How to bypass Microsoft's next-gen processor update block on Windows 7 and 8.1

Yes success

As you probably know by now, Microsoft is blocking Windows Updates on Windows 7 and 8.1 systems powered by next-generation processors like Kaby Lake and Ryzen.

It’s yet another of Microsoft’s desperate efforts to get users to switch to Windows 10, and one that -- understandably -- hasn’t gone down well with users who don’t want to upgrade to the new operating system. Thankfully, there is now a workaround.

SEE ALSO: The desperate tricks Microsoft employs to force customers to upgrade to Windows 10

A GitHub developer called zeffy has found a way to defeat Microsoft’s block. He started by downloading the problem .MSU package for his system (windows6.1-kb4012218-x64_590943c04550a47c1ed02d3a040d325456f03663.msu) and then expanded it, sorted through the binaries, and compared them with the ones already on his system.

After a fair amount of detective work, he identified the culprits -- IsDeviceServiceable(void) and IsCPUSupported(void).

Armed with that information, he found the following solutions:

  1. Patch dll and change dword_600002EE948 (see this line) which is at file offset 0x26C948, from 0x01 to 0x00. This makes IsDeviceServiceable(void) jump over its entire body and return 1 (supported CPU) immediately. This is the preferred method. Note: these offsets are only for the Windows 7 x64 version.
  2. Patch dll and nop out all the instructions highlighted here in IsDeviceServiceable(void), this will enable the usage of the ForceUnsupportedCPU of type REG_DWORD under the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Test\Scan (you will most likely have to create this registry key). Set this value to 0x00000001 to force unsupported CPUs, and back to 0x00000000 to change the behavior back to default. You will probably need to restart your PC or restart the wuauserv service in order for changes to apply. This behavior is undocumented and could be removed in future updates.

You’ll want to back up the wuaueng.dll file before patching it, just in case.

There is a downside to both solutions, which is that you’ll have to apply a new patch every time wuaueng.dll gets updated, and no doubt Microsoft will update it a lot in order to frustrate users into giving up and upgrading to Windows 10.

You can read all about how zeffy created his patches, and download them here. I haven't personally tested them myself, but if you do, then let us know how you get on in the comments below.

Photo Credit: David Martinez Kansy/Shutterstock

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