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Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
Microsoft blocked the delivery of Windows Updates recently to Windows 7 and 8.1 devices powered by a next-generation processor.
The company announced the support change in January 2017. Broken down to the essentials, it means that Intel Kaby Lake and AMD Bristol Ridge processors are only support by Windows 10, and not older versions of Windows.
To hammer that home, Microsoft made the decision to block Windows Update on Windows 7 or 8.1 PCs with those next generation processors.
The company introduced patches, KB4012218 and KB4012219 for instance, which introduced process generation and hardware support detection on Windows 7 and 8.1 systems.
Windows users who run Windows Update get the unsupported hardware error prompt when they try to scan for and download the latest patches for their -- still supported -- operating system.
GitHub user zeffy made the decision to take a closer look at how the actual blocking is done on the operating system level.
Details on exactly what was done are available in the article.
Source: https://www.ghacks.net/2017/04/18/bypass-for-windows-update-lock-for-modern-processors-found/
This will be especially handy for those whose machines were entitled to updates but were mistakenly blocked from receiving them.
(Score: 5, Informative) by bzipitidoo on Friday April 21 2017, @04:10PM (7 children)
> kinda makes them sound like dickwads
Well, they are. Been jerks since before the company was founded. A top 10 list of worst crap they've done has a lot of contenders.
14. MS DOS 4.0
13. J, the attempt to exterminate and replace Sun's Java
12. Clippy and MS Bob
11. activation keys and "phone home" required ever since Windows XP
10. Windows ME
9. Plays For Sure and the attempt to kill ogg vorbis and mp3
8. Internet Explorer
7. Windows 10 telemetry.
6. Security fixes, updates, changes that aren't just fixes
5. Extreme nagging and trickery to force upgrade Windows 7 and 8 to 10.
4. many massive security holes
3. The "Microsoft Tax", imposing Windows license fee on every PC
2. MS Office file format lock in, OOXML to destroy ODF.
1. DRM, particularly in the much hated Windows Vista
And that's just the PC world. Security holes and fixes could be broken out into long lists of their own. Like, the time about a decade ago when MS created a completely unnecessary chicken and egg problem by blocking the downloading of updates except on "verified" installations of Windows. But had to have the updates before a new Windows install could be verified, because it had to connect to the Internet to "phone home", and it couldn't finish phoning home before it was infected from being connected to the Internet before being patched.
MS is always, always imposing artificial limitations, and insulting our intelligence by asking us to believe those limitations are just how the system works or the result of unfortunate bugs, sorry, it's not their fault, when it clearly is their fault. Why won't DirectX12 work on Windows 7? Because MS says so, no other reason? Can MS be believed when they claim something like that it's because Windows 7 can't support the more direct access to the hardware DirectX12 brings? No, they can't. It may be true, but MS hasn't the credibility to be believed even on those rare occasions they aren't lying. More often, they don't explain, resorting to the equivalent of "that's just the way it is", treat the customers like mushrooms, keep them in the dark and feed them manure. They've shown over and over that they can't be trusted to tell customers anything straight. Even in the explanation of the simplest bug fix in a small patch, you have to wonder if they're leaving things out. Of course they refuse to show the world the source code, think it's unfair of the world to ask that of them. Often the limitations just happen to be resolvable by paying them more money for an upgrade, unless they screw it up which they have more than once. Why so many customers still put up with this, I do not understand.
So, soldiers of the MS Light Brigade, yours not to make reply, yours not to reason why, yours but to do and die. Lock in to the right of you, bugs to the left of you, malware in front of you. Into the jaws of Office, into the mouth of Power Point, rode the 640k.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday April 21 2017, @04:31PM
Let's hope someone writes a Win7/8 virus that makes them DirectX12 capable. It would be a neat f-ck you to Microsoft.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by DannyB on Friday April 21 2017, @04:46PM (3 children)
It's like you're reading my mind, man.
MS-DOS 4.0 didn't last long, fortunately. But you failed to mention MS-DOS 6 which included a stolen copy of Stacker's disk compression software. MS got sued. Eventually forced to (under)pay for it. Cheapest technology MS ever stole.
