Core i7 7700k processor which is very fast! I loaded Windows 7 onto the machine and everything was working great - that is, until I went to ... check for Windows Updates and I received the error: ' Unsupported Hardware / Your PC uses a processor that is designed for the latest version of Windows. Because the processor is not supported together with the Windows version that you are currently using, your system will miss important security updates.' Is there any way to prevent this 'unsupported ... (view more)

Beginning Friday, May 12, 2017, reports surfaced of a new Internet worm capable of infecting Windows machines instantaneously. The worm has been dubbed "WCRY" or "WannaCry" because of its malicious intent to install ransomware on the target machine. ... The Internet worm was made possible because of a leaked NSA (national security agency) document which essentially explained how to carry out the exploit. In this case, the malicious software locks computers such that their files are encrypted and cannot be accessed unless the victim pays a ransom (and the culprits then stand by ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader John R. writes: " Dear Dennis, I'm running Windows 10. For the last week, Windows Update fails every time with this error: 'Critical Update for SQL Server 2016 MSVCRT Prerequisites KB3164398 - Error 0x80070643'. Any idea how to ... fix this? " My response: I have not had this problem before so I asked John if he would like me to connect to his machine using my remote desktop service , and he agreed. The reason for the SQL Server update (KB3164398) failing was an interesting problem, as it was not very obvious. I'll explain more about that further down - for now I'll go through ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Fred P. writes: " Dear Dennis, My Windows 10 computer rebooted yesterday because it downloaded some updates, however kb3116900 failed to install, with error code 0x80071A2D. I tried to find this update using the Windows Update ... Catalog but Firefox says it is an untrusted connection. I tried Internet Explorer and was able to connect. I downloaded the update, but it failed to install again. What can I do? This update says it's a Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 1511 for x64-based Systems (KB3116900). Can you help? " My response: I had the exact same problem on one of ... (view more)