MS-DEFCON 3: Ready or not, it’s time to update

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ISSUE 18.41.1 • 2021-10-26 By Susan Bradley It’s not exactly an all-clear. Normally, this is the time in the update cycle when I give an all-clear. It
[See the full post at: MS-DEFCON 3: Ready or not, it’s time to update]

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

3 users thanked author for this post.

MHCLV941, abbodi86, DrBonzo

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Has there been any reports of GPO software deployment not working on Server 2016 with October updates applied?  I spun up two new servers and fully patched them before joining the domain.  Both failed to deploy MSI files until I manually installed one.  Something about manually installing fixed the deployment of others.  The same policies work fine on all other devices that haven’t been patched this month.

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I have not seen any reports.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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This month I have been offered KB5005463:

“2021-10 Update for Windows 10 Version 21H1 for x64-based Systems (KB5005463)”

What is this patch as I cannot find anything about it in this forum or even google search.  I have a generic one-year old Win10pro system that has no special needs.

Maybe I have missed something, but I can find nothing on it.

Thanks for information on this. Meanwhile, I will hide it.

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KB5005463—PC Health Check Application

(You must have mistyped the number, as there are thousands of results on the web and 10 here at AskWoody.)

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hms wrote:

What is this patch

This patch installs PC Health check on Windows 10.

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Thanks. Will hide this.

I did not see it in the master install list for October. As for search on this site, I did not scroll down far enough so I thought it found no results as it first displayed ways to do an advanced search. On google, I probably had 3 zeros, not 2.

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I forgot to add it to the list.  I’ll add it.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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hms wrote:

I did not see it in the master install list for October

It is not part of October security updates.
I didn’t get it for my 21H1 as I block previews…

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I do not get previews either. If this is a preview, it is the first one. Generally all that shows up to install is the CU and Defender updates plus another version of KB4023057 that I hide.

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Sorry.  I was not sure where to post this.  I just noticed this newsletter on the website dated today.  However, I did not get an email with this newsletter as I normally do.   Is there a way to have it resent?  Or perhaps the servers are behind?  Thanks.

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This was my fault, a slip of the mouse when scheduling the email – PM instead of AM. You should have the email now.

Please accept my apologies.

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Thanks.  I got it about 4 pm.

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Susan,

Maybe I have a blind spot here.  I configure any and all printers operating autonomously on a network when possible, either wifi (I detest most vendors wifi printer setup software) or Ethernet.  In other words, I do not tack a printer onto a server to share it for printing.  Except for USB-only printers, I see no good reason to print through a server computer.

This may explain why my own printers continue to work properly here, surviving the regular onslaught of Window 10 and Windows 11 updates… Ben Myers

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My problem with Windows Patches causing boot lock-up problems SOLVED (I hope!!!)

When I read about the Windows 11 requirements and PC Health Checker in AskWoody, I began the process to configure my relatively new PC to meet the requirements.  I downloaded and ran the PC Health Checker, knowing that I had not enabled TPM on my ASUS ROG-B450F motherboard.  As expected, it failed.  I then worked the BIOS settings to enable TPM and Secure Boot and reran the checker expecting the PC to pass in flying colors.  WRONG!!  Of course, this version of the checker gave little information to understand the point of failure.

In the meantime, I applied the August patches and the PC would inexplicably lock-up on boot.  I created a fresh Windows Install USB with the plan to install the upgrade using the keep files mode.  During the boot process, I got a message that Windows was finishing patch installation.  With that, the PC rebooted to normal status.  I thanked my lucky stars, and immediately backed up my files to an external drive.  I then ran a Macrium 7 back-up.  I did NOT check to see status of the setting to pause Windows Updates.

A couple of weeks later, the September Patches automatically applied.  Being a slow learner, I did not do the appropriate file back-up, I just rebooted.  But, then I found myself back in the briar patch with a PC that would not boot. I tried the Windows Upgrade USB hoping to duplicate my previous month’s fix.  No such luck.

Using a rescue media, I pulled the few files that I remembered updating, and restored the Macrium 7 back-up.  I immediately put a pause on patching.  Since the original issue was to prep the PC for Window 11, I knew that Microsoft had released the upgraded PC Health Checker to Insiders.  Fortunately, numerous third parties by then had released the checker with their wrapper.  This time, I found that the Windows 11 failure was due to my PC partition being MBR and it needed to be GPT.  Fortunately, the Macrium 7 Knowledgebase contained instructions on converting from MBR to GPT, and restoring the Windows partition to the converted drive (mine being a 1tb Samsung EVO in M.2 PCIe slot).

