[German]The cumulative updates of November 13, 2018 for Windows 10 are causing issues with Windows Media Player. This issue is caused by different cumulative updates for different versions of Windows 10.

Windows Media Player: Bug in Seek Bar

If you installed the November 13, 2018 cumulative updates for Windows 10 and use Windows Media Player, you might encounter a bug. The Seek Bar in Windows Media Player no longer works. Microsoft has now announced the issue in its KB articles.

After installing this update, users may not be able to use the Seek Bar in Windows Media Player when playing specific files.

This issue affects the following cumulative updates and Windows 10 versions.

• KB4467708 for Windows 10 Version 1809,
• KB4467702 for Windows 10 Version 1803
• KB4467686 for Windows 10 Version 1709

Microsoft is working on a solution to this problem and will and will provide an update in an upcoming release. (via, via)

[German]Today still a blog post about HP Sure Click, which is shipped by the manufacturer with certain business PCs and should protect Windows 10 systems, but can lead to very unsightly collateral damage.

HP Sure Click, what is that?

Hewlett Packard ships HP Sure Click on some of its Windows 10 machines. This program is designed to protect a Windows computer from malware lurking on malicious websites or in common files.

Instead of trying to detect malware, untrusted websites and files are opened in their own isolated virtual containers known as virtual micromachines (VMs). If malicious code is present, these micro-VMs cause the malware to believe that it is running on your computer even though it is actually trapped.

HP Sure Click isolates critical applications in their own virtual containers – malware is trapped and deleted as soon as you close the application. See this HP document (PDF) for more details.

The program is (thanks to German blog reader Dekre for the hints) part of the so-called Business PC Security Projects of HP. Dekre wrote in a comment that it was also included in HP’s Client Management Solutions (I didn’t find anything on the page, but this page lists Sure Click). The articles here and here from 2017 describe the partnership between HP and Bromium, the developer of Sure Click. Blog reader Dekre send me also another link to this info page.

HP Sure Click is causing trouble

Basically, the above description for HP Sure Click reads like a very useful feature. Unfortunately the practice draws another image. For the first time I got in touch with the topic via Blog Reader Dekre. In the German blog post Killt Adobe Acrobat Prof XI Internet Explorer-Favoriten? I wrote in June 2018 about an observation from Dekre. He run into issues with Internet Explorer favorites, and he supposed, an Adobe Acrobat update might be the root cause. Later Dekre found out that it wasn’t Adobe Acrobat that was causing the trouble, but HP Sure Click and its protective function. In a comment, Dekre wrote:

It is a new HP Business PC with Intel processor 7th Gen. HP ships various software preinstalled on these business devices, but the purpose of this software is unknown.

My issues has been caused by a security programs from HP, here specifically HP Sure Click and the browser add-on of this program. After I’ve deactivated this, it reactivated again, when IE 11 is restarted. I had always suspected the program. If you deactivate the services, it won’t work. The respective add-on is still activated. If you have activated HP Sure Click correctly, you cannot choose within this program that it does not install an add-on in IE 11.

Dekre uninstalled the whole program and his issues was gone. So that was the first hint that there could be trouble with the tool. I did some more research on this blog post.

HP Sure Click isn’t compatible with Windows

If you search a little on the web, you will come across some hits, where there are reports of trouble with HP Sure Click. In this article in the Spiceworks Community from September 2018 a user writes about bigger issues.

• Opening a Word document with Office 365 led to a request to register the version of Office 365 – the user cannot use Office.
• Since the antivirus program was launched, Sure Click ‘protected’ it so that it could no longer be used.
• Downloading any kind of software was no longer possible because every browser marked every download as a virus.

The user writes that you can set a whitelist, but you can’t really configure the tool. In January 2018, the Windows update KB40556892 and Sure Click collided. HP has this forum post and this forum thread on the topic.

The issues continue with HP Sure Click, as can be seen in the HP document HP Sure Click Advisory – HP Sure Click Does Not Work After Certain Microsoft Security Patches Are Applied. The document was first published in January 2018 and was last updated in September 2018. The message: Practically every update under Windows 10 leads to collateral damage with Sure Click. HP meanwhile indicates the following updates as problematic.

The updates for Meltdown and Spectre have probably deprived HP Sure Click of its ‘business foundation’. As a result of these updates, an error message appears in various scenarios stating that HP Sure Click has not been initialized. HP has provided an updated version of Sure Click on the site. In the meantime, this HP document (as of November 14, 2018) has been released, which again addresses the issue of an ‘HP Sure Click Initialization Error’.

(Source: HP)

This applies to all HP computers of the following models on which HP Sure Click is installed in a version prior to 4.1.0.5714.

• HP Elite x2 1000 series
• HP Elite x2 1011 G1 Tablet series
• HP Elite x2 1011 G1 Tablet with Power Keyboard series
• HP Elite x2 1011 G1 Tablet with Travel Keyboard series
• HP Elite x2 1012 G1 Tablet series
• HP Elite x2 1012 G2 Tablet series
• HP EliteBook 1000 Notebook PC series
• HP EliteBook 1050 G1 Notebook PC series
• HP EliteBook 820 G1 Notebook PC series
• HP EliteBook 820 G2 Notebook PC series
• HP EliteBook 820 G3 Notebook PC series
• HP EliteBook 820 G4 Notebook PC series
• HP EliteBook 828 G3 Notebook PC
• HP EliteBook 828 G4 Notebook PC
• HP EliteBook 830 G5 Notebook PC series
• HP EliteBook 830 Notebook PC series
• HP EliteBook 836 G5 Notebook PC
• HP EliteBook 840 G1 Notebook PC series
• HP EliteBook 840 G2 Notebook PC series
• HP EliteBook 840 G3 Notebook PC series
• HP EliteBook 840 G4 Notebook PC series
• HP EliteBook 840 G5 Healthcare Edition Notebook PC series
• HP EliteBook 840 Notebook PC series
• HP EliteBook 846 G5 Notebook PC series
• HP EliteBook 846r G4 Notebook PC series
• HP EliteBook 848 G3 Notebook PC series
• HP EliteBook 848 G4 Notebook PC series
• HP EliteBook 850 G1 Notebook PC series
• HP EliteBook 850 G2 Notebook PC series
• HP EliteBook 850 G2 Notebook PC Bundle
• HP EliteBook 850 G3 Notebook PC series
• HP EliteBook 850 G4 Notebook PC series
• HP EliteBook 850 G5 Notebook PC series
• HP EliteBook 850 Notebook PC series
• HP EliteBook x360 1020 G2 Notebook PC series
• HP EliteBook x360 1030 G2 Notebook PC series
• HP EliteBook x360 1030 G3 Notebook PC series
• HP EliteBook x360 830 G5 Notebook PC series

and running one of the Windows 10 versions listed below.

• Microsoft Windows 10 TH2 (Version 1511)
• Microsoft Windows 10 TH1 (Version 1507)
• Microsoft Windows 10 RS5 (Version 1809)
• Microsoft Windows 10 RS4 (Version 1803)
• Microsoft Windows 10 RS3 (Version 1709)
• Microsoft Windows 10 RS2 (Version 1703)

As a solution, HP proposes to install the HP Sure Click version 4.1.0.5734 provided on the site. This means: With every update of Windows 10 you have to expect issues with HP Sure Click. Then you have to wait for an update of the software and install it. Given these issues, I’d rather uninstall HP Sure Click from the machines using the Control Panel.

[German]Users who inspect Windows 10 may come across the Windows subfolder REMPL and files like Rempl.exe, Remsh.exe, WaaSMedic.exe, Sedlauncher.exe etc. What are these files for?

Reliability update KB4023057 for Windows 10

On November 15, 2018, Microsoft has updated and released its KB4023057 reliability update for Windows 10 (versions 1507 through 1803). I mentioned this within my blog post Patchday Windows 10-Updates (November 13, 2018). Microsoft writes about the update:

This update includes reliability improvements to Windows Update Service components in Windows 10, versions 1507, 1511, 1607, 1703, 1709, and 1803. It may also take steps to free up disk space on your device if you do not have enough disk space to install Windows updates.

