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Microsoft patches Windows and Excel – breaks audio, remote access, and paste

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Re: Microsoft patches Windows and Excel – breaks audio, remote access, and paste

#141

Post by rpdillon »

serbuvlad wrote: post #62
srmatto wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up with DOS, Win 95, 98, 2000, XP and so on. I have to ask when was Microsoft above breaking things? In my mind they always had a reputation as being pretty shoddy. As soon as MacOS (OS X) was a viable alternative I gleefully switched and never looked back. I still keep a Windows machine around for gaming but I don't use it for anything more than that. All my serious work happens inside of MacOS.

I've recently switched to a Mac after years on Linux, basically due to my frustration with the way the Linux desktop is being developed and the lack of quality all around for that platform. Overall, it's an absolute joy. It just works extremely well. Like any new platform it has its fair share of quirks and inexplicable behavior. My two biggest pet peeves are magic interactions that are very useful, but I don't know…

Meta-topic: I've seen this comment many times over the years, and it never results in a discussion where folks can agree. My reaction reading it is "You must be holding it wrong!" because I daily-drive Linux in many more ways than one (servers, laptops, desktops, handhelds (Hackberry Pi), SBCs, and, Valve-willing, VR headsets), and adore the Linux desktop. I use Pop!_OS almost everywhere, but Debian/Ubuntu/Arch with IceWM or Fluxbox (or the like) works great.

Anyway, this is not a call for you to start listing all the stuff that's broken (though feel free!), I'm just amazed that, with years of power and freedom on Linux, you truly enjoy Mac more. Just goes to show each of us has our own workflow and tastes!

Re: Microsoft patches Windows and Excel – breaks audio, remote access, and paste

#142

Post by zamalek »

mikestew wrote: post #24
xvxvx wrote: post #3

Aside from the audio issue, it feels like the remote access and pasting issues should have been discovered in QA. This constant slide in quality over the past few years has me looking to Linux as an option.

it feels like the remote access and pasting issues should have been discovered in QA. You're thinking of 20-years-ago Microsoft. Microsoft famously got rid of their software test teams like ten years ago. As one who worked there 20-some years ago on their test teams, I'd say the quality of their software is really starting to show the negative effects of such a move. (FWIW, we got rid of our last Windows machine in t…

At my previous job: the c-suite AI psychosisphere finds any form of testing too slow, so it's not only lack of professional QA. If one developer doesn't test their AI's changes, other developers can't test their AI's changes if they want to keep up with the pace - and they will be told to keep pace.

Re: Microsoft patches Windows and Excel – breaks audio, remote access, and paste

#143

Post by albert_e »

post_break wrote: post #31

There's a massive RDP bug in the new update that is breaking stuff with no fix right now. Congrats Microsoft on the help desk ticket generation. (KB5124008)

Thanks for the headsup.

it seems they claim to have fixed it :

> September 14, 2026—KB5129195 (OS Builds 26200.9457 and 26100.9457) Out-of-band

> [Remote Desktop Services (known issue)] Fixed: This update addresses an issue affecting Remote Desktop Services (RDS) after installing the September 2026 Windows security update (KB5122880). In affected environments, RDS might become unstable, causing RDP connection and sign-in failures or servers to become unresponsive during Remote Desktop configuration. Related tools, including Microsoft Management Console (MMC), RDS Licensing Diagnoser, File Explorer, and the Windows Update page, might also stop responding.

Re: Microsoft patches Windows and Excel – breaks audio, remote access, and paste

#144

Post by dadoum »

ThrowawayB7 wrote: post #130
mikestew wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it feels like the remote access and pasting issues should have been discovered in QA. You're thinking of 20-years-ago Microsoft. Microsoft famously got rid of their software test teams like ten years ago. As one who worked there 20-some years ago on their test teams, I'd say the quality of their software is really starting to show the negative effects of such a move. (FWIW, we got rid of our last Windows machine in t…

Lay the blame where it belongs: it was one of Satya Nadella's early decisions to eliminate the SDET role at Microsoft. Everybody praised him at the time as some kind of wunderkind for juicing the stock but now Microsoft and users are facing the consequences. Hopefully history will correctly attach responsibility to Nadella for it.

To be fair, as of today, history still proves him right. Windows crumbles, but it still features enough value via its dominant position. As much as consumers are dissatisfied, investors are getting what they asked for, it is more efficiently extracting money. I hope that eventually that trend would reverse, but just being able to hold 10+ years with that bad of a product is already pretty sad.

Re: Microsoft patches Windows and Excel – breaks audio, remote access, and paste

#145

Post by bitwize »

karp773 wrote: post #43

My favorite one was a few years ago when MS rolled out a Visual Studio with the login window broken. Literally, it was impossible to log in. I still cannot believe a company like Microsoft can fall so low.

