Replies

I’m running Win7 with IE11.
The update showed up out of cycle and checked. I waited to see what WinSecrets would have to say. Then it showed up unchecked. And then checked again.

Just installing it now. It required a reboot.

Just for clarity with readers here: Windows Secrets contributors like Fred Langa recommend you:
– set Windows Update to notify but don’t install. WinSecrets typically comes out a couple of days later and will warn you of any issues with specific updates. This greatly reduces hassles with the occasional problem patch. I’ve had to help friends out of such issues but not myself.

– Update IE when it’s OKed – even if you don’t use it (it’s a good idea to use an alternative browser as it has security issues like ActiveX). Why update IE? Because IE is closely tied to the OS and unpatched IE can be a back door to trouble. Scripts on an infected web page or email can easily trigger it via ActiveX, etc. And even the good sites can get infected.

I’m surprised so many WinSecrets readers would not have updated IE. Bad idea.

I waited a couple of days until our IT guys announced they were pushing an update. They did not give the KB #, which would mean nothing to almost anyone except the IT guys and me. (When I asked because it didn’t push to my machine, the Help Desk guy could not tell me, so maybe it only means something to me. I pulled it anyway.) I was expecting an out-of-cycle Patch watch but Susan did not issue one and I had to do some digging in Technet before I could even infer that the KB was for the ZDE.

Anyway, I don’t have the prerequisites nor have they been offered AFAIK. I had a recent System Restore so rolled the dice and installed the update, which ran fine and required a restart in two very different environments – Win7 x64 with IE 11 and Win XP Pro with IE 9. I use Firefox at home (the Win 7 box) and have noticed no difference since the update. I switched to Chrome on the XP box at work, which is quicker than IE ever was.

Trying to restart explorer.exe but can’t get Task Manager to start. I have a very bad wi-fi connection in the motel where I am staying, which impedes my ability to do diagnostics. Any advice on the Task Manager issue?

Naturally I was using FF, forgetting that M$ requires IE to do anything useful on their site. Fired up IE for the first time in who knows how long, ran download, selected run…same error message. Thanks anyway for the suggestion.

Secunia PSI is telling me to update MSXML 4.0 and I dug around to find that I need KB2721691. Reviewing installed updates (which are, as previously observed, not in any useful order) I seem not to have it, nor am I offered it. OK, go to the MS page, download it and try to run it. Now I am stymied by the error in the attached image.

Can anyone help me install this beast? It’s really bugging me to be at 99%! TIA

I did not install SP1 and it has disappeared from my Windows Update list. There are still 20 important updates listed, of which 10 are from February or earlier, for some of which I have no guidance either from Susan or from Secunia PSI. My practice is to leave updates alone until one of my two trusted sources says to install them. However, I would still like to clear the older ones. To wit: 2284742, 2345886, 2388210, 2443685, 2454826, 2467023, 2487426, 979538, 982110 and 2434419. I am still holding off on 2284654 based on prior advice. Recommendations, please?

I am only there 10 hours/week and no one in leadership who travels cares to set it up. Exchange is managed in France and it took a long time to get the voicemail help to talk to me in English instead of French, which was pretty but I did not understand. For these reasons, I don’t think I will bother. Everyone is accustomed to my schedule now.

Thanks,

Ken

I have not had the patience to see if it will ever come back. Windows Update is on full automatic but I have not tested Office per se, nor have I asked around. I gather from your questions that this is not a known issue and I will need to investigate further.

Thanks,

Ken

This is also about “Tabbed interfaces on small screens.” My first act after buying a new notebook with a 16:9 screen was to increase usable vertical space by moving the taskbar from its default position at the bottom of the screen to the left side.

A reminder to everyone (including me!) who took Windows Secrets’ advice and is not using the ISP’s DNS address…I am using DNS addresses 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220 and got a big fat 0/10 for ipv6. Will have to recheck Automatic from ISP in my router settings (temporarily) and test again.

20 minutes into the future…still 0/10.

Hello, I duly added Force-TLS (NOT Force-TSL, as published) to my list of add-ins. Also, Mozilla just pushed out 3.6.12. It’s hard to keep up.