This update includes files and resources that address issues that affect the update processes in Windows 10 that may prevent important Windows updates from being installed. These improvements help make sure that updates are installed seamlessly on your device, and they help improve the reliability and security of devices that are running Windows 10.

Sounds quite harmless, the update will improve the stability and reliability of the mentioned Windows 10 versions so that they can upgrade to Windows 10 V1809. Microsoft writes about the features:

• This update may try to reset network settings if problems are detected, and it will clean up registry keys that may be preventing updates from being installed successfully.
• This update may repair disabled or corrupted Windows operating system components that determine the applicability of updates to your version of Windows 10.
• This update may compress files in your user profile directory to help free up enough disk space to install important updates.
• This update may reset the Windows Update database to repair the problems that could prevent updates from installing successfully. Therefore, you may see that your Windows Update history was cleared.

The update therefore intervenes very deeply in the system during installation, compresses files to make free space if necessary, and repairs settings that prevent an upgrade via Windows Update. If you look at the list of files, you will see the following names:

• Luadgmgt.dll
• Sedlauncher.exe
• Sedplugins.dll
• Sedsvc.exe

I had written something about these files in the blog post Windows 10: Update KB4023057 released (Sept. 6, 2018). The article Windows 10: What is REMSH.exe for? explains REMSH.exe. But that file will be replaced by Sedlauncher.exe.

More details

MVP colleague Vishal Gupta from askvg.com also noticed files like Sedsvc.exe, Sedlauncher.exe, Rempl.exe, Remsh.exe and WaaSMedic.exe in the REMPL folder.

What are Sedsvc.exe, Sedlauncher.exe, Rempl.exe, Remsh.exe and WaaSMedic.exe Files Present in REMPL Folder in #Windows10 https://t.co/kWItVudCDA

— Vishal Gupta (@VishalGuptaMVP) 20. November 2018

Within this blog post he wrote, that he noticed that the two program files:

• sedsvc.exe
• sedlauncher.exe

tried to connect with the Internet. However, the firewall prevented this. In the Task Manager he noticed sedsvc (image below), under which the Windows Remediation Service runs.

(Source)

The files were digitally signed by Microsoft, so that it could not be malware. In the folder REMPL he found the following files on his Windows 10 system:

• Logs
• CTAC.json
• disktoast.exe
• osrrb.exe
• rempl.xml
• sedlauncher.exe
• sedplugins.dll
• sedsvc.exe
• ServiceStackHardening.Inf
• strgsnsaddons.dll
• toastlogo.png

Some of these files have already been discussed above – explanations can be found in the linked articles. There is the file ServiceStackHardening.inf, which stands for reliability measures for services (probably update service). Files with names like strgsnsaddons.dll are probably auxiliary files for the update improvement. So the files must have come on the machine in connection with the above mentioned update. The purpose is to remove the update blockade for the next higher Windows 10 version.

[German]On November 27, 2018, Microsoft released some cumulative updates for the supported Windows 10 builds. Among other things, the file type bug is corrected. Here are some details about each update.

For a list of updates, visit this Microsoft Web page. These updates (on the 3rd Tuesday of the month) correct errors in the various Windows versions, security-relevant updates have been rolled out since Sept. 2018 on the 2nd Tuesday of the month. I have extracted the details of the updates below.

Updates for Windows 10 Version 1803

For Windows 10 April Update (Version 1803) the following updates are available.

Update KB4467682 for Windows 10 Version 1803

Cumulative update KB4467682 for Windows 10 Version 1803 contains quality improvements but no new operating system functions and raises the OS build to 17134.441. Here is the list of fixes:

• Addresses an issue that prevents the deletion of word spellings from the Microsoft Office dictionary using settings.
• Addresses an issue that causes the GetCalendarInfo function to return an incorrect era name on the first day of the Japanese era.
• Addresses time zone changes for Russian daylight standard time.
• Addresses time zone changes for Moroccan daylight standard time.
• Addresses an issue to allow the use of the previous barrel button and drag functionality and ensure that shim choices have priority over the registry.
• Addresses an issue that causes the precision touchpad or keyboard to stop responding because of some combination of docking and undocking or shutdown or restart operations.
• Addresses an issue that may sometimes cause the system to stop responding after turning on, which prevents logon.
• Addresses an issue that causes Microsoft Word Immersive Reader to skip the first part of a selected word when using Microsoft Word Online in Microsoft Edge.
• Addresses an issue with missing URL shortcuts from the Start menu.
• Addresses an issue that allows users to uninstall apps from the Start menu when the “Prevent users from uninstalling applications from Start menu” policy is set.
• Addresses an issue that causes File Explorer to stop working when you click the Turn on button for the Timeline feature. This issue occurs when the “Allow upload of user activities” group policy is disabled.
• Addresses an issue that prevents users from accessing the Ease of Access Cursor & pointer size page in the Settings app with the URI “ms-settings:easeofaccess-cursorandpointersize”.
• Addresses an issue that causes the audio service to stop working or become unresponsive while using call control, controlling volume, and streaming music to Bluetooth audio devices. Error messages that appear include:
  • Exception error 0x8000000e in btagservice.dll.
  • Exception error 0xc0000005 or 0xc0000409 in bthavctpsvc.dll.
  • Stop 0xD1 BSOD error in btha2dp.sys.
• Addresses an issue in which a third-party antivirus software may receive an “ERROR_NO_SYSTEM_RESOURCES” error.
• Addresses an issue that may cause excessive memory usage when using smart cards.
• Addresses an issue that causes the system to stop working with the error code, “0x120_fvevol!FveEowFinalSweepConvertSpecialRangesChunk”.
• Addresses an issue that prevents Application Guard from browsing the internet if the proxy auto-config (PAC) file on a device uses IP literals to specify a web proxy.
• Addresses an issue that prevents a Wi-Fi client from connecting to Miracast® devices when the allowed service set identifier (SSID) is specified in Wireless Network Policies.
• Addresses an issue that causes Event Tracing for Windows (ETW) profiling to fail when using custom profiling frequencies.
• Addresses a power state transition issue that causes the system to become unresponsive when connecting to eXtensible Host Controller Interface (xHCI) devices.
• Addresses an issue that may lead to a blue screen on the system when running disk benchmark software.
• Addresses an issue that causes the RemoteApp window to always be active and in the foreground after closing a window.
• Allows a Bluetooth® Low Energy (LE) random address to rotate periodically even when Bluetooth LE passive scan is enabled.
• Addresses an issue that causes the installation and client activation of Windows Server 2019 and 1809 LTSC Key Management Service (KMS) host keys (CSVLK) to not work as expected. For more information about the original feature, see KB4347075.
• Addresses an issue that prevents some users from setting Win32 program defaults for certain app and file type combinations using the Open with… command or Settings > Apps > Default apps.
• Addresses an issue that prevents users from opening presentation (.pptx) files exported from a Google presentation.
• Addresses an issue that prevents some users from connecting to some older devices, such as printers, over Wi-Fi because of the introduction of multicast DNS (mDNS). If you did not experience device connectivity issues and prefer the new mDNS functionality, you can enable mDNS by creating the following registry key: “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\DNSClient\ mDNSEnabled (DWORD) = 1”.

The update is distributed via Windows Update, but should also be available via WSUS or via Microsoft Update Catalog. Manual installation of the update requires the current Servicing Stack Update (SSU) KB4465663 of November 2018 to be installed. This is ensured when installing via Windows Update.

Microsoft is aware of the following issues with this update: After you install this update, users may no longer be able to use the search bar in Windows Media Player when they play certain files. Also, an installed NET Framework Preview des Quality Rollup of the September 11, 2018 (or the August Preview) causes issues. It can raise an exception when you instantiate SqlConnection. For more information about this issue, visit the Microsoft Knowledge Base.

Updates for Windows 10 Version 1709

The following updates are available for Windows 10 Fall Creators Update (version 1709).