You mentioned IE (Internet Explorer). But the story goes deeper. In 1995, while Mac had TCP/IP support and good dial up internet support with web browsers, MS-Windows sufferers had to install trumpet winsock do complex configuration, etc. Bill Gates famously said the internet is just a fad. (Also compare the original registration dates of the names apple.com and microsoft.com for some additional insight.) Then Microsoft woke up and smelled the internet. Suddenly, desperately they needed a web browser. A small company, Spyglass made a browser for Windows. Microsoft bought it for $100,000 up front, plus a royalty percent of sales. Renamed Spyglass to Internet Explorer. And guess how many copies of IE have ever been sold? Then Microsoft poured, over time, $150 Million into IE, for a not for sale product? Why? To break compatibility of the web and hold back web development. And it worked. For a while. Netscape folded. But from its ashes rose Firefox. It was way better and market share grew, eventually passing 50% of browser users. Then, suddenly, Microsoft realized that the decade long stagnant IE 6, needed to be modernized. So we got IE 7. Not fully web standards compliant. Then IE 8, 9, etc. Microsoft finally realizing that it simply had to be fully web compliant. Eventually scrapping the whole steaming pile of code and building Edge.
You also mentioned Windows artificial limitations. That is an ancient IBM monopolist trick called "segmenting the market". Basically you end up with:
* Windows Home Basic
* Windows Extra Whitening
* Windows with Baking Soda
* Windows with Peroxide
* Windows with Fresh Mint taste
* Windows with Baking Soda and Extra Whitening
* etc
It's funny that Linux doesn't need to come in all these different kinds of editions. You can get, say Red Hat, or SuSE, or Ubuntu and add the right software to it to be a desktop, or headless, or a file server, web server, mail server, database server, etc. And no artificial distinction between a "small business server" an "enterprise edition server" or "datacenter edition server".
It reminds me of the old trick where an expensive IBM printer was field upgradable from the slower model to the fast model. What did the field technicial do? He moved a belt from one pulley to another, blew out the dust, looked busy, and then put the printer back together. That's what I think of when a desktop PC Windows will only accept a limited number of inbound TCP connections.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by hendrikboom on Saturday April 22 2017, @12:40AM (2 children)
The IBM 407 printing card processor was field-upgradable to a model that was twice as fast simply by the removal of a relay. If you knew which relay, anyone could do it. Where I was, the computer centre director did it on his first day on the job.
The relay caused it simply to skip every other machine cycle.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday April 24 2017, @01:30PM (1 child)
Of course, if you got caught, IBM would increase your rental cost to the more expensive model, probably retroactively, if not file a lawsuit.
Did I say rent? Yes, I did. You couldn't "buy" IBM equipment. Only rent it. That monopolist trick prevented the emergence of a market for used IBM equipment. When a monopolist's prices are so high, people would jump at the discounts of buying used equipment in working order.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday May 03 2017, @03:08AM
The rules may have been different for a university, since they tend to get the students and staff used to a particular manufacturer's hardware, and they may go and buy likewise when they go elsewhere.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 21 2017, @05:10PM
More often, they don't explain, resorting to the equivalent of "that's just the way it is", treat the customers like mushrooms, keep them in the dark and feed them manure.
Q: How does Bill Gates change a lightbulb?
A: He doesn't; instead, he redefines darkness as the industry standard.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 21 2017, @10:38PM
The "Microsoft Tax"
Volume price is legal.
The way M$ did it, however, was clearly anti-competitive.
This was a failure of government regulators.
Reagan's DoJ should have come down with both feet on M$ in the early 1980s.
...and the way that the white box builders bent over and took it was pretty gutless.
M$'s NDAs played a role here, I'm quite sure.
Again, gutless PC companies just taking the abuse.
MS DOS 4.0
Specifically?
As DannyB said, M$ DOS 6 was the glaring example of scummy DOS-related behavior.
Now, in the 4.0 era there was the attempt at blocking installs of Windoze on DR DOS systems.
"Non-Fatal Error" (AARD) When You Tried To Install Windows 3.1 Under DR-DOS [twimgs.com]
(That didn't make its way into the released version, but it's obvious that M$ was considering that slimy, clearly anti-competitive move.)
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