Run Windows Update in Recovery Environment

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Ok, time for one of those “dumb” questions: Will Windows Update run (on Win 7 x64 SP1) if you’re in the Recovery Environment (from using F8 method) and have chosen the “Safe Mode” option? By Safe Mode, I mean just that, without networking.

For those reading this post who are unaware, Safe Mode puts you at a desktop with no extraneous programs or drivers of any kind running. This means no active Anti-Virus/Anti-Malware protection and, if you selected the “wrong” safe mode option, no networking at all.

The reason I ask this question is that I might have to install KB4099467 after installing KB4088875. This KB (4088875) has the known side effect of sometimes producing an error message of “After you install this update, you may receive a Stop error message that resembles the following when you log off the computer: SESSION_HAS_VALID_POOL_ON_EXIT (ab)”. Some posts here (on this site) have suggested this error produces a BSOD.

In the event of such an occurrence, I plan to boot into the RE and use the Safe Mode (no networking) option to install KB4099467, which I have just d/l’d from the Update Catalog. Yes, it’s the right version for my machine, x64. Since it’s an “msu” file, it uses Windows Update to get itself installed. That’s why I’m asking this question, I’d like to know what I’m in for, or if I have to choose “Safe Mode with Networking” instead, in order for Windows Update to do what it needs to.

KB4088875 will be installed using the “normal” method of launching Windows Update and then selecting KB4088875 for installation by itself. I’ve already installed the precursor, KB4099950 which runs the automated script to “protect” your networking from the “ravages”of KB4088875, as well as KB4100480 to protect myself from Total Meltdown. Since KB4088875 is a monthly rollup, it’ll make WU tell me it needs to reboot my machine to finish installing the patch, so installing KB4099467 immediately afterwards without rebooting isn’t an option. Please see the next paragraph for why I believe this.

I know you can just close out WU instead of clicking the “Reboot” button it shows and just reboot later. However, last time I tried to install another patch WU had offered before rebooting from a patch that required rebooting, WU wouldn’t let me do so, insisting I had to reboot before proceeding with installing any other patches.

Thanks in advance!

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Unfortunately, I doubt this will work because the Windows Update service won’t start in Safe Mode.

You might be interested in this: 2000009: Getting out of a no-boot situation after installing Windows updates.

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Original Poster here. Took the plunge, and SURVIVED! After installing 4088875, rebooted and no issues, came right up to the desktop. SO, I then logged off without rebooting, as if letting someone else use the computer, and no issues, so logged back on. THEN, proceeded to Restart from the Shutdown button options on the Start menu, and no errors noted on the screen during shutdown, nor during reboot all the way back to the desktop. THEN went looking in the Event Log to see if anything showed up in there, and all was clean.

KB4099467 not needed after all. Also, just to be safe, I clicked on the copy of 4100480 I had stashed and a little bit after launching, it came up saying it was already installed. So, WU is indeed “smart enough” to not overwrite files in this case, leaving me protected from “Total Meltdown”. 

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