Yes, it seems Microsoft will have to send out one more public patch post end-of-support. Specifically, the company says KB4534310 is causing users of Windows 7 to experience issues with their wallpaper. Microsoft says, “After installing KB4534310, your desktop wallpaper might display as black when set to Stretch.” Users report the problem appears to be limited to wallpapers that are stretched to fit Windows 7. In other words, the fill, fit, tile, and center wallpaper options are still working on the platform.
Available Fix
What is interesting about this problem is Microsoft was initially suggesting normal Windows 7 users would have to pay for a fix. Because the OS is no longer supported, users must pay for any Extended Security Updates (ESU). The company said a fix for the wallpaper issue would be available “for organizations who have purchased Windows 7 Extended Security Updates (ESU).” Of course, the irony of this situation is this would mean users paying for a bug Microsoft itself introduced. Naturally, many home users of Windows 7 were angered by this and luckily Microsoft quickly changed its mind. Backtracking, Redmond says the patch will now be available. This will be for all users running Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1. Last week we reported on the problem organizations face who didn’t upgrade to Windows 10 in time. The German Federal Ministry reportedly failed to do that and must now pay a hefty sum to upgrade. German news outlet Handelsblatt reports the Ministry missed the deadline for upgrade. Now, it must pay Microsoft a fee for each of its 33,000 Windows 7 machines. It is worth noting the fee is not to upgrade to Windows 10 but to instead extend security support on Win7 for another year. The total cost for this is around $887,000.
