Microshyte Strike again ..

[Vipersan]

So ..my pc runs more or less 24/7 ..but last night it performed 4 updates whilst I was sleeping ...resulting in automatic reboot(s) ....and this morning I awoke to what I can only describe as PANIC.
At first I thought My hard drive had failed ...
After pulling the drive and examining on a different PC I discovered everything was intact ..so popped it back in only to be greeted with the same uninformative Red box basicly claiming unauthorised changes had been made to the UEFI bios drivers or keys ..
Basically booting was no longer possible ...and in fact there was NO bootable device available..
After much digging I found links to similar complainers that surface Pro Pros had been experiencing what was described as ..RED SCREEN of DEATH ..
UEFI boot failure ..
So ..the process goes something like this ..
Boot BIOS > UEFI BIOS ..100mb hard drive partition > Widoze ...
But no way could I get windoze to boot even though the OS was undamaged ...
Well it turns out the modern UEFI bios uses or can use security keys ...which are created for the drive when the system is first created ...or the system is first built ...and IF hard ware changes or indeed software changes occur ..Cue the Updates ...
The UEFI keys do longer match thus widows simply is prevented from booting ...and the system halts the boot process.
No indication of what or why ...just a red box complaining _something_ had changed and to try booting to something else.
A step too far for security methinks ..
Windoze made some changes and the bios didn't like them ..so the UEFI keys were no longer valid ..
To fix I went into bios ...and deleted these keys and disabled the process so no more keys can be generated.
The result is that I can now use my PC again..
BUT I came close to reformatting and re-installing ...well...EVERYTHING ..
All because windoze saw fit to make changes I didn't authorise..
..and worse ...no indication of what these changes were ?
I can see how easily someone would panic ..
It turns out that an update KB is installed in win7 that was never designed for it and actually aimed at win 8 or 10 ..
There is more than a hint that MS did this on purpose to increase uptake of win10 ..
So ..I'm just warning that IF you see something similar ....DO NOT panic ...delete your UEFI secure boot keys in bios ...and the PC should start ok..
FFFFing microshyte...
This link shows the exact message I recieved sadly is in German..

 

[Terryl]

First thing you need to do is shut off the auto update, do a manual one, so you not them can select what and when to load these junk updates.

 

[Vipersan]

I should add ...that older legacy hardware that doesn't use UEFI will most likely never experience this problem..
and that what microsoft has done here is not a million miles from BOOTKIT virus or Ransomeware...
Surely this is borderline criminal ????

 

[Vipersan]

First thing you need to do is shut off the auto update, do a manual one, so you not them can select what and when to load these junk updates.

Problem is Terry ...that the suspect update has NO information as to it's purpose ..so how would you decide if it's junk ??

...and unless you can get back into your PC neither you nor MS can apply a patch to fix it ..
Basically locks the door and throws away the key ...
...in this case ...changes the combination ...and locks you out...

 

[Analoguesat]

Not so easy nowadays - the monthly update cycle supposedly rolls all previous monthly updates into the latest patch.

 

[Terryl]

Flip a coin, heads = update. tails = not.....

You could go with a dual boot-up option, then put windows 7 on the machine, less problems with that one....I was fine with windows 95.

 

[Analoguesat]

UEFI secure boot should be disabled in bios where win7 is being run - its only really designed for win8 & later.

 

[Vipersan]

UEFI secure boot should be disabled in bios where win7 is being run - its only really designed for win8 & later.

Totally agree AS ...but MS dont tell you this ...
..and a helluva lot of PCs out there have older OS with UEFI S/B automatically enabled..
Needless to say mine no longer has UEFI secure boot enabled..
rgds

 

[excollier]

run Windows as a guest os vm on top of Linux - problem solved

 

[Captain Jack]

Or not run Windows at all.

MS is very much on a losing streak with their BS tactics and, frankly, awful products. There isn't a single product in its current range (be it hardware or software) that I would remotely want to own.

 

[PaulR]

Mmmm, maybe one of their Surface tablet/laptops.