It’s time to get Windows, Office, Net, and the others updated

Topic

Compleat step-by-step instructions for the faint hearted. InfoWorld Woody on Windows
[See the full post at: It’s time to get Windows, Office, Net, and the others updated]

Replies

Why should anyone waste time with this Windows 10 update frenzy? It’s certainly safe to ignore the last few updates until the ‘Creators Update’ gets forcibly installed by Microsoft anyway. And since they are going to frell up more stuff, we are not going to waste any more time and disable Windows updates on our server. Let them ship their upgrades 1 or 2 times a year and done..

Woody, this is NEW!!! My brother called me and said he was listening to a song on YouTube (He was using Firefox)and Up Jumped a black Window that said: “Isn’t it about time you upgraded to Windows 10?” and it had 3 instructions to go through to update(for free) to Windows 10. The third of which was to turn on automatic updates and let it update his PC and install Win10. I take care of about 20 PCs for family and friends every month, so I know what they are running. I haven’t heard of anyone else having this happen to them. Yet!
Now, on one of my PCs the other night I always have Taskmanager running down on my task bar. About evey 1/2 hour I bring it up and see whats running. Low and behold, Windows Update and BITS were both running.
I keep Windows update turned of in Windows and I Disable Windows Update and BITS in Services.msc and they were both back on Automatic. What Gives. How did MS change these settings? This has happened on other PCs I take care of. Really pi&&ing me off.

Hi Woody!

I just updated my w7 pro laptop. Nothing to report. It went smoothly so far.

Time for me to wish you, and everyone, a great 2017 year. May this year be full of everything, as good as possible! I hope it will be OK with updates!!!

Greetings from Quebec city, Canada xxx

Doing security patch manually tonight and .NET and office patches and window defender update tomorrow night. Start the new year by putting updates in.

Woody, Thanks for providing this site, it is an excellent resource. Happy New Year

I’d be willing to bet the ad is some sort of come-on, spyware related.

As for the services wondrously appearing, perhaps the Elf on the Shelf? Hm. Failing that, did you install some new software lately???

Happy New Year, Woody and Everyone.

The only time I have seen Windows Update in Windows 7 changed to “Install updates automatically (recommended)” from any of the other 3 options is when Microsoft Security Essentials is installed.

Same goes for the BITS and Windows Update services being turned back on if you have changed them from the default Automatic (delayed start) setting.

So, I’m guessing MS possibly has a few ways of changing those settings if it wants to. Might be just accidental, of course.

One can only hope they’re a bit less accident prone this year

I’ve also seen this happen when you install Office. It asks you if you want the recommended settings and if you say “Yes” that is one of them.

elf on shelf? probably!
does anyone know if MSE is responsible for changing BITS and Windows Update settings?
thank you

Dear Woody,

I think I may have missed something in the last hectic month or two.

Based on scanning the Dec. 29th post of time to update, it appears those of us on Windows 10 version 1511 should have updated to version 1607.

If so, I missed your word to go forward. Should those of us still on windows 10 1511 update to windows 10 1607 (the anniversary edition)?

Thank you so much for answering all our questions, and have a great New Year!

Woody, I failed to mention I am on the Home edition of Windows 10 version 1511, if that makes a difference . . .

What Windows 10 update frenzy? A couple of cumulative updates each month? You don’t need the next 100 bug fixes or security patches? (Approximate number of issues fixed over last three months, expecting Creators Update in three months time.)

Thanks so much (again), Woody! Updated my Win7 SP1 Home laptop without issues so far. (KB 3210126, 3201752, 3210131)

Happy New Year!

@Carl D
“The only time I have seen Windows Update in Windows 7 changed to “Install updates automatically (recommended)” from any of the other 3 options is when Microsoft Security Essentials is installed.”

There are few other pieces of software from Microsoft doing this, but they ask you as far as I know and the Auto Updates are disguised under “recommended settings”

– Microsoft Office
– Silverlight

If anyone knows other software doing the same, feel free to add to the list.

Happy New Year Woody!

Not affecting everyone, just in case…
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/After-Excel-2013-update-Send-as-PDF-and-Send-as-XPS-commands-no-longer-work-e9120f1a-17ce-4e0b-8b76-7e4a5da9e858

The Excel updates have a history of known problems.

For most people it is still OK to go ahead and update.

+1

And it’s easy to work around.

