Suspected BSoD : Microsoft retires a patch

An update released on the last Patch Tuesday is suspected of being behind the blue screen of death witnessed by some Windows XP users.

Microsoft’s recent Patch Tuesday came with some unwanted surprises, with issues linked to one of the two vulnerability corrections related to the Windows kernel. One of these vulnerabilities has remained in the Windows kernel for the last 17 years for all 32 bit versions of Windows, with the fault recently revealed by a Google engineer.

We don’t know if this vulnerability passed down through the ages is behind the problems recently witnessed by users, or if it is the other vulnerability correction that is behind the issues, but to users a few extra weeks of waiting while additional testing was undertaken wouldn’t have been a bad thing.

After the application of the updates, Windows XP users found themselves facing the dreaded BSoD (Blue Screen of Death). Microsoft has listened attentively to the users concerns and decided to remove the MS10-015 update (KB977165) from Windows Update, providing them with additional time to work out what the problem is. Microsoft has nevertheless mentioned that the number of affected cases is limited.

For Windows XP users affected by the BSoD, the solution provided on Microsoft Answers consists of inserting the Operating System CD and booting to the recovery console, followed by uninstalling the update. After having booted to the recovery console, affected users have to type "CHDIR $NtUninstallKB977165$\spuninst", followed by "BATCH spuninst.txt" and "exit" to quit the console.

For Windows 7, Microsoft will soon be deploying their WAT update (the successor to WGA), the installation of which will be left to the users discretion. Now we just need to wait and see if legal copies are interpreted as pirate…