I blew it again

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For the %$#@!th time in a few years, I’ve completely blown a bit of sleuthing. Earlier this week, I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if milli
[See the full post at: I blew it again]

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abbodi86, PhotM, cesmart4125, Elly, fernlady, Microfix, SueW

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Don’t beat yourself up – you’ve had a busy and stressful couple of weeks!  One question from a run of the mill, used on a home machine only, Windows 7 user –  just checked and I installed the infamous KB971033 way back on 6/7/2012 – should I uninstall it just to be on the safe side?

 

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OscarCP, cesmart4125

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Yes’ I’d uninstall it.
That patch should never have been installed it’s in AKB2000007 as one to avoid.

If, however, it is not visible to uninstall there is a way around that:
Right click the cmd prompt and ‘run as administrator’
copy and paste the following into the cmd terminal followed by [enter]

wusa /uninstall /kb:971033 /norestart

this will oblitrate it from your system.

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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abbodi86, dph853, cesmart4125, BobbyB, Karlston, woody, geekdom, SueW

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Many thanks. Found the little beast had infiltrated the system in August 2013 and removed it.

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Microfix

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Unlike Alderaan, planet Windows 7 can be fixed..May the force be with you, ohWoodyone!

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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WildBill

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.. and Susan’s the one with the Yoda headshot..

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“The bug only affects Win7 activation on machines that have KB 971033 installed.”

Something is still borked that is beyond user control. Best we know about it.

 

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There was a disturbance in the Farce, just a lit hard to read that’s all.

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@Woody: At least you are honest enough to admit when you have been wrong.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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Karlston, Bluetrix, WildBill

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MrJimPhelps wrote:

@woody: At least you are honest enough to admit when you have been wrong.

Woody gets his X’s in a row way more than Microsoft does. This one don’t count.

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Microfix, woody, Elly

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KB 971033 was installed 4-12-14 when our computer was built by a computer shop. Only had not Genuine once and that was a few months backs with no problems since. I read I should uninstall it now?

Windows 11 Pro
Version 23H2
OS build 22631.5189

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I have the same question. Microsoft might have been answered it here already. Anybody has a different opinion? Thanks.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Read here:
https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/i-blew-it-again/#post-308839

On permanent hiatus {with backup and coffee}
offline▸ Win10Pro 2004.19041.572 x64 i3-3220 RAM8GB HDD Firefox83.0b3 WindowsDefender
offline▸ Acer TravelMate P215-52 RAM8GB Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1265 x64 i5-10210U SSD Firefox106.0 MicrosoftDefender
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Karlston, woody

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Thanks, geekdom. I’m afraid you answered before I finished editing the question. Now PKCano has concurred with what Microfix recommended, so I am also grateful to her for that.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Uninstall it.
And hide it when it shows up again.

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OscarCP

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Hmm… I’m sorry, but I think I did not ask the right question, so back on this for a second time.

I am having no problems starting the machine and using it (a 7-year old Windows 7 Pro, SP1, x64). I have not installed any of the January updates, and won’t do so for another two weeks.

Question: So, besides hiding the new version of KB971033, should I uninstall the old one as well? I fear that doing this might result in the machine not being recognized as legitimate any longer, as making that recognition possible is what the old KB971033 is (as I understand it) supposed to have been doing all along.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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fernlady

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The answer is still:

PKCano wrote:

Uninstall it.
And hide it when it shows up again.

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SueW, geekdom, Microfix

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I have what I think is a somewhat different question. A friend has a computer that he used on a corporate network for a couple years. He was given the computer when he retired and has used it at home – not on any corporate network – for the last 2 years. He has no idea if he has volume licensing or if KB971033 is installed and I haven’t had the chance to look at his computer yet to see what he’s got. He hasn’t had any activation issues but hasn’t installed any January patches.

If I find KB971033 on his computer should I uninstall it? If so, do I need to rebuild the activation-related files and then reactivate the system from a command line as described in KB 4487256?

I’d be tempted to say that even if I find KB 971033, I don’t need to do anything since he’s not had activation issues in the past, but I don’t know enough about this stuff to have a great deal of confidence in my opinion.

He’s WIN 7 Pro sp1, x 64 Group B and the Windows 7 is a legal installation!

Thanks.

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No worries Woody, can happen to the best of us.

Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

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Microfix

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Admitting to the mistakes makes all the other advice found here that much more reliable. We know that when new information comes out, AskWoody will make the right suggestions.

Others above have said the kind things, so I’ll offer a touch of snark: Their system, their KBupdate, their authentication system; but YOUR mistake! Got it.

Seems like testing could have pointed to the need for check loop. Could even revert the condition without bothering the administrator with the details. Like it was a service or something.

