Topic: Windows Black screen FIX

[Sirgod]

I haven't ran into this problem, But apparently one patch has screwed up the registry and ALC which reads it.

Anyways, this fix supposedly works for all windows XP and up. so if anyone get's the black screen of Death, Not to be confused with the hand of BETHKE, here ya go.

http://www.prevx.com/blog/140/Black-Screen-woes-could-affect-millions-on-Windows--Vista-and-XP.html

Stephen

[Nemesis]

Link to full article

Microsoft denies the issue:

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp said on Tuesday it could find no evidence that recent security updates were causing problems with its new Windows 7 operating system, which some have dubbed the "black screen of death."

"Microsoft has investigated reports that its November security updates made changes to permissions in the registry that are resulting in system issues for some customers," said Microsoft representative Christopher Budd.

"The company has found those reports to be inaccurate and our comprehensive investigation has shown that none of the recently released updates are related to the behavior described in the reports," he said.

[Sirgod]

Interesting.

I know I still haven't had the problem yet.

Stephen

[Nemesis]

Link to full article

We've been working with Microsoft to get to the bottom of the specific black screen issues in our earlier blog. We have made some significant progress in determining specific triggers of the black screen event.

The issue appears to be related to a characteristic of the Windows Registry related to the storage of string data. In parsing the Shell value in the registry, Windows requires a null terminated "REG_SZ" string. However, if malware or indeed any other program modifies the shell entry to not include null terminating characters, the shell will no longer load properly, resulting in the infamous Black Screen with the PC showing only the My Computer folder.

[Sirgod]

Looks like PrevX is gonna have a black eye after this one.

Stephen

[Nemesis]

Link to source

A security firm that's developed a fix for the so-called "black screen of death" affecting Windows PCs said more than 50,000 users have downloaded the utility in just five days—an indication that the problem is widespread.

"Following the issue of our fix, which continues to receive significant downloads, we believe that this problem is still affecting a very large number of users in a very diverse range of Windows environments," said Prevx CEO and chief technology officer Mel Morris, in a blog post Wednesday.

"There have been more than 50,000 downloads of the free fix tool since we made it available 5 days ago," said Morris.

It could be premptive downloading rather than people who actually have the problem.

[Sirgod]

I know of one PRemptive download at least. Me. Dang hard to type while stuffing my face with Lasagna

Stephen