Yesterday, I finally got the courage to execute the conversion, primarily since I was now nearing 2-months of patch releases.  The process was painless, thou slightly different than the provided images in the Restore Windows partition step.  I applied all available patches and the PC boots with no problem.  I hypothesize that I caused the problem by enabling the TPM and SecureBoot BIOS settings without converting to GPT partitions.  If that proves to be true, then my boot lock-up problem is history (at least for September’s patches!!)

 

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new CU previews for Win10 v2004/20H2/21Hx released today Tue. 10/26:

KB5006738 CU (build 1904x.1320)
https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=kb5006738
https://support.microsoft.com/help/5006738

KB5006365 .NET preview update:
https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=kb5006365
https://support.microsoft.com/help/5006365

block/hide these new updates with wushowhide/wumgr/wumt if you don’t need them

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RE preview updates KB5006365 & KB5006738, WuMgr listed both as available, WU only showed KB5006738.  Why would that be?

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https://www.windowslatest.com/2021/10/26/windows-10-kb5006738-21h1-fixes-memory-leak-other-critical-bugs/

You’re welcome

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kb5006738 showed up today in Windows Update. I have no use for it but I am unable to hide it using windows show/hide. There’s also no option to hide it when I click on the update except for “Select All  Ctr A”.

How do I get rid of this optional update? Any suggestions?

Peace, CAS

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That’s the preview update for 10. If you don’t click on ‘check for updates’ it won’t install.  You may want to install it if you have printing issues.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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CAS

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I have printing issue again with customer who simply has a shared printer and client PC can no longer print to it again. Can someone guide me to the registry hack that we used in September to fix this. I cannot find it.

Thanks

 

Update – I actually found the info: – see below

But it has stopped working again !!!!!!! and the change is already there.

Now what ????

 

To set the registry key, open the Windows Registry Editor and navigate to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print

Now create a new DWORD 32-bit value named RpcAuthnLevelPrivacyEnabled and set it to 0.

 

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Try the preview updates released today.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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I should have mentioned that I did try the preview updates on both machines and still no luck.

KB5006738

and

KB5006365

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What OS platforms, what printer(s) please?  And you may wish to start a new thread in the forums so it won’t get buried in this one.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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I feel that the current MS-DEFCON notification is mostly for Windows 10 / Windows 11 now, and as a user still staying on Windows 8.1 it is almost useless to me.

So I have been making patching decisions without regard to this. I have patched my Windows 8.1 systems at the beginning of September and won’t do it again at least until the beginning of 2022 (when I will decide whether to patch to December 2021 level or continue to wait).

My previous experiences tell me that most of these vulnerabilities won’t affect me in significant ways and therefore I can afford to wait several months between patchings, just to see if there are any significant problems with the patches.

Even when I eventually move to Windows 10 LTSC (on some of my computers) after the end of support for Windows 8.1 I will still continue to adopt the wait-and-see approach and won’t patch every month. There is simply no need to unless there is an urgent security problem.

Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.

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I disagree and I apologize if I’ve not called out 8.1 like I should have.  All of the Windows platforms this month are getting patches that fix for vulnerabilities that there are known attacks (most often used in ransomware attacks) thus whenever we get to the end of the month I want every Windows user to get the patches installed.

When I get to the end of the month, I want everyone to get patched.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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Alex5723

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Susan Bradley wrote:

I disagree and I apologize if I’ve not called out 8.1 like I should have.  All of the Windows platforms this month are getting patches that fix for vulnerabilities that there are known attacks (most often used in ransomware attacks) thus whenever we get to the end of the month I want every Windows user to get the patches installed.

When I get to the end of the month, I want everyone to get patched.

I know you are likely going to disagree with me in your position. My position is that I am only a private home user (no business) and I am not going to change my mind at this time. I have been burned several times in the past by the “patch-every month” procedure (most recently when the “Total Meltdown” fiasco in March 2018 opened up Windows with a serious vulnerability and I had to clone back the December 2017 images I made after I found out about it) and I decided that based on my own experiences there is no need to “patch every month” anymore. I have had no problems for the last 3 years.