Thanks for doing what you do, so well.

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Others above have said the kind things, so I’ll offer a touch of snark: Their system, their KBupdate, their authentication system; but YOUR mistake! Got it.

We know smoking, drinking, unprotected sex and using Windows can be hazardous for us, yet many continue along these paths. Cognitive dissonance.
I’ve yet to see the Woodman purposely lead us down the wrong path. Therein lies the major difference.

Get the protest banners out, YOU march at noon. /humor

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Didn’t have that problem as I don’t have KB971033 installed.

Genuine Windows though. But just goes to show how nice having choice and control over your update process is.

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Cybertooth

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Win7 X64,  Home Premium, AMD.  Did not have KB971033 installed.  Jan. updates installed with no problems or slowdown.

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@Woody, this turns out to be a nice groundwork exercise for members and anons to check their Windows 7 systems for kb971033 prior to installing January 2019 patches when the MS-Defcon level raises to 3 or above.
Funny how things turn out after all

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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Karlston

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Woody,

Please remember the quote, “To err is human.”  Best wishes in your endeavors!

Charles

 

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According to MS here:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4487266/activation-failures-and-not-genuine-notifications-on-vl-win-7-kms-clie

“Windows 7 devices that have KB 971033 installed but did not experience this issue between the time of the change (10:00:00 UTC, January 8, 2019) and the time of the reversion of that change (4:30:00 UTC, January 9, 2019) should not experience the issue that is described in this article.”
I haven’t experienced the issue, not once, then or afterwards.

MS article on KB971033 (“Description of the update for Windows Activation Technologies”) contains the following text:
“Note For an Enterprise customer who uses Key Management Service (KMS) or Multiple Activation Key (MAK) volume activation, we generally recommend to NOT install this update in their reference image or already deployed computers. This update is targeted at consumer installs of Windows using RETAIL activation.”
“We strongly recommend that you uninstall KB 971033 from all volume-licensed Windows 7-based devices. This includes devices that are not currently affected by the issue that is mentioned in the “Symptoms” section.”
My device is not volume-licensed.

According to this site:

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/heres-microsofts-fix-for-legit-windows-7-pcs-labelled-not-genuine-after-latest-update-mishap/

“The firm says that KB 971033, an old update, should not have been installed by “an Enterprise customer who uses Key Management Service (KMS) or Multiple Activation Key (MAK) volume activation”, as it was “targeted at consumer installs of Windows using retail activation”.

My own PC  runs Windows 7 Pro, SP1, x64 that I bought pre-installed. My reading of this, for what is worth, tells me that this means that I am not afflicted by any of this, whether I have the old KB971033 or not. Further, I have not had, not do I have now, any problems with the “legitimacy” of my Windows OS and continue to start the machine daily without such inconvenience. So this is what I am going to do:

(1) If the new version of kb971033 gets offered to me through Windows Update, I’ll hide it right away. (I am Group B.)

(2) Otherwise, I m not eager to go looking for older versions of kb971033 by digging through 7 years of updates to see if it’s there.

Also, looking (in the page of the first link of the two I copied above) into what one might have to do if one finds the update after removing it in order to finish the job, that looks pretty daunting to me.

So, unless some very clear reason crops up to do otherwise, I am taking my chances; others might be less sanguine about this. I offer no advice; am just outlining my own take on this and the reasons behind it. Please, feel free to comment.

 

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Frwin, Elly

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Really appreciate the details and references @OscarCP.

It was easy for me to click on “Installed Updates” and put the KB in search. It took a minute, but apparently I’ve missed out on KB971033 being installed. Its nice to know I’ve been able to avoid this one.

Non-techy Win 10 Pro and Linux Mint experimenter

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OscarCP

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Here’s a good discussion of KB971033 by ch100 here at AskWoody.

https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/why-kb971033-should-be-uninstalled-and-hidden-on-windows-7/#post-126573

(This link might go to the middle of the thread. If so, just scroll up to the top for advice by ch100.)

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Elly, woody

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Thanks, Elly: It’s just like me to miss the obvious, when it comes to finding something to push, pull or click on! I followed your suggestion using the search field I had failed to notice, and found that way that the old version of this update is, indeed, installed in my machine. It would have been nice to had seen displayed the date when it was installed, as that could be useful sometime. But that was not reported by the search system when finding the update.

Mr. Brian, thanks for pointing to that ch100 entry. I am not sure of what is meant there by “uninstall the update and hide it.” Is it “uninstall it, and if it later shows up again, hide it?” Or is it something else?

