Win10 Update Facilitation Service joins Update Assistant V2 to make sure you get patched

[Karlston]

If you’ve been trying to keep Microsoft’s forced updates and upgrades off your machine, your job just got harder. With KB 4056254, we now have a new Win10 Update Facilitation Service joining its comrade-in-arms Update Assistant V2 to ensure no patch gets blocked.

Thinkstock

You can look at the new KB 4056254 Win10 Update Facilitation Service and the re-emergence of Win10 Update Assistant V2 from two different perspectives. On the one hand, you have those poor hapless Win10 users who accidentally munged Windows Update. On the other hand, you have folks with bazookas and flamethrowers who want to keep some semblance of control over updating their machines.

 

Both groups now face two different Microsoft initiatives to reset Windows Update.

 

Susan Bradley was looking at some new KB articles over the weekend and stumbled onto KB 4056254, an announcement for a, uh, service known as the Windows 10 Update Facilitation Service. (If you have a hard time thinking of Win10 as a service, try wrapping your mind around the concept of a forced patching bulldozer as a service.)

 

We’ve seen KB 4056254 before. Microsoft apparently released it back in January, but it didn’t make much of a splash. I haven’t seen KB 4056254 in action as yet, so all I can relay is the official description, which goes like this:

 

This update includes a background service to facilitate Windows Update service on devices running Home or Pro editions of Windows 10 Versions 1507, 1511, 1607, and 1703.

This update includes files and resources to address issues affecting background update processes in the Windows Update servicing stack. Maintaining Window Update service health and performance helps ensure that quality updates are installed seamlessly on your device and help to improve the reliability and security of devices running Windows 10.

KB 4056254 isn’t available through the Microsoft Update Catalog, and I haven’t seen it on my test machines, but it sounds thoroughly obnoxious:

Only certain builds of Windows 10 Versions 1507, 1511, 1607, and 1703 require this update. Devices that are running those builds on Home or Pro editions that are not domain joined will automatically get the update downloaded and installed through Windows Update.

You have to wonder, if Windows Update isn’t working, how it’ll be installed through Windows Update. The plot thickens:

Devices not connected to Windows Update may see a User Account Control (UAC) prompt during installation. Click Yes to install.

Which, of course, makes absolutely no sense. If you aren’t connected to Windows Update, how do you get the update — and why would Win10 throw a UAC prompt if you aren’t connected to Windows Update? But never mind. Maybe somebody on the patching team just posted this KB as a troll.

 

The “Important fix for Windows Update” dialog posted in the KB article (screenshot) hasn’t been seen in the wild yet, as best I can tell, but it says:

 

Microsoft

Important fix for Windows Update

Windows Update isn’t working and needs the Windows 10 update facilitation service to make sure operating system updates can install properly.

Select Yes on the next screen to allow it. A restart won’t be required.

The next screen is a typical UAC prompt.

 

There are so many inconsistencies — “Windows Update isn’t working” but the only way to get KB 4056254 is through Windows Update; “Devices not connected to Windows Update may see a UAC prompt” — that it’s hard to take any of it seriously.

 

Günter Born on his Borncity blog points out many additional inconsistencies. For example, KB 4056254 only goes out to Home and Pro copies of Win10 1507, 1511, 1607, and 1703 — but most of those are out of support.

 

An anonymous AskWoody poster says:

KB 4056254 looks like a morphing of March 2018’s KB 4023057 which had unblocked disabled or blocked Windows Update on Win 10

… and, sure enough, if you compare the verbiage from March’s KB 4023057 (and its predecessor, KB 4022868), there are several cut-and-paste similarities. The anonymous poster goes on to say:

Seems, from April to June 2018, some savvy Win 10 users have found new ways to disable or block Windows Update. So, M$ has to come out with KB4056254 to “neutralize” their efforts. It’s like a cat-and-mouse game.

Which seems to me like the core of the matter. It’s not nice to mess with Mother Microsoft’s patching schemes, so you’re going to get a few new services running in the background to whop your system upside the head if you dare to block patches.

 

How the January release of KB 4056254 compares with the latest release baffles me.

 

As if that isn’t bad enough, it seems that we’re getting another jolt of our old friend the Win10 Update Assistant V2. ViperJohn reports:

 

The June 2018 Cumulative KB 4284874 for Win10 v1703… installs the dreaded Windows 10 Update Assistant V2. It installs in the \Windows\UpdateAssistantV2 folder which should be deleted before the horror show in the folder can execute… the sole purpose this delightful piece of MS designed MalWare is to undo and /or reset every single User set or altered Service / PC Setting / Group Policy impediment to a forced version upgrade.

EP confirms that the lovely Update Assistant is also bundled with this month’s cumulative update for version 1607.

 

I talked about the Update Assistant back in March. It was blamed for one of the three incidents where Microsoft forced Win10 1703 machines to 1709, even if they were set to block updates. It’s possible that the same malfunctioning Assistant upgraded 1709 machines to 1803, even when they were blocked.

 

Bottom line: If you don’t want to join the unpaid beta-testing force currently working on the “fully available” Win10 version 1803, avoid the new Windows Update Facilitation as a Service (just click “No”), make sure you use the official settings to block forced upgrades and, if you do install this month’s cumulative updates complete with Update Assistant v2 (I don’t recommend it just yet), go back and make sure your settings are intact.

