Microsoft claims that reports that its recently security updates create a “black screen of death” have been greatly exaggerated.

British software security firm Prevx claimed last week that changes to Microsoft's operating system's registry were the most likely cause of the error. Initially both believed it was a recent patch issued by Microsoft. Now it seems that this was not the cause.

The problem was widely reported after a small number of users were presented with a completely black screen after logging on. A spokesman for Microsoft said that reports claimed that its November security updates made changes to permissions in the registry that are resulting in system issues for some customers.

However the updates did not do that and could not have caused the behaviour described in the reports. So far Microsoft is not seeing this as a big issue and Prevx has apologised to Microsoft for the “inconvenience” caused by its original blog posting.

Apparently the black screen could be caused by malware or other programs and urged Windows 7 users to continue updating the operating system and security software.