Update KB4467681 for Windows 10 Version 1709

Cumulative Update KB4467681 for Windows 10 Version 1709 (Fall Creators Update) raises the OS build to 16299.820 and includes quality improvements and the following fixes:

• Ensures that certain windowed ActiveX controls scroll along with other page content in Internet Explorer 11 during a user-triggered scroll operation.
• Addresses an issue that causes navigation across eras to stop working in the Japanese Calendar view.
• Addresses an issue related to the date format for the Japanese era calendar.
• Addresses an issue that causes the GetCalendarInfo function to return an incorrect era name on the first day of the Japanese era.
• Addresses an issue that prevents the deletion of word spellings from the Microsoft Office dictionary using settings.
• Addresses time zone changes for Russian daylight standard time.
• Addresses time zone changes for Moroccan daylight standard time.
• Addresses an issue that sometimes causes the software keyboard to disappear when joining a Wi-Fi network while using a Universal Windows Platform (UWP) application. This issue affects devices that have installed the Windows 10 Creators Update and have no physical keyboard.
• Addresses an issue to allow the use of the previous barrel button and drag functionality and ensure that shim choices have priority over the registry.
• Addresses an issue that causes Microsoft Word Immersive Reader to skip the first part of a selected word when using Microsoft Word Online in Microsoft Edge.
• Addresses an issue in the Universal CRT that sometimes causes the AMD64-specific implementation of FMOD to return an incorrect result when given very large inputs. FMOD is frequently used to implement the modulo operator in JavaScript and Python implementations that use the Universal C Runtime.
• Addresses an issue in which event log entries for the CredSSP security update that fixes CVE-2018-0886 are not logged correctly.
• Addresses an issue that may cause excessive memory usage when using smart cards.
• Addresses an issue that causes the system to stop working with the error code, “0x120_fvevol!FveEowFinalSweepConvertSpecialRangesChunk”.
• Addresses an issue that blocks ActiveX controls in Internet Explorer on 64-bit systems. This occurs when using Windows Defender Application Control and creating a policy that allows all ActiveX controls to run in Internet Explorer.
• Addresses an issue that prevents Application Guard from browsing the internet if the proxy auto-config (PAC) file on a device uses IP literals to specify a web proxy.
• Addresses an issue that prevents a Wi-Fi client from connecting to Miracast® devices when the allowed service set identifier (SSID) is specified in Wireless Network Policies.
• Addresses an issue with the Group Policy Object (GPO) “Prohibit connection to non-domain networks when connected to domain authenticated network”. In this scenario, this GPO disconnects the Wi-Fi interface over which a VPN client connection is established.
• Addresses a power state transition issue that causes the system to become unresponsive when connecting to eXtensible Host Controller Interface (xHCI) devices.
• Addresses an issue that causes the RemoteApp window to always be active and in the foreground after closing a window.
• Addresses an issue that causes the installation and client activation of Windows Server 2019 and 1809 LTSC Key Management Service (KMS) host keys (CSVLK) to not work as expected. For more information about the original feature, see KB4347075.

The update is distributed via Microsoft Update Catalog but should also be available via WSUS or the Microsoft Update Catalog. Manual installation of the update requires the current Servicing Stack Update (SSU) KB4465661 of November 2018 to be installed. This is ensured when installing via Windows Update.

Microsoft is aware of the following issues with this update: After you install this update, users may no longer be able to use the search bar in Windows Media Player when they play certain files. Also, an installed .NET Framework Preview des Quality Rollup of the September 11, 2018 (or the August Preview) causes isssues. For more information about this issue, click the Microsoft Knowledge Base. It can raise an exception when you instantiate SqlConnection.

Updates for Windows 10 Version 1703

Windows 10, version 1703, has reached the end of support on October 8, 2018. Devices running Windows 10 Home, Pro, Pro for Workstation and IoT Core will no longer receive monthly security and quality updates. Only Windows 10 Enterprise and Windows 10 Education will receive additional updates for one year. The following updates are available for these editions of the Windows 10 Creators Update (version 1703).

Update KB4467699 foür Windows 10 Version 1703

Cumulative Update KB4467699 for Windows 10 Version 1703 (Creators Update) raises the OS build to 15063.1478 and includes quality improvements. It addresses the following vulnerabilities and problems:

• Addresses an issue that causes navigation across eras to stop working in the Japanese Calendar view.
• Addresses an issue related to the date format for the Japanese era calendar.
• Addresses an issue that causes the GetCalendarInfo function to return an incorrect era name on the first day of the Japanese era.
• Addresses an issue that prevents the deletion of word spellings from the Microsoft Office dictionary using settings.
• Addresses time zone changes for Russian daylight standard time.
• Addresses an issue in the Universal CRT that sometimes causes the AMD64-specific implementation of FMOD to return an incorrect result when given very large inputs. FMOD is frequently used to implement the modulo operator in JavaScript and Python implementations that use the Universal C Runtime.
• Addresses an issue that may cause excessive memory usage when using smart cards.
• Addresses an issue that causes the system to stop working with the error code, “0x120_fvevol!FveEowFinalSweepConvertSpecialRangesChunk”.
• Addresses an issue that blocks ActiveX controls in Internet Explorer on 64-bit systems. This occurs when using Windows Defender Application Control and creating a policy that allows all ActiveX controls to run in Internet Explorer.

The update is distributed via Windows Update, but can also be downloaded via Microsoft Update Catalog. Manual installation of the update requires the current Servicing Stack Update (SSU, KB4465660) to be installed. This is ensured when installing via Windows Update. The same ‘known issues’ apply as for the updates listed in the previous sections.

This update also includes improvements to the update component itself.

Updates for Windows 10 Version 1507 til 1607

For Windows 10 RTM and Windows 10 Anniversary Update (Version 1607) the following updates has been released.

• Windows 10 Version 1607: Update KB4467684 s only available for Enterprise and Education and Windows Server 2016. The update lifts the OS build to 14393.2639 and includes the fixes mentioned in the KB article. This update is automatically downloaded and installed by Windows Update, but can be downloaded from the Microsoft Update Catalog. Before manual installation, the Servicing Stack Update (SSU) (KB4465659)needs to be installed. Details, including known problems, can be found in the KB article.

There was no update for Windows 10 V1511, because this version is out of support. For Windows 10 V1507 and also for the current V1803 no updates have been provided so far. Details about the above updates can be found in the respective Microsoft KB articles in case of doubt..

Microcode update KB4465065 for Windows 10 V1809

For Windows 10 Version 1809 and for Windows Server 2019 Microsoft has released Microcode update KB4465065. Some CPU models have been taken into support.

Similar articles:
Microsoft Office Patchday (November 6, 2018)
Microsoft Security Update Summary for November 13, 2018
Patchday: Updates for Windows 7/8.1/Server Nov. 13, 2018
Patchday Windows 10-Updates (November 13, 2018)
Patchday Microsoft Office Updates (November 13, 2018)
Microsoft Patchday: Other Updates November 13, 2018
Preview Updates for Windows 7/8.1/Server Nov. 27, 2018

[German]On November 27, 2018, I pointed out within my blog post Windows 10 V1809: New Updates in Release Preview Ring that Microsoft was testing an update for Windows 10 Version 1809 in the Fast Ring and Release Preview Ring with Windows Insiders. However, it remained unclear what the update actually does.

Now information has become known what this update KB446934 is supposed to correct. I have become aware of the corresponding KB article via Twitter.

Details on Cumulative Update Build 17763.167 (KB4469342) that went to #WindowsInsiders in the Release Preview ring here: https://t.co/R4styhh3AA

— Windows Insider (@windowsinsider) 27. November 2018

The cumulative update KB4469342 for Windows 10 version 1809 raises the OS build to 17763.167. Beside the fixes from build 17763.107 the following issues are addressed.

