Patch Lady – don’t install optional updates

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One of the nice changes to 1909 (it only took HOW many versions to get to this) is that the optional updates are not easily get-to-able.  Now you can
[See the full post at: Patch Lady – don’t install optional updates]

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

4 users thanked author for this post.

Mr. Natural, abbodi86, woody, PKCano

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Your friendly neighborhood Seeker/cannon-fodder here; installed it on the 28th, no issues to report.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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Live on the edge do you? 

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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No, not at all.  The 28th was Tuesday, my latest drive image was created the previous Sunday, the 26th, by Task Scheduler.  My data is triple-copied to separate locations daily, and to OneDrive.  Even if I had a BSOD, black screen, or complete failure to boot, The B side of my dual boot would have been unaffected, and I would be about 6 minutes away from having my A side just like it was the 26th, easy peasy lemon squeezy.

It’s more like fishing.  If it’s not a keeper, all I have to do is throw it back and re-bait my hook.  And I always have bait at the ready.  In all my tinkerin’ and piddlin’ with Windows innards over the years, I have crashed Windows and restored drive images literally hundreds of times.  Never had an issue with a drive image restore.

In all my years of running Windows, I’ve always kept my systems fully updated, and I’ve never had an issue with an update or in-place upgrade.  Being a Seeker/cannon-fodder has no real consequence if one stays prepared.  I have fresh drive images from this morning, the originals are still on a 1TB SSD in the desktop, and I have copied them to a docked HDD in my NAS, then un-docked it and put it away for safe keeping.

I started creating drive images with a Colorado Tape Drive, then CD’s, then DVD’s, an internal HDD, then SSD, and now with home network storage.  Drive imaging is so much easier to do today than it was twenty years ago, that there is really no excuse to not do it regularly.

I’m not throwing shade on you by any means, you do a fantastic job and a greatly appreciated service for the SOHO folks, and I commend you for it.  But I’m a home user with a home network, and if I break it, I know how to fix it.  I’ll keep fishin’.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

1 user thanked author for this post.

Mr. Austin

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I’ve been waiting for my optional patch to show up, so I can take that screenshot.

As of this moment, my 1903 machines show “Feature update to Windows 10, version 1909” but no optional patch for 1903.

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It won’t show up if you set any deferrals

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and what happens when the deferral expires? Does the Quality update deferral at Windows Update>Advanced Options apply to non-security, optional updates? If so, then if this non-security, optional update was released on January 28 and the Quality update deferral is set to 21 days, then does that mean that it’s out of the picture until 21 days from January 28? If so, that’s February 18, and before that there will be a Feb 11 Tuesday Patch, which is cumulative. Does the Feb 11 cumulative Patch Tuesday patch of Feb 11 make the non-security, optional patch of January 29 obsolete? And if it makes it obsolete, then do you never see the non-security, optional January 28 patch appear as an offer?

This is all prefaced by the condition, of course, that you don’t click on “Check for Updates”

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It won’t show up if you set any deferrals

It says at Windows Update > Advanced options that a Deferral applies to either a Feature Update or a Quality update. Is a non-security, optional update considered a a quality update, therefore eligible for a deferral? I have been under the impression that only security updates are considered quality updates. But, if non-security, optional updates are considered quality updates, what happens when the deferral expires? Do you get an announcement that an optional update is available, for which you have a “Download and install now” link, which you can refuse to click on? If so, what happens to that announcement whose link you refuse click on … does it stay there forever? Or does it eventually disappear? If it disappears, is this non-security, optional update eventually subsumed under a later Patch Tuesday update?

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Thanks Susan, I started pushing KB4532695 late last week before your post and so far (knock wood) I have not had any reports of issues with this patch. I’ve had it installed on my work pc since middle of last week and no issues to report. My guess is its going to be related to third party software in some form.

Red Ruffnsore

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How do you stop the install of optional updates?

Is there a way that denies checking for them?

Do you use the app to hide them if they are downloaded to install?

This is my first full month with Windows 10 patches and right now I have them on pause.

Win 10 Home 22H2

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“Check for updates” = download/install whatever updates arepending. DON’T “check for updates.”

You use wushowhide to hide PENDING updates. You cannot hide them after thay have downloaded.

If you have updates “Paused” they will not show up in WU until the Pause period os over OR you end the “Pause.”
When the “Pause” period ends (or you end it), the pending updates have to be installed before you can use “Pause” again. So be sure to mark the “Pause” end date on your calendar, because that is when your computer will update (unless you have metered connections).

Without clicking “Check for updates,” the updates you will be offered through WU are Security updates, not Optional updates. The optional updates will be presented in the “Show optional updates” section below the WU queue area. They will not download/install without your permission (unless you “check for updates”). See illustration here.

