MS-DEFCON 4: The coast is clear, apply all patches now @ AskWoody.com

MS-DEFCON 4: The coast is clear, apply all patches now

Posted on December 2nd, 2009 at 09:39 woody 12 comments

With the “black screen” scare out of the way, it looks like we’re good to go on the November Black Tuesday patches.

Now’s a good time to get caught up on all outstanding patches. The usual admonitions apply. Here’s what I recommend:

Use Microsoft Update, reboot when the patching is done, then try Microsoft Update again, just to make sure you got everything.

Don’t be tempted into installing new hardware drivers unless you have a specific reason for updating the driver.

Download, install and update Internet Explorer 8 – but don’t use it. (If you’re afraid of IE 8, update IE 7, but for heaven’s sake get IE 6 off your PC, and don’t use any IE unless you absolutely have to on some intransigent Web site.) Instead of IE, use Firefox or Opera or Chrome or anything that doesn’t run ActiveX.

Get rid of your antivirus and other bloated and expensive “anti” products. Download and install Microsoft Security Essentials. Wise PC folks recommend that you use an outbound firewall. I say hogwash. The inbound firewall in Windows XP, Vista and 7 is good enough, particularly if you’re using a router.

Use Secunia Personal Software Inspector (a free-for-personal use download from Secunia) to make sure all of your programs are up-to-date.

And my most recent security recommendation: upgrade to Windows 7. As long as you don’t use Internet Explorer, Win7 is inherently at least two orders of magnitude more secure than XP.

Windows Patches/Security November Black Tuesday
12 responses to “MS-DEFCON 4: The coast is clear, apply all patches now”
1. Paul December 2nd, 2009 at 10:26
  
  Hi Woody!
  
  I trust all is well with you.
  
  You mentioned about KB 969947 Posted on November 13th, 2009 at 05:22 said that it freezes the computer.
  Now since we are on defcon4 therefore, you mean all MS update including KB969947 are safe to install?
  
  Regards.
  
  Paul
2. Ian (from UK) December 2nd, 2009 at 21:09
  
  I installed 8 pending updates on VISTA this morning. There were no immediate issues but then I shut the machine down and when I returned it would not boot. It went into windows repair thingummy and eventually asked if I wanted to go back to the last restorepoint.
  
  That fixed it so I took a look at your black screen post and installed the updates except for KB976098. I’ve powered off and rebooted and all looks fine so far.
  
  Seems to me there is an issue with that update.
  
  Ian
3. Yuhong Bao December 3rd, 2009 at 12:37
  
  “Get rid of your antivirus and other bloated and expensive “anti” products. ”
  Yep, I already uninstalled AVG Free after seeing slowdowns caused by it, and I know that it caused the slowdowns because I used WinDbg to debug the programs.
4. jesus December 3rd, 2009 at 16:07
  
  Just wanted to make sure if its ok to use all the updates in November.Even the kb969947 patch?I havent applied or hidden any updates for november.
5. woody December 3rd, 2009 at 21:14
  
  Jesus -
  
  Go for it.
6. woody December 3rd, 2009 at 21:15
  
  Ian -
  
  Interesting. Could you shoot me email (woody at ask woody dot com)? I’ll see if somebody in Redmond wants to take a look…
7. woody December 3rd, 2009 at 21:20
  
  Paul -
  
  Microsoft has nailed down the problems with KB 969947, as best I can tell. If you have an older video driver, you need to update to a newer one. And the Radeon HD 2400 driver, in particular, has problems. But by and large the mysterious freezes have been figured out, and they aren’t widespread. If you have problems, see KB 969947.
8. rc primak December 5th, 2009 at 04:17
  
  All patched up with no significant incidents. I think for most of us, the coast is indeed clear.
9. jesus December 5th, 2009 at 08:49
  
  I applied all November updates with no problem.Thanks alot Woody.
10. Marty December 5th, 2009 at 21:19
  
  I installed IE8 on three XP machines, two of them with SP2 and one with SP3. The first two went fine; however, the one with SP3 produced a Data Execution Protection error when I ran Windows Update (Microsoft’s own website adversely affects its own browser!). Microsoft has a fix for this — turning off DEP in IE8, but that would appear to increase the security risk with IE8. Ironically, in my preliminary testing, other non-Microsoft) websites did not produce the error.
  
  For Microsoft’s bulletin on this see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd371730(VS.85).aspx
11. Maghullyback December 6th, 2009 at 17:52
  
  Every time I install patches, I’m as nervous as a space shuttle commander being told to “go with throttle up”.
12. Marty December 7th, 2009 at 00:29
  
  I agree with Maghullyback. I’m not a Mac user, but at least Macs use standardized hardware. In the PC world, with lots of different video cards, motherboards, etc., along with their various drivers, you always have to wonder whether a particular Windows update will break your system. I image my hard drive regularly, back up my data files every day, check the Internet (and Woody’s website, of course) for potential patch problems, and still I hold my breath each time I apply a Windows update. Being conscientious shouldn’t be so nerve-wracking.
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