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Here’s my take on this. Download and run the detection tool (use the link above in the post by Anonymous #146683). Towards the bottom of the output window you get from running the tool will be information on whether various “things” are present or enabled. Most of the “things” are acronyms for various services or drivers; if they are not present or not detected (indicated as such by the word “False”, usually), then you probably don’t have much to worry about. I think someone would need either physical access to you machine to turn these “things” on (or download a driver), or infect your machine with malware that would do it. Keep your machine physically safe and your antivirus updated. If you can get a firmware update from your computer manufacturer consider installing it. In my experience installing firmware is pretty dicey, but other more knowledgeable folks here may have other opinions.

A similar situation occurred last May. Google SA-00075 for details. (Google SA-00086 for the current issue.)

Anyone else have an opinion?

Sorry, my bad. Why in the world would anyone have thought MS would fix the problem in all their OS’ at the same time? ;))

IMHO ALL windows users should have a contingency plan for when their computer bricks. Could be fixing it yourself if you have the ability/knowledge to do so (I don’t), or finding a good computer repair person (pretty hard to find in my experience), or moving on to another OS. Could get a chromebook. Could get a Linux distribution set up. Could get a macOS or iOS Apple machine.

I took 2 routes. Set up an Ubuntu machine on old hardware. It’s pretty easy to get a basic functioning machine even if you’re a non-techie (like me). The peripherals are sort of troublesome and the folks on most help forums insist on using command line descriptions of how to do things. But if you look hard enough you can usually find a GUI method of doing things and outfits like Think Penguin will sell you printers and other peripherals that are literally plug and play. A Linux machine is not yet a completely user friendly (IMO) but it will see you through in a pinch. One other thing: updates aren’t forced, you can choose what you want and don’t want, and they’re free of drama!

I also pried open my wallet and bought an iMAC. Pricey, but it’s quite a wonderful machine. Might not be quite as customizable as Windows, but I bet it’s pretty close. Everything seems to work seamlessly and get this: I upgraded my OS from Sierra to High Sierra – which I assume is analogous to going from WIN 7 to 10 – a few days ago. Took an hour and 10 minutes, start to finish. Absolutely no drama, and everything works now just like it did before the upgrade; bookmarks, histories, settings, etc., all carried right over. Also the updates aren’t forced on you, you’re in control. To me the cost is more than worth the peace of mind.

WIN 7 is still my favorite OS but that’s probably because I’ve used it for over 20 years. I have no trust in anything MS and am totally set to move on with my life.

The MS fix is out, isn’t it? See the title to this thread up at the top.

It’s a popular article because I think it’s a popular problem. I think anyone buying a new win 7 computer within the last couple years might encounter the CBS and CAB file problem if they need to do a bunch of updates to get their computer up to date. It’s a problem MS and most computer manufacturers are aware of but refuse to do anything about.

I bought a new Win 7 laptop from Dell in April 2016. The computer was made in September 2015 and so I had to install a bunch of updates/patches to get it up to date. When you do that, CBS persist files get generated that are bigger than 2 GB and can’t be compressed (zipped) by the algorithm Win 7 uses to compress. A bunch of fairly large CAB files are also generated. So these files keep getting generated and before you know it your hard drive is full. You can google this issue and get more details.

Here’s what I did when I discovered my hard drive was rapidly filling. I found the oldest CBS persist file that was over 2GB and dragged it to the recycle bin. Just doing that seemed to keep my hard drive from filling up (apparently the zip/compression algorithm works after the 2GB file gets removed – don’t know why) , and I haven’t had any problems with that since. The CBS persist files are found at Windows —> Logs —> CBS. Click on the CBS folder and you’ll see the files.

If you go to Windows —> Temp and open the Temp file you’ll see the cab files. On my computer there were literally a few thousand of them. They seem to come in sets of five, with one of them in a set being about 140 MB and the other 4 0 (zero) MB. I dragged a set of 5 at random to the recycle bin to see what happened, and I can not detect any effects on my computer function. I’m guessing you can get rid of them without any harm.

