Warning on Windows Updates

[mojo]

A Microsoft tech call today revealed a total surprise to me. After telling the tech person about the problems encountered with Windows 7 update she mentioned that many of the downloads for automatic updates are corrupted. They finally mentioned this after 3 crashes doing updates. Unless you contact Microsoft before you download this could easily happen to someone else. But, I sure hope not and be wary of doing the updates because there's no way of knowing...

[Andynko]

Are you sure this wasn't a telephone scam. Someone pretending to be from Microsoft?
I'm personally aware of this happening all too often.

[mojo]

Hi, Yes Microsoft support was contacted but your right about scammed calling to get remote access...

[turiya]

How To Disable Updates in Windows 7 (http://ccm.net/faq/15286-how-to-disable-updates-in-windows-7)

[mojo]

Hi turiya thank you for the link , that was my moto for sometime until this past spring when a huge security vulnerability in the OS made me think it would be wise to patch it. I guess the concern might be covered by Antivirus and firewall but who knows if that is solid footing?

[Bob]

A Microsoft tech call today revealed a total surprise to me. After telling the tech person about the problems encountered with Windows 7 update she mentioned that many of the downloads for automatic updates are corrupted. They finally mentioned this after 3 crashes doing updates. Unless you contact Microsoft before you download this could easily happen to someone else. But, I sure hope not and be wary of doing the updates because there's no way of knowing...

NO MS tech would call you MoJo - part of that scam is an attempt at installing RansomWare or worse on your computer, never ever give those people who call, faking MS Tech or otherwise ANY information and NEVER EVER go to any link they tell you to go to..

[mojo]

Hi Bob,
Sorry I should have been more clear on that issue. The call was from me to their support tech. But yes that scam has happened to me by phone calls a few times and the first time they almost fooled me...

[Cristian]

hi mojo ...

Would you consider a change in your life ?












https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/35/Tux.svg/150px-Tux.svg.png

[Bob]

Hi Bob,
Sorry I should have been more clear on that issue. The call was from me to their support tech. But yes that scam has happened to me by phone calls a few times and the first time they almost fooled me...

OK thanks for the additional clarification. I've even been called by the scammers, who got my number from harvesting somewhere, about your computer is showing that it needs to be updated.. (dohh), I have updates turned off after the critical updates were installed to fix the MS holes.. but after that they started pushing Win 10 which I will absolutely NOT upgrade to..

[mojo]

Hi Cristian,
Funny how some of us are creatures of habit...;)
If the change is about operating system Paul shared with me many options. I guess it came down to programs that are stable and available. Otherwise some of the Linux options seemed interesting. Is that the change you were elaborating on? Cheers

[amor]

I subscribed to AVG antivirus/internet security. They put a popup persecution on my screen until I relented and let them go through my computer on the pretext of fixing something or other. This took some considerable time. The next morning when I started my computer, there was a strange noise which sent me the mental message that they, whoever they are, had downloaded everything on my computer. I hope they actually read it; they may learn a thing or two profitable to them. All this says is that you can trust no one and nothing, especially if it is electronic. To further raise my suspicions, the reports they issued at the end of this lengthy download were actually meaningless to anyone at all. I'm fairly confident that all these antivirus companies are actually the NSA and the men running computer repair shops also work for them. Fortunately, I do not give a hoot what anyone thinks of what I think. If they want to murder me, let them; however, I know their eventual fate and have the last laugh. I once worked next to an old Russian man who refused to have any electrical device where he lived for obvious reasons.

[mojo]

My case is elevated to level 3 now by support. The techs at microsoft still can't solve the windows installation error. My suspicion lies in one of the automatic windows updates changes the format to the NTFS format. The Windows 7 installation CD can't partition the hard drives because it can't recognize the newer NTFs format. When trying to format again back to FAT32 a new error message says the volume is to large to format the drive. The technician had me shrink the volume on the DVD and retry but still get the new error message. I have to wait to hear next from level 3 and hope it gets solved.


Windows pro 7 is better than 10 imo and hope to keep it. To anyone needing to do updates for security vulnerabilities it is important to check into the matter more before you choose auto updating. I personally still dont know how to get the patches that dont crash the system yet. All the updates have similar titles and out of 199 critical updates one of them will do it to you.

[ceetee9]

While this doesn't relate to mojo's issue, I wanted to share a problem I encountered that turned out to be created by a Microsoft June 14, 2017 update--in case anyone else has run into this issue already.

This is a Windows 7 issue that manifested itself in my Outlook 2010 Tasks software. I could still attach files and Outlook objects (e.g., emails) to any task I created, but when I clicked on the attachment to open it, I started getting the following error message:

35493

After spending a fair amount of time trying to figure out what had changed, I found a post from someone on the Internet who started having the same problem and they discovered it was caused by the Microsoft KB3203467 update. Uninstalling the update resolved the problem.

He claimed he reported the problem to Microsoft so a fix may be in the works, but, until then, just uninstall that update and you should be able to open your Outlook Task attachments once again.

[mojo]

Calgon! take me awayyyyyyy...............

The update seemed to have caused the ssd drives not to initialize. They have to be sent to Samsung for repair. The Microsoft support tech was over the top rude and hung up on me. The crash has been a real test in patience...

[SpookyMulder]

Possibly you could always dual boot Mojo, with both Windows and Linux (Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Mandjaro...) to suit your needs. That is what I do, only keeping Windows because of the asio drivers I need to make music and the programs not being available on Linux.
Anything else well Ubuntu does the job perfectly well, have a check there the choice is yours https://distrowatch.com/

What you will need to also monitor on Windows 10 is all things telemetry, this little program could be of use https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 I have locked Windows 10 myself and not bothered with a third party antivirus, Defender does enough if you don't venture into dodgy waters!

You can always try and go back in time with a restore to track the nasty culprit, but then again it would feel like hunting for the abominable snowman knowing oh too well about it's existence!

I share your pain Sir, wishing you the best of luck!

SM