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posted by cmn32480 on Friday April 21 2017, @11:08AM   Printer-friendly
from the update-this! dept.

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.


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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by DannyB on Friday April 21 2017, @04:46PM (3 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday April 21 2017, @04:46PM (#497486) Journal

    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.

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by hendrikboom on Saturday April 22 2017, @12:40AM (2 children)

    by hendrikboom (1125) Subscriber Badge on Saturday April 22 2017, @12:40AM (#497702) Homepage Journal

    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)

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Monday April 24 2017, @01:30PM (#498820) Journal

      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.

      --
      People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
      • (Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday May 03 2017, @03:08AM

        by hendrikboom (1125) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 03 2017, @03:08AM (#503451) Homepage Journal

        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.