Some of my machines are still running Windows 7 (no ESU) and I have no problems with them either.

Perhaps you might care to elaborate how these “attacks” are carried out? If I judge that they are urgent enough to affect me then I shall patch. If not, I will wait until early 2022 to decide whether to patch again then.

Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.

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The usual suspects of phishing emails, malicious content on websites, banner ads.  Layer on stolen credentials on the web, vulnerable remote access software.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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Susan – your latest pdf says that, for Win 11, 5006674 is a Cumulative Update, and you recommend Install.  However, I think it’s Security Only although not sure.

Also, in my only Win 11 (version 21H2), which is a Virtual Machine, when I hit the “Update” button, it gave me

a)  2021-10 Cumulative Update for Windows 11 for x64-based Systems (KB5006746), which you have as Defer, and

b) 2021-10 Cumulative Update Preview for .NET Framework 3.5 and 4.8 for Windows 11 for x64 (KB5006363), which you don’t list at all.

Apparently, in Win 11, Preview updates for .NET are NOT in the “Optional” category, and so will always be installed when using the Update button, or so says one of the regular commentators in ElevenForums.

Therefore, in the future, in my Win 11 VM, it looks like I’ll be avoiding the Update button and doing manual installs from MS Catalog.  Pain.

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KB5006674 is the Patch Tuesday monthly Security CU (not Security-only, there is no such thing in Win11).
KB5006746 is the 2021-10 Preview CU issued 10/20. Normally, Previews are non-Security patches intended for testing and usually not recommended for installation by Consumers. Sometimes Susan recommends installing them for special cases.

You can HIDE Preview updates (or any updates you don’t want to install) in Win11 by using wushowhide.diagcab (a Microsoft tool) or WUMgr (a third-party update control App).

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PKCano – thanks for info.

Since my Update installed KB5006746, do I still need to manually install KB5006674 ?

Also, I believe you that KB5006746 is a Preview CU , but MS doesn’t use the word “Preview” in what is shown for it in Update on my Win 11.   Annoying.

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The later patch contains and supersedes the earlier patch. CUs are cumulative.
Anything issued outside of Security Patch Tuesday updates can be considered a non-Security Preview or an OOB Patch (OOBs are usually issued to cover an in-the-wild vulnerability or a serious bug in the system). The latter will most likely be recommended for install.

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glnz

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I’m curious. Is this the first time since Ms. Bradley took over that we’ve gone to MS-DEFCON 3 instead of 4? I can’t remember the last time I saw that.

(I have updates deferred 30 days since updgrading to Windows 10 Pro, so I may have missed a few since I don’t technically have to check.)

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For those keeping track, yes it is the first time under my mouse control that the site has gone to 3.    Thanks for noticing.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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Susan and Co,

I have a small business network at my home office.

I have my printers attached to the server computer all using Win10Pro.
The printers are all USB attached to the “server” system and then shared.   On the client computers we have until recently used \\ServerName\PrinterName.

This worked until several weeks ago.

Referring to your article of 26Oct2021 I see a proposed solution to my non-working printing.

However:   The step 4 does not seem to work:

1. Make a mapping of LPT2: to the corresponding shared printer, using a command such as the following:

NET USE LPT2: \\ Insert SharedComputerName \ InsertSharedPrinterName / PERSISTENT: YES

PS C:\Users\RollnWX3> NET USE LPT2: \\ROLLINWINX2\ML2510 /PERSISTENT: YES
You entered an invalid value for the /PERSISTENT option.

More help is available by typing NET HELPMSG 3952.

Have not figured out how to correct this, according to the stated syntax… any thoughts?

David

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Try with no space before Yes.

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That worked, now I have to check the available network resources and their names.

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b

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Please forgive me if I’ve asked this already but – does this whole printer fiasco only affect updated Win 10 computers that are networked?  Or does it affect Win 8, 8.1, and 7 computers too?  I have a Win 7 computer that I don’t update and it’s not used very much online.  Do I need to be concerned about this printer problem that seems to only be affecting networked Win 10 computers?

 

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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I have seen it impact where the printer is shared on a Win 7 and other computers that are patched (8.1 and 10s) are printing through the 7.  It’s not just networked 10.

Bottom line install the updates, check to see if you can print.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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Charlie

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Is there a way to find out the exact name of the shared printer resource?

from the command line using some NET command?