• Addresses an issue in Microsoft Edge with using the drag-and-drop feature to upload folders from the Windows desktop to a file hosting service website, such as Microsoft OneDrive. In some scenarios, files contained in the folders fail to upload, with possibly no error reported on the web page to the user.
• Addresses an issue that degrades Internet Explorer performance when you use roaming profiles or you don’t use the Microsoft Compatibility List.
• Addresses updated time zone information for Fiji.
• Addresses time zone changes for Moroccan daylight standard time.
• Addresses time zone changes for Russian daylight standard time.
• Addresses an issue that causes display settings to stop working when changing a multi-monitor configuration.
• Addresses an issue that displays a black screen on some servers when waking a display from sleep.
• Addresses an issue with long delays in taking a photo when using the Camera app in certain lighting conditions.
• Addresses an issue that prevents live Hulu TV content from playing in Microsoft Edge; instead, a black screen appears.
• Addresses an issue that stops Bluetooth® headsets from receiving audio input after several minutes of listening.
• Addresses an issue that causes the Brightness slider preference to be reset to 50% when the device restarts.
• Addresses an issue with the OEM manufacturing processes when running sysprep /generalize.
• Addresses an issue with Microsoft Intune that causes devices to be incorrectly marked as not compliant because a firewall incorrectly returns a ‘Poor’ status. As a result, the affected devices will not receive conditional access compliance approval and may be blocked from access to corporate resources such as email.
• Addresses a performance issue with vSwitch on network interface cards (NIC) that do not support Large Send Offload (LSO) and Checksum Offload (CSO).
• Updates the Wi-Fi policy for service set identifier (SSID) filtering to avoid filtering out Wi-Fi Direct devices.
• Addresses an issue that causes rasman.exe to stop responding.
• Addresses an issue in which regedit.exe fails to add double null terminator to REG_MULTI_SZ values in the Windows registry. The missing terminator may prevent services and applications from reading REG_MULTI_SZ values that regedit.exe adds after installing the operating system.
• Addresses an issue with RemoteApp visibility that may cause the main window to disappear until the user clicks the screen.
• Addresses an issue that prevents some users from setting Win32 program defaults for certain app and file type combinations using the Open with… command or Settings > Apps > Default apps.
• Addresses an issue that may cause mapped drives to fail to reconnect after starting and logging onto a Windows device.

This update fixes the issue of registering applications for file types. The problem that the brightness control does not work under Windows 10 V1809 and is set to 50% each time you restart is also addressed. It is currently unknown when the KB446934 update will be released for all Windows 10 Version 1809 users. When writing the blog post nothing of the update was visible yet.

Similar articles:
Microsoft Office Patchday (November 6, 2018)
Microsoft Security Update Summary for November 13, 2018
Patchday: Updates for Windows 7/8.1/Server Nov. 13, 2018
Patchday Windows 10-Updates (November 13, 2018)
Patchday Microsoft Office Updates (November 13, 2018)
Microsoft Patchday: Other Updates November 13, 2018
Preview Updates for Windows 7/8.1/Server Nov. 27, 2018
Patchday Windows 10-Updates (November 27, 2018)
Windows 10 V1803: iCloud now supported

Microsoft has released the Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 18290 in Fast Ring. This is the 19H1 development branch, which will be released in spring 2019.

The announcement of the Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 18290 was made by Dona Sarkar on Twitter, as well as in the Windows Blog.

Hello #WindowsInsiders we have released 19H1 Build 18290 to the Fast ring! Please read this post carefully – especially the part about builds expiring! https://t.co/r5ZEZ4oJ1j

— Dona Sarkar @ #ESPC18 (@donasarkar) 28. November 2018

This time Microsoft points out that the Insider Preview has an early expiration date (time bomb). The stuff expires on December 14, 2018 – or in plain language: It doesn’t worth to invest the time to test this build. Details what’s new (nothing really important stuff, that’s badly needed from Windows users), what’s fixed and what’s still broken, may be found at Windows Blog.

[German]Intel doesn’t always have luck when it comes to graphics drivers for Windows. There has been many issues with Intel drivers within the past. Now Intel has announced  the ‘Modern Windows Drivers’ model (MWD) for Windows 10.

The announcement can be found in the article Introduction of Windows Modern Drivers for Intel Products. The background is that Microsoft has changed the way hardware drivers work on the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) for Windows® 10 (and above), and Microsoft Windows* Server 2019 (and above). Hardware that runs on these operating systems can use Windows Modern Drivers (also known as Universal Windows Drivers – UWDs). 

Modern Windows Drivers (MWD) from Nov. 2018

From November 2018, all driver updates for Intel products for Windows 10 and Windows Server 2019 will be available as Windows Modern Drivers. If a system has been updated to a Windows Modern Driver, it is possible (if you have problems, however) to use an older driver. 

However, Intel does not recommend a rollback, because it is a complex process that can cause system instability. This system instability is particularly relevant for graphics drivers..

Note that Microsoft requires the use of Windows Modern Drivers for Windows® 10 1809 (RS5) and later.

How do I get MWDs?

You can use the Intel® Driver and Support Assistant (IDSA) to download the latest Intel® driver updates. This offers the following advantages:

• Detecting the machine configuration
• Identify the latest Intel® drivers
• Notification which drivers are to be updated
• Provides  the ability to update these drivers

Please note, however, that the IDSA tool does not yet work with Windows* Server. Users of this platform must identify the drivers themselves and download them from the Download Center. Intel specifies the following Intel® Graphics Controllers to be updated to Modern Windows Drivers: 

• Intel® UHD Graphics 620/630 (formerly codenamed Coffee Lake)
• Intel® Iris Plus Graphics 655 (formerly codenamed Coffee Lake)
• Intel® UHD Graphics 600/605 (formerly codenamed Gemini Lake)
• Intel® HD Graphics 620/630 (formerly codenamed Kaby Lake)
• Intel® Iris® Plus Graphics 640/650 (formerly codenamed Kaby Lake)
• Intel® HD Graphics 610/615 (formerly codenamed Gemini Lake)
• Intel® HD Graphics 500/505 (formerly codenamed Apollo Lake)
• Intel® HD Graphics 510/515/520/530 (formerly codenamed Skylake)
• Intel® Iris Pro Graphics 580 (formerly codenamed Skylake)
• Intel® Iris Graphics 540 (formerly codenamed Skylake)

More information on this topic can be found in this Intel FAQ. There you will find the note that the new drivers (MWDs) come as .exe files with installer. The installation via .inf file doesn’t work anymore – which raises the question, if the quality of the Intel drivers will improve and the hardware will be supported longer, or if there will be more trouble. In April 2018, Microsoft also published detailed information on modern Windows drivers on this page. (via)

[German]In Windows 10 version 1803 and above remote WMI is no longer possible. A bug causes an error 0x80070005 during remote WMI operations. Here is some information about this topic.

What is Remote WMI?

Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is a build in feature of Windows. According to this Microsoft  WMI page it provides the following feature:

Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is the infrastructure for management data and operations on Windows-based operating systems. You can write WMI scripts or applications to automate administrative tasks on remote computers but WMI also supplies management data to other parts of the operating system and products, for example System Center Operations Manager, formerly Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM), or Windows Remote Management (WinRM).

WMI does not only work locally, but also remotely via network for other Windows machines. Microsoft explains the necessary steps in the document Connecting to WMI on a Remote Computer.

BTW: Microsoft has documented several Remote Desktop Services WMI Provider error codes here.

What the problem with Remote WMI?

It seems Remote WMI does not work from Windows 10 version 1803 upward. I became aware of the problem through a tweet of @PhantomofMobile:

REMOTE CONNECTION “ACCESS DENIED” for REMOTE WMI:
Started in 1803 continues 1809@Microsoft seems nobody is LISTENING!

ICYMI: @SBSDiva @woodyleonhard @AskWoody @AdminKirsty @bdsams @mehedih_ @ruthm @etguenni @SwiftOnSecurity @Karl_F1_Fan @JobCackahttps://t.co/vdOkpARVQg

1/3

— Crysta T. Lacey (@PhantomofMobile) 29. November 2018

The issue was raised at patchmanagement.org and Susan Bradley has been involved (see this thread for example). At MSDN is this forum thread, which sheds a bit more details into the issue.

We have a custom service using system.managementscope.connect to connect to a remote wmi to gather it’s system/hardware/software data.

