Josh Wieder

A ton of Skype users were unhappy with the update from Skype 6.x to 7.x. Most of what I have seen is complaining about a few minor changes to the user interface. In the usual baby/bathwater situation that follows this sort of thing, "Power Users" began circulating guides on how to modify hosts files to prevent TCP connections to skype and msn domains. You know, because making sure you have the correct proportion of whitespace is more important than stupid trivia like patching critical security vulnerabilities . To address this madness, Microsoft decided to get clever. In addition to sending the Skype 7 update through the Skype application and related packages like Lync, they would push it through as a Windows update - KB2876229 . The Skype application updates are pushed through *.skype.com and *.msn.com , while Windows updates come from domains like  *.microsoft.com , *.windowsupdate.com and *.windows.com . The looks over substance crowd hadn't yet reached the levels ...

Recently I noticed some strange behavior while launching an update through Windows 8.1's 'metro' menu. I launched Computer Settings app to run the update, which was a definitions update for Windows Defender (KB2267602). The Update settings were configured to prompt prior to download & installation. This was the first task launched after awaking the computer from a Sleep state. The computer is not a virtual machine. With Windows 8 and 8.1 the first places to look for Update failures are in the files C:\Windows\WindowsUpdate.log and C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\ReportingEvents.log - for those still unfamiliar with navigating the newer Windowses, you can reach a Run prompt to open these files using copy + paste by hitting the Window key and "R" key at the same time.  The relevant entry of the ReportingEvents.log file shows me what Error 80200056 means in the most basic sense - the update failed to download; as opposed to failing to install. {C7C9...

So last night (11-12-14) or this morning you ran a package of `Important` Windows Cumulative Security Updates. Gee those do sound important! There were about 11 or so - specifically, the ones most likely to give you trouble are these: Update for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems (KB3008627) Security Update for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems (KB3003743) Security Update for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems (KB2993958) Security Update for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems (KB2991963) Security Update for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems (KB3005607) Security Update for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems (KB2992611) Security Update for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems (KB3010788) Security Update for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems (KB3002885) Security Update for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems (KB3006226) After diligently downloading and installing these updates, you allow your computer to reboot. The boot process goes smoothly, you log into your computer, only to find a stark black s...