Microsoft Confirms It Accidentally Deactivated Some Windows 10 PCs

[RV_]

Boy is this going to mess with people. A bunch of Windows accounts were deactivated causing nag messages to activate Windows. Fortunately it's been fixed.

Excerpt:

"Some Windows 10 users are upset today after Microsoft suddenly deactivated their Windows installations, resulting in “Activate Windows” nags. Microsoft has confirmed the error and said a fix is in the way.

Update: Microsoft’s Jeff Jones told Bleeping Computer this problem is now fixed and affected PCs will automatically become activated again sometime in the next 24 hours. Mary Jo Foley over at ZDNet points out that you can head to Settings > Update & Security > Activation > Troubleshoot to fix it immediately.

This  problem seems to affect Windows 10 Professional users who upgraded from Windows 7 Professional or Windows 8 Professional. Microsoft’s activation servers suddenly decided their digital licenses were no good and deactivated them. After running the activation troubleshooter, Windows 10 said their systems should actually be using Windows 10 Home instead of Windows 10 Professional. That’s what many Windows 10 users on Reddit report happened to them.

So, if you’ve run into the problem, hold tight and Microsoft will fix it for you. Don’t install Windows 10 Home, as Windows 10 is asking you to. Wait a few days—while dealing with activation nags the whole time—and hope Microsoft fixes the bug on schedule.

Yes, it’s yet another Windows 10 bug! Between deleting people’s files, a .zip file data loss bug, and broken file associations lately, we really wish Microsoft would slow down, stop breaking things, and release a stable operating system.

By the way, did you realize that your PC was constantly phoning home to confirm your activation with Microsoft, and that a bug with Microsoft’s servers could break the activation? You probably didn’t, but that’s apparently how it works. It’s all fine until Microsoft breaks things—which it just did."

All that and more with screen shots from affected systems in the article here: https://www.howtogeek.com/fyi/microsoft-confirms-it-accidentally-deactivated-some-windows-10-pcs/

 

[OregonJim]

22 minutes ago, RV_ said:

 

Yes, it’s yet another Windows 10 bug! Between deleting people’s files, a .zip file data loss bug, and broken file associations lately, we really wish Microsoft would slow down, stop breaking things, and release a stable operating system.

It's been this way for 30+ years.  Why would Microsoft change now? 

[RV_]

Jim,

I have been using MSDOS and quit Commodore early on since 1986. THen Windows in 1995 at home and at work in the USAF.

It has never been this bad. The worst update I ever saw was about 10 years ago when AMD machines seemed to brick from an Update from MS. It turned out that several manufacturers were leaving calls for INtel chips in the production images that were not called until this update. Everyone screamed MS did it, and I was IT for my construction company then and had ordered our computers, three of the six were AMD systems. It took a couple of weeks for the source problem to be found and the computers weren't bricked, I forget how but we got in and reversed the damage by deleting the code in the windows registry for one file call.

This is the first time I have been afraid to get updates and I am going from early adopter to last adopter!

[OregonJim]

21 minutes ago, RV_ said:

Jim,

I have been using MSDOS and quit Commodore early on since 1986. THen Windows in 1995 at home and at work in the USAF.

It has never been this bad.

I've been into it since the days of CP/M when 'ol Billy Gates screamed at the entire industry and called us all thieves.

M$ products have always been bug infested.  I've seen some of the source code and there are even intentional bugs in there designed to thwart competitors' products.  I switched to Linux in the late 90's and never looked back.  All my headaches come from supporting other people with broken Windows machines, or from writing Windows device drivers that break after every Microsoft "update".  Thankfully, I'm done running on THAT treadmill.

[Mark and Dale Bruss]

Happened on two of my PCs.  A roll back for a few days fixed it.  Had me going for a while.

[RV_]

Mark,

I'm glad you had no permanent damage.

Jim,

If you hate supporting them, stop doing it! I've used Linux. I much prefer Windows as a daily use. But the biggie, have you loaded Linux on high end touch screen all in ones? If you have any guidance on that I'd read it. But I can always try to load a live disk and see for myself. I actually have two Linux Mint with Cinnamon 18 disks, the 32 bit disk, and the 64 bit disk I bought directly from Mint. I need to do a fresh install of Windows on my main system after MS techs messed it up. Fortunately I'd made an image April 2017, and did few music rips in that period. I also switched to my phone camera primarily for this past year. I will have to redo some picture scans.

