Windows 7 users get fix for latest updating woe

Microsoft has vexed its users with another misbehaving update.

The latest problem occurred on 8 January when enterprise users running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 with a Key Management Service (KMS) started complaining on Microsoft’s TechNet forums and Reddit that they were seeing two errors, the first relating to licensing, the second networking.

In the first, users were seeing a “Windows is not genuine” error dialogue after logging in, which allowed them to run their copy with this message embedded as a desktop watermark.

The second error appears to have been a problem with different symptoms resulting in users not being able to access SMB2 shares or start remote desktop connections through both admin and non-admin accounts.

At first it was assumed that the problems were connected to separate security and feature updates for Windows 7 – KB4480960 and KB4480970 – which were issued as part of Patch Tuesday.

It later transpired that the problem wasn’t with either of those updates and was instead connected to a change made to the Microsoft Activation and Validation servers affecting anyone who had installed an old update, KB971033, which originally appeared last April.