Microsoft releases another undocumented Windows 10-enabling patch, KB 3150513

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It took a Polish poster on Microsoft Answers to explain that it’s an update to the Win10 compatibility appraiser. InfoWorld Woody on Windows
[See the full post at: Microsoft releases another undocumented Windows 10-enabling patch, KB 3150513]

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Ugh. When will they calm down with this crap?! I cannot block these updates fast enough. Thank god for WSUS.

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Which OSes is this showing up on? One assumes 8.1 and/or 7_SP1, but since microsoft hasn’t yet heard of this update they just released it impossible to authoritatively verify the target OSes.

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True. I’ve seen it on Win7.

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No documentationee, no installee.

-Noel

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Seen it for 8.1 as well in my RMM patching console. Three instances, (Win7, Win7 x64, Win8.1) that I just declined.

Microsoft, don’t be surprised if you shove so much stuff down my throat that I tend to have a harsh, reverse reaction.

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Anagram!

Has not shown up on any of mine yet (Win7 or Win8.1, 32-bit or 64=bit). Maybe they are rolling it out in stages?

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Good policeeeeeee!

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Information is now posted in the KB article.

Title: May 2016 Compatibility Update for Windows

Descr:
This update provides updated configuration and definitions for compatibility diagnostics performed on the system. The updated definitions will improve accuracy and help enable Microsoft and its partners ensure compatibility for customers who want to install the latest Windows operating system. This update will be offered only if KB2977759, KB2952664, or KB2976978 is installed on Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1), or Windows 7 RTM.

So this would explain why it is not showing up on a good portion of the systems. They don’t have the prerequisite patches ( strong-armware ?) installed.

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Thanks. And it immediately calls into question KB2977759, KB2952664, and KB2976978. Wonder what they do that 3035583 doesn’t?

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That’s why it hasn’t shown up on my machines. I have hidden KB3952664 (Win7) and KB2976978 (Win8.1) on all.

I installed KB2952664 on a test machine several months ago. It made changes to the Applications Experience task in Task Scheduler (probably more changes as well). I assume KB2976978 does the the equivalent on Win8.1.

Perhaps it reports compatibility back to MS so they know whether or not they are wasting their time forcing Win10 on the machine.

I think KB3035583 just sets the trap.

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Woody;

Just a question not a post.

A few days ago Noel Carboni posted a registry change for Win10 home that would allow users to delay updates like the ‘Pro’ version.

He also asked for some of us to try it.

I can’t find it. Can you link it please?

JF

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Check this out…

http://www.infoworld.com/article/3053701/microsoft-windows/block-windows-10-forced-updates-without-breaking-your-machine-part-2.html

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Palindrome!

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“…help enable Microsoft and its partners ensure compatibility for customers who want to install the latest Windows operating system.”

And even those who don’t! 🙂

-Noel

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@PKCano

W7 SP1 x64 and it has not shown up yet on my system either.

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KB3150513 about which I posted yesterday is now re-released again in 4 files. According to the KB, this is like an “enhancement” for the functionality in KB2952664 for Windows 7 SP1 and the other equivalent patches for the other configurations.
After what has been observed in the last 24 hours – WSUS broken, Skype for Business patch pulled, this optional re-released, even MS-DEFCON at level 2 is optimistic.
Never check for updates may be the safest option for production machines for the next few days at least.

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Regarding the statement by ch100 above – “Never check for updates may be the safest option for production machines for the next few days at least.”

This is an earnest, calm question, not meaning to sound rude at all:

Excepting withholding for brief periods of time such as recommended at the moment by ch100 for production machines (I don’t even know what those are, but that is immaterial!) in his/her post above,
given the crazy, worsening situation with windows updates in the past year,
why do so many of you computery folks continue to allow *any* automated checking for updates, instead of simply selecting “never check” and doing the checks manually?

Is it that your “production machines” need to be set up in certain ways that mimic a typical user’s/company’s machine?
With your own personal-use machines, have you moved over to manual checking?

