Is it safe to install Jan. 2018 patches yet?

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Hello All,

I have been trying to stay up to date on the whole January 2018 Microsoft patches thing. I don’t know what to do? i have (windows 7 with ie 11) and have 3 patches I need to decide to install or hide before the febuary patches hit us.

kb4056894 security rollup? I think this is the patch that has the bad intel meltdown/spectre patch in it? or did microsoft pull the intel patch from this rollup in the last few days and if so is it okay to install kb4056894 to get the security fixes?

kb4033342 net framework 4.7.1 but this one the box is “unchecked” – should I check it off and install it? hide it?

Finally kb4055532 another net framework patch but this one (has the box checked) so is it safe to install?

Sorry I am posting anonymously as I just found Woody’s site searching for answers and once I am squared up on the patches, I will be registering. Seems like a very good site to be part of.

Sincerely,
Jerry

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Hi Jerry, and welcome!

At this stage, Woody has kept us at MS-Defcon 2 for January 2018’s patches. As it says at the top of the page, “Unless you have an immediate, pressing need to install a specific patch”…

I’d keep an eye out, to see what advice Woody issues prior to the February Patch Tuesday rolling around (which is, as you mention, very nearly on us). You might like to use the RSS link above, or follow Woody on either Twitter or Facebook, to keep up to date until you get registered (although, there probably isn’t any reason to delay registering).

2 users thanked author for this post.

JDeC, woody

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Hi Kirsty,
Thanks for getting me started with learning this site/forum. I clicked to read and understand Woody’s MS-Defcon rating system now and can see his 2 rating at top of the page so I will keep an eye on that daily thank you.
Please forgive me Kirsty but what is the RSS Link? Plus I can not seem to find it above as you say? As you can tell I am very new to the site but I learn pretty fast.

Sincerely
Jerry

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Hello, Jerry here and in need of some help. I just tried to register creating my user name and giving my email address and what came up on the screen was to check my email for my password. Only thing is over 45 minutes later and still no emailed password? Thinking it must be just a glitch I clicked on “lost password” so I could try registering again but still no email with password. Can anyone offer me any help with this? Could it be i registered at about 2am eastern time zone? I figured it would be automatically generated by computer software or something?

Thanks all
Jerry

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Some folks have problems getting the email. I, for one, have an overzealous spam filter buried in my email provider that gobbles up all of my confirmation emails. Took me forever to figure out why I wasn’t getting them.

Easiest fix: Just email me with your username and tell me what password you want. I can override everything manually. woody@AskWoody.com

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At the very top of the page, in the right hand corner, you should see icons for the home page, email, Twitter, Facebook and Feeds – https://www.askwoody.com/feed/ only gives the home page, but you can check out new topics using the links down the right hand panel, below Recent Topics: i.e. Recently Active Topics

Once you are registered, the other options like New Posts Since will be helpful, and you can subscribe.

However, getting registered… sorry you’ve had issues with the emails, which should fire out fairly instantly. Maybe it’s caught in a spam-filter somewhere. Try letting us know your chosen UserName (I’ve not found a new “Jerry” on checking just now), so we can at least find out if it has got through to the database.

PS A primer about RSS feeds:
https://www.lifewire.com/rss-101-3482781

1 user thanked author for this post.

walker

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Thank you for posting and asking the question, Jerry! I was just wondering myself today and went searching for an answer and found this. Incredible how iffy they are this month, but at the same time, somewhat understandable considering Meltdown/Spectre.

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Hi everyone,
Just wanted to thank Woody and Kirsty for all the help and Chris M for thanking me about my post. I hope it will help others as well as myself in what has been a tough month to sort out all this meltdown/spectre madness on top of the usual microsoft monthly roll of the dice patches that in my opinion has made my life on the computer more stressful and less enjoyable as i have gotten so paranoid every time i see the second tuesday of every month roll around and have to face it again. This is not why i put a computer in my home. So glad i found Woody’s site and now know we are all together here. IT TRULY HELPS!!

Peace to All
Jerry

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New member of the forums but have been lurking for some time.

I maintain a bunch of small business systems and normally follow Woody’s Defcon advice on the small servers that my customers run.

A week ago I installed KB4056894 on an HP Z210 mini server with an i7 processor (thinking that after 3 weeks it should be fixed). I watch this machine remotely and noticed within a couple days that it was NOT recovering from it’s 0600 reboot. It would hang on reboot prior to the HP logo and had to be forced to power off and then would boot up fine.

I shut off the morning reboot and took a look at it today. Went through the normal trouble shooting and found that it failed reboot 60% of the time. I removed KB4056894, which took quite some time and tested several reboots successfully. I set up an auto reboot every 15 minutes and it’s been rebooting successfully for about 4 hours with no failure.

Googling around about this problem I notice a few Intel issues with this update, but most are AMD.

I’m not sure how to proceed at this point except to pay more attention to this site. Hopefully there will be a more stable update to address the Meltdown issue.

Best Regards,,, Dave

1 user thanked author for this post.

woody

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Interesting. I haven’t seen the problem, but that’s what makes a horse race, eh?

Any links to folks describing similar behavior?

