Microsoft Warns of New Windows 11 Problems With Apps Using Unusual Registry Keys (betanews.com) 76
Microsoft has shared details of a new known issue with Windows 11. The company has confirmed that a problem exists with apps that use certain characters in registry keys. From a report: As a result of the discovery, Microsoft has put a compatibility hold in place that means people with problematic apps installed will not be offered Windows 11 via Windows Update. The issue is under investigation. It seems that the issue is related to, or is an extension of, one of the three initial known issues with Windows 11.
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Windows 11 = fail
Lets hope so on the commercial angle as well. MS needs to be kicked hard every few versions or the quality level of windows becomes far too bad.
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So, I wanted to move my Windows installation to an SSD, but now it says "Activation required in 3 days." WTF? Why can't I just dd my old HDD to my SSD and have it all work just like before? Linux never gives me any problems when I move it from drive to drive.
Anti-piracy measure. It was like that for awhile and then they removed it. I guess it's back.
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I have moved my windows install a number of times to from an hdd to an ssd to another ssd to another laptop and it doesn't ask me to reactive. I just login with my account and it works.
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I have moved my windows install a number of times to from an hdd to an ssd to another ssd to another laptop and it doesn't ask me to reactive. I just login with my account and it works.
It's suppose to be lock to your motherboard. But previously, I remember moving from HDD to a larger HDD/SSD would cause an activation requirement. At least, that was the case with early Windows 7. I noticed with Windows 10 that wasn't an issue as long as I didn't change the motherboard.
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So... Is there any way of disabling it? I cycle through hard drives regularly so that I have a ready backup in case of failure, but if I have to get on the phone with Microsoft customer support constantly to activate, this is just dumb.
Probably but it involves sailing on the high seas.
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The use of a KMS is also an option, the upside there is no software to install from questionable sources.
https://msguides.com/windows-1... [msguides.com]
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Anti-piracy measure. It was like that for awhile and then they removed it. I guess it's back.
So... Is there any way of disabling it? I cycle through hard drives regularly so that I have a ready backup in case of failure, but if I have to get on the phone with Microsoft customer support constantly to activate, this is just dumb.
Probably but it involves sailing on the high seas.
So in other words, Microsoft designed a feature purportedly as an "anti-piracy measure," but in the real world, this very feature forces legit customers to seek out pirate warez.
Smart. Very smart.
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So in other words, Microsoft designed a feature purportedly as an "anti-piracy measure," but in the real world, this very feature forces legit customers to seek out pirate warez.
Smart. Very smart.
What do you expect? It is MS. They have been clueless for their whole existence and they will not stop now. On the other hand, I do not think revenue from selling Windows is a major thing for them anymore. It is probably just old reflexes twitching.
Hold back the borg! (Score:2)
Create the right registry keys and you can hold back the borg!
It's just like in that Star Trek movie.
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By "certain characters", they apparently mean non-ASCII characters.
I'm assuming this has always been a limitation with the Registry (ASCII-only keys). Why is it just creating problems in Windows 11, I wonder? Did they just now start validating keys?
I'm also trying to figure out how the hell this could possible cause a blue screen of death. WTF?
Re:Hold back the borg! (Score:5, Funny)
That's what happened to the Borg, too. They finally assimilated something they weren't prepared for.
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Re:Hold back the borg! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Hold back the borg! (Score:5, Funny)
By "certain characters", they apparently mean non-ASCII characters.
Once Microsoft have fixed Windows 11 to work with non-ASCII perhaps they could pop over and fix Slashdot as well?
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Could have something to do with microsoft's spyware/monitoring software that's forced upon us. A low level driver that scans the registry. They switched to low level drivers when they realized people were very skillfully disabling the spyware garbage. By merging the spyware into a critical driver you prevent people from disabling the spyware part.
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Not a movie, but there is that time they tried to assimilate future Janeway...
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Special characters (Score:3)
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Thank goodness Slashdot will never be upgraded!
The Windows Registry has always (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The Windows Registry has always (Score:5, Insightful)
been a complete cluster .... no matter how it is used.
Indeed. The whole idea is fundamentally bad design, no way to sugarcoat it. It is as if they took a look at Unix/Linux and decided that they could do massively better with regards to obscurity and complex, badly documented functionality.
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But from what I gather, the Registry is essentially:
* take every config and
* stuff them all together and make them not human readable
* make it so you don't know where they're stored and can't edit them in vi, and instead have to use some shitty special purpose program
* make things break randomly
... is this about right or am I missing something?
Re:The Windows Registry has always (Score:5, Insightful)
Just you wait, that will be the new "original" features of systemd.
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Actually dconf differs from (and perhaps is better than) the registry, despite bearing a superficial resemblance. It has a at least one advantage over the registry. For example, the keys and values in dconf must be defined and enforced by a schema, which is provided in a distributed way. In other words if you install a new package, it just has to drop a schema file in a certain folder and it's automatically picked up by the system. In many ways it's more of what the registry should have been, rather than
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The XML isn't a problem if you're using an API to abstract it away, just like nobody cares what format is used in the Windows registry when they store values in it.
