5
Fév, 2021

Windows 10 versions 1909 and 2004 are « ready for broad deployment »

Microsoft changed the status of the Windows 10 operating system versions 1909 and 2004 to broad deployment on February 3, 2021. The new status changes how the operating system versions are offered on customer devices.

Up until now, users had to install the updates manually, e.g. by selecting the « check for updates » button in the Windows Update settings, or by installing the upgrade using the Windows Update Assistant. Updates to a new version of Windows 10 are only offered to systems if no known update blocks are in place. Update blocks prevent the installation on devices with potential or known issues.

New updates are released under the « targeted deployment » status initially which limits the availability to devices that are the most likely to be fully compatible with the new release

windows 10 1909 2004 broad deployment

The new « broad deployment » status unlocks the update for all users via Windows Update.

Windows 10 version 1909 was released in 2019, and consumer editions of the operating system version, Windows 10 Home, Pro, Pro Education and Pro for Workstation, will run out of support in May 2021. Enterprise edition support runs out in May 2022 thanks to extended support.

Windows 10 version 2004 was released in May 2020 to the public. Availability was limited in the beginning, and a number of upgrade blocks were set by Microsoft to block the upgrade from being offered to incompatible devices. The release was not as catastrophic as that of Windows 10 version 1809, arguably the worst Windows 10 version release in history as it had critical issues that could cause data loss, unbootable systems, and other issues. Microsoft even had to pause the release for an extended period before it offered it again to its customers.

Support for Windows 10 version 2004 will run out on December 14, 2021 for all supported operating system editions, consumer and Enterprise alike).

Windows 10 version 20H2 is the newest version of Windows 10. It is not ready for broad deployment yet, but systems can be upgraded to it via Windows Update or manual installation. The operating system version is supported for 18 months on consumer devices and for 30 months on Enterprise devices. Upgrades from Windows 10 version 2004 to 20H2 won’t cause as many issues on devices as updates from a previous year’s release because of the minor nature of the update.

Windows 10 version 2004 has two issues listed on its Health Dashboard. The issues affects devices with Conexant ISST audio drivers, and might cause stop errors, blue screens and other, unmentioned issues, after updating devices to the version of Windows 10.

Now You: Do you run Windows 10? If so, which version, and why? (via Deskmodder)

Thank you for being a Ghacks reader. The post Windows 10 versions 1909 and 2004 are « ready for broad deployment » appeared first on gHacks Technology News.

21
Déc, 2020

Microsoft confirms Windows 10 update bug causes boot issues

If your Windows 10 computer started rendering Blue Screen of Death when you run Check Disk command, don’t worry – you’ll be able to use your device properly again in the next 24 hours, according to Microsoft.

Yesterday, we reported that some Windows 10 PCs are rendered a useless brick when users run the built-in Check Disk Utility (chkdsk). Check Disk Utility basically allows you to use the Command Prompt to check a specified disk and repair/recover data on the drive when corruption is detected.

Generally, users are recommended to use Check Disk Utility when they’ve issues with Windows 10 or Windows Update problems. This is because the free tool is also able to detect malfunctioning sectors on the hard drive and recover your data or corrupted system file.

With a poorly-crafted update, Microsoft broke the Check Disk tool and it could crash some devices with ‘File System’ stop code error, as shown in the screenshot below.

Windows 10 NTFS BSODMicrosoft says a “small number of devices” that have installed Windows 10 update KB4592438 might not boot if you run “chkdsk /f” command. This is because a bug in the tool is damaging the file system, which makes the affected device unbootable.

Surprisingly, Microsoft acknowledged the issue quickly and the company has already started rolling out a fix, but you might not receive patch immediately. The software maker noted that the system crashes will be prevented automatically in the next 24 hours and you don’t need to make any changes.

Restarting your device might help the server-side update to apply to your device faster, but changes can still take up to 24 hours to propagate.

For enterprises or non-managed devices, you can configure a special Group Policy to address the problem:

  1. In the Recovery Console, select Advanced options.
  2. Select Command Prompt
  3. In Command Prompt, type: chkdsk /f
  4. Once done, type exit
  5. The device will restart as expected and it will not crash.

