OK to install KB 3161608?

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Great questions from Q: I just wanted to verify that it is okay to DL & install the KB3161608 from the “Optional List”. I would think that I shoul
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Woody–

1. *Thank you*, so sincerely, for all of the help, advice & info over the last several years. I maintain my own machine, and you, sir, do **excellent** work! You and Yahoo Search are my first resources in search!

2. Win 7 Pro SP1, x64, w/ most all updates since day zero except for the Win 10 “shove” patches, and a very few others that sounded like BS. Also running Josh Mayfield’s *excellent* GWX Control Panel; it and WU itself are all set to Manual, No, No and No, etc.

3. This morning, 2 or 3 tries at manual WU. 10-15 minutes each, and still spinning. So, after saw you all’s comments/ articles, I installed KB3020369 and KB3161608. WU then completed in about 4-5 mins., offering 5 secur patches plus latest Malicious Tool.

4. In sum, you hit the nail *right on the head!* Again, THANKS!!!

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@Woody
In this week’s Patch Watch, Susan Bradley recommends installing KB3161608 before installing July’s KB3168965. What’s your take on this?

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I don’t think it’s necessary to install in order – but if Susan recommends it, sure. If you install 3161608 first, you’re speeding things up anyway.

ch100 may have a better opinion….

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@Woody, @Cybertooth, @ch100,

“Susan Bradley recommends installing KB3161608 before installing July’s KB3168965.”

Really?? She is actually recommending installing an “Optional” patch before installing “Important” updates??

Can Microsoft create any more confusion for its users as well as those who are alleged “experts” in the software?

I have nothing against susan bradley, and her reputation precedes her, however, has she gone down the rabbit hole with the rest of us when she needs to “interpret” an Optional update as more important than an Important update?

And what ever happened to the determination that KB 3161608 was a “rollup update” for NEW INSTALLATIONS of W7??

Bad enough things change every month with patches but now things are changing on a daily basis as well?

Sheeeesh….

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Susan’s been down more rabbit holes than either of us could imagine. But I share your frustration!

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Woody, I just installed KB 3161608 and have not installed KB 3168965 yet. My update on my Win 7 x64 Home premium computer went from Never to 4 minutes download time. I guess this is dependent on how one handles one’s computer. About every 45 days the update goes south on me and the newst speedup arrives and I install it (manually only) and updates immediately come in full speed. For me, following your advice is number 1 and number 2 is being very careful on how I operate my computer. KEEP UP YOU EXCELLENT WORK AND ADVICE. This Microsoft dilemma is going to last for the next 10 months, after the final Win 10 obstruction to computer life ends.

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@louis
If it’s OK to quote Patch Watch, Susan Bradley wrote about KB3168965 that “Usually, I recommend making sure your anti-malware software is fully up to date before installing kernel updates. However there are reports that installing KB 3168965 on a Win7 machine will make manual update scanning faster, as noted on a site that tracks this issue. Ensure that you have June’s KB 3161608 installed and then install KB 3168965 separately and before the other July patches.”

(The website she mentions up there is that German wu.krelay.de/en/ site.)

I’m skeptical of installing that rollup, too, so I’m looking for guidance here.

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For several months, every time Patch Tuesday came along, the usual MS daily check for updates stopped happening and the CPU stuck at 50%. The fix being to manually download the appropriate patch (KB3161664 last time) for that month – which worked only until the following month, then it was a repeat performance. However, after unhiding and installing KB3020369 followed by installing KB3161608, I am pleased to report that this month’s patches were found, AND the CPU dropped to 1%. I am of course going to let ’em sweat for a while before attempting to download, so how fast that will be remains to be seen, but it seems from my experience that KB3161608 is worth installing. (Running Win7 with updates set to ‘tell me about them but don’t download’).

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I’m sure Susan won’t mind. (Do you, Susan?)

Many people are reporting that the patches on the wu.krelay.de/en site work just fine – and you don’t have to swallow all the six extraneous patches.

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@louis I am glad to be in good company
I don’t think KB3161608 is meant to be for new updates only. It is a regular Windows Update patch which happens to be packed with multiple patches inside for reasons which only Microsoft can clarify.
I think Susan’s recommendation is in the context of assisting admins and end-users with the speed of the scans and not in relation to the other functionality of KB3161608. As I am one who tend to accept that the designation of different patches has less relevance now than it used to be in the past, I would go with Susan’s advice.

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@Louis
A question about your KB3161608, OPTIONAL update. Was it checked?? The one I show in the “Optional” list is not checked.

I agree, it’s been very bad for months with the updates situation, however I think this one is the worst yet. You are not alone with the frustration!! I just become more and more confused, however I will never DL & install any new updates until they are cleared by Woody.

Without his outstanding knowledge, and help I don’t know what we would do. GOOD JOB, ALWAYS, WOODY!!

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I expect that the rest of Susan Bradley’s blogpost (which I can’t access because I’m not a member of that site) provides the context that would solve my question,
but when reading this quote by itself, I don’t understand what she means by:
“Usually, I recommend making sure your anti-malware software is fully up to date before installing kernel updates. However….”

Why would following the instructions in the second and third sentences of that quote preclude one from making sure the computer’s anti-malware software is up-to-date first?

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To the questioner “Q”,

I am also not a computer-techie.

My understanding of a “manual install” is where you go online to a specific Microsoft website that lets you manually download to your computer Windows Update patches individually,
**without** first having to run the “Windows Update” program on your computer which checks with Microsoft’s servers and which shows you all the updates that Microsoft thinks your computer needs.

In the last few months, many people have manually installed one particular patch from a Microsoft website before even opening up or running the Windows Update program on their computer, because manually installing that individual patch first, and doing so entirely outside the Windows Update program, has then allowed the Windows Update program to work very quickly when it is run.

In the past, on AskWoody.com and on Woody’s area of Infoworld.com, there have been some detailed instructions about how to manually install individual patches,
and I think that every time that Woody actually gives us laypeople the go-ahead to install the latest tranche of updates (normally he does this in a blogpost here about 3 1/2 weeks after Microsoft has released their big set of monthly of updates/patches),
in that blogpost he will give a brief, step-by-step process of HOW we should first manually install a particular update before running the Windows Update program (if there is a specific standalone update that it is worthwhile for us to seek out and manually install on that occasion).

If you are currently trying to get caught up with patches/updates and you need to know right now what the step-by-step manual install instructions are, just go back to the prior blogpost by Woody that said the June patches were okay to install – I think he calls it “DefCon 2” or something like that – I think such instructions are in that post. (If not, do a search in the searchbox here on AskWoody.com and you will be able to find some relevant instructions — that is how I learned how to manually install a standalone patch prior to opening up Windows Update.)

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Exactly.

JF

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I cannot find the download line for June rollup. The MS links all appear to be broken for https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3161608

I have provided MS with feedback.

Mike

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It looks like MS yanked the patch. I get nothing at

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=10bcfa3a-cb96-4ba9-90ba-c2b46dc734c0

They probably pulled it because it breaks Bluetooth on some Intel chipsets. There are also other reported problems. I’ll write it up in the morning….

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It was pulled because it is replaced by the new rollup KB3172605. It would be interesting to see if the Bluetooth problem has been fixed.
By pulling older patches, Microsoft is testing a new method which could potentially fix forever the slow Windows Update.

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