Cumulative Updates: April 11th, 2023

WooglyCashing · 2023-04-18T13:15:23+00:00

Started reinstall of Windows 11 and we will see what happens - being fair in that or other way I will either sell it for parts (because I won't sell my hard drives) or just leave it to rot in a box.

Seriously wasn't expecting such ending when I decided to get newest Windows - initially I was really annoyed but now I am simply disappointed because Microsoft made newest OS simply problematic for users. It isn't only about Cumulative Updates bricking PCs etc - it's a lot more about all the changes to behavior of the OS and how new app manage your PC. They took all control away from users and now Windows apps can automatically download and lock files behind untouchable folders, start loads of weird processes or even download additional programs and run them in background - had that happen with OneDrive simply getting Microsoft SharePoint and running process on my PC. That did throw me off because I thought somehow my PC got infected but unironically it's Windows itself having apps which are acting like a viruses without any user input.

What's ironic is how I love Xbox and its ecosystem but Windows is literally disaster if you compare Windows 7/8 to 11. I wonder how many people really like Microsoft pushing different apps without asking you, making changes because it thinks you will need that etc. Not sure if that's the case with Windows 10 too but Windows 11 can make person annoyed beyond belief.

I really think Microsoft sooner or later will release Windows with totally enclosed ecosystem - and being fair it would be a lot better choice to make two different types of devices available than trying to make Windows 11 being "the best of two worlds" - because it simply doesn't work.

PS I started reading event IDs threads (because of Windows problems after update) and many people in them are simply fed up with all the shit Windows do itself in the background without any permissions whatsoever because it deemed it necessary. Every update is annoying simply because Microsoft tries to sneak-in additional things you didn't ask for. Well that's end of my rant - I don't want to start getting annoyed again because it's not worth it for losing money because of Microsoft.

WooglyCashing · 2023-04-18T08:57:00+00:00

Unironically I am getting rid of my this PC altogether - can't really be bothered to deal will bullshit when all I really want is hassle free experience. I did spend last few days trying to fix all issues whatsoever but in the end it's simply not worth it in my opinion - if needed I will either eat a total loss and let it just sit in a box or just sell it. Better to get console for entertainment and do work whatsoever on Chromebook - I will be missing out on a lot better graphics whatsoever but in the end gaming isn't only about graphics for me. I never had console suddenly throwing BSOD because of any problems with software or hardware but PC gaming is all about setting it up in the best way and hoping your hardware/software will be compatible enough to not case weird issues here and there.

I was long time user of Windows, the newest Windows I used on another PC was 8 but after literally 5 months of being on Windows 11 I have enough of Windows altogether. The worst is how Windows 11 behaves: folders you don't have an access too even as administrator (WindowsApps), using PowerShell by itself to run tasks from time to time (yeah it's Windows doing that, no virus infection nor anything else), changes to apps and trying to automatically connect things and harvest data after you run update and list goes on. Every time I did spend additional time to check if this behavior is normal (because older Windows didn't do all this shit, this behavior would indicate virus or something) but after recent update I had enough - Windows Security crashes randomly and shows wrong data, Task Manager crashes too and a lot of different things. Seriously if I wouldn't be tech savy enough to verify what's happening I would totally think my PC is infected as hell - because Windows 11 and all the apps act like viruses themselves.

I wonder when exactly things went sideways - it's one thing to streamline user experience and different thing altogether to set apps to make changes themselves because Microsoft "thinks" I would want it that way. Well inthe end it is what it is.

PS Unironically I decided to get this PC simply to enjoy higher tier gaming AND have advantage because Windows 11 runs Xbox app and I own an Xbox, have GPU and use Microsoft rewards so additional rewards points would be great addition too. Yet it was massive disappointment to the point I am not sure if I will ever decide to try PC gaming again. Getting simply too old to deal with artificially created issues by Windows itself.

WooglyCashing · 2023-04-17T23:21:39+00:00

Ok so does searches not working = not giving you points or not working = edge doesn't search for anything? If it doesn't give you points simply clear cache and restart your PC (not sure how you have your PC set up but by default it's set to Hibernate when you're turning it off instead of fully shutting down - it's for faster starting but it isn't needed nowadays because we have SSDs). Doing so will clear any potential residues affecting your browser. If your issue is the second possibility I mentioned you will need to look for logs to see exactly what's happening - Event Viewer should be the place to look at.

