Bork Tuesday, Any Problems Yet?

I just opened defrag on my laptop and despite the fact that it does show last performed dates and such, it is set to run weekly. It shows last retrim on my SSDs as 12 days ago. How many days are in a week? No, I'm not really asking. I am wondering if it has gone from running every time you boot to not running at all. I guess I'll see how long before it finally does something. Currently running build 19042.508.

 

That WindowsLatest timeline isn't totally accurate. This issue was actually reported via the Feedback Hub in the latter half of December 2019. Unfortunately, the time stamp on my FH report specifically is now "9 months ago." Here's a post that I already knew about it at the time. Oh well, as @Circuit would say, this is "knit picking" anyway.

https://malwaretips.com/threads/win...-here-are-the-new-features.97178/#post-850581

I only mentioned this because, looking at that time-line, It's kind of hard believe Microsoft would issue an entirely new build for this disk issue so quickly--like in a couple of weeks. I mean if you think about it: this bug has been lingering in the release builds for months now without a fix. And now, it's still there for HDD, it seems. Oh yeah, just read your post about the 12-days-in-a-week observation, xxJackxx. Wow. Great catch!

Thanks for the additional registry info, stapp. One might wonder if the MSRT is static for that quarter or receives updated signatures.

 

It should get updated monthly.

 

Thanks for the info. I had not kept up with it as I don't pay it much attention. If things get to the point to where this tool finds something I consider myself to have bigger problems. I assume they are counting on Windows Defender to make up the for the less frequent releases of this tool.

 

Aha, thanks for the explanation. It makes a lot of sense. Making it a quarterly thing now instead of monthly in fact makes one believe this is slowly being deprecated. Plus, Defender has gotten very sophisticated, especially within the past 2 years. Hopefully, there's an official post on this sometime.

Still, if something runs on my machine, I'd like to know it--and most certainly the "official" results, even if it's nothing. That's why I harp on the Disk bug sometimes, there seems to be a lot we really curious users aren't privy to and some unexplained issues pertaining to that. But, hey, at least it seems partially fixed for SSDs.

 

Windows 10 KB4571756 is breaking Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL 2)
September 9, 2020
https://techdows.com/2020/09/window...king-windows-subsystem-for-linux-2-wsl-2.html

 

Is that a typo? I'm only at 19041.508.

 

I'm on 20H2.

 

Ah! OK then.

 

A post at Ten Forums says that although it's supposed to "optimize" weekly, it may run the actual TRIM command as little as once a month. It's supposed to run a limited defrag once a month as well.

 

I've been doing monthly updates manually from the MS Catalog since July, so I don't get offered MSRT anymore. Anyway, I think the MSRT is of limited use as a second-opinion scan for those of us running MS Defender, since MSRT uses basically the same malware detections and engine as the latter. I've been using the free version of Hitman Pro as a second-opinion scanner, with its quick scan daily on startup.

 

I use HitmanPro too, it's number one on my list.

Yes, you are right. I agree. But, MSRT was always this under-reported thing for me, popping in, then popping out and leaving no trace. So now, I want to know more. Did you happen to see what it scans for? I took a snip, yikes that's some virulent you-know-what. Plus the Eicar file, lol. Hmmm.

So, it's a little baffling seeing as this is the cream of the crop of malware, that mrt.exe now is running quarterly. Maybe the telemetry indicates this is the direction it should go.

Spoiler: mrt snip

 

Thanks for the link. If they think monthly is more optimal then I have no problem with that. But since there is a monthly option, then weekly should not be available on a machine with nothing but SSDs. Not trying to argue with you by any means, but it would be nice if they would not misrepresent the functionality. It makes people wonder what else does not work as described.

 

Microsoft's documentation is opaque, to say the least. I installed a new SSD on 18 August. Leaving everything at default, Windows (1909) says it's optimizing weekly, but the logs show that it actually checks once or twice a day. Despite all that activity, it only ran a "retrim" once, when I first installed the drive about 22 days ago. I'll be watching closely around 18 Sept. to see what it does.

 

I think that's because Microsoft now makes it almost impossible to turn off Defender unless another AV is installed, and even then, Defender can run second-opinion scans (to the chagrin of some third-party AV users). When I get the Sept. updates installed this weekend, I'll check WU for updates to see if I get the MSRT this time. (It's interesting to note that the tool is officially mrt.exe but has been referred to as MSRT or even MSSRT in the past.)

 

Just an FYI: you can also disable MSRT even if you're using Windows update to update your system. I always disable it from downloading, since I don't see much benefit in running it. More info: https://winaero.com/blog/disable-malicious-software-removal-tool/

 

This is good to know. I don't pay much attention to it. Sometimes I admit I kick it off manually even though I am running an SSD.

 

After manually installing the Sept. updates with no problems, I un-paused updates on a metered connection. Sure enough, it offered to download MSRT 5.83, which ran very quickly without giving any notifications. The excellent Nirsoft tool Win Updates View shows two install attempts, one failed and one succeeded.

 

Interesting. Thanks for the info.

 

Windows 10 update is reportedly causing issues with Start Menu
September 15, 2020
https://www.windowslatest.com/2020/09/15/windows-10-september-2020-update-issues/

 

Microsoft issues Windows 10 BSOD warning for some Lenovo users
September 17, 2020
https://www.windowslatest.com/2020/09/17/microsoft-windows-10-bsod-warning-thinkpad/