A progress report on Win7 “Service Pack 2”

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A year ago, Microsoft promised that it would roll all of its Windows 7 post-SP1 updates together and release them along with the monthly Win7 cumulati
[See the full post at: A progress report on Win7 “Service Pack 2”]

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Elly, AJNorth, SueW, HiFlyer, ryegrass, MrBrian, BobbyB, ch100

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Few notes here.
I wouldn’t say that KB3125574 has failed, as it is a relatively good update, but for best results should be used only under controlled conditions and for specific situations. It bring together a large number of so called LDR updates normally named hotfixes which do not come on Windows Update. It has been released for enterprise use and should be used for the purpose for which it was released.
In relation to the rollups, the list is indeed long. However, after installing it today on my test VM and running Disk Cleanup after the fact, only 2 older patches were removed. They are KB2929733 and KB4025341, which is the previous rollup. Not sure what happens there and why more updates are not removed. It is possible that because disk cleanup was run regularly and removed previously a number of patches. Now there is not much left and the previous patch contained its own significant list of superseded updates. Disk Cleanup runs conservatively and does not clean everything that is not needed, but there are not many redundant patches left in the system anyway, maximum of 10 based on my other tests. The current count for my installation of Windows 7 64-bit is 186 updates (Windows only, no Office or other products like standalone .NET Framework 4.x or Silverlight which are counted separately).
There was an issue in the past with the last major rollup ever released officially, KB3000850 for Windows 8.1/2012R2 when the supersedence list was incomplete and many redundant old patches showed as needed. It took few months for Microsoft to clean up the supersedence and make KB3000850 an almost complete rollup for the time of its release.
We may see at some stage a similar action in relation to the current monthly rollups.

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Elly, Jan K., AJNorth, BobbyB

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Simply love the phrase “… a relatively good update”! 😀

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The Windows world has become too complex to address all needs at once.
KB3125574 is a good patch for some and not so good (but not bad) for others.
This makes it “relatively good” 😀

There are too many variables to address here for most end-users, but for those inclined to understand more, please check this external blog post from @abbodi86 and friends which was acknowledged by Microsoft and considered in the process of addressing some of the shortcomings.
This post was discussed on few Microsoft blogs with the Microsoft PFEs by me as well and is considered authoritative in this matter, at least outside of Microsoft’s internal channels.
http://windows-update-checker.com/FAQ/ConvenienceRollupKB3125574-Issues.htm

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Jan K.

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Is there a version for 8.1? This would be very useful to me.

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KB3000850 was the closest that you can get for Windows 8.1, released in November 2014.
The assumption is that KB2919355 is also installed, as this is the “Service Pack 1” for windows 8.1.

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Steve

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Yes I suppose Oct is just round the corner here, I am just wondering wether it would be worth “cracking open” my backup images for a clean install to update them. I updated all mine last Oct using a variation of a theme, of a link that ch100 posted for me (obtw thx) way back which is:
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/astoica/2017/01/03/windows-7-refreshed-media-creation/
I believe there is one “stacks” update between then and now which would have to go in.
The truth be known I have never had to use my backup install images since creation last Oct nor has there been any demand at work to push any out the door. I suppose I will look at it again in a couple of months, because truth be known it had slipped my mind completely with the Win10 developments. Hmm I wonder if its going to be worth compiling a list because since Oct, with one exception the, updates should all be cummulative so the latest & greatest should take care of everything since last Oct. But I have a sneaking suspiscion that wont be the case.
Thx for the spreadsheet @woody thats going to make some interesting reading it seems you have been extremely busy behind the scenes. We all owe you a great deal of thx 🙂

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AJNorth, ch100

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I believe that Microsoft has not yet added any files (actually components) to the monthly rollups solely for the purpose of incorporating older updates.

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abbodi86, ch100

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From comments at Windows 7 refreshed media creation:

“[from Microsoft employee Andrei Stoica on August 2, 2017]

A: The build & release of a cumulative update has been postponed, this is the latest status I can find:

Over time, Windows will also proactively add patches to the Monthly Rollup that have been released in the past. Our goal is eventually to include all of the patches we have shipped in the past since the last baseline, so that the Monthly Rollup becomes fully cumulative and you need only to install the latest single rollup to be up to date. We encourage you to move to the Monthly Rollup model to improve reliability and quality of updating all versions of Windows.

We are planning to add these previously shipped patches over the next year and will document each addition so IT admins know which KBs have been included each month.”

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abbodi86, ch100, AJNorth, HiFlyer, BobbyB

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Cheers that answers that then (above) 🙂

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MrBrian

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I think so too. It looks like the process hasn’t started yet, and once started may go well into 2018.