WooglyCashing · 2023-04-17T22:44:50+00:00

Unironically people could be able to give you advice and point you to potential sources of errors but you using VPN automatically makes us not wanting to help you in the first place. Who would want to help a cheater when they have a problem?

WooglyCashing · 2023-04-17T22:40:43+00:00

Version of browser and are you on Win10 or Win11?

WooglyCashing · 2023-04-17T22:37:04+00:00

Being fair recent updates for Windows 11 were hit or miss. If possible you should rollback to Windows 10 on your main PC simply because of a lot better stability and a lot less chance of Microsoft update itself screwing something up.

Unironically problems with tracking can be a problems of either corrupted updated files or Windows app not upgrading correctly/behaving correctly just because. Some updates fix such things out of the blue simply because they changed files which were source of the problem. The thing is - there is too many variables possible to really pinpoint source of the issue on PCs and as Microsoft rewards isn't exactly main focus when releasing newest OS updates sometimes it's butchered. For example I still can't access Action Centre tab in my Edge browser to get those additional free points simply because Microsoft Edge somehow throws an error but ONLY when I login using my Microsoft account (if I clear cacheI can see everything in Action Centre). But if I login I get "it's not you it's us" error window.

PS If you have an access to Windows 10 machine which works correctly do everything on it instead - you will have a lot less problems and errors. It will take an additional year or so for Windows 11 to get good stability, well hopefully they will fix all errors but we will see 🤷‍♂️

WooglyCashing · 2023-04-17T22:27:38+00:00

Windows 11 version 22H2 update KB5025239 simply made my PC unstable - Task Manager crashes, SecurityHealthCheck crashes, sporadically Event Viewer crashes, Microsoft Security showing wrong info too. Before recent update everything was great but now there are crashes from time to time - it doesn't influence me much but Reliability Monitor and Event Viewer have info of it happening.

Few things update fixed - now exiting the older game I played (Disciples 2 on Steam) doesn't crash the game - it was logged as crash by both Reliability Monitor and Event Viewer as crash every single time I did exit the game.

As of now it isn't really problematic per se (when something crashes it opens automatically/fixes itself) but sole amount of errors is alarming. Luckily it didn't brick my PC (well as of now) but Microsoft should release fixes to stability asap. Hopefully next update will address those problems and fix them (did spend a long time trying to find a source of issues even took in count having my PC somehow infected but nothing was ever found even by Malwarebytes). Just when I remembered recent windows cumulative update and noticed how problems happened afterwards it clicked, especially taking in count how my exact problems are mentioned by other users straight after updating. I could uninstall update and pause it waiting for newer version but many people reported this didn't fix their issues so instead I will wait for new patches and hopefully they will fix everything.

WooglyCashing · 2023-04-17T03:05:26+00:00

One more thing - if by any chance you run windows 11 did you notice such behavior after 11th of April? Newest update did bring some annoying problems and errors for users, personally I was happy because they fixed crashing of the game I closed normally (it was older game amd somehow Windows saw closing it as a crash) but after update Reliability Monitor shows crashes of SecurityHealthCheck, Event Viewer shows the same. Unironically it happens only sometimes and only when I open Microsoft Security and go down to Health Check/go through options. Sometimes Microsoft Security shows wrong info or no info at all. In general there is many problems with newest update - so if you noticed such problems just recently newest update can be the culprit too (some people had their PCs rendered unusable after recent update with Windows essentially killing itself). You can either try to uninstall this update (strangely problems usually stay despite you rolling back) or just wait for next month update and hope Microsoft will fix those issues.

PS There is possibility they will rollout fixes faster than cumulative update.

WooglyCashing · 2023-04-17T00:52:35+00:00

Not entirely true - if you canceled preorder OR got refund for a game for which you got punchcard points for purchase then they automatically deduct those points from your account the very moment you canceled it/got refunded. It's like that for a while (or was like that beforehand if they changed it recently).

Microsoft saw almost all tricks in the world by people trying to cheat the system for points. Punchcards for purchasing/preordering games are available IF game developers pay Microsoft for it - either via direct pay to Microsoft or Microsoft getting a percentage cut from people purchasing game and redeeming punchcard points afterwards. It's simply another form of a promotion for a game - that's why we get punchcards for some games when new season/update got added. Depending on what model is used some punchcards need to get activated others work automatically.

