14 DAY TRIAL // Windows 7 is no longer getting security updates since January 2020, and now given it’s already in the third year of extended support, it won’t take long until the operating system gets the ax once and for all.
At this point, only devices in the ESU program are getting further security patches if they’re running Windows 7.
Microsoft has released a new monthly rollup for Windows 7 devices as part of the October 2022 Patch Tuesday cycle. The update lands as KB5018454, and it includes fixes for the known security vulnerabilities, as well as the two following fixes:
- Addresses an issue that leads to User Datagram Protocol (UDP) packet drops from Linux virtual machines (VMs).
- Updates daylight saving time (DST) in Chile to start on September 11, 2022 instead of September 4, 2022.
Microsoft says Windows 7 is also impacting the Group Policy bug that makes it impossible to copy files – the same glitch has also been acknowledged in the other Windows versions that are still being supported, including Windows 11.
“After installing this update, file copies which use Group Policy Preferences might fail or might create empty shortcuts or files that have 0 (zero) bytes. Known affected Group Policy Objects are related to files and shortcuts in User Configuration > Preferences > Windows Settings in Group Policy Editor,” Microsoft says.
The company claims it’s already working on a full fix, and while no ETA is available at this point, Microsoft says you can try one of the following workarounds:
- Clear the "Run in logged-on user's security context (user policy option)" check box. This might not mitigate the issue for items that use a wildcard (*).
- In the affected Group Policy, change "Action" from "Replace" to "Update".
- If a wildcard (*) is used in the location or destination, deleting the trailing "\" (backslash, without quotation marks) from the destination might allow the copy to be successful.