I agree 100% & this may be a problem MS will not "fix" because of it. As far as they are concerned theses updates are targeted towards the servers; not out of date OSes. Could require some programming magic from outside of M$. Wait & see for now. Solutions will present themselves I am sure. ;>))
So the November 2024 security updates for Windows Server 2008 R2 KB5046687 and KB5046705 apparently break the "legacy" browsers including Firefox ESR 115. I have one computer setup with Windows Server 2008 R2, with patches up to August 2024. I have no plans to patch it (or in fact any of my Windows installations) before the end of 2024. So I will watch closely to see if this is "intentional" from Microsoft and that it really considers 2008 R2 machines "are not for browsing". There may be other problems with these security updates as well. By the way, for the new Bypass ESU 13 : I am aware that we can't remove the Bypass once ESU updates are installed. Do I just extract the package and run it on Windows 7 x64 or Windows Server 2008 R2 and then it will override and replace previous bypasses? I am also wondering whether the corresponding update for Windows Server 2012 R2 KB5046682 will cause similar problems for Windows 8.1 x64 and Windows Server 2012 R2. I think I should find time to do some tests myself.
I can add my experience to the list of data points. All programs using CEF (I only have <= M109) were broken by KB5046687 on all the Windows 7 machines I manage. KB5046687 also broke Supermium 124 and Firefox 115. However, ungoogled chromium 109 is still working fine under KB5046687. I find that interesting. Perhaps the google trust coordinated and planned this to affect all browsers under their control that they decided were "too old".
better to skip this update. It looks like R3dFox is not affected. Another thing i am thinking about: is there any ability to backport windows server 2012 r2 updates which will be available till 2029 to Windows 7 platform? If it is possible it will be tremendous!
Don't forget that KB5046687 and future rollup updates are cumulative. Later rollup updates will contain the "fixes" for KB5046687. If Microsoft does not "fix" this problem you will be forced to skip ALL subsequent rollup updates if you don't want to be affected. Unless you are already using (or switch to) the security-only updates and then you can just skip this month's security-only update KB5046705. The hope is that Microsoft will come around and fix the underlying code that causes this problem, but as mentioned above, from Microsoft's perspective starting from November 2024 these updates are only targeted at 2008 R2 and not at 7, so Microsoft may not care that the updates cause significant problems for Windows 7 if they achieve their primary objective of fixing the specified vulnerabilities of Server 2008 R2.
[James Bond 007, post: 1860257, member: 188531 - "Unless you are already using (or switch to) the security-only updates and then you can just skip this month's security-only update KB5046705."] I used the Security Only Monthly Update KB5046705 and it didn't necessarily break Firefox v115.17.0esr - it was working after ALL the security updates released today were installed. I had some nuisances with Adobe Acrobat DC and Adobe Creative Cloud Experience programs. I used their respective cleanup tools and from there Firefox tabs began crashing at startup and opening a new tab (even a blank one). Also at that time, I had installed one of several due MS update packages relating to Windows Server 2008 R2 components (post-applying the BypassESU v13 security updates) - specifically, KB981392 - Best Practices Analyzer for Application Server (this did not include the updated package KB2386667.) In the event that your discovery is indeed a result of these updates, I can say that the System Update Readiness Tool (KB947821-v34) or using the "sfc /scannow" command did not really correct this OS state. It's 3-4 hours waiting for the finished task with the System Update Readiness Tool. Mozilla may shortly have an ESR release that fixes the issue. Otherwise Firefox partially began to work after a little play with creating new profiles from "about : profiles" and setting them as default, then back again (one of them being a "Refresh Firefox" committal - just make a copy of your default profiles from the {user}-AppData-[Local,Roaming]-Mozilla-Firefox-Profile folders before doing this.) It worked once, until someone closed the browser. I re-did this action by creating a new profile, making it default (but not opening it in a new browser session just yet). Manually, I copied ONLY the "bookmarks backup" folder into this new profile at this folder location: {user}-AppData-Roaming-Mozilla-Firefox-Profiles-{new profile folder} If you've made a copy of the original default profile from the Roaming-Mozilla etc profile, you can delete the old one once the default profile is the new one and opened in a new browser windows - close the old browser (where you did the "about : profiles" task of creating a new profile) and delete the old profile from the Roaming-Mozilla-Firefox-Profiles folder. All the Add-ons I had to make a list of, and re-install them in the "Tools-Add-ons and Themes" (add the Menu Bar in order to fast access this feature.) If you are online and you are able to access the Add-on Manager screen (addons.mozolla.org webpage) + install your add-ons successfully, that's at least something. Firefox would surely bring up frequently the crashed tab messages when choosing one of the popular sites. If you bring up the Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del - Start Task Manager, Show processes from all users), you will notice that when you get a crashed tab situation, a multiple processes titled "minidump-analyzer.exe" will begin to work for a brief 4-10 seconds. These