Windows 10 users report app problems after Microsoft update

https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/01/windows_10_users_errors_hardware/

by DaveFlater • 2 years ago

31 19 2 years ago

theregister.com

tux32• 2 years ago

tl;dr: SSE4.2 is required now.

No runtime detection, no software trapping/emulation. Hard crash for very old hardware.

1970-01-01• 2 years ago

If you read the thread, this is a "Microsoft App" issue. The core OS remains functional. You can still play games, surf the Web, and run 3rd party software. Very embarrassing for MS, and it tracks with their ready, fire, aim QA process.

tux32• 2 years ago

I think the current QA process is a deliberate outcome. If you invest drastically less in testing and mark some hardware configs as unsupported, eventually these hardware configs break.

Like with anything, lack of care leads to degradation. The core functions remain for a while, but without support it's clear where this leads. Microsoft has no reason to be embarrassed or surprised, they chose the circumstances that made this happen!

throwaway9182742• 2 years ago

Oh, for f*cks sake.

That's it. Was hoping I could ride out staying on Windows 10 until it support was cut off. Enough is enough, I'm wiping Windows tonight and only single booting Ubuntu. Steam library be damned, whatever works on Proton works on Proton. I'm buying a Steam Deck.

dimgl• 2 years ago

The Steam Deck OLED is absolutely fantastic. But yeah I'm almost at that point too. Windows is abysmal.

pathartl3• 2 years ago

Seems like an overreaction to this bug.

taftster• 2 years ago

More like a build up to this bug. The proverbial straw on the camel's back, kind of thing.

AdmiralAsshat• 2 years ago

So much for that break-your-back compatibility.

DaveFlater• 2 years ago

SSE 4.2 appeared in Nehalem, which was 2008.

ack_complete2• 2 years ago

Possibly due to: https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/t/Illegal-Instru...

tl;dr is that an SSE4.2 instruction was introduced into an optional but commonly used runtime library that ships with the Visual C++ compiler. There's no runtime checking for whether the CPU supports this instruction, so it crashes on older CPUs.

coldcode• 2 years ago

No one tests their apps on declared unsupported hardware. How would you identify potential unsupported-but-might-work hardware? It's not worth the cost.

Still, it sounds like someone simply screwed up a compiler setting.

cptskippy2• 2 years ago

Still, it sounds like someone simply screwed up a compiler setting.

A screw up would imply they hadn't intended to make the change. It could just have easily been someone trying to improve performance or security by optimizing for supported platforms while not knowing that a lot of unsupported platforms would run the code or be impacted.

If the change doesn't negatively impact stated supported platforms then it wasn't a mistake imo and I don't think they should revert it.

A lot of security issues exist because we continue to support legacy systems that cannot be secured or not without negatively impacting performance. If MS pushed a security patch that gobbled 5-10% performance from decade old systems some people would lose their minds.

Remember how painful the switch from XP was? And from Win7? And now Win10? Some people just refuse to upgrade hardware or software until forced and will bitch piss and moan the entire time.

ack_complete2• 2 years ago

Calling these processors unsupported for Windows 10 is dubious. The official minimum CPU specification for Windows 10 only mentions PAX, NX, SSE2, CMPXCHG16B, LAHF/SAHF, and PREFETCHW, not SSE4: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/design/mi...

There is a more general Windows Processor Requirements doc that does drop a number of old CPUs off of the list for newer builds: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/design/mi...

However, this is not surfaced to the user nor are there compatibility blocks to prevent auto-upgrades to newer builds, and the page specifically says this:

Changes to the processors listed do not indicate or impact a customer’s existing Windows support and are intended for OEMs to determine processors which may be used in new Windows devices.

If Microsoft wants to raise the minspec to maintain a reasonable support window, more power to them. I can't see how apps suddenly crashing is a good way to do this. It has to be an unintentional bug.

BillSims• 2 years ago

Is there any chance someone at Microsoft is going to insert a CPU compatibility check before bug-patch-Tuesday force installs these on millions of machines? WindowsReport.com cautions about KB5034203 on older CPUS and I have some older machines currently showing "Optional quality update available 2024-01 Cumulative Update Preview for Windows 10 Version 22H2 for x86-based Systems (KB5034203)" I wouldn't be surprised if those are no longer optional come Tuesday.

Windows 10 users report app problems after Microsoft update

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