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.PATCH WATCH MS-DEFCON 4 – February updates trigger few issues By Susan Bradley All-clear for February patches It’s that normal time of the month when
[See the full post at: MS-DEFCON 4 – February updates trigger few issues]
Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher
Hi Susan,
I am sure you have seem my Win 1909 update thread. All the help appreciated and making good progress. But, in the newsletter you say:
“It’s that normal time of the month when I’ll urge everyone to get the February security updates installed. For consumers, I’m not tracking any major issues. l also recommend that those of you still on 1909 consider installing 2004 or 20H2, unless they are not yet being offered on your PCs. I’ve now installed 2004/20H2 on enough systems to be comfortable recommending either one on your machines. Remember, the complete list of February updates that I recommend — or not — can be found at any time on the Master Patch List.”
Well, PKCano says the Master Patch List is for IT professionals and the Defcon buttons for mere users. Does not make sense. Why would there be a difference if there is? And the MPL says nothing that it is not for me. And no one addressed that the last MPL update had the date Feb 26th when it posted on maybe the 20th or 22nd?? If that was just a dating error one thing but if that was saying this list is not recommended until Feb 26th is another.
So what is accurate? If MPL not for me perhaps you could clearly post that. Or at least explain the relationship between the MPL and DEFCON.
Thanks.
~Bob
Even when Woody himself was running the show, I would refer to MPL. Woody, especially during the last 6 months or so, would refer which updates to install to MPL. He tended to give just the high points and stopped discussing updates for office (unless of course there was a major issue). I find MPL, with a list of which updates to install or defer, together with Susan’s comments a great combination
I just dated it in advance is all.
Mere mortals can use the master patch listing. Defcon is the high overview, whereas Master patch listing gives you more details. Also I list the few updates that I’ve personally had issues with up there and I don’t have a problem telling you to skip them.
Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher
February patches installed with no problems to report on Win 8.1 . 🙂
Installation Successful: Windows successfully installed the following update: 2021-02 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 (KB4603004)
Installation Successful: Windows successfully installed the following update: 2021-02 Security Monthly Quality Rollup for Windows 8.1 for x64-based Systems (KB4601384)
Win 10 ver. 22H2 x64
In the Settings App under Windows Update\View Update History – in the upper left corner click on “uninstall updates.” That link will take you to the list of installed updates. Look there for what is installed on the computer and the date of installation.
You can also access this from the Control Panel\Windows Update\View installed updates.
When you are on Pause, no Windows updates show up in Windows Update.
But if you Resume Updates (unPause), it will immediately download and install all available updates incluting the onse you don’t want.
To be able to use wushowhide to hide the updates, you should set Metered connections to ON before you Resume Updates. Metered connections should keep the updates from downloading. Then use wushowhide to hide the ones you don’t want.
After the updates are hidden (with Metered Connections still ON), you should Pause updates again then Resume updates. This will cause Windows update to search for updates on its own. If the updates listed are the ones you want to install, turn Metered connections to OFF and let them insstall.
There is a Guide for Windows Update Settings in AKB2000016 with information for both Home and Pro Editions.
From Susan: I’ve now installed 2004/20H2 on enough systems to be comfortable recommending either one on your machines.
I am on Win10 Pro 2004. I have GPEdit settings as per recommendation from this site, with “Target Version for Feature Update” set to 2004. I want to take Susan’s advice and move to 20H2. I just downloaded Feb udpates and will install today.
So, in order to move to 20H2 – should I remove “2004” from the GPEdit setting above? And then after update to 20H2, leave it blank, or set it to 20H2 (or what is the correct setting for this release?) thanks.
You are correct in that installing 20H2 will install it with the February updates for Windows 10 included, but not any other updates such as the .NET update.
Since you say that the February updates didn’t install, you might have problems with the upgrade to 20H2 as well. Just something to think about.
…+ the dreaded KB3025027 (which keeps coming back even though it’s hidden) in hiding – do they stay there forever?
No, KB4023057 does not stay hidden forever. It resurfaces each time MS releases a newer version of it, so you need to re-hide it each time.
The current version that’s showing as hidden on my machine says “2021-01 Update for Windows 10 Version 20H2 for x64-based Systems (KB4023057)”
Note the 2021-01 at the beginning of the update’s title. Makes it seem to me that next time it might say 2021-03 at the beginning of the title, or something similar. Either way, keep an eye on the KB number, and when it shows back up, hide it again. That’s all we can do for now.
