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Microsoft’s most recent release of security patches is causing some computers to freeze and display a, er, black screen of death.
The glitch is affecting Windows 7, Vista and XP operating systems, according to software security firm Prevx.
The UK-based company warned its users on Friday that Microsoft’s latest patches were causing havoc for some Windows fans.
According to a blog post by Prevx late last week, Redmond tweaked the Access Control List (ACL), which among other things details individual object permissions for a logged-on user within the Windows file system.
Microsoft’s latest modification to ACL registry keys have rendered some installed apps as useless, by preventing them from running and causing a black screen to appear.
Prevx noted that security apps were particularly badly affected by the patches, and added that some users of Prevx’s products had attempted to reinstall their operating system in a desperate effort to resolve the problem.
Prevx has already spun out a fix for users affected by the problem that automatically matches its software to the registry tweak in order to align with the ACL settings.
"I must stress that this tool will not fix all black screen issues," said Prevx support wonk Dave Kennerley.
"There can be many causes. But if your black screen woes began in the last two weeks after a Windows update or after running any security program (including Prevx) to remove malware during this time then this fix will have a high probability of working."
Kennerley added that Microsoft had failed to adequately alert the developer community about the rule changes it had made to the ACL with its latest patch batch, which was released on 10 November. ®
COMMENTS
Let me guess...
More developers using undocumented, unsupported features coming unstuck when they've written code designed around these? Security software is among the worst for using rootkit techniques or other questionable methods for embedding themselves in windows.
I feel the same about Linux
Don't get me wrong, I hate Microsoft Operating Systems, having been using them since the first GUI of those Win 3.1 days.
Unfortunately, I seem to have even less satisfaction when it comes to running Linux Ubuntu. I've been trying since version 6 and still encountering problems which mean I cannot use this as my every day desktop, even though I would really love to. With my current Ubuntu 9.04 install, I am dragging my arse through the mud as the display is falling apart, close, minimise and maximise buttons are suddenly missing from every GUI application I have been using. Control panel is today just a white sace on the screen.
I really really wish I was one of those people who never ever have any problems with Linux, but I am not. I am one of those people who have lots of problems each time they try a new release, in the hope the bugs in the last release will have been fixed. Unfortunately, for would-be Linux Ubuntu users, (I can't speak about the other distro's) Linux developers are just like Microsoft's developers, the fasion is not for fixing stuff that's broke, just making more broken stuff.
Regards
David Urmston
@FFred
Downgrading isn't relevant. You're trying to change from a pre-release to a release. This is never, ever supported.
Back all your data up and reinstall. That's the price of using a beta.
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