Thanks!

Just installed the remaining updates last night and defragmented and such this morning.

.NET Patch
Windows defender update
Malware update for december
Office patches

Yep all good and the computer is all well. I thank Woody for his insightful info and sources to keep our computers safe and in good condition.

Hello Woody,

Two questions:

1. Should those on Windows 10 (home) version 1511 updated to version 1607, the anniversary edition?

2. Yesterday using the wushowhide tool I unhid the MS Office 2007 updates. Once that was done successfully, I tried to find them to download and install them.

After hours of waiting for them to be found, I got the error message with the code 0x800705b4.

It also said I could try in a little while. I tried two more times and got the same result.

I decided to hide the MS office 2007 updates again. This took all night, or I should say I gave up after about 4 hours and went to bed. This morning they were found and supposedly hidden.

I am now in the process of trying to unhide the Windows 10 version 1511 cumulative update (KB3205386), The Malicious Software Removal Tool, and the Adobe Flash Player for Windows 10 version 1511 (Kb3209498). I hope they install.

Have you heard of any similar issues, and have you a suggestion of how to install the MS Office updates?

The only change between these December updates and the November upates was to install the new Malwarebytes 3.0 and then later uninstall it due to issues the version installed had. I have not reinstalled Malwarebytes yet.

Thank you Woody!

@woody and @ch100

Let me ask a somewhat rhetorical question: Why are we constantly, nearly on a monthly basis, updating Office? My Office is 2007 (HS), it’s not my primary word processor, shouldn’t a nine-year-old program be stable by now? I don’t update WordPerfect, Open Office and Open Libre just have occasional new versions.

I’m pretty sure I know part of the answer to this, that’s not the major point. The major point is the instability, safety and integration of Office with any version of Windows.

Win 7-64…Group B …All inst’d without issue
1/1/17 ..

KB 3205394 W7-64 Security Only Update,
KB 3205402 Net Framewk my 4.6.1,
Office 2010 (KB3118380 + KB2889841),
Excel KB3128037,
Publisher KB KB3114395,
WORD KB3128034,
KB890830 Malicious Sftware Removal Tool

2nd Small PayPal Thanks 1/1/17 … All the Best in ’17 for Everyone!

Thank YOU! Those small donations keep the site running…

(Big ones, too, for that matter. )

As I understand it, the overwhelming problem is recently-uncovered, lurking security holes.

Yes, those on 1511 should move to 1607, unless you have an insufferable problem with the update.

If the Office 2007 updates appear when you’re unhiding the 1607 upgrade, go ahead and unhide the Office patches, too. It’s possible everything will get installed in a big wave.

Yes, those on 1511 should move to 1607, unless you have an insufferable problem with the update.

If the Office 2007 updates appear when you’re unhiding the 1607 upgrade, go ahead and unhide the Office patches, too. It’s possible everything will get installed in a big wave.

This is a good question for which I don’t know the answer. By extension this can apply to any other software product, Windows or others.
A possible answer is the one given to me and others in the audience by one the Microsoft’s “evangelists” about 12 years ago at one of the Microsoft conferences. He said that Microsoft and the industry in general is about 30 years old and as such they just cannot build reliable and fully secure products like any other engineered products.
He even asked a room full of people: do we need to reboot the Golden Gate bridge every now and then?

@Ch100 and @Woody

Thanks for your answers. For me, it doesn’t seem as if a product like WordPerfect has these security holes and I wonder why? I think it might have something to do with the fact that WP, or Open Office, is not tied into Windows in any fashion, or the same fashion as Office, or it could be that these programs aren’t tied into the internet as much either. In a sense, these programs are more discrete or contained.

But once you tie something into Windows, or the internet, or both, security issues start to cascade, we see this at least once a month with Adobe Flash, but less frequently with Adobe Reader, etc.

I am working on something bigger on this that, once I write it, I will send to Woody and, as I figure he has Ch100’s actual e-mail address he can send to him. It will be too large for a post.

It may be that Word Perfect is no longer maintained, it is not connected to the internet or some people just need to create a problem to find a solution to justify what they do. Or a combination of all of them.

The December security update went fine on my Win7 laptop (after fixing the slow W-U problem).

But then, I noticed that my last update prior was September, so I probably missed the Oct and Nov security updates.

I’m in Group B. Was December a roll-up, or should I go back and install Oct and Nov?

