Can Someone Explain How Opatch WIN7 EOS Extension Works?

[maxseven]

Looking at "Patches Available for Purchase" now 44 of them does not inspire me to rush-out in a buying frenzy and get a license. I see Java and MS RDP & NitroPDF (which I don't use). I suppose the java stuff is noteworthy but still I think I'll sit tight with Free for a while myself.

 

[nord899]

Looking at "Patches Available for Purchase" now 44 of them does not inspire me to rush-out in a buying frenzy and get a license. I see Java and MS RDP & NitroPDF (which I don't use). I suppose the java stuff is noteworthy but still I think I'll sit tight with Free for a while myself.

maxseven,

Agree. After all, it has just been a short time since the official EOL for W7.

 

[maxseven]

Hmmm in the last several days I've been having trouble with a favorite program FileCenter, with which I manipulate PDF files that I've made. I "print" everything to PDF and then stack these PDFs together to organize them. Prepending or Appending a PDF document to another is done simply by dragging one document onto another and clicking OK in the resulting dialog. Well in the last couple days I've had trouble whereby the drag/drop operation results in the dialog disappearing behind the program's "desktop" window. I have to Alt-Tab in Windows to get that dialog to appear and then I click OK and it works. This is very annoying to have to do, and it seems maybe 60% of the time I've had to do that lately.

On a hunch I uninstalled 0patch and the problem appears to have gone away. If true (I will test for a day or two) I may go-back and reinstall and try to find a specific patch that caused this.

The good news I guess is that uninstalling was trivial, just Programs & Features and Uninstall.

 

[RoWin7]

FYI... joined Opatch Free, the one that claims it will provide you with bug fixes if and when they decide it is imperative, not the paid version which supposedly will do everything but clean your house.

It runs at startup and sits in the tray... Right now it soothes me with a little popup message (when you put your mouse on its icon) that says "Everything is OK."

FWIW.

No good. I need something that will clean the house.

 

[nord899]

Hmmm in the last several days I've been having trouble with a favorite program FileCenter, with which I manipulate PDF files that I've made. I "print" everything to PDF and then stack these PDFs together to organize them. Prepending or Appending a PDF document to another is done simply by dragging one document onto another and clicking OK in the resulting dialog. Well in the last couple days I've had trouble whereby the drag/drop operation results in the dialog disappearing behind the program's "desktop" window. I have to Alt-Tab in Windows to get that dialog to appear and then I click OK and it works. This is very annoying to have to do, and it seems maybe 60% of the time I've had to do that lately.

On a hunch I uninstalled 0patch and the problem appears to have gone away. If true (I will test for a day or two) I may go-back and reinstall and try to find a specific patch that caused this.

The good news I guess is that uninstalling was trivial, just Programs & Features and Uninstall.

maxseven, Hmmm. I was using a program launcher called Qsel. Loaded it up in Classic Shell, but it wouldn't start up sometimes, but only after I had started using 0Patch... Put it on a button in Total Commander and it loads every single time. I have not removed 0Patch, but perhaps I should do a trial and error to see if that program is the cause or not.

 

[nord899]

No good. I need something that will clean the house.

RoWin7, Funny! Try a cat, won't clean the mouse droppings, but at least it will rid you of the mouse!

 

[nord899]

On a hunch I uninstalled 0patch and the problem appears to have gone away. If true (I will test for a day or two) I may go-back and reinstall and try to find a specific patch that caused this.

The good news I guess is that uninstalling was trivial, just Programs & Features and Uninstall.

maxseven, Well, I just uninstalled, then put Qsel back in Classic Shell Start menu, where it worked as it did before. Then reinstalled 0Patch and tried Qsel again from the Classic Shell and it worked flawlessly. As I recall, it didn't stop working until some time after I had installed 0Patch, so I will leave 0Patch running for now to see if that issue pops up again. (Call me confused)

 

[maxseven]

Today I've done some more filing with FileCenter and it is working flawlessly again. I'll admit I don't even know the right terminology to try to describe what I was seeing, but "losing focus" comes to mind as if in my case the drag & drop was getting interrupted by 0patch or (more likely) by one of the patches it installed. I've no appetite for fiddling with it atm so will leave it uninstalled for a bit and try again when I have more time.

 

[nord899]

Today I've done some more filing with FileCenter and it is working flawlessly again. I'll admit I don't even know the right terminology to try to describe what I was seeing, but "losing focus" comes to mind as if in my case the drag & drop was getting interrupted by 0patch or (more likely) by one of the patches it installed. I've no appetite for fiddling with it atm so will leave it uninstalled for a bit and try again when I have more time.

maxseven,

I don't understand it either. My test program Qsel.exe would not load again from the Classic Shell start menu. I fiddled around with it in System Explorer (ending it, restarting it).... wash, rinse, repeat a couple of times and it finally loaded.... I'm a bit hazy about the timeline, but I believe that I clicked on it (once again) and a few seconds later it loaded and worked as I expect it too. Not a clue here.

Now I can live with this, so long as Qsel does load, but is not the process I was expecting, nor want to endure goinig forward. As I want to use 0PatchFREE, I shall not uninstall it this time, but will keep my options open and may well remove it if other processes also get cranky.

Nick

 

[nord899]

maxseven,

I don't understand it either. My test program Qsel.exe would not load again from the Classic Shell start menu. I fiddled around with it in System Explorer (ending it, restarting it).... wash, rinse, repeat a couple of times and it finally loaded.... I'm a bit hazy about the timeline, but I believe that I clicked on it (once again) and a few seconds later it loaded and worked as I expect it too. Not a clue here.

