No, don’t install the new Office patches

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Good question from L: In your MSDEFCON-3 announcement of May 30th, for Windows 7 you say “UNCHECK the boxes next to any items that aren’t specifically
[See the full post at: No, don’t install the new Office patches]

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If you install the optional updates, every odd slide of your Powerpoint presentation and every second line of your Word and Excel documents will be stamped with “Get Windows 10”, from now on.

Just kidding!!

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HA! You had me….

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These non-security Office patches are all showing up as checked important updates on my W8.1 system. I am talking Office 2013.

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just curious… back in early May, it appeared that someone had found that manually installing KB3153199 allowed for faster updating.

i downloaded but did not install KB3153199

i did, however, install all the May security updates when we dropped to DEFCON 3

should i install KB3153199 now?

thanks,
-Mark

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It looks like the “hot” patch changes every month. Wait until next week and we’ll see if there’s a new one.

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Oy. Thanks for the report.

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well, nothing like a moving target to keep us on our toes

thanks

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Not even “Update for Microsoft Office Outlook Junk Email Filter”, or “Definition update for Microsoft Office XXXX”?

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Sure, if you want to go through patches one-by-one, those should be fine.

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I understand that at a bare minimum, to be covered against security threats, you only need to install “security” updates.

But why do you say they “…are non-security updates. Thus, you should NOT install them.”

Its possible you, or if you manage other users, they are affected by issues which these updates resolve. e.g. “When you drag some email messages to a folder in Outlook 2013, the operation fails and you don’t receive any error message about why it fails.”.
“Outlook 2013 crashes repeatedly.”, etc.

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True. But at this point there isn’t enough info to tell if any specific patch out of the 30 is a loser. Thus, I say wait.

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Woody, I think there is some misunderstanding about what to be installed and what not.
Not everyone has it clear that the only recommendation here is the MS-DEFCON system, while anything else is more like a forum debate where everyone has an opinion. This is the reason why Liam raised this issue now. In other words, the question is whether to install any other update which is non-security. As you know, I am in favour of installing everything on offer which is known not to cause problems. While installing Recommended and Optional updates is up for debate, I think it should be clarified what the regular user, less technically minded, should do with the Important non-security updates.

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@Liam,
I think that Woody is saying not to install these new non-security patches right now — that people should wait for a few weeks to see if there are any reports of problems.
If these patches turn out to be trouble-free, then I think that he will recommend installing them in the future, when he next updates his “defcon” system, which will probably be in the early days of July (prior to the next set of “patch Tuesdays”).

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Yeah, good one

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Checked for you? Hmmm, it appears that they are offered differently to different installations, versions, locations etc

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Anyone know why Update for Microsoft Office 2010 (KB2881030) 32-Bit Edition would appear as an update on a system with Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit and Office 2007 Pro installed?

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They just came in and are important & unchecked on my Win 7 HP 64 bit.

Being 20 something in the 70's was so much better than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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My Office 2010 updates also came checked. I unchecked all of them.

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Great line!
Only I worry that Redmond could slip in W10 without announcements! Would you put it past them?
Frankly, with all this skirmishing going on, I still don’t get it. What does Redmond get out of force-feeding a free update?
Morty

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Highly, highly unlikely Microsoft will over-rule its terms of engagement — the Registry settings. Too many companies (read: paying customers) are relying on them.

What does Redmond get out of Win10? Telemetry and advertising.

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Do you have “Give me important updates…” checked in Windows Update?

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Office updates are cumulative, if you skip optional update, it certainly will be released as security update in the next months, and it will includes whatever the optional update you skipped inluded
so, not instaling updates just because they are non-security is uncalled for

as for problems, even security updates could cause them

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I think there are actually 2 different types of updates for Office, both flagged as Important and none as Optional. They seem not to supersede each other or interfere in any way. As I said in my other posts, I am in favour of installing them all when the time comes and after they pass the test of time. Usually 3-4 weeks is enough time as it allows Microsoft to clean up their act and it coincides in most cases with the time when Woody puts his stamp of approval.
The Security updates tend to supersede the previous Security updates, but this is not true in all situations and I think it is best to allow Microsoft Update to manage it.
The (Critical) updates, non-security tend to supersede each other too.

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Sigh…
Interesting everyone makes a fuss about phone encryption. Meanwhile, MS and Google know more about me than I do!
Back to the pencil!
All the best,
Morty

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Tin cans and string?

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Believe it or not, Updates for same component supersede each othur by newest, update type doesn’t matter at all
you can check it yourself, WU won’t offer securty update kb3115016 for office 2013 if optional update kb3115167 is installed

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I just checked. In the “Choose how Windows can install updates page, I have everything unchecked except for “Give me updates for Microsoft products and check for new optional Microsoft software when I update Windows.”
I tried unchecking that and a window popped up saying (threatening?):
“If you opt out, you will no longer receive updates from Microsoft Update. Do you want to continue?”
Should I say yes?

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There’s no harm in leaving that box checked.

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I think you are right. I did other research in relation to Office updates which appear to have the supersedence not declared correctly. Update and Security for Office in many instances supersede each other in practice, even if not declared at metadata level.
Now I am wondering if the updates for Office are worth installing, beyond the latest Service Pack which is mandatory.

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Thanks. It’s nice to know there’s something harmless these days.

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@Morty,

Don’t uncheck it! It will disappear from your computer and affect Windows Update. You will wish that you had it again.
It takes either digging into the registry or going through a bunch of roundabout steps to get it back.
If you have already unchecked it, the solution to getting it back has been talked about several times on Askwoody in the last year and I would be glad to locate that information for you.

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I would like to hear Woody’s response to Poohstick’s comment of June 8th where he says: “I think that Woody is saying not to install these new non-security patches right now — that people should wait for a few weeks to see if there are any reports of problems. If these patches turn out to be trouble-free, then I think that he will recommend installing them in the future, when he next updates his ‘defcon’ system…”. My own interpretation is that Woody’s advice from 3 months ago to not install any non-security patches applied also to Office non-security patches (even once Woody gives the next “Defcon” update), but I’m not clear on that. So Woody, could you please clear this up? Perhaps you’ve clarified it somewhere else on your forum, but maybe I missed it.

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At this point, pending investigation by a few people here, I’m NOT recommending that people install optional Office updates unless they have a very specific reason to do so.

Of course, we’re at MS-DEFCON 2, so I’m recommending that nobody install anything at this point.

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Thanks poohsticks. I left it checked.
Morty

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Woody “Tin cans and string?”

No, the Swiss have something better.

https://threema.ch/en

JF

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HA!

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@johan234,

I have received the same update, and I’ve got the same system that you do, so it didn’t make sense to me, either.

After doing a search on AskWoody.com for that KB number, I see that this issue was discussed in a different discussion section, here: https://www.askwoody.com/2016/june-2016-non-security-office-updates-are-out/#comment-87456

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