David

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“Open a command prompt window (choose Start, Run; type CMD then click OK)
In the command prompt window, type NET VIEW
That gives you a list of computers on your network. Note the name of the one that your printer’s connected to.
Next, type NET VIEW \\server-name (substitute the name of the computer you chose above for “server-name”)
That gives you a list of the resources shared by that computer; your printer’s name should be on the list”

See if that helps?

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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On my W10 21H1 system Net View yields ”

System error 1231 has occurred.

The network location cannot be reached etc”

A quick search turned up that enabling SMB 1.0 makes Net View work

BUT ALSO

SMB 1.0 apparently is a security hole and should not be enabled?

Susan, how do you make Net View work?

Thanks!

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Updated my two PCs with October patches as follows, no apparent issues to report:

1) Windows 10 Pro 21H1, installed 2021-10 Cumulative update (KB5006670) and MSRT 5.94 (KB890830), hidden with WUMgr PC Health Check (KB5005463) and 2021-10 Preview Cumulative Update (KB5006738);

2) Windows 10 Home 20H2, installed 2021-10 Cumulative update (KB5006670), .NET Cumulative Update(KB5005539) and MSRT 5.94 (KB890830), hidden with WUMgr PC Health Check (KB5005463), 2021-10 Preview Cumulative Update (KB5006738), and .NET Preview Cumulative Update (KB5006365).

On a little side note, it’s now a few months since I started to entirely manage updates to Windows 10 through WUMgr and I think this is the most effective/comfortable approach to updating meeting my needs: I can hide/unhide and then install the updates I want when I want (i.e. when we get to MS-DEFCON 3 or below), the “block automatic updates” option is very effective at avoiding any annoying automatic installation of stuff like KB4023057 or the new PC Health Check app KB5005463 which bypass the “metered connection” setting (indeed I can now safely leave my connection to “non-metered”), and the option to include also superseded updates is helpful to install “regular” .NET updates which are superseded by the Preview updates by the time the MS-DEFCON is lowered at the end of the month and would otherwise have to be manually downloaded and installed.

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I wish I could reach the same comfort level with WuMgr.  My experience is that it and WU offer different updates which concerns me (WuMgr did not show the October .NET preview).  Additionally, WuMgr does not identify items as optional like WU does.  I feel like I need to let WU do its thing with metered connection enabled, see what is offered, and then use WuMgr to hide an update if needed.   I haven’t tried this yet so don’t know if it would work if WU is to the point where it is just waiting for the ok to download.

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Yes, it is unfortunate that WuMgr and similarly wushowhide do not identify which updates are optional (as is now the case with WU). I usually check here on AskWoody or read the KB articles to figure out which updates are optional (except for preview updates that – as far as I understand – are always optional).

Before switching entirely to WuMgr for the updates, I kept my connection as metered and used WuMgr only to hide updates, but I was sick of having WU automatically install some patches (e.g. KB4023057) without regard for the metered connection setting.

In principle, you could let WU do its thing with metered connection enabled, see what is offered, and then use WuMgr to hide updates. However, this does not work well when patches are already in the WU queue (i.e. waiting for the ok to download), since hiding those patches will no longer prevent WU from offering them (unless you clear the WU queue) and in at least one case something went really wrong and both WuMgr and WU later failed to install an update that was hidden in WuMgr while WU was waiting the ok to download and then unhidden. I found that the best way to avoid this kind of issues was to scan for updates with WuMgr (or wushowhide) on Patch Tuesdays before updates are offered through WU, but of course this again means having to figure out which updates are optional without relying on WU.

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I still follow the Windows 8.1 (W8.1), Group B, security only update process and I’ve seen a problem with two 3rd party “Time Freeze” programs after installing the Oct 2021 security only update.

I normally use Wondershare Time Freeze to try out installers for new programs or new versions of programs which I may or may not want to keep. It gives options to either keep changes made while running or to re-start the PC discarding the changes made i.e. go back to the state before “freezing”.

After the Oct 2021 security only changes, after installing a new program and then doing some cleaning in the freeze state before restarting the PC to discard the changes, when back to what should be the pre-frozen state, the settings for Explorer windows were lost and remained lost. If I opened an explorer window this would always be a fixed size in the middle of the screen. If I moved it elsewhere and/or re-sized it, closed the window and then re-opened an Explorer window it would be the fixed size in the centre again and the previous position and size (usually saved) was lost.