This service runs on a windows 1803 as Local System and adds the correct impersonation & authentication level and also sets the connection options with the local username & password on the remote target.

This worked on target machines running windows 10 pro <= 1703 but started returning “access denied” on targets windows 10 pro >= 1803.

Remark: This problem only occurs when a windows 1803 (or later) machine is trying to remotely connect wmi to another 1803 (or later) machine.

We can simulate this malfunction using wbemtest.exe:

We have a problem getting a windows 10 pro machine (both in domain and workgroup) to connect to remote WMI to a windows 10 >= 1803 target in a domain or a workgroup.

Every time we try to access it, we get “access denied”.  This is related to the user executing the remote WMI connection.

If this user does not exist on the target machine, the remote WMI connection will always fail with “access denied”, even when this user has been passed with the connection options. This has worked on targets with windows 10 <= 1703.

We did our tests using wbemtest.exe with the same impersonation & authentication level as the target (configured using dcomcnfg.exe).

Until 1703:

Test wbemtest.exe with local user of remote destination filled in in the credentials section:

Able to connect and retrieve data

Starting from 1803:

Test wbemtest.exe with local user of remote destination filled in in the credentials section):

0x80070005 access denied

Request:

We need to specifically find which LocalSecurityPolicy/Registry settings have been modified in 1803 which is blocking the remote WMI connects.

We already tried disabling windows defender, modifying remote uac, LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy (and rebooting) but none of these changes worked so far.

Within this forum post, the thread starter encountered the issue through a special application. However, he was able to prove the error with the Windows program wbemtest.exe:

• WMI queries can be executed locally on Windows 10 machines using via wbemtest.exe.
• Remote WMI queries can be successfully executed via wbemtest.exe on Windows 10 V1709 machines.
• From Windows 10 V1803 upwards, remote WMI calls using wbemtest.exe ends with error 0x80070005 access denied.

The issue also exists in Windows 10 V1809 and Windows Server 2019 (and probably also in Windows Server V1809). This behavior has been confirmed by several users, so it is not related to access rights granted from a user – it seems it’s a bug in Windows 10.

not only this, also if you use Event Manager the Event Collections are not shown remotely, only local
e.g. open Event Viewer and remotely connect on a Server with NPS role, locally you see Event Collection view, not so remote, also affect other services

— al Qamar (@Karl_F1_Fan) 29. November 2018

Currently the discussion has been running on MSDN since the beginning of November 2018. On Twitter @Karl_F1_Fan confirms that the Event Manager cannot display remote events. So the whole thing has a lot of side effects that make remote WMI related task impossible. As it looks, @AzureSupport has taken note of the topic according to this tweet. If any of you are affected by the topic, you could left a feedback at twitter or drop a command here.

[German]One more short message: Microsoft has released version 4 for the KB4469342 update for testing. The update is for Windows 10 version 1809, but is only available for insiders to test.

Update KB4469342, some background

Microsoft has been working for several weeks to release the update KB4469342 for Windows 10 Version 1809. After the disaster with the release of the Windows 10 October 2018 update (V 1809), however, one has become very cautious. Version 2 of this update was released for testing for Windows 10 Insider at the end of November 2018 (see my short article Windows 10 V1809: New Updates in Release Preview Ring).

KB4469342 is a maintenance update designed to fix a huge mountain of bugs. A fix for the problem of file type mapping is planned, and the bug that separates network drives will also be addressed according to the changelog. Another fix concerns the display bug, which causes a brightness problem under Windows 10 V1809 (the brightness is set to 50% on restart). A list of documented bugs can be found in the blog post Windows 10 Version 1809: Details about Update KB4469342.

Now we have version 4 of Update KB4469342

Version 3 of this update for Windows Insider was released on December 1, 2018. Microsoft uses this to test the patch and evaluate telemetry data. It is astonishing that the content of the packages (recognizable by the comparison of the SHA-1 values between the versions) changes. I had published the blog post Windows 10 Version 1809: Update KB4469342 V3.

There was hope that this package would be generally released on last Monday to finally fix the most annoying bugs for users of version 1809. But that hope quickly broke down. As a reaction to my blog post, there was feedback from readers on Facebook that the update was probably still buggy. I had posted the short feedback as a comment in the blog:

Uninstalled it again: Edge no longer works properly, Windows Defender Application Guard no longer works, and sound problems with Realtek sound card. They still have some work to do.

Now I recognized, that version 4 of this update is available for Windows Insider. This version raises Windows 10 V1809 to build 17763.168.

Similar articles:
Windows 10 V1809: New Updates in Release Preview Ring
Windows 10 Version 1809: Update KB4469342 V3
Windows 10 Version 1809: Details about Update KB4469342

[German]Microsoft has released version 5 of update KB4469342 for Windows 10 Version 1809. The update is only available for testing for Windows Insiders. Yesterday I wrote something about that patch (see Windows 10 Version 1809: Update KB4469342 v4). The new version raises the build to 17763.168.1.10.

[German]Microsoft released update KB4478877 for Windows 10 V1607 on December 4, 2018. It was also announced that the bug will be fixed in the Media Player search in mid-December 2018.

Update KB4478877 for Windows 10 V1607

Update KB4478877 for Windows 10 V1607 has been released on December 4, 2018 (the kb article dates from 12/03/2018). This update is only available for Windows 10 Enterprise and Windows 10 Education as well as Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC. All other Windows 10 V1607 SKUs – this includes Windows Server 2016 Standard Edition, Nano Server Installation and Windows Server 2016 Datacenter Edition – are not supported. The Nano Server installation option reached the end of support on October 9, 2018. The update only fixes one error: 

Addresses an issue that prevents the release of the on-demand Source Network Address Translation (SNAT) port allocated to a virtual machine (VM) after the SNAT port is no longer in use. As a result, the SNAT port becomes exhausted.

The installation of this update requires an installed Servicing Stack Update (SSU) KB4465659. At the same time, an update for the Update Client is installed and the list of known problems contains three entries. This ranges from a .NET framework SQL error (4470809) to a bug in the search for Windows Media Player to problems or hangs when processing end-user-defined characters (EUDC). Details can be found in the KB article.

Fix for Media Player Seek Bar bug comes Mid Dec. 2018

The KB article also contains information, when Microsoft intends to fix the error causes the search field in Windows Media Player no longer to work.

After installing this update, users may not be able to use the Seek Bar in Windows Media Player when playing specific files. This issue does not affect normal playback.

This bug is a common feature of all patches shipped for Windows 10 last month (see blog post Windows 10: Nov. 2018 Patches are causing Media Player-Bug). In the description to the above error it says:

Microsoft is working on a resolution and estimates a solution will be available mid-December 2018.

Instead of the hint ‘the update will come sometime’ they have now given a time in mid-December 2018. Possibly the fix will come on December 11, 2018, because that’s the regular patchday at Microsoft. (via)

[German]After a longer test phase with Windows insiders, Microsoft released the cumulative update KB4469342 for Windows 10 Version 1809 on December 5, 2018. This fixes many bugs in this Windows 10 build.

Within this German comment (thanks) a user pointed out that Microsoft released the update KB4469342 for Windows 10 Version 1809 on December 5, 2018.