I'm just going to go back to weekly images and data backups locally. I've got two HDD & SSD drive docks for 2.5" & 3.5" Internal drives, as well as about 30TB of stored HDDs, as well as WD Passport 2GB external drives, and a 3TB and 4TB WD Elements HDDs. When vast updates are only half-vast, like the October major update, having weekly images like I used to do eliminates all the problems while they fix whatever they need to fix.

one thing I am looking forward to is the spring major update. They've said they already have a method that restores the speed we lost with the Intel chipset Spectre and Meltdown patches. These affected Linux as well. https://linuxaria.com/article/spectre-and-meltdown-explained

I did stop fixing computers as a hobby job a few years back, and help out one friend only with finding the best deals on hardware. He only does emails and surfing so very little need for big drives. I set him up with one of these:

https://www.gearbest.com/tv-box-mini-pc/pp_635378.html?wid=1433363#goodsDetail

we ordered a 21.5" lg full HD monitor, and a nice wireless keyboard and mouse. I have a 600GB hard drive that was in my son's laptop when we upgraded it to an 480GB SSD. I mounted it in an external USB enclosure. The Beelink comes with a bracket to mount to the VESA mounts on the back of any monitor or TV that isn't wall mounted and using them. I've set several of these up since I bought a Windows 8 Voyo mini PC that is still going strong in the guest bedroom. I was really impressed with these. My Voyo has a built in battery that lasts a few hours too! 128GB SD cards are under 30 bucks now too. I also bought an HP refurb tower desktop and the Newegg refurbs by a couple of companies have 1year parts and labor warranties, and are refurbed with 8GB of RAM and SSDs for ~ $200. 

 

[OregonJim]

2 hours ago, RV_ said:

Jim,

If you hate supporting them, stop doing it! I've used Linux. I much prefer Windows as a daily use. But the biggie, have you loaded Linux on high end touch screen all in ones? If you have any guidance on that I'd read it. But I can always try to load a live disk and see for myself. I actually have two Linux Mint with Cinnamon 18 disks, the 32 bit disk, and the 64 bit disk I bought directly from Mint.

I did stop.  That's what "getting off the treadmill" means.  Of course, supporting family/friends never ends, no matter how well you hide...

Yes, I have Linux on several high end touchscreen PCs.  You won't get that with Mint or Cinnamon, though.  Mint is meant to be a low risk, secure platform.    As such, its applications and drivers are often several years behind current release.  Cinnamon is not for touchscreens.  What you want (for touchscreens and up-to-date software) is Gnome on Fedora Linux.  No problems at all.

[RV_]

Thanks Jim!  I'll give Gnome a try when everything settles down.

[k4rs]

I am not fond of Windows 10 but get lots of experience troubleshooting and fixing friends and neighbors computers who use it.  My current solution for myself is to use Linux for 95% and Windows 7 for those things that must use Windows.  I realize that eventually I will be forced to upgrade, but when I do, it will be a LTSB / LTSC version.

Safe Travels...   

[RV_]

I think we we will see MS melt down with this mess up:

Excerpt:

"Microsoft has spent that last month frantically fixing bugs in Windows 10’s October 2018 Update. But, if you’re one of the millions of people who installed the update when it was available, you haven’t actually been getting those bug-fix updates!

Windows 10’s October 2018 Update had quite a few important bugs that needed fixing, even after the original file deletion bug. The .zip file data loss bug was pretty bad, but it’s not all. The Task Manager shows incorrect CPU usage details. And the October 2018 Update has compatibility issues with device drivers, antivirus software, and virtualization tools that can cause your PC to blue screen.

But Microsoft has been fixing them, right? Well, yes, kind of—but millions of PCs haven’t received those fixes yet.

Millions of Windows PCs installed the October 2018 Update and haven’t received those fixes. You’d have to sign up as a Windows Insider to get them. Beta testers have a more stable operating system than millions of early adopters. And Microsoft isn’t communicating with its customers, so no one knows this.

It isn’t just Windows geeks who installed these builds—anyone who clicked the “Check for Updates” button in Windows before Microsoft pulled the October 2018 Update received it. No wonder millions of people installed it!

Source:

https://www.howtogeek.com/fyi/millions-of-pcs-running-windows-10s-october-update-havent-received-critical-fixes/

 

Ed Bott over on ZDNet said - click here https://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-as-a-service-fail-microsoft-keeps-customers-in-the-dark-as-it-struggles/

Their screw up this time is monumental! We may all be switching. Their refusal to talk about it is like Apple now. Never admitting or giving fixes fast wasn't Microsoft's style before. Now? They blew it.

Roger, although many folks here don't read any links, those two need to be read completely to realize the extent of how they have screwed the entire industry right before the biggest sales season of any year. They dropped the phones too soon, and now have totally screwed up Windows and their trusted partners.

 

[Pieere]

I must have done something right by Stopping Windows Updates for once! I have version 1803! Using MalwareBytes and Norton for security! Only using my RCA Tablet with Windows!

[DJW]

I have had it installed since 2 Oct and have not had any issues.  I have not found any missing files or any operational problems.  Were only some PC's affected?

Dennis

[Mark and Dale Bruss]

It was limited to PCs that had been running Windows Pro 7.0 or 8.1 and upgraded to 10.

[OregonJim]

1 hour ago, Mark and Dale Bruss said:

It was limited to PCs that had been running Windows Pro 7.0 or 8.1 and upgraded to 10.

Only the deactivation was limited.  The bugs are a separate issue that affects anyone who was "updated".

[DJW]

Mark

I had upgraded from Win 7 Pro on one laptop and Win 8.1 on the other.  I was able to upgrade the Win 8.1 laptop from Win 10 Home to Win 10 Pro because I had the Win 7 Pro Key from the other laptop?

Oregon Jim

I have not noticed anything different or out of place on either of my 2 laptops which both have Win 10 Pro.  Should I be on the look out for something specific?

Dennis