Now this is not fatal, but it is irritating! However I’m concerned that this obvious, visible change might be a “canary in the coalmine” and there might be other things which were changed or lost behind the scenes on leaving the freeze state which have greater importance. This might leave the PC in an inconsistent state with some changes discarded, but others not.

I tried running the latest Oct 2021 security and feature rollup, just in case the SO update contained a partial change and the rest of the change was only in the rollup (from memory this has happened before with W7 and/or W8.1 SO updates and rollups), but this did not fix the problem.

I restored the system partition image from just before the Oct 2021 SO updates, replaced Wondershare Time Freeze with the similar, newer “Toolwiz Time Freeze” and got the same issue, suggesting the problem is with the Windows updates and not an incompatibility with a particular 3rd party freeze program.

For now I’ve restored the system partition from before the Oct 2021 updates while I decide what to do next.

I may have reached my “Canadian Tech” tipping point when I decide that Microsoft’s windows updates are now causing more problems than they fix. TBD!

HTH. Garbo.

 

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If you have trouble with your solution working, you may want to try out Sandboxie. It’s now been released for free, and I use it for similar things. Rather than “reverting” anything, it just keeps everything in a sandbox the entire time, where it can’t affect the rest of your system. To get rid of stuff, you can just clear the sandbox.

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Thanks for this suggestion.

I’ve used Sandboxie for a few years (I bought a licence when its creator was still developing it) to protect web browsing and email (see #2001018 ), but I’ve never tried installing programs in a sandbox. I might give it a try when I have time to experiment with it.

In the meantime I’ve checked my installed programs and most have been there several years, so it looks as if I have not recently decided to permanently install anything I have temporily tried using a “time freeze” program. I used to try some time-limited giveaway programs in “time freeze” (and Wondershare Time Freeze itself was a giveaway, probably the most useful giveaway I kept), but there have been few things of interest to me worth trying in recent years (how many photo optimisers does a non-photographer need?) and the number of giveaway sites are much reduced, so I can probably remove “time freeze” from my W8.1 PC without it affecting me too much.

Thanks again. Garbo.

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I was surprised to see 21H1 start downloading…  discovered that Microsoft had removed my TargetReleaseVersionInfo = 20H2 last month! WTH?!

This month they also slipped in the following:

• KB5005463 (PC Health Check Application)
• Photos Media Engine Add-on. How to Remove: Apps & Features >> Microsoft Photos >> Advanced Options >> App add-ons & downloadable content.

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Explorer.exe bug?

As an Enterprise MS customer we were hit this month this this bug that appears to be related to the nutritiously buggy news and interests taskbar widget. We have it disabled with GPO on most of our devices, but were missing the GPO on some critical workstations. Was surprised that we hadn’t seen any info in the Askwoody Newsletters talking about this.  This rather impactful bug was missed with our testing(and that is on us) as we were a little too focused on printing. We were able to set this GPO and reboot all affected workstations to resolve. Attempts to rollback were not working. Support call with MS didn’t help, but we found it to be rather well documented on Reddit/other sites.

Explorer.exe keeps crashing every 3 seconds in Windows 10 | AskAresh

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Frankly, I’m astounded that something like this slipped through MS QA (if any exists). I also question MS rationale for pushing the unwanted “news and interests” feature in the 1st place. Same with “widgets” on Win 11.

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I’m not.  Testing on VMware as part of Microsoft base testing?  Hyper V and Windows vms, yes.  Vmware, no.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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MHCLV941

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Point well taken. Should have read the article link (VMware) more closely. My bad.

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We just happened to use this same fix in the article to find a resolution, we experienced the bug on our high end radiology workstations not on our virtual machines.

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Still not being offered 21H1 here, so 20H2 is currently used (Lenovo G580)

When I installed October CU and .NET update, my WLAN failed every about 4 hours with Error 5002. Device Manager Disable-Enable fixes it temporarily. Uninstalling both updates fixes it permanently. Has anybody else experienced this?

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I was hoping that KB5005463 would not be offered to systems using Windows Update for Business deferrals, but after doing some testing with a VM, that is not the case. After the quality update deferral period is up (if there is one being used), I was offered KB5005463 in my VM.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that nothing ill comes from this update. (In other words, GWX 2.0.)

