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Nearly all of this is correct, DEFCON being too complicated for most home users (I am a home user only), Group B being too complicated for most (I am in Group B), Canadian Tech’s points about how people de facto become Group A or Group W.
But what is also true is Microsoft made it this way for no legitimate, helpful, real discernible reason. Rather, this happened through indifference, or negligence that they failed to correct, or breaking things that they then couldn’t correct, like breaking WU with no way for the normal home user to figure out how to get WU back up and running, assuming they figured out WU had been broken by MS in the first place. Sure, people like the people here figured out how to fix WU, and any home user, like myself, should be grateful for this, which I am, and for the education Ask Woody provides, which I am, but this should be what Microsoft should be doing. And it isn’t. This seems to be one of the few companies that can put out, or make, a product defective, and has no obligation, and quite possibly no way, to recall that product or make it work again. How whack is that?
Seriously, does MS need to survey its customers about bringing the old Security Bulletins back? Of course not. It was a valuable service to many, it was little, to no, skin off Microsoft’s back to provide this “SERVICE”. And it would be little to no skin off Microsoft’s back to bring it back. Using another company’s slogan: “Just Do It!”. It’s call admitting a mistake and correcting it.
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Aside from the matter of telemetry, which is a consideration, in a sense what Woody just posted about Win10, and a Group B, illuminates why I decided to go with Group B and will continue to do so. In the past year, or so, as we have all witnessed, Windows Update has been a mess. Bad files, bogus drivers, etc. Windows is presently, uncertain, unclear, unreliable, directionless, etc. when it comes to updating, whether it be Win 7, Win 8.1 and even Win 10. Until the dust settles, assuming a fact not in evidence (as we say in the legal field), a less is more approach seems advisable with updates; hence Group B. My system is stable, I possess several layers of third party security programs. So, keep it simple, varied, and less Microsoft (like don’t use Microsoft Word or IE unless you have to) seems to be a safer, more stable approach.
As something of an aside, but illustrative, for the past month or so, WU has been pushing, at least to me, Silverlight. I keep hiding it, WU keeps pushing it back at me. This is new behavior. I have no definitive answer as to why this is happening but, as the trust level is so low right now with Microsoft, I see no compelling reason to install this optional plug-in.
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Many thanks, once again. Funny you should mention WinPatrol, I do use it, but allowed SD to make the changes, so SD did what it should do when I ran a test.vbs file.
Also for everybody, there does not appear to be a Protected View option for versions of Word before Word 2010: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/What-is-Protected-View-d6f09ac7-e6b9-4495-8e43-2bbcdbcb6653 .
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Woody, recheck the KB number you are using. My search of MS Update Cat. renders KB4010250. I think you missed the second zero.
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Noel, thanks for doing the digging, which is way beyond my skill level.
So, once again, we are back at the topic of Microsoft’s constant attempts to bundle things that are not strictly a part of the core OS. Bundle the patches so we really don’t know what’s going on and can’t choose which things to install, other than going Group A, Group B. Then, we have the Grand Theory Of Bundling, which we’ve covered before, and has been found, previously, to possess legal problems. The absences of the Flash patch is an example of this, as was MS attempt to bundle IE back in the 90’s. Yet, MS continues to go down this path and is now bundling more than ever before.
I understand why MS is doing this from a business model approach, although it is highly questionable whether it will succeed. The paradox is that if MS does succeed, arguably the consumer will be worse off and, if MS fails, the consumer will likely be better off, with more options and less expense to keep up with the constantly changing Win 10 model. Most of us initially migrated to the MS/Intel model, as opposed to the Apple model, to have greater flexibility, both hardware and software, and less cost, than with an Apple product. If Win 10 succeeds, it is likely the two basic reasons we purchased into the MS/Intel model in the first place will no longer be valid. Then it will become more of a direct shootout between MS Win 10 and a comparable Apple product. I don’t see this ending well for MS.
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Unless somebody else has already made this point very directly, I think we are missing the forest for the trees here. Flash is a third-party program/app, which MS has chosen, perhaps with Adobe’s permission, to bundle security updates to Flash, for Win 8.1 and Win 10, in the updates for IE and Edge. However, what this has done is it has made it completely impossible for the individual user to properly secure his or her own computer upon release by a third-party vendor of a security update. So, what we have is Adobe saying version 24.0.0.221 of Flash is ready to be, and should be, installed, http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/ , but MS is blocking this for Win 8.1 and Win 10 users. We shouldn’t be talking about how to disable Flash at all, but thanks, Noel, for telling us how. The good news is this: Send the bill to Redmond when you get infected with Flash malware ?.
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This, and Woody’s post on “Another Windows 0day appears”, once again highlights the poor judgment of MS by going to the “one patch” program back in, what was it October. For those with Win 8.1 and Win 10, especially the most vulnerable home users who are unaware of the issues and potential problems with Flash, they now have absolutely no option but to continue to use a less secure version of Flash. Additionally, unless we assume there was only one security fix planned for February, across all Windows operating systems, we are all being denied security fixes because one, maybe two, maybe three, things didn’t pan-out in the bundled February update. MS can write all it wants about Win 10 being the most secure version of Windows yet and, even if I accept this, I don’t think a valid claim can be made that their “one patch” program properly supports that goal. There’s nothing wrong with going back to what worked better, remember “New Coke”. Perhaps MS will take a lesson away from what has transpired this month.
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So, we’re in Jimi Hendrixland: “If 6 was 9”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZuFq4CfRR8 ?. Seriously, as others have written, after all the bad updates, it’s refreshing to see MS pull pack and a try to be more careful.
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Kirsty, I don’t know if there is a formal way to backup the config. but what you can certainly do is go into the Mozilla/Firefox Profiles folder, make a copy of your profile and then, if things go off, you can simple use this “copy” to go back to your previous state.
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