Microsoft engineer talks about the BSODs caused by August updates

Aug 21, 2014 12:24 GMT  ·  By

The Windows updates released by Microsoft this month as part of the Patch Tuesday cycle caused quite a lot of trouble for those running the company’s operating system, with many revealing that in some cases they’re getting a BSOD every time they reboot their PCs.

Microsoft hasn’t talked too much about this issue, but the company has said that a fix is on its way, although no timing has been provided as to when this eagerly awaited patch could be shipped.

A Microsoft employee has however taken to the Community forums to provide more information about the botched updates, explaining that if something goes wrong with this month’s patches, it would all lead to a “horrible user experience.” That’s the reason Microsoft decided to pull the updates, Kurt Phillips says, but the company is working hard to provide a fix.

“Everyone else - please be aware that the reason we pulled this patch was that IF you ran into the problem specified, it's a horrible user experience,” the Microsoft employee explains.

“We made a fairly invasive change in font handling as part of a security patch and thought we had it tested properly, but there are definitely problems in our test coverage and design process that we need to address. We definitely have lessons to learn from this and we will.”

As compared to what people think, only 1 in 10,000 computers are affected by the botched updates, Phillips says, but Microsoft is taking the issues seriously anyway. And still, he adds, in case you haven’t received a BSOD until now, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re perfectly secure.

“If you installed and haven't seen a Stop 0x50, there's no guarantee you won't see one before we fix it, but look at the odds. I think it would be irresponsible to say in the security bulletin to not uninstall due to the severity of the problem IF you hit it, but I'm not uninstalling. You need to make your own decision on that of course,” he explains.

Everyone experiencing this issue should contact Microsoft support as soon as possible, as no details regarding the release date of the fix are available right now.

As far as Kurt Phillips’ job at Microsoft is concerned, he says that he’s “not the official Microsoft spokesperson on this, just an engineer on a very busy graphics team trying to fix our problem.”

You can read his message in full after the jump, and in case you’re experiencing these issues already, you can have a look at this workaround to try fix them.

Kurt Phillips' Post