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Microfix

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If you’re not going to use it, you can uninstall it and it should not return:

Settings, Apps, Apps & features, Windows PC Health Check, Uninstall.

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Save_Us_from_MS wrote:

discovered that Microsoft had removed my TargetReleaseVersionInfo = 20H2 last month! WTH?!

Microsoft doesn’t change GPEdit settings nor registry entries added.

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Concerning KB5005463 Windows PC Health Check about Windows 11 eligibility, Lawrence Abrams at Bleeping Computer website has an article:
Microsoft is force installing PC Health Check in Windows 10
dated October 26, 2021 11:40 AM that discusses:

“However, readers have told BleepingComputer that they have had to uninstall the application numerous times as the applications keep being reinstalled on the next check for updates.
To make matters worse, when attempting to uninstall KB5005463, Windows 10 states that the update is not installed, when that is clearly untrue, as shown in the image below.”

The article includes a Registry Edit for ‘How to prevent PC Health Check from installing’ with more relevant information and may be worth a visit.

Amazing Truths Revealed: Link to Simply Magnificent AskWoody Knowledge Bases

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Just installed the update. No CPU usage.

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Lars220 wrote:

“To make matters worse, when attempting to uninstall KB5005463, Windows 10 states that the update is not installed, when that is clearly untrue, as shown in the image below.”

It installs as an app, so the way to uninstall it is … as an app:

You can uninstall PC Health Check by going to Apps > Apps & Features > App list (Windows PC Health Check) > Uninstall.

KB5005463—PC Health Check Application

Microsoft is pushing its PC Health Check App to Windows 10 systems. Here is how you uninstall it

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C:\Windows\system32>net VIEW
There are no entries in the list.

Tried this in Command Prompt and Powershell — same answer.

I have at least 4 computers on my local network without any routers between them.    Why might these not be visible?

I have these all setup as a single WorkGroup all with the same name.

Your thoughts appreciated.

David

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Here are my experiences installing 2021-10 updates, which I installed Friday, 10/29.  I am running Win 10 Professional 64-bit 21H1.  Windows Update presented me with four updates:

KB890830 Malicious Software Removal Tool (Oct 2021) MRT.exe
KB5005463 2021-10 Update Win 10 21H1
KB5006365 2021-10 Cum Update Preview .NET 3.5 & 4.3
KB5006670 2021-10 Cumulative Update Win 10 21H1

I wish that MS had classified the .NET Preview as an optional update; the KB5006738 Win 10 Preview was an optional update, which I did not install.  I would have preferred not installing the .NET preview, but I had no choice.

WU started downloading and then installing the updates.  Update 6365 was installed, and 6670 was only 75% downloaded.  WU requested a reboot, so I waited until 6670 was 100% downloaded.  WU would not install it because it had already requested a reboot.  So I rebooted.

After the reboot, I opened WU, and it did NOT install 6670.  It had not remembered that it had already downloaded it, so it re-downloaded it and then installed it.

I have not yet used the computer enough to notice any problems with the updates.  But I am dismayed with the WU process.  With Windows 7, all of the updates were downloaded and installed before the reboot request, so there was only one reboot and no additional downloads.  My machine has an older CPU, so it cannot install Win 11; I am not worried about MS trying to get me to upgrade to Win 11.

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Hi Anonymous Poster above (https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/ms-defcon-3-ready-or-not-its-time-to-update/#post-2398942),

For Windows 10, the behaviour of requesting a reboot by Windows Update even though NOT all the queued patches have been downloaded and installed is attributed to the .NET Framework patch (it would appear also including the preview .NET Framework now). This “premature” re-boot would be the reason in what you have experienced and described.

This strange behaviour have also been noticed by others:
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/754937/kb5004237-hung-at-73-but-windows-said-reboot/

Bottom line is to let all the patches be fully installed before a re-boot is done in order to avoid any confusion.

Cheers.

