Prevx offers a free fix for Windows Black Screen of Death

[Cithel]

I've been seeing this story around the internet all day. I'm not sure how widespread the issue really is but just in case anyone needs it here is the full story and a link to the fix.

Full story and instructions.

Direct link to the fix.

[leofelix]

PREVX is a very serious company, I follow the italian PREVX malware analyst blog but I didn't still know this tool.
I helped some people to get rid of Black Screen of Death recently in other forums (in my native language forums I mean) I would have heard about this free tool before.

Thank you

[rkonit]

Anyone tried this...!

[tweakwindows]

Many sites are reporting about this issue and fix. Looks like a serious issue.

[seti]

This is the headline from bbc:
Microsoft investigates Windows 7 'screen of death'

in the article it goes on to say it happened after the updates of November 25th and also effects Vista. I have not come across the problem and no-one I know has come across it. It mentioned that Prevx had done the free fix, but also mentioned that people with the problem should contact customer service at microsoft.

[MrMBerman]

Looks like Prevx is using this opportunity as a marketing tool. The majority of affected BlackSOD computers are running the Antivira antivirus software. This is a Microsoft problem, where is the Microsoft fix?

[Max_Payne]

Yesterday I had a BSOD on an old Windows XP with Avira Antivirus Free 8. No hope to run a Windows session.

Only a few days ago many systray messages about upgrading to new version from Avira itself.

I solved with a chkdsk /r done in recovery console. After that, uninstalled Avira Antivir 8 to install new version.

You're in trouble if you don't upgrade Avira in time.

I had also TweakRam 6.3 in background... however now is uninstalled, for safety.

[leofelix]

PREVX apologizes


Windows Black Screen Root Cause

The issue appears to be related to a characteristic of the Windows Registry related to the storage of string data. In parsing the Shell value in the registry, Windows requires a null terminated "REG_SZ" string. However, if malware or indeed any other program modifies the shell entry to not include null terminating characters, the shell will no longer load properly, resulting in the infamous Black Screen with the PC showing only the My Computer folder.

Having narrowed down a specific trigger for this condition we've done quite a bit of testing and re-testing on the recent Windows patches including KB976098 and KB915597 as referred to in our previous blog. Since more specifically narrowing down the cause we have been able to exonerate these patches from being a contributory factor.

We apologize to Microsoft for any inconvenience our blog may have caused. This has been a challenging issue to identify. Users who have the black screen issue referred to can still safely use our free fix tool to restore their desktop icons and task bar.

[Corrine]

The Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) Blog: Reports of Issues with November Security Updates

[seti]

Malware suspected of 'Black Screen' issue


this is the latest news on this issue from the bbc news online. What I found interesting in this was how quick people seemed to be to blame Microsoft and have now had to retract this. Perhaps a lesson can be learnt about being to quick to jump to conclusions.