And since you are answering the abpve question and I have not used this feature yet, what should I expect? For example, if I change GP TRV to 2004 from 1909 do I need to reboot? Will it update immediately? Will it wait a day? In other words, what is the sequence of actions both by me and the update process?
Thanks. I hope that answer adds value to this thread as well.
Susan, Thank you for the suggestion. Because I am not competent in reading through and acting upon a cbs log (which, in my case for today only, has 23 megabytes of densely packed information which is incomprehensible to me), I decided to follow your suggestion to install 20H2. Thus, I tried to install 20H2 not only to get the newest version of Windows but also to circumvent the corruption that apparently was associated with the reportedly “successful” installation of either KB4598242 or KB4023057, which, in turn, apparently led to the failure of KB4601319 for my Windows 10 Pro , version 2004. After the download and installation of 20H2, I received the following disheartening message: “We couldn’t install this update, but you can try again (0x800f0831).” Nevertheless, I received a green checkmark at the top of the page saying “You’re up to date”. Furthermore, when I viewed my update history, I saw that KB4598242 and KB4023057 were still “successfully installed” but “Feature update to Windows 10, Version 20H2”, “Failed to install” on 3/2/2021 with error code (0x800f0831). Thus, my problem still remains and further suggestions are welcomed. For example, would uninstalling and reinstalling either KB4598242 or KB4023057 or both cure the problem with KB4601319? Please let me know. Thank you.
Ok, I found the proper syntax for the dism command if anyone thinks it would be a good idea for @StatMan42 to try it. The syntax can be found in @bbearren ‘s post here. Although he’s talking to someone who’s having slow boot time issues, the instructions would still apply in this case, again, only if it’s deemed a good idea for this case.
@StatMan42 – If you decide to do these commands on your own, follow the instructions in the post from @bbearren , ignoring the part about checking boot times after completing them, but following everything else. Once you’ve finished them and have successfully rebooted afterwards, please try to install KB4601319 and let us know what happens.
Check the other Windows Update-related settings you may have in the registry and see if any of them have been changed from how you had them set.
If there have been no changes, you may wish to leave the update installed, since you didn’t say that you’ve had any issues since it installed.
If any of the settings have been changed away from what you had them set to, then you can return the settings to the way you had them and afterwards, proceed to uninstall the update should you choose to do so.
Basically, though, the choice is yours, and a matter of personal preference.
The basic intent of KB4023057 is to make it as trouble-free as possible to install the next Feature Update on your machine. It accomplishes the task through methods that can include changing update deferral settings and other changes to the way Windows Update can operate if it deems it appropriate. Because of this aspect of its potential behavior, some folks choose not to install it on their machine.
One thing it reportedly will do is to check you system drive (usually the C: drive) for enough space to ensure the update will be able to operate smoothly during the installation, which can be a good thing for anyone wishing to smoothly upgrade from one Feature Update to another, such as from 2004 or 20H2 to 21H1 or 21H2.
Check the other Windows Update-related settings you may have in the registry and see if any of them have been changed from how you had them set.
If there have been no changes, you may wish to leave the update installed, since you didn’t say that you’ve had any issues since it installed.
If any of the settings have been changed away from what you had them set to, then you can return the settings to the way you had them and afterwards, proceed to uninstall the update should you choose to do so.
Basically, though, the choice is yours, and a matter of personal preference.
The basic intent of KB4023057 is to make it as trouble-free as possible to install the next Feature Update on your machine. It accomplishes the task through methods that can include changing update deferral settings and other changes to the way Windows Update can operate if it deems it appropriate. Because of this aspect of its potential behavior, some folks choose not to install it on their machine.
One thing it reportedly will do is to check you system drive (usually the C: drive) for enough space to ensure the update will be able to operate smoothly during the installation, which can be a good thing for anyone wishing to smoothly upgrade from one Feature Update to another, such as from 2004 or 20H2 to 21H1 or 21H2.
Thanks, Bob. It deleted the setting where I had specified 2004. This has been deleted, “TargetReleaseVersionInfo”=”2004”
Check the other Windows Update-related settings you may have in the registry and see if any of them have been changed from how you had them set.
If there have been no changes, you may wish to leave the update installed, since you didn’t say that you’ve had any issues since it installed.
If any of the settings have been changed away from what you had them set to, then you can return the settings to the way you had them and afterwards, proceed to uninstall the update should you choose to do so.
