Windows update is a virus
 

I had Windows update looping a month or two ago. I had to download Windows update fixit tool to get it working properly.

Now Windows is notifying me of updates from a year or two ago...update after update...endless BS. :mad::mad:

Windows sucks!!! http://blogs.technet.com/b/sus/archi...kb2416400.aspx

Which version of Windows? And how long since a clean reinstall?

Ugh. Sounds like a nasty problem :(

Like the previous poster said, a clean install may be the best route to take...

Is there an easier fix for this? I think one of my computers may be having this problem.

On a similar but separate note:
Windows update is a virus! It just reset my computer, losing all my work. I realized basically Windows update is a virus, if you define a virus as a program that causes you harm.
(I have professional so can put off updates, but I guess only for 35 days. And yesterday must have been day 35)

You didn't save your work, and Windows Update restarted your PC? No sympathy I'm afraid. It gives you lots of notice

No, it doesn't... not on Windows 10. If you step away from your computer for a couple hours in the afternoon, you might find it reboots in the early evening without you seeing any notification.

Installing updates upon reboot is fine... initiating an automatic reboot to install updates is completely unacceptable. Fortunately there's a way to force Windows never to reboot itself automatically to initiate an update, which is the way Microsoft should have set it to behave by default.

gpedit.msc
Local Computer Policy --> Computer Configuration --> Administrative Templates --> Windows Components --> Windows Update, then set "No auto-restart with logged on users for scheduled automatic updates installations" to Enabled.

Maybe it's just something my company supplied Win10 laptop has then. I get a box in the lower right hand corner saying "Updates will be installed by dd/mm/yyyy" of similar. I can then choose to install now, or defer. It looks like a standard Microsoft dialog.
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FT thread -- > "Windows 10 spontaneous re-boot" clinic

Thanks. I never got to group policy editing, just did it. Hopefully it holds (with each change Microsoft seems to want to force updates even more. Even the ones untested and that erase user's data).

It spontaneously rebooted your machine in the middle of what's defined as working hours for Windows without any user notice? That's odd.

Or did you leave unsaved changes overnight?

As discussed in the attached thread, various versions of Windows have settings to avoid this, including the newest version of Home.

I think this is handled in Settings -> Windows Update -> click the Advanced Options link -> turn on "Show a notification when your PC requires a reboot to finish updating"

I have only ever seen it ask me if I'm OK rebooting.

This is really not recommended. Let's forget the leaving yourself open to vulnerabilities (and not even discuss out-of-band patches). You have pending patches that need to be completed. Some of the patches have often been applied (MS says no, it's all or nothing, but I've seen it happen). Which means you could be calling on the wrong libraries in your system. That could cause issues if the files are mismatched.

Then also, you could potentially have TWO months worth of patching pending... (and that's not including feature updates and out of band stuff)

Also, at up to potentially 65ish days of not rebooting, you haven't noticed a performance decrease due to memory leaks?

I have seen older Windows systems that have not been rebooted for up to three years at a time because the app support team didn't want the monthly alerts (and somehow disabled the patching agent)... Let's just say the audit departments had a field day with those teams and some very nasty penalties were issued.

Anyway, my point is, disabling the auto reboot is a bad idea. I'd configure it to reboot outside of active hours at the very least. But definitely manually reboot at least once a week.

No, disabling auto reboots is a GOOD idea. Whether for your own personal computer or for a server, you should routinely patch and reboot it, but you should also control when reboots occur. This is not the same as disabling a patching agent.

So you are saying it is better to definitively erase your data, by rebooting while you still have things open, then to risk an unpatched security flaw?

No - it's better to save your work regularly as most people have done since about 1990 :)

You do seem to be exaggerating this... Rebooting won't erase your data, you'll just lose unsaved work.

If you aren't regularly saving your data anyway (which means at most, minimal losses, just anything from the last save point), then yes. If your computer gets infected by some sort of malware and it spreads inside your network infecting more workstations/servers (endpoints) and impacting other systems.

And you're telling me that in 35 days after having the patches pending, you could not find 60 minutes (assuming a feature update patch...MUCH less for regular updates) to save and reboot the computer? (server or workstation...doesn't matter which). I find that hard to believe. I understand that teams don't want to have to deal with patches. When I work with devops teams, I get all the excuses (have to reload everything, interrupts the development cycle, etc.). But here's the key...

Microsoft has had the same release schedule for patches since October 2003 (Link). Second Tuesday of the month. Patch management applications usually have their packages ready by sometime Wednesday latest. If you were to say out-of-band stuff (stuff that isn't released through the normal schedule), fine. I get that.... but to say that I didn't know about patch Tuesday and I can't reboot within the month following...I don't know about that.

In all the corporations I have worked with, purposely disabling patching is a serious issue and has some serious consequences for the teams who do that (including one developer being fired for getting multiple servers infected by disabling the patching agent)

Bottom line... yes, there may have been bugs in the past, but to say you don't have the time in the month and a bit after the patches are released to save your work and reboot to let them take effect... VERY BAD idea

Many of us use our computers for much more than email, spreadsheets and word processing. I often have multiple virtual machines with database and web servers running concurrently, and Windows has a bad habit of unceremoniously terminating applications rather than requesting that they shut down safely. The group policy fix, for me, is mandatory.

