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posted by chromas on Friday July 12 2019, @08:48PM   Printer-friendly

As expected, Windows Update dropped off several packages of security and reliability fixes for Windows 7 earlier this week, part of the normal Patch Tuesday delivery cycle for every version of Windows.

[...] What was surprising about this month's Security-only update, formally titled the "July 9, 2019—KB4507456 (Security-only update)," is that it bundled the Compatibility Appraiser, KB2952664, which is designed to identify issues that could prevent a Windows 7 PC from updating to Windows 10.

[...] I spent the afternoon poking through update files and security bulletins and trying to get an on-the-record response from Microsoft. I got a terse "no comment" from Redmond.

My research did, however, confirm that this is not a mistake, and it led me to a theory for why these mysterious files are shipping in an unexpected location. I strongly suspect that some part of the Appraiser component on Windows 7 SP1 had a security issue of its own. If that's the case, then the updates indisputably belong in a Security-only update.

And if they happen to get installed on systems where administrators had taken special precautions not to install those components, Microsoft's reaction seems to be, "Well ... tough." The Appraiser tool was offered via Windows Update, both separately and as part of a monthly rollup update two years ago; as a result, most of the declining population of Windows 7 PCs already has it installed.

Also at BetaNews & Ghacks

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/upgrade/upgrade-readiness-deployment-script

ConfigScript.ps1 is pretty interesting.

Of note is there are different versions of DiagTrack (the script checks the version):
https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/windows-itpro-docs/issues/3347

There is a blog post on it:
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Windows-Analytics-Blog/How-does-Upgrade-Readiness-in-WA-collects-application-inventory/ba-p/213586

Upgrade Readiness in Windows Analytics provides an inventory of devices and applications for enrolled devices. We've had a lot of customers ask about the details of how this works, and this blog post is meant to answer those questions.

[...] This data is collected by an OS component called "Appraiser", which is built into Windows (require a KB to be installed on Windows 7/8.1 devices, per below).

[...] Core Inventory (apps, drivers) data collection is triggered via a scheduled nightly task "Microsoft Compatibility Appraiser" which runs every 24 hours. This assumes the system is awake and idle for long enough period to complete the scan. If the device was found inactive we resume the scan on the next available opportunity. This data is only sent to Microsoft if the device is opted in for CDO (Commercial Data Opt-in) on Win7/8.1 or Basic level in Windows 10.

Mozilla have https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1197768


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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 13 2019, @10:40AM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 13 2019, @10:40AM (#866546)

    You just need to upgrade to the right 10. As in Debian 10.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 13 2019, @12:10PM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 13 2019, @12:10PM (#866561)

    I put Ubuntu 18.04 Mate. Most people can't tell the difference. They think it's just Windows with a new skin.

    • (Score: 2) by Pino P on Saturday July 13 2019, @02:54PM (3 children)

      by Pino P (4721) on Saturday July 13 2019, @02:54PM (#866630) Journal

      I put Ubuntu 18.04 Mate. Most people can't tell the difference. They think it's just Windows with a new skin.

      I plan to switch my roommate's PC from Windows 7 to Xubuntu come Windows 7 end of support, just as I did with her previous computer when support for Windows XP ended. It runs the applications she uses most, which are Chrome and LibreOffice. But the big question mark is support for peripherals.

      What's the recommended way to sync recorded music from a PC running Ubuntu to a device running iOS 12? She has music CDs and a collection of MP3 music that we have bought on Amazon, and she wants to load them onto the Music app of the iPhone SE that she received years ago as a gift from a relative. We have in the past done this through music sync in Apple's iTunes application for Windows, but Wine AppDB has long listed iTunes as completely broken.[1] The libimobiledevice website [libimobiledevice.org] claims support up to iOS 10.3, but her iPhone has since been upgraded to 12.something.

      She also has a TomTom portable navigation device, and she updates its maps before she goes on a long car trip about once a year. Forum posts like this one on TomTom's forum [tomtom.com] suggest that TomTom has no plans to release an updater for desktop Linux, and the first reply to this post on Linux Mint's forum [linuxmint.com] recommends either buying a second computer with Windows 10 or installing Windows 10 in a dual boot.

      [1] Please spare me the "iTunes broken in Windows too" comments.

      • (Score: 2) by Knowledge Troll on Saturday July 13 2019, @04:02PM

        by Knowledge Troll (5948) on Saturday July 13 2019, @04:02PM (#866652) Homepage Journal

        I don't have a good answer for using those devices under Linux natively but I do have some special case software I need to run only in Windows occasionally. I just run Windows 10 in a VM to solve that problem. The Windows 10 install has no license key as one was never provided during install because you can just say "uhh no actually nope" when it asks for a license key during install and it will continue just fine. The installed copy of windows will then report that it needs to be activated but it seems to tolerate this forever and I've not yet had it try to disable anything on me. From what I understand this is rather common now for people to do. You can get the Windows 10 install media as an ISO from microsoft.com pretty easily if you want to go that route.

        It's not great but it's pretty easy, free, and handles special cases fairly well. Not everything can tolerate being in a VM or having USB pass through to a VM but almost everything can.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 13 2019, @04:12PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 13 2019, @04:12PM (#866656)

        For the TomTom stuff, you might want to look into using a virtual machine with a barebones Windows 7 "guest" install on the Ubuntu "host" (free of all the update crap). This way the main OS running is Ubuntu and when your friend needs TomTom map updates, she presses a button within the VM software and she's running Windows 7 and within that Windows 7 VM, you can install the TomTom software to interface with the GPS. It may take some trial and error to get it working but it should work.