If you think devices come with potential flaws, even the patches aimed for rightening them too sometimes comes with flaws. Here’s a story of how Microsoft’s February 2020 patch for Windows KB4532693 has a simple flaw that’s loading user profile onto system files while updating and not retrieving them after completion. This led many users to wonder about where their desktop files have gone.
Microsoft, as a part of their curriculum, has released a cumulative update for the Windows 10 v1909 and v1903 KB4532693 in their February Patch on Tuesday. And right after it’s installed by the public, they all started complaining about similar issues – missing user profile, missing desktop files and system restore to default.
The Renaming Bug
The flaw contained in the recent update isn’t a security issue, but a simple flaw due to improper checks. While this isn’t any potential vulnerable to adversaries, it’s annoying to the general community anyway. All the users who laid this patch complained about their user profiles missing right after installation, all their desktop files being gone and PC restoring to default!
Many have posted the same issue in Microsoft community forums and shared each others concerns. Günter Born wrote about the issue, as he found out where all his missing went after the update. Users complaining about missing files can lookup into their Windows drive (C:/Users). These files are stored in a temporary profile, with original being renamed. The process undergoes a simple registry editing while updating, but fails to restore after being done.
Yet, it’s manually recoverable for now and may Microsoft look into this soon. The temporary files storing all those missing files are renamed and ends with .000 or .bak. And diving deep into system files to find the folder is, of course, annoying. As of now, the bug is simply resetting the Windows background, settings and transporting desktop files into a temporary folder only. Nothing harmful.
Via BleepingComputer