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I am the “anonymous” poster; I forgot that I was not logged-in when I posted (and the web site did not alert me).  Are you saying that after install of a .NET update (either preview or actual), the reboot will be scheduled?  As for your comment “Bottom line is to let all the patches be fully installed before a re-boot is done in order to avoid any confusion.” – I have no control over what patches are downloaded and the order in which they are downloaded and installed.  I tell Windows Update to resume updates (after the OK from this forum), and WU does whatever it does.  WU installed 6365 before 6670 was completely downloaded.  Even after 6670 had been 100% downloaded it would not install; I waited about five minutes.  My experience (with Win 7) is that once WU has scheduled a reboot, it will not allow anything else to be installed until the reboot.  Then, after reboot, WU had to re-download 6670 before installing it.

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Hi,

I am the anonymous poster above. Yes, the .NET Framework (now apparently including the preview too) do prompt a reboot notification immediately after it installs. Even if the rest of the patches in the queue are not yet fully downloaded or installed.

This behaviour is different from what I can remember of Windows 7. IMHO its odd behaviour for Windows Update to request a re-boot while it is still in the midst of installing other patches but this is what I have observed in Windows 10.

Resuming updates would also give over control to Windows Update in Windows 10 to do the patching in its own way and hopefully it
does so successfully. So far I have managed to wait for all patches to be downloaded and installed before doing the actual re-boot.

Cheers.

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anonymous wrote:

have preferred not installing the .NET preview, but I had no choice.

You have always a choice. Use WUmgr to hide updates you don’t want.

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Microsoft acknowledged PrinterHell

OCTOBER 2021 Last updated: 2021-10-29, 15:44 PT

Connections to printers shared via print server might encounter errors

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October patches installed with no problems to report on Win 8.1. 🙂

Installation Successful: Windows successfully installed the following update: 2021-10 Security and Quality Rollup for .NET Framework 3.5, 4.5.2, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2, 4.7, 4.7.1, 4.7.2, 4.8 for Windows 8.1 for x64 (KB5006763)

Installation Successful: Windows successfully installed the following update: 2021-10 Security Monthly Quality Rollup for Windows 8.1 for x64-based Systems (KB5006714)

Win 10 ver. 22H2 x64

1 user thanked author for this post.

DrBonzo

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I seem to always report after JD does. Once again I have duplicated his results on W8.1.

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Are there instructions for using WUmgr?  As I just replied to my original post, when I tell WU to resume updates, WU downloads and installs any updates that it determines are necessary for my machine.  I could download and install updates individually, but I have no idea what updates are available until I un-pause/resume updates.  I can assume that there will be a monthly cumulative update for  21H1, but I would not know about 5463, which is another update for 21H1.  I have not researched 5463, so I have no idea why it was not included in the 6670 cumulative update.

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bsfinkel wrote:

Are there instructions for using WUmgr?

Yes:

Home » Forums » Knowledge Base » 6000002 Guide to using WUMGR for Windows 10 updates

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As a standard practice, I run sfc /verifyonly BEFORE installing a monthly patch. Then, I run it again AFTER the monthly patch is installed.

This time the pre-OCT patch sfc /verifyonly found no integrity violations. The post-OCT patch sfc /verifyonly DID find integrity violations. To fix this, I ran sfc /scannow and it reported that “Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them”.

This is not a one-off. It happened on both of my Win10/Pro laptops.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Charlie, Perq

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It’s a shame that you have to go to that trouble of doing MS’s job for them.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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Something a bit odd. Being new to W10, I accidentally downloaded and installed all the updates. On checking what was installed on the PC, it included KB5005463 (PC Health) and KB4023057 (Microsoft Update Health Tools) from last month.
I uninstalled KB4023057 from Add/Remove Programs and then was going to uninstall KB5005463 but it no longer appeared in the update history. I’m not overly concerned but it just seemed a bit strange.

Windows 10 Home 22H2, Acer Aspire TC-1660 desktop + LibreOffice, non-techie

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Aaah, now I see it also installed as a program and appears in Add/Remove Programs. I’ve uninstalled it.

Windows 10 Home 22H2, Acer Aspire TC-1660 desktop + LibreOffice, non-techie

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FWIW: Problems with the October roll-up updates on Win10 and Win8.1

A day or two after the update,

1. My W10 21H1 Dell Optiplex 790 system crashed with a blank blue screen. I was unable to find any indication of why in Event Viewer logs.
2. On that computer my ancient Quicken 2004 (yes, really!) would hang at the file open dialog, and was unable to open any .qdf file. Reboot, uninstall, reinstall made no difference.
3. My Win8.1 Dell Inspiron 660 exhibited the exact same Quicken 2004 hangup problem.

