UPDATED: Microsoft, who is used to a ‘blue screen of death’, is now investigating claims that its latest security update has started ‘blacking out’ computer screens.Thousands of users from around the world have said that the November’s security updates have triggered a black screen on some Windows PCs.
“Microsoft is investigating reports that its latest release of security updates is resulting in system issues for some customers,” said a company spokesman.
UK security company Prevx claims that the Windows security updates issued on 10 November changed Access Control List (ACL) entries in the registry, preventing some installed software from running properly. The result, said Prevx, is a black screen, sometimes dubbed the ‘black screen of death’ in a sop to the ‘blue screen of death’ that Windows puts up after a major system crash.
Prevx added that security software seemed to be especially affected.
Although the Microsoft spokesman said the company would provide additional information once its support and security teams complete their investigations, it was unclear Monday exactly how extensive the problem was, or how many users were affected.
UPDATE See over.
Since this story was posted, Microsoft has released a new statement disputing reports that its November security patches are causing Windows machines to seize up and display a black screen. The report says the claims are inaccurate and Microsoft’s investigation found that the updates aren’t causing the problems described by security firm Prevx.
Microsoft claims that it has investigated reports that its November security updates made changes to permissions in the registry that are resulting in system issues for some customers. 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.
The Microsoft spokesman said, “While we were not contacted by the organisation who originally made these reports, we have proactively contacted them with our findings.
“Our support organisation is also not seeing this as an issue. The claims also do not match any known issues that have been documented in the security bulletins or KB articles.
“As always, we encourage customers to review the security bulletin and related KB articles and test and deploy security updates. If customers do encounter an issue with security updates, we encourage them to contact our Customer Service and Support group for no-charge assistance.”
Customers can contact CSS using the information at http://support.microsoft.com/security