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That's pretty much it.
Once apon a time, Caldera tried to bring the registry to Linux. That's why they became the first distro you couldn't even give away free at a Linux Enthusiasts meeting.
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Basically. It was because Windows had no standardization for .ini files, nothing like /etc. Also because the user almost always had super user rights to all of those ini and system files, so the registry brought some security in addition to organization.
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So I don't know much about windows admin. I had a windows box for a while to play games. I haven't booted it in a long time. But from what I gather, the Registry is essentially: * take every config and .rc file on the system
* stuff them all together and make them not human readable
* make it so you don't know where they're stored and can't edit them in vi, and instead have to use some shitty special purpose program
* make things break randomly ... is this about right or am I missing something?
occasionally there are two identical file names.
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I miss the old days when it used INI files! Plain texts and easier to manage.
Follow the /. example. (Score:4, Funny)
It's easy, guys! Just strip out all the extended characters and disallow them, like Slashdot does. Or convert them to unintelligible but consistently legal garbage, that shouldn't break the OS.
Let me understand this (Score:5, Insightful)
Out of the blue, there comes a Windows version which nobody asked for. It is imposing limits on hardware compatibility, making many recent devices obsolete in this semiconductor shortage. Adding to the wound it is gathering much more data, and disallowing local accounts on home versions. To make it worse, they promise not to back port new features, like upgrade Linux support. And now you tell me it is buggy.
Who was the lucky admin to approve this monstrosity?
the money admins (Non tech staff) (Score:3)
the money admins (Non tech staff)
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Out of the blue, there comes a Windows version which nobody asked for.
More on this later.
It is imposing limits on hardware compatibility, making many recent devices obsolete in this semiconductor shortage.
Every version imposes limits of hardware compatibility. This one happens to draw the line at processors that support hardware mitigations for things like Spectre and Meltdown. That seems - to me - reasonable as an aspiration. You've got five years to upgrade your hardware before Win10 support ends. You don't need to throw away your existing machines and buy a new Ultrascarce PC.
Adding to the wound it is gathering much more data,
Citation required. I haven't seen any reference to increased telemetry in profession reviews such as Ars'.
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I'm old, and can remember this sort of thing happening with every release of a new version of windows.
Windows XP for example was a total shitshow until they patched the various problems, and then Service Pack 3 was released and XP was great. Windows 11 will be the same.
He is also correct when he says that you have time before you install it if you don't want to live on the bleeding edge.
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Every version imposes limits of hardware compatibility. This one happens to draw the line at processors that support hardware mitigations for things like Spectre and Meltdown. That seems - to me - reasonable as an aspiration.
Citation required. Where is Microsoft saying processors must "support hardware mitigations"?
You've got five years to upgrade your hardware before Win10 support ends. You don't need to throw away your existing machines and buy a new Ultrascarce PC.
Microsoft support is an oxymoron.
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Every version imposes limits of hardware compatibility. This one happens to draw the line at processors that support hardware mitigations for things like Spectre and Meltdown. That seems - to me - reasonable as an aspiration.
Citation required. Where is Microsoft saying processors must "support hardware mitigations"?
https://arstechnica.com/gadget... [arstechnica.com]
You've got five years to upgrade your hardware before Win10 support ends. You don't need to throw away your existing machines and buy a new Ultrascarce PC.
Microsoft support is an oxymoron.
Cute.
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Citation required. Where is Microsoft saying processors must "support hardware mitigations"?
https://arstechnica.com/gadget... [arstechnica.com]
This article says nothing about things like spectre and meltdown.
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Citation required. Where is Microsoft saying processors must "support hardware mitigations"?
https://arstechnica.com/gadget... [arstechnica.com]
This article says nothing about things like spectre and meltdown.
HVCI and MBEC are hardware features that isolate and protect memory from being accessed by other processes. Attacks similar in concept to Spectre and Meltdown.
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HVCI and MBEC are hardware features that isolate and protect memory from being accessed by other processes. Attacks similar in concept to Spectre and Meltdown.
These are completely different things. HCVI limits execution in kernel memory and MBEC improves performance of hypervisors. Spectre and Meltdown are timing side-channel vulnerabilities.
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HVCI and MBEC are hardware features that isolate and protect memory from being accessed by other processes. Attacks similar in concept to Spectre and Meltdown.
These are completely different things. HCVI limits execution in kernel memory and MBEC improves performance of hypervisors. Spectre and Meltdown are timing side-channel vulnerabilities.
