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Posted (edited)

Hi,

 

I had been putting together a master list of troublesome Windows updates. There are lists all over and I am looking to put it all into one concise list. Part of it is because I am rebuilding my main multi-OS rig and right now I am on a backup with Windows 7.

 

Anyways, I went and uninstalled a few existing updates and here are 2 (3rd party's) quotes regarding one of them:

 

Platform update for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 = breaks AERO functionality and gives you blurry fonts on some websites. And brakes Resource monitor in 125DPI in classic mode

 

And another:

 

 

KB2670838: The EVIL Update, breaks AERO on Windows 7 and makes some fonts on websites fuzzy, Windows 7 specific update only (Do not install IE10 or 11, otherwise it will be bundled with them. IE9 is the max version you should install)

 

 

So then after finishing up some projects I rebooted and (anecdotally- no hard metrics at this point) the whole process seemed faster. I got a couple of interesting popups asking about configurations as the desktop was forming. I started firing up all my usual programs and when I hit PDN I got a dialogue saying that it requires this update! Ouch!

 

So, does anybody in the know have some knowledge to contribute? I am itching to get to creating images and I want to figure this one out!

 

In the mean time, here is a totally unrelated image just for the fun of it.

 

 

Dump and Xi+.jpg

Edited by Apollo702
minor clarification
Posted (edited)

Clarificiation: The original project did not start off as a PDN concern and I am not looking for general tech help.

 

The point is that when the main rig is ready it will have many OSes and I wanted to start fresh with a number of troublesome Windows updates not included in the initial round of updates. The original point was to exclude GWX updates(besides, it will have stinky Windows 10 anyways as one of the OSes), telemetry and known buggy/troublesome updates.

 

So, I also did a search of installed updates on the backup computer(that I am presently using) and found that one alleged to be troublesome. Upon reboot it said that PDN can't start without it.

 

So yes, this did become a PDN issue.

Edited by Apollo702
Bigger clarifications
Posted

All drivers are up to date. My best guess is that PDN may have some sort of dependency. Maybe it is critical or perhaps there is a workaround???

Posted (edited)

PDN does produce various error reporting. Maybe you should insert the text copy of those reports in your next response.

 

Edited by HyReZ


 

Posted

When doing the system restart a couple of (I had never seen before) dialogues popped up asking about configuration after the offending update was removed.

 

I just now clicked on PDN and it came up with a similar one(again.) Here is a screenshot:

PDN SI.png

Posted

Thank you for responding- but I am looking to go a little deeper into what is it about this one? How deeply embedded does it go? Are there workarounds or is this one absolute?

Posted (edited)

I just had a look on my own Windows 7 SP1 and I have had that KB2670838 update since 2016 and from the date I'm pretty sure it must have been included in the massive Convenience Rollup update I used after the virgin install of Windows 7 SP1 on the, then, newly built PC.

 

So that update did not beak Aero, it works correctly on my machine but then, of course, I had/have nothing to compare it too so may be it does give you more blurry fonts on some web sites but if it does the effect is not noticeable.

 

What I have found in my researches is that the update or rather the lack of it has caused problems for other programs like Kodi (previously XBMC) and some video games ie. it is required.

 

If the same thing applies to PDN (or the current PDN version) then what is there that can be done other than install it and live with whatever real or imagined display issues it causes?

 

This sounds all a bit Chicken Little syndrome to me - where is the actual evidence that installing this update has real graphical consequences? It appears all anecdotal. 

Edited by IHaveNoName

IHaveNoName.png

Posted

So that sounds pretty embedded. Also, as a side note; I spent a while testing Plex and Kodi and I found Kodi superior for a number of reasons. PDN is something I absolutely have to have and Kodi is on the rise for me.

 

I guess that it is time to close out some projects and put that update back. This deal appears to be sealed.

 

Thanks to everyone for responding. How about some puppies to brighten up your night/morning?

Dogs Green.png

  • 1 year later...
Posted

I came across this post when I got the error message that "Paint.net requires that the Platform Update for Windows is [sic] installed." When I saw that this was KB2670838 I rolled my eyes. Indeed I have blocked this update from appearing on my Windows update list years ago (it somehow got reinstalled anyway, so I had to banish it again, which is when I discovered that PDN stopped working the next time I tried to run it).

 

There are indeed many problems with the KB2670838 update (I search for the details whenever I need to find them by Googling "evil update," if that's a clue!) In my case, it boils down to the fact that Windows Resource Monitor stops working with enlarged (125 dpi) screen resolution. Doesn't sound like a big deal, but after seeing all the other problems reported by others, it just seemed like a very buggy update which was never properly fixed subsequently.

 

The only thing that didn't work for me without this update was IE 10 and IE 11, but who uses IE anyway (I installed IE 9 just incase)? And allegedly some games that I wouldn't care about. But now I find that PDN post 4.0.21 also does not work without this update.

The PDN blog post at https://blog.getpaint.net/2018/04/01/paint-net-4-0-22-and-windows-7-platform-update/ explains the dependency. Various posts there by a user beavis@butt-head.com complained about this dependency, but he was not ummm ... very articulate, shall we say (or perhaps too articulate?), and didn't make his point well. And there were some surly responses by the author along the lines of suggesting that the complainer go back to the stone age if he didn't like updates (though the author's claim that "It’s not even a big update, and it doesn’t break anything" is quite false, as a simple search for "KB2670838 evil update" will reveal--yes, the update is a few years old but when has that meant that it's problem-free when it comes to Microsoft?). Anyway, it was not a productive exchange overall at that blog post and this forum thread seems more so.

 

So my main purpose in writing this forum update is (1) to provide legitimacy (or at least empathy) for those who are indeed having an a problem with KB2670838 and quite rightfully don't want to install it. And (2) to indicate to those people, that indeed going back to version 4.0.21 of PDN would seem to be the only way to continue to use PDN without installing the "evil update" on Windows 7. That is indeed what I plan to do as long as I am on Windows 7, and forsake whatever improvements to PDN have been done since then.

 

The official website for PDN does not seem to have older versions archived for some reason, but it's easy enough to find them. E.g., at <snip> (interestingly, 4.0.21 is the oldest one still on that archive, so get it while you can before it drops off the list). Make sure to do a Custom install and then disable the "Automatically check for updates" option so you don't inadvertently "upgrade" to a version that won't work for you.

 

Incidentally, I found that Plugins are preserved over the Uninstall/Reinstall process (i.e., the Effects folder where plugins are stored was not deleted by the uninstall, although the FileTypes folder was, but perhaps only because it was empty?). If you want to play safe and avoid having to search again for plugins you may have previously installed, you could save the Effects and FileTypes subfolders in C:\Program Files\paint.net\ before uninstalling.

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