The CBS and Cab files are generated when updates/patches are installed on your computer, so there is a connection between them and Windows Update. Perhaps if some of them get deleted Windows Update won’t work properly. It does seem to work for me, but I have it set for “check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them”. I end up doing almost all actual update installs manually, so even if WU isn’t working, I’d just disable it – as many folks here would recommend anyway.

Hope this helps I’m a self taught nontechie group B guy so you might well find better help from other forum members, but maybe the above will be of some use.

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Pepsiboy, SueW

It’s been several months since I’ve installed MSRT. What’s happened in the past is that on Patch Tuesday, the new MSRT appears as checked and important and the previous month’s MSRT simply disappears. Not this month, though. Instead the October MST is still showing as checked and important and I’ve seen neither hide nor hair of the November MSRT.

Now that I’m logged in, I can still see everything but I have to do the “calendar trick” for every thread in order for that thread to recognize me as being logged in. And even with the calendar trick it takes a few minutes before I’m recognized as being logged in on a particular thread.

But, all things considered, a minor annoyance compared to the other benefits of this site.

Chromebooks have some very appealing features. Two things about them I don’t get

Apparently, you can only print through the cloud; i.e., you can’t hook up to a personal physical printer. Is that right?

People spend a lot of energy worrying about MS snooping. I’m one of them! But nobody seems very concerned about Google snooping. Why??!!

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HiFlyer, AlexEiffel, Ascaris

For whatever it’s worth, I had Windows Update in my old Vista machine set to never check for updates – I’m not sure if that’s technically the same as stopping and/or disabling Windows Update – and yet MS Security Essentials still went out on it’s own and got definition updates; I had Security Essentials set to do automatic scans and to check for definition updates before the scans. The definition updates showed up in Windows Update (with the never check for updates option) So, Windows Update and MS Security Essentials were entwined in some fashion, and yet at the same time independent of each other in some fashion, at least in Vista.

@seff – I agree! And that’s one of many reasons there will be no more MS for me after Win 7 end of support.

@OC: 73, 77, and 80 are September Rollups (i.e., security and quality). Together they comprise KB4041083. I don’t believe you were taken to what you call “86” because there is no KB 4040986 (google it and see). I’m guessing you were taken to 4041083. If you scroll through that page I think you’ll see references to the 73,77, and 80 updates. Also if you go to the Update Catalog either from the aforementioned page or directly and enter KB4041083, and then put it in your basket and try to download, I think you’ll suddenly see 3 or 4 links some of which will be for 73, 77, and 80 (one link for each)

At least that’s what happened for me when I installed .NET updates a couple weeks ago from the Update Catalog.

Hope this helps.

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woody

Woody asked 3 questions at the top of this thread.

1) Can a “normal” person download and install all the patches they need without spending many hours a day? Certainly a normal person is capable of downloading and installing patches in a matter of minutes (perhaps an hour or more for a really big program); most every computer user has at one time or another installed software. The issue, I think, is “need”. Everyone has a different definition of what a needed patch is. In essence, most of the experiments that have been done here use Windows Update to determine how well Windows Update does in generating lists of “needed updates”. This seems circuitous to me, although unless one is an employee of MS one can’t do much else; we can only use the information that MS provides. I would think that normal users are not in the position to follow any of the algorithms given here. I could follow them but I admit I don’t really understand them. So, I think that a normal user would be OK if they were told what updates to install. I would suggest for them the security only updates in order to keep their computers as safe as possible with little or no thought, and tell them that if they want to start playing with their computers, then move up to the Rollups, but be prepared to spend more time learning about their computers. Unfortunately, we can’t trust MS to tell us what updates to install regardless of how one defines “need”. Regarding “needed patches”, I define needed patches as ones that keep my computer safe and those that keep my computer running “properly” or “like-new”. This is an operational definition and is, I think, less dependent on the whims of Windows Update. Using this definition, the method of updating I use and described above has worked very well for me. I intend to use my method until end of life for Win 7.

2) Can a normal person avoid really bad patches? I don’t think so, unless they are prepared to spend some time reading web sites like this one. I don’t see any way of ANY user knowing beforehand which patches are bad; the only way to tell for sure is to try the patch and see.