I apologize, but the difference for purposes of the topic is non-existent. The point I made - which stands - is that Microsoft's line-in-the-sand with regards to processors supported by Windows 11 isn't nonsensical. It's based on hardware features for purposes of security. I provided an illustrative example readers will be aware of. Nit-pick as you will, but your original, seemingly genuine request for citation now has the appearance of being nothing more than a (successful) attempt to waste my time. T
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I apologize, but the difference for purposes of the topic is non-existent. The point I made - which stands - is that Microsoft's line-in-the-sand with regards to processors supported by Windows 11 isn't nonsensical. It's based on hardware features for purposes of security. I provided an illustrative example readers will be aware of. Nit-pick as you will, but your original, seemingly genuine request for citation
It very much is genuine. Encountered numerous people making these same claims about spectre and meltdown being the reason for CPU requirements yet have to date found no publicly available evidence to support it.
The other features you mention MBEC and HVCI are both present in 7th generation Intel processors not supported in W11 either.
And of course the hypervisor can be easily turned off in W11.
The guess CPU limits are "because security" seem not only to be merely guesses they persist regardless of evidenc
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Could it be... SATAN? (channeling Church Lady)
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They probably talked to the morons in Marketing [wikipedia.org]: /s
* Windows 3.0
* Windows 3.1
* Windows 3.11
* Windows 3.2
* Windows 95
* Windows 98
* Windows 98SE
* Windows 2000
* Windows ME
* Windows XP
* Windows Vista
* Windows 7
* Windows 8
* Windows 8.1
* Windows 10
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It honestly sounds more like Apple than Microsoft.
imposing limits on hardware compatibility, making many recent devices obsolete...gathering much more data...promise not to back port new features
amature hour... (Score:2)
guess this is some issue with the Windows migration process not the registry itself, because otherwise how would apps have successfully created, read, written etc these keys on previous releases.
So what it sounds like is despite the documentation treating keys as labels and not really specifying reserved characters, someone made some assumptions about what someone might do or have done with a user facility. dumb dumb dumb....
Maybe not really dumb dumb dumb, we all make mistakes and bad assumptions but that
Give it 2 ... 3 years (Score:1)
MS regularly fucks up when they do anything new (well, moderately new). This is well-known. Give them time to realize that, again, they have delivered a mediocre product with some really bad parts and start grudgingly fixing at least the worst problems. This whole situation is basically ridiculous, but what you get when the #1 OS (for "proper" computers) on the planet is made by a company that has never mastered the art of solid software engineering.
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Which idiot at Microsoft broke Windows 11
No doubt they hired some devs from Slashdot Media.
Windows Me, 8, and 11 (Score:5, Insightful)
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Windows 11 is turning out to be one MORE steaming pile of crap no one wants. With no redeeming features, why would anyone want to downgrade to it?
There, fixed it for you.
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Wile it removed the ability to boot to DOS, at least it came with Movie Maker, and some really trippy media player themes. And it didn't need to record everything I did on the system to 'improve my experience' or some shite.
Please take me back....
The more I hear about Windows 11 (Score:5, Interesting)
The less I am at all interested in even trying it.
I lasted 3 days when I bought a new laptop with Windows 10 on it before I trashed the drive and installed Linux.
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Me too. I actually had the OS blow up twice in a row due to a graphics driver problem (ryzen 3/vega) and I slapped Linux on there and it's been solid. Of course the wifi driver is lame so I have to reboot periodically, no plan is perfect
Seems to go back to August (Score:3)
I did some Googling, and people were reporting this on the Insider version as far back as early August:
https://answers.microsoft.com/... [microsoft.com]
https://githubmemory.com/repo/... [githubmemory.com]
The question is, how is Microsoft just now finding out about it?
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https://twitter.com/pedrolamas... [twitter.com]
Windows 11 is buggy (Score:1)
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It's what people seem to want, more or less. :-(
cause ? (Score:2)
"It is the use of non-ASCII characters not in app names but in registry keys that is causing the issue."
The non-ASCII characters are triggering the issue.
The cause is Windows not handling them correctly.
Saying that the non-ASCII characters are causing the issue is putting the blame on the app (which is actually obeying the rules) and taking the blame off Windows (which is not obeying the rules).
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If the registry doesn't recognize non-ASCII characters and app programmers still use non-ASCII characters isn't it actually the apps fault?
I suppose Microsoft could program a filter that rejects non-ASCII characters when setting registry keys but if the documentation states that only ASCII keys should be used and you use non-ASCII keys at least part of the blame falls on you.
Good Grief! Charley Brown !! (Score:2)
Fun With Unicode (Score:2)
Windows gets upset if you mix codepages. I suspect Linux and Mac do, too. Sure, mixing US/GB codepages shouldn't cause much trouble. But mixing Hebrew and US causes all sorts of fun, since the text moves in different directions. And Chinese can move vertically in addition to horizontally. If you don't start each snippet of text with the byte order mark things can get weird.
A Warning (Score:2)
The headline should have stopped at "Microsoft Warns of New Windows 11".