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Hello,
Just wanted to give a thanks to Woody for getting me registered. I signed in today and all seems good to go. Just want to put out one question to anyone who may have an answer. Before i registered i started my first topic as (anonymously). Now that i am a registered user is there any way to get that topic into my (PROFILE/Topics Started)? All i could figure out was to save it in my FAVORITES like it was posted by someone else. I know this seems trivial but i wanted my first post in my profile.
Thanks
Jerry

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Don’t know if that will get to your profile, but at least your ID is on it now.

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I have a Lenova computer with Windows 7 (Intel) and I use Norton for my firewall and antivirus.  I tried on 1/5/18 and today 2/5/18 to download a microsoft update KB4056894.  both times this update in downloaded and installed, then the computer shuts down and restarts, it then gets to around 80 to 90% installed when a message comes up FAILURE CONFIGURATING WINDOWS UPDATE.  REVERTING CHANGES.  So both times I have been unable to install this update.  Can anyone tell me what I need to do to install this update.  Microsoft told me I needed to disable my antivirus while installing.  I’m not very confident with the people at Microsoft.  Can anyone advise me what to do.  I would appreciate it.  Thanks.

BonBon

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You need to be sure your AV has set the ALLOW Regkey mentioned in the MS page on KB4056894

You may have to update the version of the Norton program for it to set the Registry key.

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I uninstalled and reinstalled my Norton Internet Security to make sure I had the most recent registry key and updated software.  I still get the FAILURE CONFIGURATION WINDOWS UPDATE.  REVERTING CHANGES.  towards the completion of this update.  Even went into the msconfig window and disabled the antivirus and that didn’t do any good. 

I’ve been on phone with Microsoft for 3 hours to no avail.  Now I have to wait til Thursday to talk to a Level 2 support person to see if they know what the @#%@ is going on.  How frustrating.  Any other suggestions?  And is anybody else having problems with downloading KB4056894 from the January Patch Updates?

BonBon

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I also googled January Patch KB 4056894 on the internet and found that Microsoft Website recommends replacing KB4056894 patch with KB4073578.  Any ideas or suggestions about this?  HELP.  I hating this particular January patch more and more!

BonBon

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There is an ongoing discussion about the patches in the latest blog post.

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I see ms-defcon is now a 3 so with that and the fact that we are 8 days away from february’s patch tuesday i would like to repost my questions that i started this post with for what others intend to now do as i am still so unsure and do not want issues to than spend major time trying to solve them (i’m no tech). Just looking to do the right thing to secure the computer than move very far away from jan 2018’s mess and watch a youtube music video or something LoL

** i have (windows 7 with ie 11 and Legacy Intel Core i7 Processor Product formerly Ivy Bridge) 3 patches to decide to install or hide before the febuary patches hit us…

1- kb4056894 security rollup? does this patch have the bad intel meltdown/spectre patch in it? or did microsoft pull that patch from this rollup? Am wanting to install kb4056894 to get microsoft security fixes installed but am unsure?

2- kb4033342 net framework 4.7.1 but this one the box is “unchecked” – should I check it off and install it? From what i read here i think i will hide this one?

3- kb4055532 another net framework patch but this one (has the box checked) so is it now safe to install?

** The malicious software removal tool for jan 2018 i will be installing. Never seem to have issues with that.

Thanks in advance everyone
Jerry

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This is my personal experience with Win7 patches.
Hope that helps

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Hello everyone,
PLEASE!! Does someone here know the answer to my biggest concern??

Does microsoft’s jan. 2018 security monthly quality rollup (kb4056894) contain the intel spectre 2 patch in it or did microsoft pull that patch from this kb4056894 rollup? I want to install the microsoft security fixes that kb4056894 contains but i don’t want that full of trouble intel Spectre variant 2 mitigation patch at all.

Thank You
Jerry

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anonymous wrote:

Hello everyone, PLEASE!! Does someone here know the answer to my biggest concern?? Does microsoft’s jan. 2018 security monthly quality rollup (kb4056894) contain the intel spectre 2 patch in it or did microsoft pull that patch from this kb4056894 rollup? I want to install the microsoft security fixes that kb4056894 contains but i don’t want that full of trouble intel Spectre variant 2 mitigation patch at all. Thank You Jerry

The Monthly Rollup KB4056894 AND the security-only update KB4056897 AND the latter’s replacement KB4073578 contain the Spectre fix for WINDOWS 7 OS.
They DO NOT contain the defective Intel microcode that is applied to the hardware.

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anonymous wrote:

PLEASE!! … my biggest concern??
… but i don’t want that full of trouble intel Spectre variant 2 mitigation patch at all.

Thank You
Jerry

Hi Jerry, from another topic: https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/ms-defcon-3-lots-of-caveats-but-its-time-to-get-patched/page/14/#post-165241 is my recent experience.

Our needs are different. But reviewing the Gibson Research InSpectre tool results after the SMQR installation seems to confirm. As has been pointed out by others, variant2 patches come from hardware providers, either OEM badge or chip maker.
—
canceled rest of message after seeing PKCano replied. Posting this portion as a single real world result to hang your hat on.

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