I can. I could've told you decades ago, that this was the late stage of not just Microsoft, but any software company whose bread and butter was vendor lock-in. Microsoft was just the worst at the time because they were the biggest. Eventually the vendor lock-in becomes so great that the marginal cost, in terms of customers lost, from not fixing/improving your software, or at least not not letting it get worse, becomes much smaller than the cost of improving it/maintaining it. Any resources the company has to spare go into solidifying the lock-in, rather than making the software worth staying on in the first place. Even Apple seems to be in the early-mid stages of this transformation.

Re: Microsoft patches Windows and Excel – breaks audio, remote access, and paste

#146

Post by rendaw »

anyfoo wrote: post #136
Lammy wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference is that now the breakage comes to you instead of being something optional that you can seek out or ignore. I remember installing, like, fewer than ten updates ever for Windows 95: The ‘95A’ patch, a few updates to Dial-Up Networking, WinSock update, CHM Help Update, MSXML, MSVCRT. I steadfastly avoided the webby Active Desktop IE4 ‘Desktop Update’ but did install the browser itself.

I think people just forgot how insanely unstable and prone to breaking MS OSes were back then. Crashes and hangs that take down your entire machine were common, and “reinstalling the OS” was seen as a normal thing that you just had to do every once in a while. Windows 95 was pretty much broken “by design”. This is truer than it seems, especially if you skip being charitable by taking the context into account, namely…

But surely random crashes is better than a broken login screen that prevents you from doing any work at all?

Re: Microsoft patches Windows and Excel – breaks audio, remote access, and paste

#147

Post by sph »

kenhwang wrote: post #37
alphager wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you had recent experiences? I thought the same until I tried it out, on decision stable no less. The driver support nowadays is incredibly good on Linux (my desktop Bluetooth didn't work under Windows with official drivers; just works without any tinkering under Linux).

One of my machines is always Linux desktop; I've been using it to see if it's ready enough for my main desktop to switch over and so far my verdict has been it's not. Last weekend I tried updating to Linux 7.2, and WiFi drivers failed to compile, so it's been fun.

I bet €5 you’re using a mickey mouse linux distro.

Re: Microsoft patches Windows and Excel – breaks audio, remote access, and paste

#148

Post by stodor89 »

srmatto wrote: post #51
karp773 wrote: post #43

My favorite one was a few years ago when MS rolled out a Visual Studio with the login window broken. Literally, it was impossible to log in. I still cannot believe a company like Microsoft can fall so low.

I grew up with DOS, Win 95, 98, 2000, XP and so on. I have to ask when was Microsoft above breaking things? In my mind they always had a reputation as being pretty shoddy. As soon as MacOS (OS X) was a viable alternative I gleefully switched and never looked back. I still keep a Windows machine around for gaming but I don't use it for anything more than that. All my serious work happens inside of MacOS.

"This program performed an illegal operation and will be shut down."

Re: Microsoft patches Windows and Excel – breaks audio, remote access, and paste

#149

Post by Lammy »

drooopy wrote: post #134
Lammy wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference is that now the breakage comes to you instead of being something optional that you can seek out or ignore. I remember installing, like, fewer than ten updates ever for Windows 95: The ‘95A’ patch, a few updates to Dial-Up Networking, WinSock update, CHM Help Update, MSXML, MSVCRT. I steadfastly avoided the webby Active Desktop IE4 ‘Desktop Update’ but did install the browser itself.

Oh, man. The "Active" Desktop. The only thing that it kept active was my CD drive when I was forced to reinstall Windows every time I tried to make it work on my PC and it broke everything.

I was all about some 98lite ‘Sleek’ on my hand-me-down 486DX/2-66 in the late '90s, Windows 98/98SE/Me with the original Windows 95 pre-OSR2.5 non-Active Explorer swapped in :)

- https://www.litepc.com/swap.html

- http://toastytech.com/guis/l98.html

Re: Microsoft patches Windows and Excel – breaks audio, remote access, and paste

#150

Post by wannabe44 »

bunderbunder wrote: post #121
yoyohello13 wrote: post #106

Microsoft has constantly been bragging about AI writing all their code. And they push out more bugs than features these days.

I don’t know if that’s strictly true. But one thing I’ve seen since AI coding has taken over is that the additional features that do get built are all the lower-value ideas that would previously been left on the cutting room floor. I’m not convinced that’s a positive. Users don’t necessarily even perceive those lower-value changes as features, so much as unnecessary bloat.

The friction between coming up with an Idea and implementing it is a feature in most corporates. Otherwise managers will be too focused on creating shiny slides and marketing nonsense - which is happening with AI.
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