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Sounds like you’re advocating the MS-DEFCON system. 🙂

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“Production machine” = any machine that matters, personal or business related and for which any downtime would cause an inconvenience or bigger problem – this is an ad-hoc definition made up to reply to poohsticks
Many of us here install patches either on physical or virtual machines which are only used for testing. This is why some of us install early, either as a hobby or as part of our jobs or job related interests or for the purpose of researching and many times only to give feedback to Woody, volunteering our time to say thank you for his very useful work and for maintaining this site.
For most other people who are readers of Woody’s site and as I understand there are thousands, the MS-DEFCON system is all that they should follow to be as safe as possible, in the functional and security sense.
This would guarantee as best as possible that the systems are not broken and up to date for:
Security – Security Updates (mandatory)
Functionality – Critical Updates (mandatory)
New features – Recommended Updates
New features, sometimes experimental with higher degree of risk – Optional Updates

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MSE needs to check daily for definition updates. That’s my main reason for letting it check. I could do it all manually but don’t want to.

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So do you need to leave it on Auto for the MSE updates? What about having it for Never…, would MSE still update without Windows Update?

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Of the three KB’s mentioned above,
I’ve just discovered that KB2952664 was installed in August 15. on my pc. I also see that this one is a
telemetry fiend….. but I have diagnostic tracking disabled and also have Spybot Antibeacon running.
GWX Control Panel tells me I’m Win10
safe…. no files found…….. and I know possibly
this particular kb would be outside Josh’s GWX
brief. Now my question is I would like to uninstall
this kb2952664…… would this be a good move or
would it trigger more rubbish from MS ?
So far the current KB3150513 has not landed on my pc.
any thoughts would be welcome, thanks! LT

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I’m under the impression that MSE updates itself, regardless of “Auto” setting.

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This is why I am asking, I have the same feeling, however I didn’t test to confirm this.

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No other rubbish by uninstalling KB2952664. However, please be aware that there are about 20 versions (no exaggeration, it is literally a good approximation, not exactly counting how many versions are out there).
This means that if you have multiple versions, chances are that after uninstalling the most recent version, another one would pop up as installed (the previous one). It is not a fault, it is by design. You would have to take the time to uninstall each one at a time until none will be left on the machine.
On the other hand, if you use Josh’s software, I don’t think you have to worry much about this patch which I think is more of a facilitator of the other patch which is inactivated by GWX Control Panel.

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Thanks for the heads up. That update showed up this morning, hid the update after I saw this topic. 🙂 MICROSOFT-WE DON’T WINDOWS 10.

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ch100: Thanks for your explanation of what you do and why. It helps to see the (slightly) larger picture.

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Windows 7 Ultimate v6.1 build 7601: service pack 1. It looked crookedly familiar to KB3035583 so I looked deeper.

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Thanks so much ch100 for replying…. I don’t mind
leaving it there……….. let’s face it its been there since August 2015….You know something….. reading your comments again……maybe that is what has happened to me…. As I’m sort of surprised that I allowed it there in the first place….and maybe possibly I had uninstalled it…….. and what you describe happened…. meaning it reverted to a previous one! but the fact that its reported as a Telemetry one…. makes me wonder if
it is calling home……. even tho’ I might have disabled the tracking bit and got Spybot AntiBeacon watching my back…. that’s one of the diabolical parts that really gets me riled. Possibly it’s something Google et al do constantly… but to take over one’s computer…….. well that’s another thing isn’t it.. and until there is more balance and choice in the matter……. I for one will be trying to avoid Win10 for now…… even tho’ it might be a great OS….. the mandatory updates and telemetry make it all decidedly dodgy!! (Just my 2 bits!)
But a vote of thanks for all the instructive comments that flow through this blog….. and of course from Woody!! LT

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Just got optional update KB3035583 again.
Italicized. Windows 8.1
Will it never stop? I don’t know how many times I have hidden it. Didn’t get KB3150513 (yet).

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Lizzytish, I understand very well your concerns about the telemetry issues. If this is an important issue for you, then you may well have to spend the time and uninstall all versions of KB2952664, one after another with a possible restart between each patch uninstall.
The problem with this new telemetry trend is that it is not related to only one patch and it may be more complex to control than it is worth spending the time. It was discussed many times here and I don’t think anyone has the full answer. For the most advanced research about this issue on this site, in addition to Woody’s posts, I would refer you to Noel Carboni’s comments. Noel has invested a lot of effort in monitoring and controlling the communication of Windows 7 and Windows 10 back to Microsoft and posted many of his findings.
I am mostly a Windows 10 user now and learnt to live with the side-effects, although I still have a professional interest in Windows 7 due to work commitments.