4 users thanked author for this post.

jburk07, Win7and10, CraigS26, abbodi86

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[Win7and10]

Right now I am on pause, meaning if I “unpause” on 1909 will the optional updates be there? Should I unpause and just let it check on it’s own?

Sorry, I am confused, it sounds like pause may or may not bring down the optional updates. I do like the fact that 1909 has the OPTIONAL listed separately, never ever installed any OPTIONAL updates, EVER.

If I “unpause” the updates will optional appear and then will have to HIDE the optional with wushowhide? I’m familiar with that app already since I investigated it when I set up the computer.

Thanks for your patience, once I get through the first month of patches and updates with WIN10 after initial setup of the computer I will be fine.

Win 10 Home 22H2

• This reply was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by Win7and10.

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“Pause” applies to Security = Patch Tuesday updates. If the pause period expires, or if you you end it, you will get whatever Security updates are pending for your computer. That means the CU, .NET CU, MSRT, etc issued on Patch Tuesday. These are euqivalent to the checked Important updates in Win7/8.1.

The Optional updates are availabel in the optional update section below. They are not install by ending of the Pause period. They are installed if you click the “Download and install” link in the Oprional section. These are equivalent to the unchecked Optional updates in Win7/8.1

If you click “Check for updates” you get anything that’s out there – Security or Optional. Don’t click “Check for updates'” EVER.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Win7and10

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Thank you so much! I really appreciate it and will be a pro next time for sure. I love this place for all the confidence and updates that you exude.

Win 10 Home 22H2

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You use wushowhide to hide PENDING updates.

And PENDING means ‘available”, as in “Optional update available”?

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wushowhide cannot see the new “optional updates”

try WuMgr

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Win7and10 wrote:

Right now I am on pause, meaning if I “unpause” on 1909 will the optional updates be there?

No, unless you click ‘check for updates’.

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No, unless you click ‘check for updates’.

Let me see if I can get the logic of this —
So, taking into account @PKCano’s post at #2125198 that PAUSE/UNPAUSE applies only to Security updates (and Feature updates, too, I believe) and since we are talking about a non-security, optional update here, then “unpausing” would not precipitate downloading and installing it and ??neither would it precipitate the announcement that an optional update was available (and thus there would not be present a “Download and install now” link?? so that means that the only way that it COULD install is to click on the “Check for update”, which you never want to do??

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You are correct – doncha love the “new” MS way!?

cheers, Paul

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doncha love the “new” MS way!?

I conclude, then, that the Optional Install Update is an animal of its own kind (i.e., a category of Update apart from Feature Update, Quality Update, Servicing Stack Update, or any other category of update):

• 1) as an optional update, it is by its nature a non-security update, meant for making a fix available to any guinea pig who wants to test it to see if there are any problems with it
• 2) it cannot be a pending update that could be hidden by Wushowhide.
• 3) it is out of the realm of PAUSE or DEFER, i.e., PAUSE and DEFER have no effect on it
• 4) it is only made available via a “Download and Install now” link, which you can click on, if you want to be a guinea pig
• 5) Do not click on “Check for Updates” or else it, along with any Feature Update and any Quality Update that have been released that you haven’t deferred, will be installed.
• 6) Just wait for it to be subsumed into an upcoming Patch Tuesday Update release.

Are optional updates also out of the purview of the Group Policy Editor’s Windows Update option #2-Notify Download and install? This seems to be the case, since it has its own Optional Update notification and its own “Download and Install now” link.

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– It’s not different category, it’s different DeploymentAction

2) it can be pending, but Wushowhide cannot see it

3) It’s affected by Pause or Defer
when pause is expired, it will still be pending optional update
when deferral is over, it will become pending normal update

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3) It’s [i.e., an optional update] affected by Pause or Defer …when pause is expired, it will still be pending optional update

If a pending optional update is still a pending optional update when the Pause period is over/expired, how could it be affected by Pause??? If X is still X, then X is not affected/the state of X has not changed, right?

To further elaborate, I can’t reconcile what you say here [that an optional update is affected by Pause] with the statement by @PKCano in #2125198, i.e.,

The Optional updates are availabel in the optional update section below. They are not install[ed] by ending of the Pause period. They are installed if you click the “Download and install” link in the Oprional section. These are equivalent to the unchecked Optional updates in Win7/8.1

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[abbodi86]

You like technicalities

what i ment is, when you Pause updates, Optional Updates are paused too and the “Download and Install now” section will be removed during pause period

• This reply was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by abbodi86.

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and that when the Pause period expires, the “Download and install now” section will return?

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Yes

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Every Gordon Kelly article has the same title; nothing new to see here really.
The guy somehow makes a living off writing FUD and exploiting it to the nth degree.

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