Anyone who has recently upgraded to Windows 7 will be anticipating flash and funky new features, fast and furious functioning, slick and stylish design. The very thing they will not be expecting is to find themselves in front of their monitors gazing uncomprehendingly at the ‘black screen of death.’ But, to the dismay of many, it’s happening. Security firm PrevX supplied some recent updates for Windows 7, following which eager uses found themselves looking anxiously into stubbornly black screens. Microsoft is admitting that its latest release of security updates is resulting in a ‘systems issue’ for some customers. PrevX engineer, Dave Kennerly, reports that the cause of the problem appears to be a change in the Windows Operating System lockdown of registry keys. Effectively, the change invalidates a number of key registry entries if they are updated without heeding the new ACL rules being applied. These rule changes appear not to have been sufficiently widely disseminated (if at all) with the recent update for Windows.
Microsoft is encouraging customers who encounter – or fear encountering – this problem, to review the security bulletin and knowledge base (KB) articles and contact its Customer Services and Support group at no cost. After all the fanfare about Windows 7, all the waiting for its release, confronting a lifeless blank screen is less of a damp squib than a bucket of cold water poured over one’s head. However, with Microsoft actively on the case, expect the problem to be rectified very shortly.