I had a test machine search for the update, and it was offered via Windows Update in the settings app (see picture above). The cumulative update KB4469342 raises OS build to Build 17763.168 and fixes the following bugs in Windows 10 version 1809:

• Addresses an issue in Microsoft Edge with using the drag-and-drop feature to upload folders from the Windows desktop to a file hosting service website, such as Microsoft OneDrive. In some scenarios, files contained in the folders fail to upload, with possibly no error reported on the web page to the user. 
• Addresses an issue that degrades Internet Explorer performance when you use roaming profiles or you don’t use the Microsoft Compatibility List. 
• Addresses updated time zone information for Fiji. 
• Addresses time zone changes for Moroccan daylight standard time.
• Addresses time zone changes for Russian daylight standard time.
• Addresses an issue that causes display settings to stop working when changing a multi-monitor configuration. 
• Addresses an issue that displays a black screen on some servers when waking a display from sleep. 
• Addresses an issue with long delays in taking a photo when using the Camera app in certain lighting conditions. 
• Addresses an issue that prevents live TV Hulu content from playing in Microsoft Edge; instead, a black screen appears. 
• Addresses an issue that stops Bluetooth® headsets from receiving audio input after several minutes of listening. 
• Addresses an issue that causes the Brightness slider preference to be reset to 50% when the device restarts. 
• Addresses an issue with the OEM manufacturing processes when running sysprep /generalize. 
• Addresses an issue with Microsoft Intune that causes devices to be incorrectly marked as not compliant because a firewall incorrectly returns a ‘Poor’ status. As a result, the affected devices will not receive conditional access compliance approval and may be blocked from access to corporate resources such as email. 
• Addresses a performance issue with vSwitch on network interface cards (NIC) that do not support Large Send Offload (LSO) and Checksum Offload (CSO). 
• Updates the Wi-Fi policy for service set identifier (SSID) filtering to avoid filtering out Wi-Fi Direct devices. 
• Addresses an issue that causes rasman.exe to stop responding. 
• Addresses an issue in which regedit.exe fails to add double null terminator to REG_MULTI_SZ values in the Windows registry. The missing terminator may prevent services and applications from reading REG_MULTI_SZ values that regedit.exe adds after installing the operating system. 
• Addresses an issue with RemoteApp visibility that may cause the main window to disappear until the user clicks the screen.
• Addresses an issue that prevents some users from setting Win32 program defaults for certain app and file type combinations using the Open with… command or Settings > Apps > Default apps.
• Addresses an issue that may cause mapped drives to fail to reconnect after starting and logging onto a Windows device.

From the above list, I would like to highlight the fixes for the file type assignment bug and the network run connection problem. Update KB4469342 is available via Windows Update. But you have to start the update search in the settings page. The package can also be downloaded from the Microsoft Update Catalog and installed manually.

For installation it is necessary that the Servicing Stack Update (SSU KB4470788) is already installed. If Update KB4469342 is installed via Windows Update, a missing SSU will be installed automatically.

Microsoft says that with this update the Seek Bar in Windows Media Player is broken. A fix is planned until mid-December 2018 (see Windows 10 V1607: Update KB4478877, WMP fix is coming). Furthermore, the bug in Edge mentioned in the blog post Windows 10 V1809: NVidia hibernation issue & Edge bug is still listed as a known problem. This problem should be fixed with the nVidia hotfix update of the graphics driver mentioned in the blog post.

Similar articles:
Windows 10 Version 1809: Update KB4469342 V3
Windows 10 Version 1809: Update KB4469342 v4
Windows 10 Version 1809: Update KB4469342 V5
Windows 10 V1607: Update KB4478877, WMP fix is coming
Windows 10 V1809: NVidia hibernation issue & Edge bug

A short addendum for Windows 10 users. Microsoft has updated its reliability update KB4023057 for Windows 10 (version 1507 to 1803) and released it on December 7, 2018. Note: Article has been extended after initial release.

Some details about update KB4023057

KB4023057, re-released on December 7, 2018, is still titled ‘Update to Windows 10, versions 1507, 1511, 1607, 1703, and 1709 for update reliability’. This update is available from the RTM version of Windows 10 version 1507 to version 1803 (but not for the current version 1809). This update is re-released cyclically. Microsoft writes in the KB article about the update that this brings improvements with regard to the reliability of the Windows Update Service:

This update includes reliability improvements to Windows Update Service components in Windows 10, versions 1507, 1511, 1607, 1703, 1709, and 1803. It may also take steps to free up disk space on your device if you do not have enough disk space to install Windows updates.

This update includes files and resources that address issues that affect the update processes in Windows 10 that may prevent important Windows updates from being installed. These improvements help make sure that updates are installed seamlessly on your device, and they help improve the reliability and security of devices that are running Windows 10.

This is the same text as for the September release. The only difference: In the September issue the support for version 1803 was still missing because Windows 10 V1809 was still unreleased.

Only available via Windows Update

The update is only available via Windows Update, i.e. no download from the Microsoft Update Catalog or distribution via WSUS. Can also be interpreted in this way: Business users with WSUS & Co. won’t get this update – Windows 10 Home users are ‘guinea pigs’. Microsoft is testing the stuff on private customers and in small companies with individual Windows 10 Pro computers. Woody Leonhard also has a few words on the update at askwoody.com.

Some background and Update damages

The update deeply interferes with the existing Windows 10 installation, cleans user-set update blockers, creates free disk space on the system drive if necessary, resets the network connection and more. More details may be found in my blog post Windows 10: Update KB4023057 released (Sept. 6, 2018).

Update installation as app

Within this Microsoft Answers forum thread (and within dthis MS Answers forum thread) I came across the hint that update KB4023057 (at least in some variants) will be installed as an app. I looked into a virtual machine with Windows 10 Pro V1709 that was not used for a long time.

The screenshot above shows that update KB4023057 was installed on November 13, 2018 both as an app and as ‘Windows Setup Remediations …’. This explains why people who blocked upgrades get this update. And it may also explain why the “Show Or Hide Updates” tool (wushowhide.diagcab) can’t block this update (see Windows 10 tip: Block updates).

Issues with Update KB4023057

The details discussed within my blog post Windows 10: Update KB4023057 released (Sept. 6, 2018), explains perhaps, why some users are facing serious issues after this update has been installed.

The update also resets the network connections (and organizes, if necessary also a driver update or further actions). I had read about issues with internet connections after installing the update.

• Within this MS Answers forum thread user davpar describes issues with his internet connection (but the post is related to an early version of this update).
• I received some feedback to my German version of this blog post, where a user claims a slow internet connection, after installing the update. Also at askwoody.com is this post with a similar issue.

User davpar postet within this MS Answers forum thread a bucked of serious issues caused by previous versions of this update.

Similar articles:
Windows 10 reliability update KB4023057 (02/08/2018)
Windows 10: Update KB4023057 re-released
Windows 10 Updates KB4295110/KB4023057 (08/09/2018)
Windows 10: Update KB4023057
Windows 10: What is REMSH.exe for?
Windows 10: Update KB4023057 released (Sept. 6, 2018)

When deploying Windows via Windows AutoPilot, you can now choose if and which apps are blocked and reset during rollout. Here some short information. 

Microsoft  provides Windows AutoPilot in Intune to support the deployment of Windows machines in corporate environments. For an autopilot deployment, Microsoft recommends that you specify in the Enrollment Status Page (ESP) that the user is not allowed to access the desktop until the device is configured to be secure and productive. However, this is only the case when all apps have been installed.

Because this process can take a long time, Microsoft has added a new feature to Windows AutoPilot. Some apps are more important than others. Therefore, Intune for AutoPilot has an option in the Enrollment Status Page (ESP) to block individual apps. This is intended to shorten the process of deployment for the user. Unimportant apps can be set up at a later time.

Blocking for app installation using Enrollment Status Page https://t.co/Z680mgW65X

— Michael Niehaus (@mniehaus) 6. Dezember 2018

Michael Niehaus from Microsoft points out this new feature within the above tweet. In the linked Technet article he shows some screenshots of the new options. 

Nice! Choose which apps are tracked on the enrollment status page. Until these apps are installed, the user can’t use the device. Great addition!#MSIntune #Intune #EMS #Windows10 #WindowsAutopilot pic.twitter.com/QwRB0yI7d2

— Peter van der Woude (@pvanderwoude) 4. Dezember 2018

The above Tweet shows more screenshots of options for enrollment in Intune. Interesting is the feedback from users @damigs, who is reporting issues with Microsoft Office 2016/2019 Pro Plus.

Still problematic with Office ProPlus as required. Forced to take it out.

— DaMigs! (@damigs) 6. Dezember 2018

He reported here, that adding Office Pro Plus to ESP still very unstable. Also this user mentions AutoPilot errors.

Microsoft has released the Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 18298 in Fast Ring. It is the 19H1 development branch, which will be released in spring 2019.

The announcement and a description of the new features can be found in the Windows Blog. Users can now set up a security key directly in the settings.

