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As a Windows 7 user who never uses IE, why should I do the update to IE? Is it a security risk if I don’t use it? The only important update this month is: 2018-12 Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 11 for Windows 7 for x64-based systems (KB4483187)

Regarding Telemetry blocking in Windows 7: I upgraded Spybot anti-beacon from 1.5 to 3.1 [Free]. It resets the blocks on start-up..also blocks telemetry in some other software like firefox and bing..all 3 bing users should be thrilled..the missing element  in the free version is Microsoft Office which I don’t care about. Even with some telemetry spyware embedded in the Win7 rollups, I would expect a much lower level of spying than with Win10, which Spybot A-B claims to block. For me, this is a much quicker and easier solution than the manual options I’ve seen..although I appreciate the contribution of those options.

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jburk07, rick41, Kirsty

Tonight I updated 2 more Win7 PC’s…both offered the .net update which proceeded with no problems…Anonymous above is probably correct as at both of those PC’s has “give me rec. updates the same way I receive important updates’ checked…I changed that setting. The others probably don’t have that setting enabled, but it’s late and I’ll check later.

Thanks Anon

I updated 5 Win7 PC’s, each initially showing only the Win7 rollup & MSRT. After the restart, a small update KB3177467 showed up and I installed with no problems. On the 6th Win7 PC 2018-10 .NET Rollup KB4459922 Showed up under important updates.. I updated..I installed with no problem seen..under history, it’s importance is shown as, ‘Recommended.’ Odd that it only showed on 1 out 6 updates to very similar Win7 PC’s.

Just finished updating [August updates] 6 Win 7 PC’s that had not been updated since March 2018. Most are older Core-2, Win7 Pro 64bit. Did the office updates all at once but the .net and security roll-ups separately with restore points in between. Used Spybot anti-beacon to pull the shades on Microsoft spying after the updates. Avoided the updates ending in 664 which continue to be offered. No NIC problems. Updates failed to install on a laptop with Win7 home. Went to safe mode, did sfc scannow and applied fixes. After that the updates worked.

I have 2 more Win7 PC’s to update that I use a lot and that are currently rolled back to Dec. 2017. If anything notable occurs, I will post it, but I expect those updates to go smoothly.

It’s really a shame to have to wait months to patch due to a long string of risky updates.

I’m a bit confused. Does Defcon 2 mean that August patches are benign?

I’ve reverted my most active Win7 PC’s to Dec 2017 and haven’t updated since then as every month’s patches appeared way riskier than the security threats they might prevent. I’ve been traveling and haven’t monitored this site for 3 weeks since there’s no way I would risk updating my only PC while traveling.

Is it really safe to update Win 7 PC’s or should I continue to watch and wait?

Thanks in advance.

I’m all Win7 and am not patching until Malwaresoft fixes the NIC issue.

Win 7 is still the most prevalent operating system..ahead of Win10…so maybe it’s not incompetence…but strategy that is driving Malwaresoft’s broken patching program. I would prefer to be up to date but am still running Dec. 17 on my most active boxes having reverted after problems became visible in April with Feb patches. No clean months patches since.  I keep hoping for a safe patching month for Win 7..but hope is fading. This is beginning to look intentional.

Susan…when you mention testing your PC’s, could you please indicate whether they are Win7 or Win10?

Thanks

I rolled back to Dec 2017 on most used win 7 PC’s and will skip May patches…maybe June will bring stability…or perhaps July. Bad patches are far greater risk to PC health than hacking threats for those that employ multi-layer anti-malware  and practice safe computing. These patches are trojan horses.

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Demeter, The Surfing Pensioner, Myst, ryegrass, wdburt1, HiFlyer, pmcjr6142, lanceboil

I rolled back my most used boxes to Dec 2017..was hoping May would be problem free so I could get up to date…looks like June or July. The patches are WAY MORE RISKY than the threats to someone who uses multi-layer anti-malware and practices safe computing, IMO.

Recently switched to Quad9 security filtered DNS https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/11/New-Quad9-Dns-Service-Blocks-Malicious-Domains-For-Everyone/
to help block the bad guys…no problems on 6 pc’s.

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windows7wasthebest

I’ve rolled back to Dec on 3 Win 7 PC’s. Do I have it right that the April Monthly Rollup, KB 4093118, has been fixed and is OK to install for Win7-64 PC’s?

“This is code that can retrieve or change any data in memory from a running program. Before it kicks in, a would-be attacker has to get the program running on your machine.” Does this mean something must be downloaded?

Should anti-virus be looking for signatures of this code..is it defensible?

Are users vulnerable to a drive by exploit..like a just being on a web page?

Win 7 with Feb 2018 update…reluctant to roll back, but assessing the the risk.

On several Win7 64 PC’s I have Feb and Dec security roll-ups installed. I could uninstall the Feb roll-up and be safe from Total meltdown…or, since an exploit has just come out and I have multiple anti-malwares and practice safe computing..avoiding the badlands..I could just wait till Microsoft pushes out a safe patch…maybe a month..maybe never…or until the exploit appears to be really causing problems..a bet that I won’t be patient 0 =>10,000.

I’m leaning towards the latter, but this whole mess is really over my head so I’m open to other opinions or options.

MARCH MADNESS I’m skipping the patch version and sticking to basketball…what a mess.

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SueW