[German]There is an issue with integrating the latest updates from January 2020 into Windows Embedded Standard 7 installation images. Microsoft blocks the update installation on newer hardware. The Windows setup then fails with the error 0x80240037 – 'unsupported hardware'.
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Here is some information on this topic, which is known since 2017, but which is now probably the case with Windows Embedded Standard 7 when creating installation DVDs.
Short background information
German blog reader Fry uses in his company a 'rather slimmed down Windows Embedded Standard 7 SP1. From this Windows Embedded Standard 7 SP1 he creates a setup DVD with the Image Configuration Editor, which performs an automated setup via a response file, see e.g. here. This DVD can be installed on various PCs from different products.
The group in which the blog reader is active in the company publishes an updated DVD for their products at irregular intervals (no desktop replacement). And in this setup DVD they also try to integrate the latest update.
Issues integrating updates
Now blog reader Fry has already posted this German comment in my blog in January 2020 and reports issues with the integration of the update from January 2020 onward in Windows Embedded Standard 7 SP1 installation media (thanks for that). He writes:
So far I have been building a Windows Embedded Standard 7 image every month and integrated the latest update, which still worked in December. With the update KB4534310 in January, however, the image now crashes during setup on a machine with Core i7-8700.
So first stepped backwards and put the image from December on the computer again and then try to install KB4534310 by hand. This terminates with an error 0x80240037 – 'unsupported hardware'.
On an older machine with Core i7-3770 and also December image, KB4534310 can be installed without problems.
The blog reader writes the following about his approach to update integration:
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To prevent the resulting DVD from growing in size into infinity, I have removed all updates from my response file, which will be replaced by subsequent ones. I noticed that Microsoft's update catalog is not always well maintained, i.e. some updates indicate that others will be replaced, but subsequent updates lack this indication and some updates are not in the catalog at all. So I have made it a habit to include the latest update every month and remove replaced updates (because this hint might be missing in the following month). If the DVD can still be installed, check in a fresh VM on my computer.
The DVD I created in December (with KB4530734) can be installed in a VM without problems, i.e. SHA-256 is correctly integrated. Even older DVDs work, too. My CPU is a Core i7-8700.
The DVD I created in January (with KB4534310) cannot be installed in a VM. The setup aborts, somewhere in the logs you can find an error 1625 (The installation is prevented by system policies. Contact a system administrator) when installing an "Extended Security Update AI installer".
So I have now installed a DVD from December in my VM and tried to install KB4534310 manually. Then I get the error 0x80240037, unsupported hardware. If I now install the following tool in my VM, which should prevent "unsupported hardware", I can install KB4534310
As a test I installed the DVD from December in a VM on another computer with Core i7-3770 and then manually installed KB4534310. There are no problems here, the update can be installed immediately.
Therefore it looks to me as if processors of the generation Kaby-Lake and newer are now actively blocked. The following link to the KB article confirms this, but the fact that setups are now aborted is quite remarkable…
The blog reader concludes that Microsoft apparently in newer updates hinders their integration for on newer computers. There is even a support post KB4012982 about this, which I mentioned in several blog posts already in 2017 (see links at the end of the article).
(Source: Microsoft)
This check for unsupported hardware has therefore been integrated into Windows 7 for some time. The user will get the above message when trying to install updates. Frey writes that this hasn't caused him any problems so far.
I had already pointed this out here in the blog in the article Microsoft blocks Windows 7/8.1 updates for Kaby Lake and Ryzen. A source from the MS universe had told me the following: In the blog post Windows 7/8.1 Preview Rollup Updates KB4012218/KB4012219 I pointed out the problem and warned against installing the preview updates. One of my sources (from the MS Universe) told me that this makes the patch Windows Update unusable for systems with CPUs like Kaby-Lake (Intel Core i-7xxx series) or AMD Bristol Ridge (Ax-9xxx) or AMD Ryzen.
A workaround
Blog reader Frey has downloaded, translated and installed the tool wufuc from GitHub. After that he was able to install KB4534310 on the Core i7-8700. Maybe it will help other affected people.
Similar articles:
Beendet Microsoft den Support für Windows 7/8.1? (German)
Windows 7/8.1: Blocken April 2017 Patches Updates auf neuen Intel/AMD-CPUs?Microsoft blocks Windows 7/8.1 updates for Kaby Lake and Ryzen
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