This writeup is about code that is just as malicious as your average malware and wrecking  just about as much havoc; if not more. I am talking about the recent MS KB3004394 update by Microsoft (from last Patch Tuesday). If you are one of those users who have the automatic updates feature turned on and are suddenly experiencing weird behavior and glitching, then this is basically what happened.

MS KB3004394 update wrecks havoc with AMD/Nvidia GPU Drivers (and just about everything else)

You can imagine how serious this issue is, because so far we have received word to warn both AMD and Nvidia users away from this patch (no need for that anymore since it appears Microsoft has pulled the patch) and also to encourage users who have already installed this - to uninstall asap. The update basically messes with the Windows Root Certificate store which results in 1) UAC going crazy and 2) most of the drivers suddenly stopping to work. The effects are not just limited to GPU Drivers either, even native drivers such as USB 3.0 are affected by this homebrewed windows malware. KB3004394 is being blamed for other issues as well which include many core programs failing to start; Windows Defender and Task Manager just to name a few.

If you are one of those people who, like me, have simply turned off automatic updates since times untold, then you are going to be just fine. However, if you have downloaded and installed the update then you will have to manually uninstall since in many cases it has also disallowed further updates to the OS (as prank-ee as that sounds this is the inherent result of the instability of the root certificate store as opposed to a feisty Microsoft employee). I am not going to cover the actual steps but you should be able to find them easily by Googling. To top it all off, you will not be able to install/install anything correctly till the issue is fixed. Thats it for this rather short update.