As if the Nvidia driver update issue (still unresolved on Microsoft’s part) weren’t bad enough another and much more serious forced automatic update issue came to light today.
Following the Nvidia debacle, over the weekend Windows 10 pushed ‘KB3074681’ to Windows Insiders running Windows 10 Build 10240. This is presumed to be the same build as the final release consumers and businesses will receive on Wednesday.
KB3074681 had no detailed information about what it contained but as it was classified as a ‘security’ patch it installed immediately and without warning to all versions of Windows 10 (Home, Pro and Enterprise) then promptly caused Windows Explorer to crash for a number of users.
A point of clarification, Windows Explorer is the Windows file manager and not to be confused with Internet Explorer. Users attempting to uninstall this update (KB3074681) via Programs and Features>Uninstall will cause Windows Explorer to crash. Enabling or disabling a Network Adapter will also cause a crash. Another point of clarification, users who update to Windows 10 Home will be placed on the “slow ring” and will be force fed updates about a month after they are released. Windows 10 Pro (paid upgrade from Windows 10 Home) will have utpo 8-months to delay an update and Windows 10 Enterprises users can delay an update indefinitely. So, in the case of today’s fiasco with update KB3074681 those on the slow ring won’t get this for another month and (hopefully) by then Microsoft has had a chance to figure out what is causing the crashes.
It is not all bad news though, Microsoft release a very interesting tool today that may be able to help users who have had an issue with a bad update. It also might violate the Windows 10 EULA (much like Apple violated their own EULA for Safari when they released a Windows version back in 2007). More on this “tool” soon.
via Forbes
