Consumers still using Windows XP may want to avoid the latest Microsoft security update released on Tuesday. Security blogger Brian Krebs reports that complaints are flooding the Redmond company's support forums, indicating that the update is crippling some systems with the notorious Blue Screen of Death. The systems thus falls into a reboot loop.
Early Wednesday morning an unofficial fix was posted on the support forum thread, suggesting that users boot from the Windows XP installation disk, launch the Recovery Console, and enter a chain of commands at the Repair Screen. After exiting the Recovery Console, the system should return to normal.
Unfortunately, the fix doesn't apply to netbook users suffering the BSOD issue.
But by early Thursday morning, more than 120 messages filled the support thread; more than 2,800 consumers had actually viewed the thread since its creation. Krebs had also updated his blog to reveal that the problematic update is KB977165 (MS10–15:Vulnerabilities in Windows kernel could allow elevation of privilege”). MS10-15 addresses a 17-year-old kernel bug in all 32-bit versions of Windows XP.
Other users in the support forum thread also verified the source of the BSOD as MS10-15, and said that uninstalling that particular update returns the system to normal. Currently Microsoft has not issued a hotfix for repairing or removing the MS10-15 error.
MS10-15 is one of thirteen security updates released by Microsoft on "Patch Tuesday."