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@Woody,

You wrote, “Sounds like you’re advocating the MS-DEFCON system,”

but my understanding of your DEFCON system is that you advise people to select the option “check for updates but let me decide,”

while I was talking about selecting the option “never check”:
“why do so many of you computery folks continue to allow *any* automated checking for updates, instead of simply selecting “never check” and doing the checks manually?”

I think I saw a comment from you a couple of weeks ago saying that you were pondering whether to change your advice to choosing “never check”, but I’m not sure about that recollection.

I feel that choosing “never check” for the past year has kept me a bit safer from being caught off-guard by MS and has given me some peace of mind in between my manual checks.

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ch100 wrote “For most other people… the MS-DEFCON system is all that they should follow to be as safe as possible….”

I’ve praised and thanked Woody previously a number of times here on his site,
so my next comment should not be misconstrued as criticism or as my thinking that I could ever know even a miniscule portion of what he does,

but in this very impactful area of my life (since my computer, files, internet access, etc. are so very important to me), I would not be content to follow the advice of just (any) one person on this stuff, because it’s so complicated and confusing, even for the experts (and even for Microsoft themselves, apparently).

I have sometimes queried Woody about his advice, have always compared other experts’/users’ reports, have trusted my own experiences with my computer, and have sometimes taken another path than what Woody has advised, because that’s what seemed the most logical and risk-adverse to me, given my specific situation and specific concerns.

No doubt: if a person has decided not to accept everything MS decrees, but wishes to follow only one external expert’s/resource’s advice, Woody’s is THE way to go.

[As I mentioned the other day under the ASUS motherboard article, I am thinking now of waiting an additional (second) month, beyond the typical (first) month, before installing anything new, even if the experts say that it’s looking safe to them, given how long it takes for some windows update problems to make themselves known from the vast global user base (with zillions of different setups), such as the major ASUS motherboard problem (which would have totally flummoxed and scared me if it had happened to me).]

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Understood and accepted. The MS-DEFCON system started in the XP era, in my For Dummies books. It was intended to be a simple, one-stop approach to delaying patches. I still try hard to keep it very simple. But, man, life’s become so complicated!

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There’s very little difference between “never check” and “check but let me decide.” The primary difference is that “check but let me decide” tosses a notification down in the system tray when there are new updates available. I figure that’s a valuable service for those who don’t look at this site every day.

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By re-reading the KB article it appears to explain what are the differences between KB2952664 (and its flavours), KB3150513 and implicitly KB3035583.

Please correct me if you have a different understanding.

KB2952664 (and its equivalents for other OSes and versions) is the baseline pre-requisite for all the others providing the telemetry baseline. It is mostly useful for the upgrading to Windows 10, but not only as it provides telemetry capabilities in a wider sense.

KB3150513 is not offered unless the previous one is installed and adds further functionality in relation to making Windows 10 upgrade more reliable. It has specific functionality in relation to applications compatibility and this is why is offered as a different KB number.

KB3035583 is purely adware/nagware, the bad guy which is neutralised by the Group Policies configured to do that or by Josh’s GWX Control Panel, or Steve Gibson’s tool, or Noel’s procedure.

What I find relevant is that the first 2 patches are offered to medium/large businesses running Enterprise Version or Enterprise/Pro + WSUS, while the last one KB3035583 is never offered to those businesses. They are the most important customers for Microsoft’s bottom line.

Which makes me think that, unless overly concerned about the telemetry issues, the other patches are not so damaging or annoying and may actually provide some benefit in certain instances. The larger businesses seem not to pay much attention to the telemetry issues and follow the official line from Microsoft. If anything, the communication back to Microsoft is blocked for network traffic and OS performance reasons and rarely for the content of it. The larger businesses are not typically offered an upgrade in place and are still offered KB2952664 and KB3150513 and maybe there are more to come.

There is certainly no benefit at all in installing KB3035583 unless and only if interested in doing in-place upgrade to Windows 10.

Even so, I upgraded long before all those patches mentioned here were released and my upgrade still completed successfully and I did it more than once. The three patches are just risk mitigation patches, not mandatory if upgrading from sources other than Windows Update, like the official ISO image. And it is actually a lot more reliable to use the ISO than Windows Update.

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Great info. I’m going to move this up to its own post. Thanks!

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Woody, I should thank you 🙂

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And I, you!

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