- Reaction score
- 1,697
Microsoft releases Patch Tuesday updates for Windows every second Tuesday. These updates introduce security fixes, and sometimes they can be buggy too. Although we are not sure if this is a bug or an intended change, in the last two updates, for February and March, Microsoft has seemingly started blocking default app switches through the system registry.
The issue was first noticed by Christoph Kolbicz who is an IT consultant. It was brought to his attention by users who noticed that Kolbicz's SetUserFTA and SetDefaultBrowser were not working anymore.
SetUserFTA and SetDefaultBrowser are command-line utilities that allow IT and system admins to easily set the default Windows file type associations (FTA).
Digging into the issue further, Kolbicz understood that a new filter driver introduced by Microsoft, UCPD.sys, short for User Choice Protection Driver, was responsible for the blocks as they prevented writing to UserChoice registry keys.
www.neowin.net
The issue was first noticed by Christoph Kolbicz who is an IT consultant. It was brought to his attention by users who noticed that Kolbicz's SetUserFTA and SetDefaultBrowser were not working anymore.
SetUserFTA and SetDefaultBrowser are command-line utilities that allow IT and system admins to easily set the default Windows file type associations (FTA).
Digging into the issue further, Kolbicz understood that a new filter driver introduced by Microsoft, UCPD.sys, short for User Choice Protection Driver, was responsible for the blocks as they prevented writing to UserChoice registry keys.
Microsoft quietly adds Windows UCPD driver to block Registry hacks for default app switches
The Patch Tuesday updates for the last few months have quietly rolled out a new UCPD driver. This new driver by Microsoft is seemingly intended to block default app switches by Registry hacks.
www.neowin.net