Thanks, Woody!

after installing security only update (group b) and then the office and .net updates,
in a further search for updates i get offered kb3177467 as important.
what is it and should i install or ignore it? i’m group b.

“… contrarian experience”
For the last 2 months (Win7) with Win Updates set to “Check for updates but let me choose…” (as I’ve had it set for -years- now), I wait ’til month-end (or near it – to get the “benefit” of “Revised KB’s”), then do the monthly “Rollup”. So far, so good – no disasters or -any- problems – so far, doing the M$ monthly “Rollup” updates.
Also un-check the MSRP – ‘not needed since I run a standalone MBAM weekly. ‘Not liking all the “M$ telemetry” mixed in, but it doesn’t appear that can be completely avoided, anyway.

//

Aren’t some updates uninstallable? What happens if an uninstallable update is buggy and causes major problems? How would it be removed? Would Microsoft have to release another patch to remove it? I don’t know. It was just a thought that popped into my head the other day.

That is a servicing stack update and, yes, install it.

1 user thanked author for this post.

“How would it be removed?”

If the standard method of uninstalling an update doesn’t work, you would need to either use System Restore to rollback to a previous point before the update, or restore from a disk image backup.

I have Windows 7 and am in Group B, and there is one update that keeps showing up on my “important” list every month, namely KB3138612, which I haven’t decided whether to install yet. Apparently it’s an update for Windows 7 update client. It’s an update that’s been discussed on this website quite a bit over the past year or so, but it’s not clear to me whether it’s needed and whether it would cause any problems. Is KB3138612 needed for Windows 7? And does it contain any “snooping” or “nagware”?

What I meant to say was “Aren’t some updates unable to be uninstalled?”

I refer to your InfoWorld article “Time to update Windows and Office”.

For Group B followers, you make the point that the “Security and Quality Rollup for .NET Framework” is the same as the security only .NET patch this month (December 2016).

The issue of whether Group B followers should install the security and quality rollup or the security only patch for .NET has been raised before, and the consensus appeared to be that installing the security and quality rollup didn’t pose much of a threat. So, for two months now, namely October 2016 and December 2016, I have installed the security and quality rollup (there wasn’t a .NET patch in November 2016).

Has the consensus now changed and, in future, you will be recommending Group B followers to install the security only patch for .NET?

This month was unusual because the Security-only update was a sham – it’s exactly the same thing as the Monthly Rollup.

In the future, I’ll probably continue to recommend Security-only but you’re right – the exposure to .NET rollups isn’t that great, so far as anyone knows.

I’m Group B, non-tech. Was late with Dec. updates. On 1/10/17, I successfully installed the Dec. security only, office & .NET frame updates on W7 pc. (per your article).

Same day, on my W8.1 64-bit pc, I installed the Dec. security only update; but windows update ran 7+ hrs. and didn’t find any other updates. I tried re-starting pc; and later, disconnecting it from internet to re-start update search. Just runs & runs. It never had problems finding updates before. The w7 pc found updates in less than an hr.!

(Installed updates shows Adobe Reader 11 updated itself to 11.0.19 on 1/10/17 at some point.)

What to do? Is there a way to install the .NET frame update manually, and would office updates catch-up later? Is it because I’m late, and you said (in a more recent post) that there aren’t many W8.1 Jan. updates? Thanks for help!

PS: When I type “dir %WINDIR%Microsoft.NetFrameworkv*” in command prompt to check my version; it gives me these results:
v 1.0.3705
v 1.1.4322
v 2.0.50727
v 3.0
v 3.5
v 4.0.30319.
I see the same in the Directory, so I guess I don’t have v 4.5?

Hi there Woody.

Long time reader, first time poster here. First of all, thanks for the hard work you and the community do here.

This may come a bit late, but I’m in group B with Win7 x64 and installed KB3197868 (November 2016 Security Monthly Quality Rollup for Windows 7 SP1) by mistake.

This patch caused my Windows installation to suddenly “dismiss” my two HDDs. Suddenly the HDDs no longer showed in Computer until I refreshed device manager. Tried changing cables, SATA ports, but to no avail. I couldn’t be the motherboard because one of those HDDs has Linux installed and it has never failed me.

When I realized I had installed the unwanted patch, rolled it back and put KB3197867 in its place. The problem is gone since then.

Greetings.

Wow. Glad you were able to isolate the problem!