(Source: Microsoft)

Further changes refer to explorer, where new icons were introduced or the folder sorting was changed. Other changes relate to the Start menu, where you can remove tiles from groups and folders with a unpin context menu command.

(Source: Microsoft)

The on-screen keyboard has also been optimized. If you type quickly, you will often hit the wrong key. However, this can affect the accuracy of the text prediction. To fix this, Windows dynamically adjusts the hit destination of each key when you type. Based on the prediction of which letter will most likely be entered next, the sensitive area of a key is enlarged.

Other new features include the Command Prompt, Notepad Editor, Speech Output (Text-to-Speech, Screen Reader), and other easy-to-use features. Changes have also been made to the setup. Details can be found here.

Microsoft has not only released the Insider Preview Build 18298 in Fast Ring (see Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 18298). Today also the older Insider Preview Build 18290 of Windows 10 was released as ISO file.

The reason for the provision of the ISO is that the old Windows 10 Insider Preview Builds expire on December 14, 2018. The announcement of the ISO file was made this time via Twitter: 

We have released new ISOs (with an updated expiry date!) for download @ https://t.co/l8663ySB0P.

NOTE: this was not a Slow ring release, it only went to Fast. We wanted to provide new ISOs to aid users are having trouble updating and may hit the build expiry scenario.

— Windows Insider (@windowsinsider) 11. Dezember 2018

The ISO download of this build is possible for Windows Insiders from this page. Notes about the build 18290 are available in the blog post Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 18290 released.

[German]As of December 11 (second Tuesday of the month, patchday at Microsoft), several cumulative updates have been released for the supported Windows 10 builds. Here are some details about each update.

A list of updates may be found on this Microsoft Web page. I’ve pulled out the details below. The update installation requires an existing current Servicing Stack Updates (SSUs). Microsoft now publishes an overview of current Servicing Stack Updates (SSUs) in ADV990001.

Because of minimal operations during the holidays and upcoming Western new year, there won’t be any preview releases for the month of December 2018. Monthly servicing will resume with the January 2019 security releases.

Updates for Windows 10 Version 1809

The following updates are available for Windows 10 October 2018 Update (version 1809).

Update KB4471332 for Windows 10 Version 1809

Cumulative update KB4471332 raises the OS build to 17763.194 and contains quality improvements and fixes:

• Addresses an issue that may prevent the use of the Seek Bar in Windows Media Player when playing specific files. This issue does not affect normal playback.
• Security updates to Windows Authentication, Microsoft Scripting Engine, Internet Explorer, Windows App Platform and Frameworks, Microsoft Graphics Component, Windows Storage and Filesystems, Windows Wireless Networking, Windows Kernel, Microsoft Edge, and Microsoft Scripting Engine.

The update is automatically distributed via Windows Update, no update search is necessary anymore. The update can also be downloaded and installed from the Microsoft Update Catalog. To install the update manually, you must have the Servicing Stack Update (SSU) KB4470788 (Microsoft Update Catalog, WSUS) dated December 5, 2018 installed. This is ensured when installing via Windows Update. Microsoft is not aware of any issues with this update.

Updates for Windows 10 Version 1803

The following updates are available for Windows 10 April Update (version 1803).

Update KB4471324 for Windows 10 Version 1803

Cumulative update KB44471324 raises the OS build to 17134.471 and contains quality improvements and fixes:

• Addresses an issue that may prevent the use of the Seek Bar in Windows Media Player when playing specific files. This issue does not affect normal playback.
• Addresses an issue that may cause some users to see a blue or black screen and receive the error code, “System thread exception not handled.”
• Addresses an issue with Microsoft Intune that causes devices to be incorrectly marked as not compliant because a firewall incorrectly returns a ‘Poor’ status. As a result, the affected devices will not receive conditional access compliance approval and may be blocked from access to corporate resources such as email.
• Addresses an issue that may cause some custom Start menu layouts to display incorrectly.
• Security updates to Internet Explorer, Microsoft Scripting Engine, Windows App Platform and Frameworks, Microsoft Graphics Component, Microsoft Edge, Windows Storage and Filesystems, Windows Authentication, Windows Wireless Networking, and Windows Kernel.

The update fixes the bug in the search bar of Windows Media Player and fixes the “System thread exception not handled” BlueScreens at Surface Book 2 (see Windows 10 V1803: Update KB4467682 has been pulled). In addition the error described by me in the article Windows 10: Update KB4467682 breaks Custom Start menu is fixed.

The update is distributed via Windows Update, but should also be available via WSUS or Microsoft Update Catalog. Manual installation of the update requires the current Servicing Stack Update (SSU) KB4477137 (Microsoft Update Catalog) to be installed. This is ensured when installing via Windows Update.

Microsoft is aware of the following issues with this update: An installed .NET Framework Preview des Quality Rollup from dated August or September 11, 2018 issues. It may raise an exception when instantiating SqlConnection. For more information about this issue, visit the Microsoft Knowledge Base.

After you install this update, some users may no longer be able to pin a Web link in the Start menu or taskbar. Microsoft is working to resolve this issue and will release a fix in upcoming updates.

Updates for Windows 10 Version 1709

The following updates are available for Windows 10 Fall Creators Update (version 1709).

Update KB4471329 for Windows 10 Version 1709

Cumulative update KB4471329 for Windows 10 Version 1709 (Fall Creators Update) raises the OS build to 16299.846 and includes quality improvements and the following fixes:

• Addresses an issue that may prevent the use of the Seek Bar in Windows Media Player when playing specific files. This issue does not affect normal playback.
• Security updates to Internet Explorer, Microsoft Scripting Engine, Windows App Platform and Frameworks, Microsoft Graphics Component, Microsoft Edge, Windows Kernel, Windows Storage and Filesystems, Windows Wireless Networking, and Windows Authentication.

The update is distributed via Windows Update, but can also be downloaded via Microsoft Update Catalog. Manual installation of the update requires the current Servicing Stack Update (SSU) KB4477136 to be installed. This is ensured when installing via Windows Update.

Within this update an installed .NET Framework Preview of the NET Framework Preview des Quality Rollup Update from August or September 2018 causes issues. It may raise an exception when instantiating SqlConnection. For more information about this issue, visit the Microsoft Knowledge Base.

Updates for Windows 10 Version 1703

Windows 10, version 1703, has reached the end of support on October 8, 2018. Devices running Windows 10 Home, Pro, Pro for Workstation and IoT Core will no longer receive monthly security and quality updates. Only Windows 10 Enterprise and Windows 10 Education will receive additional updates for one year. The following updates are available for these editions of the Windows 10 Creators Update (version 1703).

Update KB4471327 for Windows 10 Version 1703

Cumulative update KB4471327 for Windows 10 Version 1703 (Creators Update) raises the OS build to 15063.1506 and includes quality improvements. The update is also available for supported Windows 10 Mobile devices (OS Build 15063.1506). It addresses the following security vulnerabilities and issues:

• Addresses an issue that may prevent the use of the Seek Bar in Windows Media Player when playing specific files. This issue does not affect normal playback.
• Security updates to Microsoft Scripting Engine, Internet Explorer, Windows App Platform and Frameworks, Microsoft Graphics Component, Windows Graphics, Microsoft Edge, Windows Kernel, Windows Storage and Filesystems, Windows Authentication, and Windows Wireless Networking.

The update is distributed via Windows Update, but can also be downloaded via Microsoft Update Catalog. Manual installation of the update requires the current Servicing Stack Update (SSU, KB4465660) to be installed. This is ensured when installing via Windows Update.

In this update, improvements are also made to the update component itself.

Within this update an installed .NET Framework Preview of the NET Framework Preview des Quality Rollup Update from August or September 2018 causes issues. It may raise an exception when instantiating SqlConnection. For more information about this issue, visit the Microsoft Knowledge Base.

Updates for Windows 10 Version 1507 bis 1607

Various updates are available for Windows 10 RTM and Windows 10 Anniversary Update (version 1607). Here is a short overview.

