Will the grand Win7/8.1 patch rollup experiment work?

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The jury’s still out. InfoWorld Woody on Windows
[See the full post at: Will the grand Win7/8.1 patch rollup experiment work?]

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Will it work?
About like it does for Win10.

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@Woody,

Just checked and KB 3156417 was pushed to me this morning: Optional, unchecked non-italic.
That said, the update is listed as 6mb. We know it’s not 6mb. What’s up with that?

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Woody:

Do you think this is yet another angle Microsoft is trying to use to get people upgraded to Windows 10?

In other words, you may need some of the components in the all-in-one rollup patch; but by taking the “all or none” rollup patch, you end up with the one component which upgrades you to Windows 10. Either that, or take none of the components of the rollup patch.

Jim

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KB3139923 was released sometime last month and retired after few weeks. It was documented then, it is documented now. Now it is re-released, not sure if it is the same or modified. This may be another reason why it is not included in the new CU style of non-security updates.

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Define the meaning of “work”.

Since I’m one of your cynical readers (or is that pragmatic and experienced) I’ll speculate that if “work” means that Microsoft’s choice of updates will be foisted upon Win7 users in a manner similar to Win10 cumulative updates then the answer is likely “Yes, it works great!. And as a bonus we eliminate user freedom of choice in applying updates without having to do much work to the Win7 & 8 update clients! Another Win/Win for Team Microsoft!”

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Let me try again…

KB3156417 showed up this morning, Optional, unchecked and no italic.

Yet, it’s listed at 6mb in WU….6417 isn’t 6mb, what’s up with that?

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Now Ed Bott can’t complain about the difficulties with a fresh install of Windows 7 :). You don’t have to get Windows 10.

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KB3156418 W8.1 rollup now sitting among my optional updates. It will remain uninstalled until further info/experience becomes available. I sure wish we could stop dealing with the MS protocol of the month. Those folks in Redmond seem to forget that people actually use their systems to earn a living and time is money.

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Woody,

KB 3125574 has not showed up in either my Optional or Important lists as of this morning. You indicated in your article that it showed up in your Windows update today. Any guesses as to what’s going on?

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Will it work?

Not for me, does the roll up have the updates that killed cableCARD in Win7? Does it have the update the prevented my HP AMD machine from booting?

There is a year and half of trepidation to running Win Update with all the pieces exposed. With them hidden the risk is just too great to take any of the candy.

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From Woody’s InfoWorld article:

“Microsoft told us yesterday that this “convenience update” wouldn’t roll out through Windows Update….

This morning there appears to be a change of heart.”

A change of heart — knock me down with a feather!

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Which for my two devices, is so far without major problems with the CU’s. But then, I always wait for the go-ahead here at AskWoody before applying any CU type of patch.

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Interesting! I have no idea – but it was on one of my machines this morning….

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Not a clue.

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Not KB3125574. This is the “SP2″available only in the Microsoft Catalog.

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Maybe that is your total download taking into account that you already have most of the download via diffing existing (releated) system files vs the changed updated binaries?

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Diffing vs the old system files you already have? I was under the impression that’s been a feature of windows update since at least XP (although I think the installing update itself did the figuring/download for XP rather than the windows update subsystem)

I’ve seen an XP update install fail durring the install phase do to lack of internet access because the installing update “forgot to download something”.

Anything to save MS bandwidth, a few hours of client side CPU time, P2P file sharing, hosting things in Brazil and having things broken for some networks for a few months…

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Yea, and with their being 4-5 patch Tuesdays in a month (and another random day from time to time) when do we install updates?

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Wait, aren’t the giant get Windows 7 from SP1 to April 2016 and the bundled monthly non-security update two totaly different updates?

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louis, you say “the update is listed as 6mb. We know it’s not 6mb”
What is the meaning of your enquiry? Do you believe it to be a loader of 6mb which goes on the internet and downloads a lot more?
Just curious what is the story with this patch and what makes it special.
According to the KB it contains 2 patches of interest mostly to those who are administering machines joined to Active Directory domain, although lsass.exe has a (less critical) role for stand-alone machines.