For the time being, considering that this update is not causing me any trouble right now and hasn’t done so for who knows how many years already, I am waiting to hear a clamor of lamentations raised by people who uninstalled the update and then run into trouble because of that. When I think I have waited long enough while hearing nothing of the sort, then I’ll figure out what to do next. I am not going to do any installing or uninstalling of updates for at least another two weeks, anyway, or longer if by then the omens (from the Master Patch List, the DEFCON, etc.) are not propitious, as such is my usual way of doing things.

 

 

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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When you search ‘Installed Updates’ there may be a horizontal scroll bar. If so, scroll all the way to the right and you’ll see a column showing the installation date.

I take “uninstall the update and hide it” to mean what you think: “uninstall it, and if it later shows up again, hide it”.

I, too, have just found KB971033 on a friends computer. At the moment, I’m very much leaning towards not doing anything with it; I. e., leave it installed since that computer hasn’t had activation issues in the past. It was, though, at one time connected to a corporate network and I don’t know if it has or had volume licensing or KMS activation. In any case, I’ll wait a couple weeks before making a final decision.

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Thanks, DrBonzo. The problem with looking for the date when an update was installed by scrolling down the list of installed ones (the first thing I tried, in this case unsuccessfully) is that, unless it is a fairly recent one, without knowing already the approximate date when it was installed, it is pretty hopeless, at least in a computer as old as mine that has been patched so many times already. People have mentioned here several different dates, but it is not an easy task even then. I imagine that there might be some command-line OS instructions meant specifically for finding individual updates’ information, such as when they were installed, but if so, I have no idea what they are.

Very best of luck with your friend’s computer, and thank you, again, for all the times you have come to my rescue, and to that of many others, with helpful advice.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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There are a variety of ways to find whether KB917033 is installed in the following link. Scroll about halfway down the page.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4487266/activation-failures-and-not-genuine-notifications-on-vl-win-7-kms-clie

What I did was click on ‘Installed Updates’ on the lower left of the main Windows Update page. The window that comes up will have in the upper right hand corner a small search box that in light gray letters says ‘search installed updates’ (or something very similar). Type in KB971033 and it should be found if it’s actually installed. If you need an installation date use the horizontal scroll bar. It seems possible, perhaps likely, that there would be a variety of installation dates for 971033 depending on when a person bought their computer, etc.

Edit: I think Elly above searched for KB971033 the same way I did.

Edit 2: I’m probably overthinking this, but I am not meaning to imply that Elly copied my method (although it would be fine by me if she did). More likely, it was me who copied her method, and I’m just trying to give her credit and to NOT make it sound as though my method was original with me.

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OscarCP, Elly

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And I also missed seeing that horizontal scroll bar… Maybe I need to go and see my ophthalmologist ASAP?

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Some observations and hints (this is on a Win 7 system, others may be different?):
1 – There are (at least) 2 ways to get to an “Installed Updates” display.
– A: Windows Update > View update history — yields the panel
–> “Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Windows Update\View update history”
– B: Control Panel > Programs and Features > View installed updates — yields the panel
–> “Installed Updates”
– C: These two displays are different! Each has its own set of Details; see #2 below.
– Note: The panel label shown here is seen by clicking on the bar at the top of the display. Whatever is there is changed to the (above) label text, white on a blue background.

2 – As in Explorer, one may select what columns are to be displayed.
At the top, go to View > Choose details… — and check the fields to be displayed.
These columns may be re-sequenced and/or re-sized either when they are selected, or by doing a click-and-drag on the display.

3 – At the top right corner: “Search Installed Updates”, one must enter the ‘KB’ prefix, along with the kb number. The search will fail without it. Thus, [ KB971033 ], not just [ 971033 ].

Apologies, DrB. I was still creating this post when you posted yours, and I didn’t check before posting.

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OscarCP, DrBonzo, Elly

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I am the first post under Woody’s at the top of this thread and I uninstalled KB971033.  After reading through this entire thread I’m wondering if I did the right thing?  I notice that MS is offering the update to me again (how very kind of them!).  So – do I leave it off my machine or does it need to go back on?  Boy this stuff is getting old – I’m about 2 inches away from getting a Chromebook and taking back a portion of my life!

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Read here:
https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/i-blew-it-again/#post-308917
https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/i-blew-it-again/#post-308981

On permanent hiatus {with backup and coffee}
offline▸ Win10Pro 2004.19041.572 x64 i3-3220 RAM8GB HDD Firefox83.0b3 WindowsDefender
offline▸ Acer TravelMate P215-52 RAM8GB Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1265 x64 i5-10210U SSD Firefox106.0 MicrosoftDefender
online▸ Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1992 x64 i5-9400 RAM16GB HDD Firefox116.0b3 MicrosoftDefender

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Every time a patch is revised, it shows back up in Windows Update. With that one, hide it, and if it shows up again, hide it again.

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