may be seeking to reconfigure itself in order to access the webpage based on any new MS services involved with browsing using Firefox. This may also include "hardware acceleration" settings. Some webpages will experience the crash tab several times, and each time attempting to restore the tab will be more about reverting back to the previous webpage that worked. But eventually, some webpages selected based on your collected "Bookmarks" will open the webpage with a margin of success if not fully. When you see a "Submit Report" option for a webpage that did not fully open successfully, submit that report to Mozilla - then try again to refresh/open the same webpage once the activity in the Task Manager shows the "minidump-analyzer.exe" process(es) have finished their work. This method may demonstrate a slow recovery back into browsing with Firefox, yet any pages past a Sign-In may crash the tab and need the "minidump-analyzer.exe" process to reconfigure that page by recovering the tab several times. Hopefully a little patience may prevail a comeback for Firefox. Mind you, all this information was based on NOT YET having the missing KB2386667 update package installed. For all I know, it may not even had been necessary to create a new profile in Firefox and delete the old one. I did have a new profile that stopped working when I changed in the Settings page for Privacy & Security - History (having a setting other than "Remember History" likely will bring more crash tabs than desired.) This was the first time for me installing an official Windows Server 2008 R2 package in a Windows 7 x64 machine post-POS Embedded EOL support, so naturally the additional Windows Server 2008 R2 packages required to be installed are as follows: Security Update x64 (KB2643719) - Color Control Panel DLL RCE Patch (MS12-012) - February 12 Update x64 (KB2608658) - SIS (Single Instance Storage) Component Update - March 12 Update x64 (KB981392) - Best Practices Analyzer for Application Server - August 12 Update x64 (KB2386667) - Best Practices Analyzer for Application Server (6 New Rules) - August 12 Update x64 (KB981390) - Best Practices Analyzer For WSUS - October 12 Security Update x64 (KB2992611-KB3018238) - Update (MS14-066) - November 14 Security Update x64 (KB3133043) - NPS RADIUS Server Authentication DoS Resolution (MS16-021) - February 16 The one package you may NOT want/need (unless your networking requires it for Windows 10 interacting) is: Update x64 (KB3080149) - Customer Experience & Diagnostic Telemetry (W10 DATA MINING!!) - August 15 Still, thanks to all for the heads up about the browser bust ups.
Hello Should I uninstall BypassESU v12_u before installing BypassESU-v13 Or install v13 over v12 Have a nice day
My Firefox and Waterfox also break after the update. I still have a installation of a super-legacy Waterfox 2022.11 (based on Firefox 56) which is working after the update, so I can log in the forum and check whether the update causes the problem before rolliing back to previous restore point. Thanks for confirming the issue
[eric cabrol, post: 1860274, member: 595610 - "Should I uninstall BypassESU v12_u before installing BypassESU-v13 Or install v13 over v12."] Run BypassESU v12 first (Run As Administrator the LiveOS-Setup.cmd file). Select Option 4 if available - Remove ESU Suppressor (don't worry about repeating this for the .NET v4.x BypassESU Option). Once done, exit the Command Prompt window. Now, use the BypassESU v13 LiveOS-Setup.cmd file as previously detailed. This time, use Option 1 - Install ALL. You may not experience installation issues when choosing to install the .NET v4.x security updates FIRST (before installing the Security [Monthly,Only] Quality [Rollup,Update] or the Cumulative Security Update for IE11.). I did them in this order, and I did notice a little CPU lingering with the "msiexec.exe" process after installing the .NET v4.x security update. But they all configured to 100% at restarting. And don't forget the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool v5-130.
So I installed KB5046687 yesterday and also ran Windows Update Cleanup after a successful reboot... Guess I have to commit now!? Luckily I was able to partially "fix" some affected programs with VxKex. VSCode, for instance, did crash the terminal on launch but ( [x]Enable VxKex for this progam + [x]Report a different version: Windows 8.1 + [x]Disable VxKex for child processes ) made it work. With r3dfox and TorBrowser I had to report Windows 10 to not crash my Feedbro extension and be able to browse again and open new tabs. Visiting reddit still crashes the browser when the first video wants to start playing. VisualStudio works fine until you want to Debug your code. Then the s**tty msedgewebview2.exe goes brb. VxKex with different settings did different things to webview2, but did not fix it. Maybe I have to kex the parent process as well... Edit: r3dfox 132.0, had to set the reported version to 8.1 as well, so now reddit and yt don't crash anymore. Feedbro only crashes when I click on it right after the browser start, but works fine if i don't rush it. Anyways, am I stranded now with this update or is there a way to install last month's update over this one?
You cannot directly reinstall last month's rollup KB5044356 over this latest one. But you should be able to uninstall KB5046687 and reinstall last month's rollup KB5044356.
Oh there was a new bypass version, didn't notice. Just tried with v13 and KB5046543 worked fine. Actually it said the update wasn't needed.
Yep, Firefox 115.17.0 ESR now not working for me either. Had to use Chrome, it works. What to do for Firefox ESR to start working again, is it even possible at this point?
As suggested above, I have removed KB5046687. Then it said KB5044356 was already installed. Anyway FF ESR is working again.