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My current questions as I haven’t gotten to try the patching processes yet:

1) Does the update rollup bundle Internet Explorer 11 now, or is that a separate install?
2) Do we still need to install the two Windows Updates previously discussed to speed up further updates, or is the graphics update (that contains the kernel update) and the new Windows Update Agent already bundled in to this?

If anyone knows, I’d love to hear more.

We are SysAdmins.
We walk in the wiring closets no others will enter.
We stand on the bridge, and no malware may pass.
We engage in support, we do not retreat.
We live for the LAN.
We die for the LAN.

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IE is not included in the big rollup for Win7.

The big SP2 rollup, however, does include the speed-up patches.

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I’m not entirely sure why the ‘convenience rollup’ KB3125574 for Windows 7 should be called SP2. So far as I can see, it contains updates issued between the release of SP1 and April 2016 but no substantial changes to OS functionality. Someone else hereabouts has commented that it seems similar to update ‘rollups’ issued for Windows 2000 (sorry, commenter, I can’t find it now but I agree with it!). As such, it is of no relevance to a currently up-to-date Windows 7 SP1 computer and is certainly not an SP2 to rejoice over! However it could be hugely useful for future Win7 installs/reinstalls, avoiding the frustration of hanging around while close on 300 updates (if MS Office is included) download/install. So useful that I bothered to resurrect IE, access Microsoft Update Catalog to get hold of it, and store it in case of future need.

Future ‘rollup’ updates are of course a different matter. I currently have various KBs as optional unchecked updates in Windows Update and will exercise due caution. Due caution includes checking here, first! However there is no sign of KB3125574 in my Windows Update options, as according to Microsoft there shouldn’t be, but apparently some people are seeing it? What a mess!

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True, the term “SP2” was forever changed with Windows XP SP2, which was a completely new operating system. This is a fix rollup, on a par with Win7 SP1.

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I would only access the convenience rollup if I was going to do a clean install. A clean install is for cleaning and resetting a system. There is no other need for it.

A full system image of the current system is for disaster recovery. Warts and all – a recovery.

Monthly rollups forever are definitely an experiment. It is not like MS has no experience with rollups – they have been doing them for decades – so the experiment is associated more with what goes in the bundle and if it can be unwrapped.

There is no urgency or security exposure with not installing these bundles of joy. Documentation and quality control will determine their acceptance.

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Just for interest, and I’m sure you must know this, if you download KB3125574 x 64bit from Microsoft Update Catalog you actually end up with a folder named Update for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems (KB3125574), inside of which is
AMD64-all-windows6.1-kb3125574-v4-x64_2dafb1d203c8964239af3048b5dd4b1264cd93b9.msu

Presumably everyone would know that they have to open the folder and install the lengthily-named msu? But why on earth does it have to be a folder, and why can’t Microsoft just make it a straight file download called Windows7ConvenienceRollup.msu ? Yes, I know I am tilting at windmills, but grrrrr!!

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Aren’t the giant get Windows 7 from SP1 to April 2016 and the bundled monthly non-security update two totaly different updates?

Also I compared the 7 rollup to the W2K one (somewhere in this comment mess)

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Yes, they are. Three actually, as there are separate May patches for Win7 and Win 8.1.

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Yeah, it took me a while to figure that out, too – and the hokey “Select” then “Go to cart” sequence.

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The .MSU for update KB3156417 (Win7 x64) can be downloaded from here:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=52637

(and yes, it is 6.1MB)

Then if you’re curious, you can take a look at what files are inside by unpacking it with the following three commands:
1. md c:KB3156417
2. expand Windows6.1-KB3156417-x64.msu -F:Windows6.1-KB3156417-x64.cab c:KB3156417
3. expand c:KB3156417Windows6.1-KB3156417-x64.cab -F:* c:KB3156417

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