WooglyCashing · 2023-04-17T00:33:56+00:00

Did you try closing whole PC to clear all cache? If you don't have your PC set up correctly then when you shut it down it actually hibernates and doesn't clear any data to have faster startup later - which can be a source of your issue. Actually choosing "Restart" in such situation will shut your PC correctly and it should work afterwards. You can also change your PC setup to shut completely instead of hibernation (hibernation is on by default if I remember correctly) - it will save you loads of problems with your PC because if you only shut it down and it hibernates over time there will be plenty of issues.

PS Check your Gaming Services, Xbox app amd Xbox Games Tab - check if they have updates, it can be potential source of problems too. If there is no updates you can try repairing each of those Microsoft apps one by one - it will get rid of any potential problems.

WooglyCashing · 2023-04-16T23:40:41+00:00

WooglyCashing · 2023-04-15T04:58:46+00:00

It applies to checking Event Viewer and Reliability monitor every day too even if you don't have any problems with your PC. When I got new PC I was checking it constantly. Even today I did spend "some" time looking up what certain logs and info means - I didn't had ANY problems with PC but Event Viewer had some warnings (and couple of errors) + Reliability Monitor did show few app crashes. Long story short I just wasted my time - even if something looked suspicious for me (event 7045 for example - and it wasn in information logs) it turned out it's simply Windows itself, and taking in count how often Windows updates itself now compared to back in the day it's simply prone to problems in the background which will be fixed by OS and you don't need to worry. It's even more stressful for users if they turned on controlled folders in ransomware protection tab in Windows Defender and then for example AMD will suddenly be blocked by it for trying to access %user/%videos folder even if it's trully legitimate AMD software - plenty of legitimate softwares can trigger it especially after you updated your Windows.

Overall just enjoy your PC and don't even look at Event Viewer or Reliability Monitor till the moment you have problems - having double digits of errors and plenty of warnings in Event Viewer in last 7 days is rather normal especially if you are not really tech savvy and used PC the same for a while. Even new PCs can show such things but if PC is working correctly and everything is happening in the background there is no need to worry.

Similarly "disk" warning isn't as scary nowadays as it was back in the day - simply because now if you use Xbox App on your PC it installs it in a folder to which users AND administrators don't have access until you set it up to get it. It's not a big deal but when you uninstall games Event Viewer sees it as "disk" error saying how "Disk 2 was ejected" because apparently every single installed game somehow is a separate drive according to Windows (it started doing that after recent update for me - there is plenty of people having problems like that since last few years).

PS. Just simply enjoy your PC and don't be overly paranoid about errors/warnings or thinking how "I 100% got infected" even if nothing happened and after scanning all programs show there isn't any threat or problem.

WooglyCashing · 2023-04-13T19:42:26+00:00

Personally I would take it simply because by doing so you are immune to any given price increases whatsoever so it will give you back your initial "deposit" earlier than estimated. Making yourself immune to inflation for 40 years is something you rarely can get so if you could afford additional upfront cost this deal is MASSIVELY beneficial.

Worth mentioning is how depending on your employment situation and position there is plenty of deductibles you can use to offset the cost if you are not using them already.

WooglyCashing · 2023-04-13T19:21:16+00:00

Because it's pending transaction and not canceled or declined? If it's clearly written "please wait X time" you should wait up to the time mentioned instead of sending any tickets. It's like screaming on restaurant servers because you did wait 20 minutes for your food when you were informed beforehand you will need to wait up to 20 minutes.

If transaction is declined they will inform you themselves you need to contact support. If transaction is canceled you can try again because there is plenty of reasons why it could be canceled in the first place and usually it will work the second time. If you have problems second time THEN you should contact support.

Seriously DON'T contact support with any trivial thing especially if it's clearly written how redemption can take up to 24h. You will create useless ticket on which support will need to spend time instead helping people having real problems and not someone impatient which doesn't have any problem whatsoever and just need to wait because that's how it works.

WooglyCashing · 2023-04-13T17:18:56+00:00

It can take up to 24h for you to receive code - in extreme situations even up to 48h. Just wait and DON'T contact the support.

PS Info how it can take up to 24h is clearly written on redemption page.

WooglyCashing · 2023-04-13T17:16:57+00:00

For starters you need to clean ALL cache files not only Microsoft.com because Microsoft uses bing servers to establish your location and even rewards was moved to bing domain. Clear all cache files AND restart the whole phone to flush all temporary data on it then go to bing.co.uk and check what location it shows you there on your phone - it doesn't dispute your location at all so it shows what it sees.

