Once again, Microsoft pulled updates for Windows users owing to system crash issues. However, this time, the problem does not affect Windows 10, rather Windows 7 and Windows 8.1. Microsoft have halted Windows 7 and 8.1 April updates for some users after receiving reports of boot failures following update installations.
Microsoft Halts Windows 7 And 8.1 April Updates
After Microsoft rolled-out April Patch Tuesday updates, some Windows 7 and 8.1 users faced system stability issues. Precisely, following the installation of updates, their computers failed to boot.
On April 9, 2019, Microsoft released security-only updates for the users of Windows and Windows 8.1. While those updates were meant to fix security issues, they also meddled with the Windows boot process. As a consequence, the systems, after installing the updates displayed boot failures.
The problem allegedly happened to the users of Sophos security solutions. As warned by Sophos,
“After installing certain Microsoft Windows updates…, Sophos has received reports of computers failing to boot.”
For now, Microsoft hasn’t released a fix for this problem. Nonetheless, they have stopped updates for the affected users.
“Microsoft has temporarily blocked devices from receiving this update if the Sophos Endpoint is installed until a solution is available.”
The issue reportedly happened due to the following Microsoft updates; KB4493446, KB4493448, KB4493450, KB4493451, KB4493458, KB4493467, KB4493471, and KB4493472.
Sophos recommends removing these updates from the system if installed. Whereas, anyone who has not installed these updates yet, must not do so until a patch is available.
Are You Affected?
According to Sophos, this problem troubles only those users fulfilling all the three criteria mentioned below.
- The users have Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 2008 and 2008 R2, Windows 2012 or 2012 R2 running on their computers.
- Users have any Sophos endpoint or server product for Windows (except Sophos Central Intercept X) running on their systems.
- The users have installed the Microsoft April updates and have rebooted their systems.
Anyone not fulfilling all of the above criteria would remain safe from this problem. Nonetheless, those who have installed these updates, but haven’t rebooted their computers, should uninstall the buggy updates prior rebooting.
Apart from Sophos users, Microsoft stated that some updates had caused other issues to other users as well, such as users of Avira, ArcaBit, and Avast. Microsoft explained they have halted updates for Avira users.
Whereas, for ArcaBit, they simply stated they would be investigating the matter. ArcaBit users primarily faced issues due to updates KB4493446 (For Windows 8.1) and KB4493472 (for Windows 7 Service Pack 1).
For Avast users, Avast has released emergency updates to tackle the problems caused by Microsoft updates KB4493448 and KB4493472 (for Windows 7 users), and KB4493467 and KB4493446 (for Windows 8.1 users).
Although Microsoft didn’t mention anything about problems occurring for users of Microsoft Security Essentials, we have received some similar reports from those users as well. As experienced by one such Windows 7 user, the system took quite long to restart after the installation of updates, whilst rebooting twice before showing the Windows welcome screen.