 

Nag me all you want, Microsoft, but this is getting ridiculous. All I want is an “Off” button — until you figure out how to deliver reliable patches and upgrades.

 

We’ve got your back on the AskWoody Lounge.

 

Source: Win10 Update Facilitation Service joins Update Assistant V2 to make sure you get patched (Computerworld - Woody Leonhard)

[steven36]

interesting,  just use Windows 8.1 Or Linux and  problem solved or use Windows 10  Firewall Control  and block updates internet access and  you're good.  Windows updates threw    svchost.exe  and the software has zones for updates and no updates and it's just like having a on /off switch. I used it on Windows 10 with 100% success and i still use it on Windows 8.1 because even if you have updates off Microsoft is still in the background collecting data on you. Also all that calling home in the background is a security risk for other spyware to infect you,  witch have existed  every since i 1st came on the internet. Last time I clean installed Windows 10 it was RS3 it was calling home to Facebook and everywhere and it kept reinstalling the Facebook app tell i blocked app updates .  

if people really had a idea of what they was installing an they not and advanced PC user that know what to block .i would recommend to use something else because you're just a botnet for every data havesting company out there.

[csmdew]

I would suggest that all the paranoid ppl just stick there heads in the ground so I can't hear all the crying.

[Skunk1966]

6 hours ago, csmdew said:

I would suggest that all the paranoid ppl just stick there heads in the ground so I can't hear all the crying.

so stop listening to all "paranoid people". We're not interested in this opinion of yours

[PrEzi]

So do we have already a "workaround" for this new "sh*t"?  Is this just a service that can be disabled? Someone already tested it? 

 

I am on 1709 + blocked updates and I thought that we are slowly nearing a stable April build 18* release... but now this....

Without a clear way to again shut the M$ up I won't do anything now...

[Karlston]

4 hours ago, PrEzi said:

So do we have already a "workaround" for this new "sh*t"?  Is this just a service that can be disabled? Someone already tested it?

 

Not sure whether disabling the Windows Update Service will be enough. I suspect this update will periodically check for "unauthorised" (not approved by Microsoft) update preventions and disable them, in this case just restarting that service.

 

Maybe a scheduled job could be set up to run several times a day, to just disable that service.

 

Noel Carboni, one of the AskWoody gurus offers some suggestions here... https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/watch-out-win10-update-facilitation-as-a-service-and-a-new-push-for-the-update-assistant/#post-198626

 

In that post's last image, Noel shows a list of Windows update domains blocked (next to "WU"). They could be blocked on your router, and then if and when updates become safe the blocks could be temporarily enabled again. I doubt even the Microsoft arrogant bastards would be able to stop that.

 

There's also mention of being able to delete an installed folder to stop it... https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/watch-out-win10-update-facilitation-as-a-service-and-a-new-push-for-the-update-assistant/#post-198573

 

Note the timing though.

[PrEzi]

Thx Karlston.... I'll keep watching this and askwoody's threads... 

Hope for an easy & final solution like e.g. "GWX Control Panel" but for new forced updates in W10...

[C.G.B. Spender]

18 hours ago, csmdew said:

I would suggest that all the paranoid ppl just stick there heads in the ground so I can't hear all the crying.

Well said, I maintain 4 of my own pc's and 3 pc's of my friends with w10 and latest updates, no tinfoil hat nonsense with disabling system services and guess what? Never had a single problem.

 

The only thing I really dislike about nsane is all the unsubstantiated hate and paranoia about w10. It is infinitely superior to w7-8-8.1 in every regard, and if someone says he prefers w8 or w8.1 that pretty much precludes any further sensible debate.

 

If people stopped crippling their systems and used hw from last 5 years they wouldn't have any problems either, but that's too much effort compared to hacking registry, installing bs software and damaging the system I guess.

[Karlston]

1 hour ago, C.G.B. Spender said:

It is infinitely superior to w7-8-8.1 in every regard, and if someone says he prefers w8 or w8.1 that pretty much precludes any further sensible debate.

 

Pffft! Windows 8.1 works just fine for me matey. Stable, mature, and user-controllable, everything that Windows 10 is not.

 

I have zero want or need for an OS that every 6 months adds a bunch of unwanted "features" together with a collection of new bugs. And that comes from experience, not from any tinfoil hat that your vivid imagination thinks all non-Windows 10 users wear.

 

By all means stick to what you like, but don't demean the rest of us who prefer stability, maturity and user-control.

[neeraj]

Not sure what Microsoft wants. It forced people to update from their older version of windows. It provides windows updates that breaks things and then needs another update. And on top you aren't even allowed to disable the update service. Its like your PC is no longer your own. Do what Microsoft says or simply switch to some other OS.

[Archanus]

Now we have ""the obligation"" to update every fu***n update of Windows 10  More bugs, more unstable and ugly

[simeongg]

Probably some data are transferred much to MS, but what  I see in Windows 10, is the fastest in changes Windows, than ever. Yep some changes are widely loved, some are not, some brings bug on older systems, some want specific hardware. But I like, this new face of Windows. I am WindowsInstider on skip a head ring and love the changes involved by WinInsider community and actually there is listening on MS side.  Stable versions are actually strong and got only full working features. May be bad side is that, older hardware will not support some new features. 

 

If expand things there can be paranoia, about SmartPhones, ISPs, FBI and internet world wide, Facebook and so on. As for me Meltdown and Spectre, just cutout older hardware and some people will upgrade or renew their hardware.