Now I can live with this, so long as Qsel does load, but is not the process I was expecting, nor want to endure goinig forward. As I want to use 0PatchFREE, I shall not uninstall it this time, but will keep my options open and may well remove it if other processes also get cranky.

Nick

maxseven,

Day 2 with oPatchFREE running and no issues at all with Qsel, which was my canary in the coal mine. Not sure what to say, except that if this continues, so shall I continue with 0Patch.

 

[maxseven]

maxseven,

Day 2 with oPatchFREE running and no issues at all with Qsel, which was my canary in the coal mine. Not sure what to say, except that if this continues, so shall I continue with 0Patch.

Thanks. I think at this point I will wait until they update their agent, which at least needs a fix for the sync issue I mentioned earlier.

 

[nord899]

Thanks. I think at this point I will wait until they update their agent, which at least needs a fix for the sync issue I mentioned earlier.

maxseven,

Well, I am thinking too about removing 0Patch... Qsel is once again failing to load. Not sure I understand your sync problem, but as we both have issues, it would be good if they can fix it. Are you going to go to their blog or whatever to report this?

Nick

 

[mitjakolsek]

0patch support

Hi everyone on this thread! I am Mitja Kolsek, co-founder of 0patch.

User nord899 was kind enough to notify us of this thread and some functional issues that are being discussed here and suspected to be caused by 0patch. I think it's best to troubleshoot these issues via our support channel and then bring resolutions back here for everyone to read. So I'm inviting all users suspecting 0patch is causing any problem to contact us: [email protected], or Help Center.

Meanwhile, some feedback possibly related to issues being discussed:

1) 0patch Agent has, in the past, been guilty of occasionally stealing focus from other apps when displaying popups. We fixed this to our best abilities and stopped getting reports but in the complexity behind Windows there may still be remnants of this issue somewhere. In general, if you set popups to the quietest level ("Inform me only about important system events"), that should minimize this issue if you have it. Also, the stolen focus was always associated with our popup being shown at that exact moment.

2) 0patch causing some apps to not run: While we made sure to minimize any interference with running processes, it can still happen that our agent DLL's mere presence in the process, and the single hook that we set, cause a problem in the process. For instance, this happened with Mozilla Firefox 72 and prompted us to issue this article:Mozilla Firefox 72 can crash upon launching when 0patch Agent is installed – Help Center. This may happen with other apps as well and we'd like to investigate every instance users may stumble upon. As a first course of action, affected users can exclude the affected app from being injected with our DLL as described in the above article about Firefox.

3) Problems with printing: Some Windows users have reported that Microsoft's workaround for CVE-2020-0674 broke printing for them. Our micropatch for the same issue (0patch Blog: Micropatching a Workaround for CVE-2020-0674) avoided many of Microsoft recommendation's negative side effects including this one, as far as we could test it. But if you suspect 0patch is causing problems with printing, try disabling it (you don't have to uninstall) or just exclude the affected app from patching in 0patch Console -> Applications -> Patched Applications and see if the problem goes away.

Looking forward to solving these issues,
Mitja

 

[maxseven]

Ha, I have an email from you Mitja about an earlier problem and so am glad to have your presence here! My issue with FileCenter is hard to describe, but I will reinstall 0patch again this week and work with you via [email protected] to try to resolve it.

 

[mitjakolsek]

Hi everyone, to my understanding this forum doesn't send an email for every reply to the thread so please understand if there will be no timely replies here as it's becoming impossible to regularly check out all the places 0patch is being discussed. Thanks for your willingness to experiment with 0patch and please report all issues to our support.
Best, Mitja

 

[Barman58]

Simply subscribe to the thread and choose how you would like to be notified, Instant by email, generates most replies but If you want to control things a daily or weekly email is available

 

[nord899]

Hi everyone, to my understanding this forum doesn't send an email for every reply to the thread so please understand if there will be no timely replies here as it's becoming impossible to regularly check out all the places 0patch is being discussed. Thanks for your willingness to experiment with 0patch and please report all issues to our support.
Best, Mitja

mitjakolsek,

Much thanks for replying and joining the forum. To my mind, it would be useful if you could post some of the other places where 0patch is talked about besides this one.

Nick

 

[nord899]

Ha, I have an email from you Mitja about an earlier problem and so am glad to have your presence here! My issue with FileCenter is hard to describe, but I will reinstall 0patch again this week and work with you via [email protected] to try to resolve it.

maxseven,

I used the support email to tell them about my issue with Qsel. I also checked the console to see if Qsel was mentioned as having a patch installed (it wasn't listed). Saw no way to exclude Qsel, but perhaps I haven't learned yet how to work the console.

Nick

 

[mitjakolsek]

mitjakolsek,

Much thanks for replying and joining the forum. To my mind, it would be useful if you could post some of the other places where 0patch is talked about besides this one.

Nick

Sure, Nick. AskWoody has a lot of posts: Topic: Worth considering: 0patch for Win7 after January 2020 @ AskWoody

Born's blog (in German) also: 0patch: Fix fur Internet Explorer 0-day-Schwachstelle CVE-2020-0674 | Borns IT- und Windows-Blog

There are many other places with fewer posts, mostly discussing similar things as here and in the above places.

Thanks,
Mitja

 

[nord899]

Sure, Nick. AskWoody has a lot of posts: Topic: Worth considering: 0patch for Win7 after January 2020 @ AskWoody

Born's blog (in German) also: 0patch: Fix fur Internet Explorer 0-day-Schwachstelle CVE-2020-0674 | Borns IT- und Windows-Blog

There are many other places with fewer posts, mostly discussing similar things as here and in the above places.

Thanks,
Mitja

Mitja,

It might help if you can explain for everyone here how to exclude an executable. I see no way in the 0PatchFREE console to do this.

Thanks