3) Is it possible to curtail MS’ snooping? I’ll leave that to the experts, but I would be inclined to say that in this day and age, if someone really wants to snoop on someone else, they probably can do it at least for some amount of time.

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woody, ch100

About 2 years ago, my Vista laptop began burning up. Turns out Windows Update was constantly searching for updates using almost 100% of my cpu. I set it for “never check for updates”, but then realized I needed to make sure I got updates.

Up to that time I was fairly oblivious. I turned the computer on for a few hours each day, it did whatever it did, and I did whatever I did. In short, a typical home user.

I was aware of Patch Tuesday so the first time that came around I googled it and wound up at a MS page of technical bulletins. This was before Rollups, so there would literally be 200 or so listed updates. I slogged through the page and picked out the updates relevant to my system. It was very tedious but not what I would call difficult. I did have to concentrate and pay attention to details. Initially, I was shell-shocked with the number of updates, but it didn’t seem so bad after a while. One evening I would compile a list and download the updates, and the next I would manually install them. Spent a total of maybe 3 to 5 hours a month.

In April 2016 I bought a new Win 7 laptop and also inherited an older Win 7 desktop. By this time I was aware of this website and also MS snooping. I deleted the suggested updates from the desktop and switched to Group B. On the laptop I installed everything given to me in Windows update when I first turned the machine on except the ones given here at AskWoody regarding snooping, then started doing Group B.

Yes, I know, that was logically inconsistent; why didn’t I just start doing Group B from the get-go. I’ll admit, I don’t have a good reason.

Anyway, I did for both computers what I had been doing for Vista, except that I had Windows Update on and set for “check for updates but wait for me to OK before downloading and installing”. I did that just to see what it would suggest for updates. Of course, I never did download and install from WU, but rather did it all manually just like with my Vista machine. I unchecked updates in WU and hid them, all to no apparent ill-effect.

When Rollups came it seemed almost trivial to get the small number of updates, especially after consulting this site and a few others. If you google Patch Tuesday for the current month, any number of sites show up with a rundown of all the KB numbers; I find AskWoody and Martin Brinkman at ghacks to be most useful. I still do all the downloading and installing manually. Usually the checked updates in WU simply go away and are replaced with new ones the next month.

For me, getting and installing the updates is easy. What I find awful is the uncertainty of whether any given update is going to trash my machine(s) since I would be hard pressed to deal with a BSOD, etc. Since Rollups have appeared, I spend far more time every month sorting through the awful things that are reported, and deciding when the best time for me is to update.

So, it’s really the complete incompetence of MS that is causing me grief. They have managed to alienate me so much that I will never spend another penny on one of their products. I now have converted my old Vista machine to Ubuntu (I’ve learned enough to be able to do this and overcome my oblivious days), and bought a new iMac. If I’ve missed an update or 2, I no longer care, and if my Win 7 machines go belly-up tonight, … well I don’t care about that either, I’ll just slide over to my other computers. So far, though, my Win 7 machines are still running like new. The shame of it is that I actually enjoy using Win 7, but the price to pay is just too high now, thanks to MS.

Anyway, that’s how I do it, and to me Group B is still very doable. A side benefit is that at some level I feel like I’m beating NS at their own game by having things done MY way, not theirs.

Something’s not right with your list of KB updates. The first 2 are for Windows 7 but the last 2 are for Windows 10. At least that’s what a quick google search says. I don’t see how your computer would let you install updates from 2 different operating systems, so there must be some typos, but still, perhaps you managed to install something you shouldn’t have.

Not sure this helps you much, but maybe….

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PKCano

Just to verify and/or corroborate, when I have “Give me recommended updates the same way I receive important updates” SELECTED, I get the KB4043766 update listed as Important and also checked. (Win 7 x64, .NET 4.7 NOT installed)

Can’t MS make up it’s mind? Doesn’t seem like that would be rocket science to me.

I’ll drink to that!

This is the Number 1 Windows site, period.

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SueW, dononline, AJNorth