• Windows 10 Version 1607: Update KB4471321 is only available for Enterprise and Education and Windows Server 2016. The update lifts the OS build to 14393.2665 and includes the fixes mentioned in the KB article. This update is automatically downloaded and installed by Windows Update, but can be downloaded from the Microsoft Update Catalog. Before manual installation, the Servicing Stack Update (SSU) (KB4465659) must be installed. Details, also on known issues can be found in the KB article.
• Windows 10 Version 1507: Update KB4471323 is available for the RTM version (LTSC). The update raises the OS build to 10240.18063. The fixes mentioned in the KB article are included. This update is automatically downloaded and installed by Windows Update, but can be downloaded from the Microsoft Update Catalog. Before manual installation, the Servicing Stack Update (SSU) (KB4093430) is required. Details, also on known issues, can be found in the KB article. Details can be found in the KB article

There was no update for Windows 10 V1511, because this version was dropped from support. Details about the above updates can be found in the respective Microsoft KB articles in case of doubt.

Similar articles:
Microsoft Office Patchday (December 4, 2018)
Patchday Windows 10-Updates (November 27, 2018)
Microsoft Security Update Summary (December 11, 2018)
Patchday: Updates for Windows 7/8.1/Server Dec. 11, 2018
Patchday Windows 10-Updates (December 11, 2018)

[German]End of November 2018 Microsoft released the update KB4467684 for Windows 10 V1607. Since then, there are more and more reports that this update killed the search in Outlook via Terminal Server.

Update KB4467684 for Windows 10 V1607

Update KB4467684 has been released for Windows 10 V1607 on November 27, 2018. Since this version dropped out of mainstream support on April 10, 2018, only Windows 10 Enterprise and Education systems received the update. The same applies to the LTSC version of Windows 10 V1607. I’ve mentioned that within my blog post Patchday Windows 10-Updates (November 27, 2018).

With this update, Microsoft has rolled out numerous fixes for Windows 10 V1607, but has not closed any security gaps. The KB article mentions several known problems with the .NET framework, a hiccup when using end-user-defined characters (EUDC) in Windows functions, or a broken search in Windows Media Player.

Issues with Outlook search via Terminal Server

I received two comments from German readers after I posted the article Patchday Windows 10-Updates (November 27, 2018). Both comments indicate a broken Outlook search via Terminal Server after installing update KB4467684. User @Seb asks:

Is anyone having trouble finding Outlook after installing KB4467684 on a 2016 TS server? After confirming the search entry, nothing happens at all.

In a second comment, user Seb confirmed that the error has disappeared after uninstalling update KB4467684. This issue is not listed in this Microsoft document on known Outlook issues. The issue has been confirmed in a follow-up comment by user @MaBa:

We have exactly the same problem in several TS farms. As soon as the patch is uninstalled, the search works fine again. For installations with Outlook 64-bit we could not detect the problem.

In both cases, the error refers to Terminal Server and Outlook. User @Seb then refers to this entry in the Spaceworks community, where the bug for Outlook 2010 is discussed in conjunction with Terminal Server 2016.

Wondering if anyone can help. Immediately after a month’s worth of Windows Updates (all of Novembers) Outlook’s search is stuck on searching and no results ever come up.

My company uses Windows Terminal Server 2016 with Office 2010. Never had this problem until after the update.

Also, I can’t find System restore as I figured this would work. Does that exist in the terminal server?

It does let me delete the updates but there are so many I dont know which one.

This happens for every user, regardless if using cached exchange mode, or data online.

I already tried rebuilding the index and the Microsoft Recovery Tool. The searching did work when run in safe mode.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

There, too, several users confirm this problem in connection with a terminal server. Repairing Outlook or similar approaches do not help – one solution is to uninstall Update KB4467684.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search]
“PreventIndexingOutlook”=dword:00000001

A second solution suggested to fix the problem is to disable indexing in Outlook. This should be possible with the above reg file, which is to be imported with administrative privileges.

[German]Microsoft is working on a sandbox mode for applications in Windows 10 Pro and Enterprise so they can be tested in a secure environment. Here is what Microsoft is planning.

Microsoft just announced the ‘Windows Sandbox’ in the tech community in the blog post Windows Sandbox as ‘a new, lightweight desktop environment designed specifically for secure running applications’.

What is Windows Sandbox?

Probably every Windows user knows this: You have a software that you use for the first time. But one has reservations about executing the downloaded executable file. Cautious users set up a virtual machine to run the software in this environment. Alternatively, some users use solutions like Sandboxie to isolate applications and prevent or roll back changes to the host system.

There have been rumours since the summer that Microsoft is working on a ‘security solution’ for this purpose. Now the project, which had been started under the name InPrivateDesktop, has been renamed to Windows Sandbox.

Microsoft wrote that they are regularly encounters this situation where untrusted software has to be tested. That’s why they’ve developed Windows Sandbox: an isolated, temporary desktop environment where users can run untrusted software without fear of permanent effects on their PC. Any software installed in Windows Sandbox remains only in the Sandbox and cannot interfere with your host. When you close the Windows Sandbox, all the software with its files and status is permanently deleted.

Windows Sandbox details

Microsoft has announced some details about the Windows Sandbox in its article. Here is an overview.

• The feature is part of Windows 10 Pro and Enterprise, there is no need to download VHDs. 
• Each time Windows Sandbox runs, the environment of the software to run is presented as clean as a brand new installation of Windows.  
• Nothing remains on the device; everything is discarded after closing the application.
  
• The sandbox is safe because hardware-based virtualization is used for kernel isolation. This relies on Microsoft’s hypervisor to run a separate kernel that isolates Windows Sandbox from the host.
• The whole solution is efficient because the approach uses the integrated kernel scheduler, intelligent memory management, and the virtual GPU.

The requirements to use this feature are quite moderate. The Windows Sandbox thing will be provided in the upcoming Windows 10 version. Here are the details:

• AMD64 architecture (no ARM-CPUs)
• Virtualization features enabled in BIOS
• Minimum 4 GB RAM (8 GB recommended)
• At least 1 GB free hard disk space (SSD recommended)
• At least 2 CPU cores (4 cores with hyperthreading recommended)

A 64-bit CPU and Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise are requirements for Hyper-V. I assume that the CPU must also provide SLAT support. The above requirements should be met by most Windows 10 machines.

How to set up the sandbox

To try it all, install Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise, Build 18305 (not yet released) or later, and enable virtualization. If you are using a physical machine, make sure that the virtualization features are enabled in the BIOS. If you are using a virtual machine, enable nested virtualization with this PowerShell cmdlet:

Set-VMProzessor -VMName <VMName> -ExposeVirtualizationExtensions $true

Open Windows-Features, and check Windows Sandbox.  Choose OK to install the Windows Sandbox. You may be prompted to restart your computer.

How to run the Windows Sandbox

If the Windows Sandbox has been successfully set up, the feature can be used with the following steps:

• Use the Start menu to find the Windows Sandbox, run it, and allow the user account query.
• Copy an executable file from the host and paste the executable file into the Windows Sandbox window (on the Windows desktop).
  
• Run the executable file in the Windows Sandbox; if it is an installer, run it and install the application.
  
• Start the application and use it as usual.

Once you’re done experimenting, you can simply close the Windows Sandbox application. All sandbox contents are discarded and permanently deleted. Then make sure that the host does not have any of the changes you made in the Windows Sandbox.

If you are interested in the details and internals, you can find more information in the Techcommunity blog post Windows Sandbox.

Microsoft has released the Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 18305 in Fast Ring. This is the 19H1 development branch, which will be released in spring 2019.

The announcement and a description of the new features can be found in the Windows Blog. In this build, the consolidation of the login options will be further advanced. Users can now set up a security key directly in the settings.

A simplified standard startup layout has been introduced for new devices, new user accounts and clean installations. The new layout has been simplified to a single-column design with reduced top-level tiles. Business and training customers will also see a simplified layout tailored to these scenarios.

Also included in this insider build is the announced Windows Sandbox. I had reported about this new feature in the blog post Windows 10 gets Sandbox for applications. Hints to known issues and further details can be found here.