Recent Windows patches may cause black screen, free fix available (updated)

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Matthew DeCarlo

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Update: Microsoft has denied Prevx's claims, calling them "inaccurate," among other things. Redmond contacted Prevx who responded with a blog post confirming that Microsoft's recent patch was not to blame. Prevx has apologized for the inconvenience, losing some credibility in the process.

Original story: A Computerworld report suggests that Microsoft's most recent batch of security patches may be causing black screens on some systems. According to Mel Morris, the CEO of security company Prevx, the issue was discovered last week and affects Windows 7, Vista and XP. It supposedly stems from changes Microsoft made to the Access Control List (ACL), which interacts with registry keys to create visible desktop features.

The patch alters those registry entries, and some installed applications simply aren't aware of the change, thus malfunctioning. Morris notes that security applications seem to be particularly affected, and called the bug "massively debilitating," forcing some users to reinstall their operating system. Thankfully, Prevx has provided free software that fixes the registry to match the ACL settings, and that should resolve the issue.

Microsoft has not commented on the issue, and Prevx plans to supply Redmond with a copy of the remedy. Check out Prevx's blog post for more information, or simply download the fix here. If you've experienced this problem, feel free to blow off steam in the comments. In the meantime, if you haven't updated Windows yet, you may want to wait -- or at least keep the fix on-hand.

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Is it just me, or does it seem odd that the CEO of a security company (of whom I assume, probably makes some sort of software or consults and collaborates on security software) claims that this patch seems to affect security software the most and has made a fix?

Seems to me, it affects the CEO's companies software, mostly if not exclusively, and he's trying to cover up their mistake of not testing a patch before MS released it and fixing their software pre-emptively.

Either way, I've experienced no such troubles with any software. I'm running Windows 7 and MS Security Essentials and use my system mostly for gaming.
 
You would think that Microsoft would tell people making their patches about any huge changes like that Access Control List thing. If I were making a patch and a confound that HUGE were to crop up, I'd be pretty pissed off. Come on MS, get it together. If you're going to change crap around, then tell people what you're doing and quit being so super secretive about it to the people trying to FIX your mistakes. I like Win 7, and I respect MS for making the rebound it did after the Vista fiasco, but seriously...this is just getting slowly more silly by the moment. Don't ruin your good run so soon!
 
Would this be why my Windows XP Media server won't shut down or reset on its own? Its been going on since I did last weeks updates...
 
I agree with insect's take on it. I haven't seen, nor heard of any user having these types of issues. And doubly unusual to have MS completely ignore it. Sounds like this company is trying to make themselves look like the hero's when it's their own product that's more than likely the problem.
 
wow another Microsoft blunder how many do they need to get under there belts this year? its like there trying for a new record lol.
 
This is going to give Justin Long and Mac something to complain about. We should see some commercials in the next couple of weeks.
 
Glad I didn't update before reading this :)
Thanks TS for the headsup..I'll wait for a fixed patch in the update..
 
Is it just relevant to machines running PrevX software?
There's very few details given, not even the offending Patch KB# on either link, and MS is silent???
 
Had a similar problem... no doubt the updates had something to do with it. Although oddly enough, switching my HDD's SATA cable to another SATA socket on the MB fixed the problem for me... the Wonders of Wonderful Windows....
 
Screw Microsoft and their patches. I just use Linux or Ubuntu and those serve me just fine. Windows 7 looks alright, but I prefer Linux. Hooray for free stuff!
 
Does the patch also include "free" software from some "trusted vendors" of Prevx?

This is the second story of a little known company discovering a windows problem and offering a solution. Sounds like free advertising.
 
strange, it happened half an hour ago. my netbook hibernated because it was left idle, and upon next boot I got a black screen (but there was some activity on the hdd's so I was scared that the screen went bust); this never happened again.

I did a hard shut-down and re-powered up and it works normally though.
 
I thought the point of a patch was to fix problems not create them. Doesn't Microsoft test this stuff before it hits the market? I realize that the market is extremely vast but come on, a patch is not supposed to cause problems.
 
moltar, yes they test the fixes. But as you say, the market is vast. Trying a patch with every combination of hardware and software would take more than your lifetime.

insect, I think you may be right that the reason the fix comes from this company is that their software has this problem. Doesn't mean that other software doesn't cause this, too. As another article points out (see here: http://www.infoworld.com/t/security...n-death-triggered-recent-security-updates-424 the solution has been offered on Microsoft's forums before being posted by PrevX.
 
Nice one Microsoft! Patches are meant to fix a problem not create new ones! Luckily this hasn't affected my machine.....yet! Thanks for the Info!
 
Holy Cow! I had these problem starting Nov. 16!. I had to google for some info and It takes me to those Keyboard and Mouse Lockup after the XP/Sp3 loading Screen and Everytime I restart.

Never thought it would be MS's fault, screw that. The Fix is useful.. im able to restart now without that annoying black screen(which I found out that removing the cord of the PSU resets the power and moves along)
 
Im not completly sure, if its the case im figthing here.. But on my XP-Pro computer(got 4 computers running here, with XP, VISTA and W7) .. i was tryin to restart the system after som soft cleaning and update(actualy the XP was getting a lot of updates, that forced the restart)

When it was starting up, running the basic BIOS and stuf, it suddenly stop the startup ...now it could not find my SATA-HDD, where my OS was located ..and then it goes nowhere from this point. I tryid some restart(actually a lot), but it stop exacly same moment ..when it have to load/read the pre-installed SATA-controller/drivers*
*Back in time, when i bougth the motherboard, it could not find SATA-drives(and never could), so i had to pre-install a SATA-controller/driver via floppydisk, before it could find and install XP-Pro on the SATA-HDD.

Now im wondering.. if this new update, the reason to my problem?(never had this kind of problem before!)

Sry for my bad gramma/spelling - im Danish
 
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