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What happened to “one windows to rule them all”? Can anyone answer me that?

Don’t tell me how Edge is so much more secure than IE.

Likewise, don’t tell me how Win10 is so much more secure than 7 or 8.1 despite attempts of microsoft pr to convince us otherwise. The number of vulnerabilities every single month is proof enough.

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Cybertooth

Yes, but you have to understand that for many people the adversary here is microsoft. Lest we forget that the gwx campaign was malware, pure and simple malware pushed through seemingly harmless updates. There was a time i would update within days of them being pushed out but no longer and i lay the blame entirely at microsoft’s door, this is of their own making because they can no longer be trusted, i just cannot stress that enough. I agree with a happy medium of updating, i am in group “B” myself, but unless you take steps that the average user is incapable of then updating on 10 is not to your schedule but microsoft’s. Every time i visit this site it makes me glad i’m not using 10 when i read the latest horror show of an update breaking usb ports or ethernet or bluetooth or printers or etc.

Can some others chime in on their group “W” approach here? I know you’re on here and are managing perfectly well without the risk of microsoft bricking your machines due to another botched update.

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Steve, DriveBee, SueW, Elly, samak, Cybertooth

This. Microsoft have proven time and time again they cannot be trusted, especially now they are relying on their customers to be their beta testers after culling their own testers. Maybe there isn’t 100% safe browsing but there is a heck of a lot you can do to reduce your attack surface, even if you take the nuclear option and run something like noscript, which i admit isn’t suitable for your ordinary user. It’s just i’ve seen many a comment on here of people who have abandoned windows updates for a while now (possibly since they started lumping them all together) and nothing of value is lost.

A kind reminder that the clock is ticking on your beloved platform, you have two years before Windows 7 will be out of support in January of 2020.  So we have time to review our options and what to do after that platform drops out of patching support.

Well, about that… many people have already taken the decision to drop out of the patching mess that microsoft have created themselves (it’s called group “W”). The monthly update saga has become too much like playing russian roulette so i would wager that as long as safe browsing is followed then a lot more of us will carry on using our trusty old 7 machines for a while longer.

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DriveBee

Interesting. Thanks for find that but, fool me once Microsoft… I’m never installing that demon-haunted update again and they’re clearly too stupid to rename it to something else and purge the scandalous association that update has. Microsoft: arrogant, untrustworthy, lying stains on this industry. Can you tell I’m not a fan of Microsoft today?

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SueW

Wow, me too. It’s listed as important and ticked. Will these clowns never learn? I have the ‘give me recommended…’ option unticked so this is quite a brazen move from them. Anyone else getting it? I would’ve thought this merits its own blog post.

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MrBrian

Tired poster syndrome huh? I like that and we’ve all been there but yeah, i don’t have an AMD processor either so i’ll install the original security-only (group b forever!).

As i said, i am waiting as i do every month but you agree that this month’s patches are an absolute car crash? I feel like i’m going to be none the wiser when it comes time to wade through this mess.

Yeah, as i said earlier i noticed the file sizes are exactly the same so there’s no real need for you to go into more details but i notice in the discussion about the 8.1 mess here that you and abbodi both seem to think it’s a good idea to install the original security only update anyway, after the PIC/APIC and AMD fixes. Have i got that right? Please correct me if not.

ETA: unless you just mean that only applies to 8.1 and 7 is a whole different kettle of stinking, rotten fish.

Oops, so i did… well anyway, it’s too late to edit now but i meant this one – https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/4056897

Oh, certainly, i am waiting but it gets to that time of the month when i start planning what i’m going to be installing and this month is an absolute headache of patches and re-released patches and dodgy patches and dodgy re-released etc… and it never ends.

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Cybertooth

KB4073578 can be considered the latest version of the Windows 7 Windows security-only update

Really? So when it comes to installing the security-only we go with this rather than KB4056897? This is what confuses me, if KB4073578 is considered the latest then why hasn’t it replaced the other one which is dated january 3rd – here

ETA: even though i notice the file sizes appear to be exactly the same.

The .net framework patches are confusing me even more, i just don’t understand which we’re supposed to install when the time comes.

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JDeC, Cascadian

That indeed lists all of them but i’m curious why intel’s site only lists the CPUs going back to the second generation and not before. There is no 1st generation listed, unless they are included in the (45nm and 32nm) categories. You’d think they’d be a bit more thorough with listing EXACTLY the CPUs affected.

I see, got it.

Thanking you kindly… resistance is futile.