Bug in Windows Update# KB4471324

Immediately upon opening a new window, any input form begins filling up with consecutive "+" signs. This cannot be stopped - the only way out is to close the window. Opening a Notepad file causes the "+" signs to appear in any blank spot. Cannot use cut & paste to fill forms either.

I know this bug was caused by the Windows update. (1) It began occurring right after it was installed. (2) When I uninstalled this update, the bug stopped.

My problem now is what to do about the update. Am I safe to never install it? How do I know if it gets fixed?

Help! Windows updates is now pestering me to let them download the very update that caused the bug! If I let them, then I will be unable to use my computer again. How can I prevent them from doing this?

Welcome to TenForums @prof611

I am replying on a machine that has KB4471324 Windows 10 v1803 Build 17134.471 and it has no such problems. You may find that reinstalling it will work OK second time around.

If not, do you have some 3rd-party software (hotkeys or similar) that may be conflicting with it?

If you must prevent it, then you can defer quality updates like KB4471324 if you have Pro.

Windows Update - Defer Feature and Quality Updates in Windows 10 | Tutorials

Or you can hide this update in both Home and Pro.

Hide or Show Windows Updates in Windows 10 | Tutorials

I have Windows Home, so I followed your advice and hid the update. Do you think I can hide it forever? They will probably put out an update in the future that will render this one obsolete.

prof611 said:

Do you think I can hide it forever? They will probably put out an update in the future that will render this one obsolete.

This update is hidden 'forever'. But as each monthly cumulative update includes all patches from previous updates then the January update (expected on Tuesday 8th Jan.) may cause the same issues.

As I said, this problem seems to be just affecting your machine, no others seem to have reported anything similar. I would look carefully at any 3rd-part software you may have that relates to keyboard input methods. Are you using a wireless keyboard or mouse? It could need updated drivers.

I was going to suggest that it might be a stuck key on the keyboard.

I found the culprit for this bug. The fact that it happened right after a Windows Update was entirely coincidental, as some of you realized. Thank you @Bree for showing me how to hide the update, so that I was able to use my computer while searching for a solution.

Wednesday morning, I woke up to find that the internet was down. Living in the Virgin Islands, I was used to this kind of thing, and didn't make anything of it for a few hours. Then I put in a call to my ISP, and we discovered that the reason for the outage was that something was wrong with my router. So I disconnected it, and plugged their modem directly into my computer.

This solved the bug, so I now have a different problem to deal with. Today I will "Show Windows Updates" again, and allow KB4471324 to be downloaded for the third and last time. Then I will find out what is wrong with my router, and reconnect it if possible.

Thank you all again for leading me away from my initial suspect for this bug. I hope that noone else has to experience the panic I felt when it happened.