Newsletter Archives

• The most recent Servicing Stack Updates

  Posted on October 14, 2018 at 06:42 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  For those of you wondering whether you have the latest version of the Windows Update Servicing Stack — the part of Windows Update that actually does the update — @Karl_F1_Fan kindly sent me this list.

  (For those of you who update through Windows Update, this list is mostly educational. For those who install updates manually, remember that you need to have the latest SSU before you install a Monthly Rollup or a Cumulative Update.)

  As of Oct. 14:

  Win7 / 2008 R2: install order is important#1 KB3177467. #2 KB3172605

  Win 8.1/2012 R2: KB3173424

  Win 10

  1507: KB4132216 (only Special machines no public deploy)

  1511: KB4035632

  1607: KB4132216

  1703: KB4132649

  1709: KB4339420

  1803: KB4456655

  1809: KB4465477

  The Win7 SSU was announced to be re-released as Security update rather than previous optional update because it was a prerequisite for 09-2018, as I’ve heard. Imho the XP based terminology of “optional” updates is flawed as any update fixes either bugs or security issues.

  The Win7/2008R2 SSU patches will fix an issue that causes Windows to search for updates endlessly, back then in 2016 they needed 2-3 attempts to fix it with no side effects 🙂 same issue still persists in Vista/2008 Server and never got addressed.

  Personally, I’d take issue with the statement “any update fixes either bugs or security issues,” but that’s a nit. I guess it depends on what you mean by a “bug.” Nevermind.

  Thanks, Karl!

  Windows Patches/Security Servicing Stack Update, SSU

• Win7 Servicing Stack updates: Managing change and appreciating cumulative updates

  Posted on September 21, 2018 at 16:38 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  You may recall the problem we had earlier this month with Error 0x8000FFFF in the Win7 Cumulative Update?

  John Wilcox has just posted an item in the Windows IT Pro Blog with some (eminently readable!) details:

  Some Windows 7 devices recently experienced issues installing either the August or September 2018 Monthly Rollups or Security-only updates. The intent of this blog is to share why these issues occurred, what we are doing about it, and how this relates to Windows 10 cumulative updates.
  To tell this story, we need to travel back to October of 2016, when we released the Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) servicing stack update (KB 3177467). Servicing stack updates, or SSUs, are periodic updates released to specifically service or update the software stack for Windows platforms. These are fixes to the code that process and manage updates that need separate servicing periodically to improve the reliability of the update process, or address issue(s) that prevent patching some other part of the OS with the monthly latest cumulative update (LCU).

  It’s an interesting tale, well worth reading.

  Windows Patches/Security SSU, Windows 7 Servicing Stack Update

• Microsoft Update Catalog: One patch dropped, Win10 1803 SSU re-issued

  Posted on September 13, 2018 at 07:47 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Take a look at the “2018-09” entries on the Windows Update Catalog.

  Last night there were 127 of them. This morning there’s only 126. No idea which one was dropped.

  Also, the current list shows a new publication date for KB 456655, the SSU “Servicing stack update for Windows 10, version 1803: September 11, 2018.” The KB article hasn’t been changed. It still shows a “Last updated” date of Sept. 11.

  Anybody know what’s going on?

  Windows Patches/Security SSU, Windows Update Catalog