Oh yes, I also use VMs for my work (although I tend to run Windows VMs on Macs). My assumption from the complaints on this thread was this was more related to "personal" computing rather than "datacenter/server" computing. With the latter, it's generally more controlled.

If any breaks due to a re-boot, I can always just restore to a working snapshot of my "servers" (I always keep one).

I'm not sure where you got me saying patch Tuesday occurs more than once a month. Out-of-band patches are adhoc patches that are released if MS (and maybe partners) determine that the threat is so severe that it can't wait for the normal release cycle (Heartbleed as an example). Patch Tuesday is only once a month.

Failure to apply patches is effectively the same as disabling patching. End result is the same, you have a vulnerable server.

I'm not going to bother trying to convince you whether you should be following MS's patching schedule. But to bring this back to the recent topic... you're telling me that in the 35 days FOLLOWING the release of the latest patches, you cannot find the 5-15 minutes (let's ignore feature updates for now) required to save down your data and reboot? You can't reboot when you go for lunch? Or when you go for dinner or to bed? Taking a shower? I seriously doubt the OP cannot find the time for something this simple and preventative.

I'm not defending that as good security hygiene, but it changes nothing. If OP cannot find time, or simply forgot when the reminder popped up, it doesn't matter - the system should never initiate a reboot on its own.

And Patch Tuesday is not simply once a month. You didn't say that, I did.

So then how would you suggest the patches get applied? If MS is not allowed to force a reboot, the OP could conceivably not reboot indefinitely, leaving a potential attack vector open.... and if the OP gets infected, he's going to say "Look at this piece of crap, Why doesn't MS do something about it?"

They're damned if they do, and damned if they don't. So they force it.

No one can make you take your car to the dealer for service either. Your car might remind you, but if you don't change your oil for 50,000 miles, it's on you when your engine blows up. When cars become fully self-driving, they shouldn't be allowed to decide when to drive themselves to the dealer for service just because service is overdue and it's "after hours" either.

When cars become fully self-driving and able to talk to, and therefore infect, other cars, you damn well better believe they'll force updates on you. @:-)

No, I use notepad and work on stuff. My 10 text documents disappeared overnight.
That is 'data' by any definition.

And people in the 90s saved their work regularly cause they had no UPS. Now with laptop you do not have to worry about getting unplugged, and while many things autosave not all do. Like Turbotax.

You're not answering the question though. I'm not an expert on cars, but using synthetics, you should be able to run your car for quite a distance without needing to go in... there's no real compulsion to force you to go in to get it changed. But for the safety of the others on the road, you need to take your car to be serviced. You should be able to do the oil change during a lunch hour, or dinner or grocery shopping within 35 days.

The only difference is that you are compelled to do it with Windows because the impact of an infected machine is potentially much worse.

And if you want to consider cars... until recently, we (people in Ontario Canada) had something called a drive clean program (think government mandated exhaust healthcheck). If you didn't have it done, you could not renew your license plate.... and a screwed up oil change would definitely impact the results.

Umm.... You do realise that with today's laptops, a badly formed data packet (among other things) can cause your system to crash/reboot... and if you don't pay attention to your battery charge level, it will shut the computer down (especially if you have disabled the minimum battery level hibernation).

You should always be saving your data at regular intervals (yes, I realise that notepad doesn't have an autosave)

Nope. Never had that happen. If you watch where you browse, don't open things in email, etc, it is actually not that easy to get a virus.
Though I do browse FT, and without an ad-blocker it is pretty much like having malware running.

Force it weekly? It already auto rebooked me last week. Now I installed the updates, and it wants another reboot?

BTW, what if airplanes were running Windows 10? Force reboot, no waiting. Uhhuh

You've never had a Windows machine unexpectedly reboot / blue screen? Pull the other one...

Let me get this right. You had 10 documents open in Notepad that you didn't save, and you are saying that Windows is a virus because it rebooted your machine and lost your 10 documents? As I said up thread, I've no real sympathy.

Airplane controls aren't connected to the internet with bad guys trying to attack them.

That... I would also assume system updates to be done when the planes hit their deep maintenance inspections/cycles and "rebooted" during that time as well.

FWIW I use Win10 daily and it has never once rebooted without asking first.

It also doesn't seem to want to reboot a lot. Perhaps once or twice a month.

That is because you did not 'pause' updates

Yes they are.
Do you mean 'airplanes' are not connected to the Internet? I heard most airlines have wifi, guess you have not flown those.
'Bad guys' are not trying to attack them? In what world do you live in? I would agree many hackers do not care about planes enough to attack them, and some 'bad guys' do not have the know-how to do it.

The flight controls are isolated from the internet... They do get updates from GPS, but are hardened via multiple systems.

https://www.wired.com/2015/05/possib...cial-aircraft/

And to "hack the plane", they had to rip open a control box. This is also not the same as juice jacking which is a weakness of the design of how all these systems detect how quickly a system can charge... Hence why you use the AC adapter (better way to charge) or via power bank (not so great, but better than charging via the built in USB plug....which is also very limited...

I said "airplane controls", ie. those things that actually fly the thing, not Wifi that passengers use for Facebook.

I actually don't know why I'm bothering, as you appear to be just trolling (at least I hope you are).

The thread has gotten off track