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2 years isn’t a long period to have fun with piling up rollup 😀

they wasted whole 2017 and failed to fulfill their promise

on the other hand, 5 years is good enough for Windows 8.1

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They were trying with 8.1/2012R2 and to some degree with 2012 during the second half of 2014. In the end, the only useful outcome was KB3000850. There is one more CU of that period released in December 2014, still in Optional, not superseding KB3000850. I thought they abandoned that idea of CU/rollups, but they are trying to revisit it starting 2 years later and including Windows 7 this time.
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/chad/2015/01/21/current-windows-server-2012-r2-windows-8-8-1-update-rollups/
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/23823.windows-8-1-and-windows-server-2012-r2-list-of-rollup-updates.aspx
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/23820.windows-8-and-windows-server-2012-list-of-rollup-updates.aspx

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abbodi86

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KB3000850 is more than just a big rollup or cumulative update, it was the final polishing stage to stabilize Win 8.1 / 2012 R2
almost all updates after it come from build lab winblue_ltsb (Long Term Servicing Branch 😀 )

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Elly, BobbyB, ch100

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A while back one of the updates wiped out my update history and started over.  I don`t remember which update wiped out my update history.  I have Win 7, group A.

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I’m going back to Windows 7 from 10 on one of my PC’s today and so far the updates have progressed better then my previous try a few months ago. Not like their zipping through 187 updates but at least it didn’t think about it for hours. I have a scanner that just does not like Win 10 so I finally caved and decided installing Win 7 was free and better then buying a new scanner. Windows 7 is still tops for the best Windows in my book. Win 10 is just OK and I would never pay for Win 10. I might still pay for Win 7 even today.

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Elly, AJNorth, SueW

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I’m in the Win7/x64 Group B and normally only install ‘pure’ security updates, so is this KB 4034664 update/sp2 recommendable?
Woody doesn’t seem to tone it down, although in the overview in 2000003 I see its security-only alternative KB 4034679 (and 4034733).

So what’s up? Should I install KB 4034664 or not?

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KB 4034664 Is the 2017-08 Security Monthly Quality ROLLUP and as such is NOT a “‘pure’ security” update.

The ROLLUP (KB 4034664) is composed of the security-only update, the non-security update, and the cumulative update for IE11.

KB 4034679 is the Security Only Quality UPDATE and contains security-only patches.
KB 4034733 is the Cumulative Update for IE11.

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Elly, TJ

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Thanks PKCano, I’m aware of that but I still don’t understand why Woody calls KB 4034664 a kind of SP2 roll up. That gave me the impression that it’s important.

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He’s just explaining that KB4034664 (the current Monthly Quality Rollup) replaces a lot of updates

the Monthly Quality Rollup is supposed to become cumulative n the next months/year, which is similar to be SP2-like

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Wondering what benefit the Monthly Rollup style SP2 would bring to Group B style users?

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SueW

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@ … LeaningtowardsLinux,

This may be important for those who have to do a clean reinstall of Win 7/8.1 for whatever reason.

Eg Win 7 SP1 users who are in Group A and have just done a clean reinstall will soon only need to install the latest monthly Quality Rollup(= SP2) through Windows Update, in order to be up-to-date.
… But those in Group B who have just done a clean reinstall, will have to install about 200 important updates through Windows Update(ie from 2011 to Sep 2016) and manually install all the non-cumulative monthly Security-Only Patches from Oct 2016 onward through Update Catalog. Then only will they be up-to-date. Imagine doing this in Aug 2019, ie a clean reinstall of Win 7 SP1 Group B.!

Edited to remove unsubstantiated information.

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TJ

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TJ wrote:

Should I install KB 4034664 or not?

I have a small system running Win 7 x64 ultimate that serves a role as a small business server. I have been managing it as a “Group B” setup, installing only security updates.

After removal of SMB1 support and security updates to all my other systems it developed a quirk: Other systems intermittently could not see the files on it any more. Usually it works, but there’s obviously some glitch under the covers, without any log entries or useful error messages.

So I began to suspect that maybe something has changed in the NetBIOS protocol per all these updates, since all the client systems had been fully Group A updated, but the server had only had Group B updates.

Long story short, armed with a good system backup, as an experiment yesterday I went ahead and installed all updates, Group A style, including KB4034664.

Now it seems to work okay, though more time is needed to be sure. It’s possible just the reboot masked the problem.

WMI QFE LIST shows the following updates added:

KB3159398
KB3161102
KB3161949
KB3161958
KB3170455
KB3170735
KB3172605
KB3177467
KB3179573
KB3181988
KB3184143
KB4014504
KB4014596
KB4019990
KB4034664

The only update showing as replaced was a security update from April 26:

KB4015549

-Noel

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AJNorth, TJ

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That security update from April 26 is the April 2017 Security Monthly Quality Rollup…

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Noel Carboni

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Here’s my experience with a hardware firewall and antivirus:

I performed a factory image restore last week and it did take more than two hours to install over two hundred patches.

The Windows update search was responsive and also properly displayed its progress indicators during installation.

TrustedInstaller could just barely manage the load of one hundred ninety-six patches over time which helped to further negatively affect overall system responsiveness and slow down the update operation. If others need to perform this operation perhaps try installing twenty five patches or less in order over several sessions.

It is a pleasing sensation of having a quick responsive beautiful Windows 7 installation.

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Elly, SueW, MrBrian, AJNorth

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