Steve's Evolution Payroll Blog

Evo error "Out of resources" caused by bad Windows Update

A recent Windows Update from Microsoft has broken something in Evolution, provoking "Out of System Resources" (or sometimes just "Out of Resources") messages when running Evolution reports. These could show up with full error info:

Or with just a single unhelpful dialog box:

However manifested, these errors prevent the report from completing, and restarting Evolution (or the computer) has no impact.

This is caused not by anything Evolution is doing wrong (and is completely unrelated to Evolution's 64-bit readiness), but by a bad Windows Update by Microsoft; this blog post describes in more detail how to work around it by either removing the update, or applying a hotfix.

Microsoft was attempting to fix two legitimate security issues (CVE-2021-1640 and CVE-2021-26878), which were elevation of privilege vulnerabilities in the Windows print spooler; these are serious and need to be fixed.

These fixes broke a lot of things besides Evolution, and in some cases—depending on your specific print drivers installed—can cause full BSOD ("blue screen of death") Windows crashes.

Removing the bad updates

Fortunately, it's relatively easy to remove the errant updates in question until they are re-released without the bugs.

First: be sure to identify which computer this it's happening on (and which one has the bad update).

If you see the full error trace, then look at the "Computer Name" field, which will either be the name of your own desktop, or the name of one of the Evolution middle-tier servers (if the "user name" field shows system, this is almost certainly a middle-tier Evo server).

But if you see the small popup dialog box, then it's your own desktop that has the bad update and not the server.

In either case, you or your IT folks should go into Windows Update history and uninstall the update found in the list here based on the operating system. All updates are identified with KB (Knowledge Base) article numbers.

Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2

• Monthly Rollup: KB5000841
• Security-only: KB5000851

Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2

• Monthly Rollup: KB5000848
• Security-only: KB5000822

Windows 10 version 1909

• Support Page: KB5000808

Windows 10 version 2004 and 20H2

• Support Page: KB5000802

If you see any of these KB numbers in your Windows Update history, remove them.

Note: users on a corporate domain network might not have the permissions to do this; see your local IT department for this.

Alternate: apply an updated Microsoft Update ... maybe?

I've seen reports that Microsoft has released some out-of-band builds (KB5001648 and KB5001649, at least) of the errant update that fixes this issue, but I'm getting conflicting information about which update applies to which OS, and I'm fairly sure that not all impacted operating systems have one of these fixes yet.

There are likely experts with Windows Updates that know how to drill down on the details and can be really sure to pick the right options, but I'm definitely not one of those, and it makes me nervous to experiment here.

So my best advice at the moment: if you're having the issue, just uninstall the errant update and try again during next month's Patch Tuesday, when—hopefully—Microsoft has sorted this out.

I'll update this post if I find more on-point information.

Evo GUI update problems re: 64-bit Readiness

A few Evolution GUI desktop users have reported problems with their version auto-update ("Version update has failed"), with an additional error message:

This appears only in certain update situations, appears only once, and is due to a minor mis-step in Asure's move to 64-bit readiness. It's unfortunate, but easy to work around.

A user receiving this message should use the standard Windows file explorer, navigate to the path C:\iSystems\Evolution\Client\ and create a new empty folder Win64 and then launch Evolution again. This new folder fills in the missing step, and the update should complete normally.

What's this about?

The Win64\ folder is preparing the way for 64-bit support coming down the road, and—as I understand it—one Evo update got this update logic wrong, so it will show this error. Subsequent software releases do it all correctly.

All AWS bureaus get all Evolution software releases every time, while self-hosted bureaus pick-and-choose, but the end payroll customer only updates themselves when they fire up the desktop client. No bureau has control over this, so some customers who live in Evolution every day get every update, while (perhaps) small monthly payrolls skip numerous intermediate updates.

This is unfortunate, and though I did start investigating which exact specific versions were involved—Asure was very helpful on this front—in practice it doesn't matter: if the customer gets this message, they just have to create the folder and move on.

Are we on/do we require 64 bits now???

No, not yet.

This is just paving the way for the future, and I'm surprised it's going as smoothly as it has been. Asure has put an enormous effort into what I can only call a Herculean task of upgrading this complex application.

Asure has stated that 64 bits on the desktop is supported at least through the end of June, though self-hosted bureaus with 32-bit servers have to start preparing now (I'm working with several bureaus on exactly this).