I uninstalled the updates, and both computer now run Quicken normally again.

 

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I would try the preview update on that 10.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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Thanks for the preview update suggestion – it worked.

There doesn’t appear to be a preview update for 8.1, so for now I am running on the Sept update awaiting Nov.

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I have a client with a peer-to-peer network and a shared Dymo Labelwriter 450 Turbo. Politely, this has been a PITA (Pain In….) starting long before the current printing debacle started.

I’ve tried every fix over the past few months but the one in this post seems to be holding.

Uninstall the problem printer.
Install it as a local printer on the client computer, choosing one of the LPT ports (e.g., LPT2) and selecting “keep current driver.”

Launch the Windows command line (cmd). Be sure to do so using the current user’s rights, not administrative rights.

Make a mapping of LPT2: to the corresponding shared printer, using a command such as the following:

NET USE LPT2: \\ Insert SharedComputerName \ InsertSharedPrinterName / PERSISTENT: YES

Just one quibble: there are too many spaces in the net use command line. It

NET USE LPT2: \\Insert SharedComputerName\InsertSharedPrinterName /PERSISTENT:YES rather than
NET USE LPT2: \\ Insert SharedComputerName \ InsertSharedPrinterName / PERSISTENT: YES

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I do remember using this method with the LPT port and Net use persistent :YES many years ago and this was a great work around for various issues.

I tried this on (2) Windows 10 Pro machines that I have been fighting with over this printer nightmare. Everything worked as expected except when I went to print a test page I got an ERROR on the Client computer but the HOST Computer got the test print in its QUE but did not print the document and the client just kept sending the test document over and over again filling up the HOST Print QUE.

I had to remove the net use lpt2 and then delete the QUE and restart the printer spooling service on the HOST computer to clear things up again. Tried it 2 times and even renamed the SHARE to see if that helped with no luck.

Anyone have any ideas on that ??

It is a Brother HL-L6200DW laser printer plugged in via USB on the HOST Computer.

Thanks for any input.

 

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Just for grins, I looked up the printer on Brother’s website. They issued new drivers and a firmware update since 10/29/21. You don’t suppose…. 🙂

https://support.brother.com/g/b/downloadtop.aspx?c=us&lang=en&prod=hll6200dw_us_as&_ga=2.139439988.69240709.1636395370-1777899501.1636395370

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I had done the driver update but I just did the Firmware as well and still no luck…. ughh……. – Good idea though. – Thanks

I am amazed that they can break something so simple and basic as this that we have been doing for over 25 years.

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we are going to end up adding a switch and networking the printer in this small office to get around all the junk…. Hopefully they won’t break that as well.

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Ben Myers wrote:

Except for USB-only printers, I see no good reason to print through a server computer.

It’s necessary if you want to deploy and manage printers through AD group policy.  With lots of computers and lots of printers in lots of places, it’s a huge time saver.  If you don’t need/want to do that, then there is no good reason to do so.

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arbrich wrote:

we are going to end up adding a switch and networking the printer in this small office to get around all the junk…. Hopefully they won’t break that as well.

Given the option to put a printer on the network, I do so every time rather than sharing it from a PC.   It cuts out a whole lot of potential problems (everything from the host PC being offline to who knows what) and it just seems to work better.

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arbrich wrote:

I am amazed that they can break something so simple and basic as this that we have been doing for over 25 years.

You’d think so, but printing has always been something of a mystery like serial interfaces were once upon a time (probably still are but they are not nearly as common as they once were).

I think it’s because when printing works, as it (used to) do nearly always, it was invisible like a dial tone on a phone.  However, when something did go wrong, fixing could be a real PITA because there is very little to work with.

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FYI, Interesting Reddit post :
November CU KB5007186, network printing, and a promising FIX
————————————————————
https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/qqxffp/november_cu_kb5007186_network_printing_and_a/?sort=new

It points to a possible fix for some of the printing issues from Oct 2021 CU at :

KB5006670 – Network Printer Problems Again This Month
—————————————————–
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/759880/kb5006670-network-printer-problems-again-this-month/page-19#entry5278335

HTH.

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FYI,

BleepingComputer Article: How to fix the Windows 0x0000007c network printing error
———————————————————————————-
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/how-to-fix-the-windows-0x0000007c-network-printing-error/

HTH.

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