The shame of Windows Update

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Michael Horowitz at Computerworld echoes a sentiment we’ve been debating for far too long. The shame of Windows Update
[See the full post at: The shame of Windows Update]

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I don’t think Michael Horowitz reads this site. Otherwise he would have found that Service Pack 1 offered on Windows 7 SP1 is in fact KB2533552 and this has been going on for years. I posted about this patch last time only few hours ago, recommending to install it manually first after installing SP1 and before doing anything else.
Otherwise, same old story which as Woody noted, “we’ve been debating for far too long”.
It is good to see a lot of people getting interested in the email client discussions for some fresh air. What amazes me though is that while everyone seems to regret the discontinuation of Outlook Express and now almost certain of WLM, there are no fans of the full Outlook, the one which comes with Microsoft Office.

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See my post in that thread (post No. 10).

I have to agree with you: I would have preferred to keep OE.

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The author of the article mentioned defragmenting after running all MS Updates. What he missed was the step of cleaning up with CCleaner or Dick Cleanup (I run both) before running defraggler or any other defrag program. This not only saves a little disk space, it shortens and improves the defragmenting process. On a SSD, running Trim helps after a major MS Updates process.

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That’s Disk Cleanup. Fat fingers on a tablet!

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@Woody,

Interesting…the past 2 days, Windows Update has done its auto Update check and each day an Optional unchecked update has been removed. No changes had been made to my W7 SP1 x64 machine, yet somehow MS decided that 2 Optional updates were no longer necessary to even list.

Unfortunately, I don’t know which Optionals were removed but I do know that KB 3035583 released 5-3-16 and KB 2962664 released 4-12-16 are still in the Optional list.

Rhyme or reason, why doth thou forsake me.

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I would be very careful with CCleaner and use as last resort, not routinely. It can be very useful, but dangerous too.

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KB3139923 for Windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit and Windows 2012R2 have been expired not long ago. I cannot find a second one for now, it may come up in my WSUS soon.

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Same patch number applies to Windows 8.1 and Server 2008 R2.

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I read your post there. I suppose one important advantage of Thunderbird is that it is free. However I would assume that almost everyone has a version of Office installed and Outlook is included in all editions.

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KB2639417 for Windows 7 32-bit is expired as well, however this is an older superseded Security Update from 2011.
If Microsoft will start removing the old obsoleted updates, we may see a significant enhancement in the performance of Windows Update scanning. Too early to say if this will actually happen for Windows 7.

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See my post #18 in this thread:
MS-DEFCON 2: New “checked” KB3146706 leads me to turn the rating up
I only had 1 disappear but that may be because I’ve hidden a lot and only had 3 optional updates showing, now down to 2.

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Yes, I agree with most of Michael’s article.

Especially in the case of defragging.

We have a number of pretty old Windows 7 laptops used for presentations primarily. These are minimum spec’d (we’re a lowly govt dept with almost no budget), so if they are not tuned to the max, they take 10 minutes to boot.
Every time I install updates, I do the following to tune up the boot time afterwards:
– Go into System Protection and delete all restore points.
– In Explorer, run the cleanup on the boot drive (the double-one, that only picks up all the temporary Windows update installer files on the second pass). Reboot (this alone will take a long time, as it compacts the update files during the reboot).
– Now run Defraggler at its max setting.
Sure, takes the better part of a day, but then we’ll have a usable laptop for another month.

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I love Outlook for its single *pst file architecture. It makes archiving easy. Additionally it is customizable and you can have different PST files for contacts, inbox, etc. However and unfortunately, Outlook has NOT been included in any edition since Office 2010 below the mid-level Home and Business. Instead we get Onenote, a true solution in search of a problem.

I use Outlook and Thunderbird (installed when WU broke Outlook), but prefer the calendar and *.pst files over Thunderbird. For me though, the real advantage of Thunderbird is that it is on my Linux distro machines and the learning curve was really easy.

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I use ccleaner to clean up my MB and do disk cleanup EVEN do cleanup after updates too to regain mb. So way ahead of ya there rc I like to keep my computer clean, neat and running smoothly.

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Anyway guys TOMORROW IS Patch tuesday-Now we may not know what diabolical plans Microsoft has for us WIN 7 users, but let’s all keep our eyes on woody’s site, keep the settings on never check until we get all the facts about what problems cause certain updates within the may patch and/or any problems. Liek he said to wait 1-2 weeks when it comes to the patches.

MICROSOFT may have ambushed us march/april, but not anymore because WE WILL BE READY FOR whatever they attack us with!

So for the sake of all WINDOWS PCS-no matter the version-let’s kick some microsoft butt!

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The sad thing is that Woody knows this, Michael Horowitz knows this, all of us IT people know this.

And we *know* Microsoft knows it. It’s impossible *not* to know it. So why is Microsoft deaf to all of us?

I wish Michael would have reached out for someone higher in the Microsoft hierarchy for public comment. For this to change, “name-and-shame” will have to reach a fever pitch; it’s clear Microsoft frankly doesn’t care what IT support have to do to work around these things. Throwing gargantuan updates into the mix a la Windows 10 doesn’t exactly help us either, especially when half the time, we don’t know what they do, and when Microsoft’s history for fixing one thing and breaking one or two others in the process has grown so rampant in the past year that IT people are starting to wait 3-4 weeks to patch even security vulnerabilities.

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@Woody,

Windows Update removed another unchecked, Optional update this morning. That’s 3 Optionals removed in the last 3 days.

W7 SP1 x64

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Keep those cards ‘n letters coming. Black Tuesday is about to descend. Or is it ascending?

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Alas, Microsoft higher-ups don’t work that way. The best you ever get is a blind response from Waggener-Edstrom, Microsoft’s PR company… unless you can snag an exclusive interview and ambush the person – and even then, it won’t work, because they’re smart enough to defer to Wag-Ed.

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Never harmed anything on my PCs from Win XP to Win 10 Pro. I’ve heard reports of damages, but these seem to be few and far between. Better to use CCleaner than the truly harmful aggressive cleaners widnwos Defender is removing these days.

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In the article, the author was complaining about disk space and defragmenting issues. CCleaner can reduce these sorts of issues, as can Disk Cleanup.

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As in the Constantine comics, where he speaks of “The Rising Darkness”?

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Actually, there are three levels of Disk Cleanup. The More options tab allows old System Restore Points to be removed.

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Heh heh heh.

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I didn’t even notice the misspelling until you mentioned it. Then I felt immature for chuckling.

Now that’s a hypothetical program some organizations’ HR departments surely could benefit from running occasionally. tee-hee… (sorry)

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There are ways to limit what CCleaner looks at and fixes, and keep to the safer stuff.

I’ve found CCleaner invaluable for many years.

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It’s like that grey, menacing, massive tornado in Oklahoma a couple of days ago that made the national news reports, hurtling sideways across the landscape.
Retreat to the basement, assume “crash position”!

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Bend over ‘n kiss your keester good-bye….

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– Now run Defraggler at its max setting.
Sure, takes the better part of a day, but then we’ll have a usable laptop for another month.

Have you tried to use PerfectDisk?
PerfectDisk is by far the best defragger, setting the standard for all others and everything else is only trying to catch up. Some do well.
Even so, all defraggers have been made redundant or will be in the near future by technology and the rise of SSDs.

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( ) (If that’s the right code, a smiley should appear here. If not, imagine it did.)

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