Hello All,
I recently purchased a Lenovo Yoga X1 2 in 1 laptop. Lenovo includes Vantage, their utility for maintaining the machine up to date. It integrated with Windows Update, adding additional updates specific to my computer.
I used it to successfully update computer firmware, perform driver updates as well as normal Windows 10 updates.
Earlier this week, I installed all of the recommended updates. Lenovo also offered one optional update
Integrated Camera Driver for Sunplus (Windows 10 Build 1709 and later -10)[64]
Eager to have the latest and greatest for my new laptop, I installed the camera driver. Mistake....
When the computer rebooted, facial recognition had disappeared from the login screen. I tried to roll back the driver but to no avail. I scoured the Internet, looking for solutions. Finding none, I tried System Restore. For the umpteenth time in a row,
that gambit failed. A window appeared announcing that failure and suggesting that the failure might have been due to a conflict with anti-virus software. Having seen that screen previously, I had disabled Windows 10's native firewall, Defender, prior to attempting a System Restore. I fail to understand this failure since Microsoft wrote the software for both System Restore and Defender.
I moved to Plan B, restoring my C drive from a recent Acronis True Image backup. That worked. I regained facial recognition at login. Basking in glory, I tried to open my Data partition. To my surprise, it had been encrypted with BitLocker. I needed to enter the BitLocker Drive Encryption Recovery Key. Since I had not deliberately encrypted any drive, I had no such recovery key.
Again using Acronis True Image, I successfully restored my Data Drive - un-encrypted. Next, I consciously enabled BitLocker encryption of both drives, saved the encryption codes digitally on several removable devices and printed them out in hard copy.
Lesson Learned: Think twice before installing the next optional update.
PS: For those who opine "If it ain't broken, don't fix it" how useful is that mindset? Do you pass on updating your anti-virus software because you don't have any known viruses? I hope not.
Ralph Sutter