Note that the above instructions are for affected enterprise users only. As we mentioned at the outset, Windows 10 customers will get the patch automatically and no actions are required.

In addition to system crashes, users have also reported that Windows 10’s latest update causes high CPU usage, installation issues, temporary data loss, and more.

The post Microsoft confirms Windows 10 update bug causes boot issues appeared first on Windows Latest

20
Déc, 2020

Windows 10 critical bug crashes some PCs if you use chkdsk feature

A new critical flaw in Windows 10 version 2004 and version 20H2 is crashing some computers when users run chkdsk command. For that unaware, chkdsk, also known as Check Disk utility, allows you to scan through your entire hard drive to find and fix problems.

Chkdsk is a command-line tool and it doesn’t come with a graphical user interface, but it can really help prevent bigger problems and loss of data in the long run. When you run into issues with Windows 10, Chkdsk is one of the most effective ways to address problems, but it depends on how it’s run.

Windows 10’s latest update, which was supposed to fix some big issues, seems to be causing some serious problems. According to user reports, Chkdsk c: /f command is broken after the December 2020 update and it could crash your device with Blue Screen of Death error.

This c: /f chkdsk command option is designed to fix any errors found on the disk, but it’s apparently causing more problems for some people. Under certain circumstances, running chkdsk command on the partition drive (SSD) could crash your device with NTFS FILE SYSTEM stop code.

Windows 10 NTFS BSOD

The good news is that the problem is rare and it was flagged by Insiders in August, which means it might have ended up getting backported to Windows 10 October 2020 Update/May 2020 Update production builds.

“I was doing routine maintenance on my PC, I ran chkdsk c: /f from an elevated PowerShell console and restarted my PC. It seemed to work normally, but after the chkdsk ran, my PC restarted again, then tried to run another chkdsk and failed, then tried to diagnose startup problems and failed and then started the recovery screen,” one user noted in the Feedback Hub.

In the meantime, the simplest solution is to avoid unnecessary running the chkdsk command. In any case, you can always reboot the system to return to normal functioning if a Blue Screen is encountered.

The post Windows 10 critical bug crashes some PCs if you use chkdsk feature appeared first on Windows Latest

19
Déc, 2020

Running ChkDsk on Windows 10 20H2 may damage the file system and cause Blue Screens

Microsoft’s newest version of Windows 10, Windows 10 20H2, appears to have a bug that may damage the file system of the Windows partition and cause blue screens during reboots.  Reports suggest that running ChkDsk on these devices may damage the file system and cause blue screens on the first reboot of the system after the check disk operation completes.

Günter Born provides details on the issue on his blog.

He narrates how one administrator discovered (German forum link) the issue after upgrading systems to Windows 10 20H2 and running the command chkdsk c: /f after the update installation. The command checks drive c: for errors to repair them right away if any are found.

checkdisk windows bug blue screen

The command would find numerous errors in a file called « 9 » and an error in the BITMAP attribute of the Master File Table according to the report.

The devices threw the stop error NTFS File System on reboot. Analysis of an active device, with check disk run already, showed that the Windows drive partition was returned as a RAW partition, suggesting that the repairs of the Check Disk tool damaged the NTFS file system.

Further analysis provided the following information:

  • Systems with Windows 10 20H2 appear to be affected.
  • The issue seems to affect Solid State Drives. One user reported that a VM system with a platter-based hard drive was affected as well.
  • The cumulative update KB4592438, released on December 8, 2020 as part of the December 2020 Patch Tuesday, seems to be the cause of the issue.

Other factors are not clear at this point in time. It is unclear if all devices running Windows 10 version 20H2 are affected or if a subset of devices that match certain characteristics are. It has been confirmed that a fresh Windows 10 20H2 installation is not affected.

Administrators should back up the Windows partition prior to running Check Disk on devices running Windows 10 20H2 with the December 2020 update installed.

Microsoft has not confirmed the issue.

Now You: Have you noticed anything of this kind on Windows 10 20H2 systems?

Thank you for being a Ghacks reader. The post Running ChkDsk on Windows 10 20H2 may damage the file system and cause Blue Screens appeared first on gHacks Technology News.