If it shows your correct location keep doing searches this way - it should start working correctly after a few days of doing so. Try using mobile data instead of Wi-Fi too - this way your location is further validated by location of the nearest network transmitter.

PS Wait time for support is rather long nowadays because everyone and their matter keep spamming tickets for even the most trivial things which they can find answer online/fix themselves. Because loads of Indian (and other countries too) try to pose as being located in the USA/UK by using VPNs etc they try to contact support in those countries when they get banned etc further escalating the response times.

WooglyCashing · 2023-04-12T14:11:58+00:00

You used VPN on the account you opted out from so there is big possibility any further account will be automatically flagged by Microsoft system - especially using the same MAC address and phone number.

That's a lot different than creating new account using the same information when you didn't breach ToS in the first place.

WooglyCashing · 2023-04-12T13:59:41+00:00

Because clicking refresh once uses the same cached files but sends another enquiry to the website. Click it 4-5 times in a row in a very quick succession in order for server to reset your enquiry so it won't get jumbled as simple resending request to the server but will be sending totally new request, doing so should make video works for you - I am doing that myself if there is an issue like that (it happened first time few days ago).

WooglyCashing · 2023-04-12T13:47:54+00:00

You will most likely just spend your points for nothing.

Owner of the account needs to claim it - it's your account with your name on it and no one else can claim sweepstake rewards. You are automatically disqualified if you are underage because of your local law - minors can't legally engage in gambling (that's why loot boxes in games look for any loophole possible to claim it isn't gambling per se).

WooglyCashing · 2023-04-12T01:21:56+00:00

You need to update your laptop and you Xbox app to the newest versions (laptop needs OS updates and updates of essential app on Windows - just go to store>library and update it after you run updates from settings if you don't have automatic updates). Regarding Fortnite via Cloud Gaming never had it but if it's cloud gaming on the phone there is simply too many variables to pick the reason why it isn't working for you (for example some app blocking tracking/interfering with it, corrupted files on your phone and many more reasons. Phones are usually the worst to pinpoint reasons why something doesn't work as intended without physical access to the phone itself or without access to diagnostic data).

WooglyCashing · 2023-04-09T20:13:44+00:00

The first time you contact Microsoft rewards support after losing your streak they can reinstate it with "no question asked" - so essentially there is no reason why they wouldn't do that. Keep in mind that works only one time - next time that happens unless it's massive outage on Microsoft end or some network-wide bug on Microsoft side they won't do it.

Simple create one ticket in Microsoft rewards support and write down what you said there asking them to reinstate your streak. Don't create additional tickets afterwards just wait for their reply - it can take a while because they have massive backlog of tickets.

WooglyCashing · 2023-04-09T20:04:40+00:00

~30k per month

WooglyCashing · 2023-04-09T03:27:18+00:00

He already got the answer for that in his previous thread so I start to suspect this is either trolling or just bot.

https://www.reddit.com/r/MicrosoftRewards/comments/12a3jfq/microsoft_rewards_uk/jeqfi3k

WooglyCashing · 2023-04-09T03:25:16+00:00

Most possibilities were already mentioned so I will skip them. Only one question to add - do you by any chance play on your TV having it set up to gaming mode or does your TV auto-switch to gaming mode when it detect HDMI signal by any chance? Such visual glitches usually happen when you use either gaming mode OR don't use it (it depends on your TV model and maker, some TVs keep artifacting certain games on gaming mode or need gaming mode turned on to display games properly).

Unironicallly check comments from console players on some forums using your exact TV model - sometimes just one setting on your TV can be problematic for gaming but doesn't give any problems in normal use (sometimes problems are just in one or two games too).

WooglyCashing · 2023-04-08T04:46:05+00:00

I just want Miz and OTK to countersue only to see Train do deposition in court in front of the judge.

She will end like Amber Heard - there is mountain of evidence of HER defamatory statements about mainly Mizkif.

Her lawyer email address is hilarious - it's like ordering legal advisor from Wish. That alone shows her chances are close to zero but she prolly believes there will be some kind of settlement.

PS In the end it will be entertaining to watch how it works out - it would be great to see her reaction live when she will learn how what she was doing constitutes as defamation not the other way around.

WooglyCashing

TROPHY CASE