Basically, though, the choice is yours, and a matter of personal preference.
The basic intent of KB4023057 is to make it as trouble-free as possible to install the next Feature Update on your machine. It accomplishes the task through methods that can include changing update deferral settings and other changes to the way Windows Update can operate if it deems it appropriate. Because of this aspect of its potential behavior, some folks choose not to install it on their machine.
One thing it reportedly will do is to check you system drive (usually the C: drive) for enough space to ensure the update will be able to operate smoothly during the installation, which can be a good thing for anyone wishing to smoothly upgrade from one Feature Update to another, such as from 2004 or 20H2 to 21H1 or 21H2.
Thanks, Bob. It deleted the setting where I had specified 2004. This has been deleted, “TargetReleaseVersionInfo”=”2004”
Disregard. I wasn’t going through the proper way of getting to those settings. It is set to 2004.
My system had been going to install KB4535680 (for the second time) when I updated to 2004. Once the feature update installed, it changed its mind. Hope this helps.
Susan Bradley suggests avoiding KB4535680. KB4535680’s list of the Windows versions to which it applies does not include Windows 10 version 2004 or Windows 10 20H2. Has anyone running either of those two versions of Windows 10 been offered KB4535680 through Windows Update?
If you are on version 2004 or later, the code is already included; thus, this update [KB4535680] will not be offered up to you.
But you already knew that 😉:
It does not appear to be applicable to versions 2004/20H2:
…
https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=KB4535680
can you elaborate on the potential changes of KB4023057 pleese.
The potential changes are listed on KB4023057 release notes :
Notes about this update
This update may request your device to stay awake longer to enable installation of updates.
Note The installation will respect any user-configured sleep configurations and also your “active hours” when you use your device the most.
This update may try to reset network settings if problems are detected, and it will clean up registry keys that may be preventing updates from being installed successfully.
This update may repair disabled or corrupted Windows operating system components that determine the applicability of updates to your version of Windows 10.
This update may compress files in your user profile directory to help free up enough disk space to install important updates.
This update may reset the Windows Update database to repair the problems that could prevent updates from installing successfully. Therefore, you may see that your Windows Update history was cleared.
… and it will clean up registry keys that may be preventing updates from being installed successfully.
That is the part that many folks here aren’t too happy with, which is why they decide to hide the update every time it appears.
By cleaning up registry keys, Microsoft means that changes the user has made to the registry directly, or through the use of Group Policy Editor, may be changed back to what Microsoft thinks will allow them to give a machine an update when they want the machine to get the update, NOT when the machine’s owner or user or administrator wants the machine to get the update. Notice I italicized the word “may”, to indicate that these changes might not always happen, but some folks don’t want to take the chance of them happening.
Some folks still desire to control what gets installed on their machine and when, and they don’t want to cede that control to Microsoft or anyone else for that matter.
Strangely enough, though, I haven’t noticed anyone complaining about the following concept that involves KB4023057, which is clearly stated in what @Alex5723 quotes above:
This update may repair disabled or corrupted Windows operating system components that determine the applicability of updates to your version of Windows 10
That statement makes it sound like if someone has hidden some updates (through the use of any of the freely available tools just for that purpose) and Microsoft decides they want you to have the updates you’ve hidden, KB4023057 will unhide them and have Windows Update install them “for you”. Whether or not that would actually happen, I have no idea, but the statement above from the release notes makes it sound very possible. Just something to think about.
If you are on a Pro version you should block Microsoft installing drivers via GP.
If you are on Home version use WUmgr, Wumt to hide Microsoft’s drivers updates.
You should update/download drivers from your PC OEM or from devices OEM, directly.
After about six hours the “Retry” button disappeared and a single Realtek update was displayed with the notation “Pending install.”
Under “View Update History” the update is now shown as successfully installed today March 5.
From the sounds of it, you just received a new Realtek driver for one of the components (audio, maybe?) on your motherboard or in your laptop. The very next time you reboot, Windows Update will finish the installation of the driver for you. That’s why the status shows as “Pending install” and why it shows as successfully installed with today’s date, I believe.
Consensus amongst the MVP’s here is that it’s not usually a good idea to let Windows Update install drivers for your computer that are from Microsoft.
Do as @Alex5723 suggests above, and block the installation of drivers from Microsoft by using the Group Policy settings described above. You’ll be better off getting the drivers directly from your computer or motherboard maker’s own website, as those are tailored specifically to your exact hardware in the computer/on the motherboard.
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