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Regarding this quote from the article:

“This new process is a mixed blessing: On one hand, we’ll no longer have to manage numerous patches; on the other hand, there’ll be no way to bypass a specific problematic patch without skipping all patches in the rollup update.”

And there apparently won’t be any way to bypass a push-Win10 update in the rollup without foregoing the rest, either. I’ve studiously hidden any and all push-Win10 updates thus far and so seem to have avoided the problems with the increasingly aggressive forced upgrades. Now Microsoft seems to be moving towards a Windows 10 bundled-update methodology for the older versions as well: Take it or leave it.

Her recommendation for this and all other non-security updates is to wait until her next Patch Watch.

You’re right. And as a matter of fact, I didn’t install it. I installed only the recommended security updates, but I did put it in my to-install-in-two-weeks list.

Thanks.

I have been offered it on my Win 7 machines too, but the MS document does refer to it as being for Win 7 as well as Win 8/8.1.

I’m going to install it on the basis of Susan’s rec for Win 8.x.

KB3020338 was listed this month as a non-Security Windows 8/8.1 update, but I also got it on my Win 7 machines, probably because I installed KB3006226 last November.

I had Security Updates KB2894844 for .NET 3.5.1 and KB2894842 for .NET 4 appear on all three of my Windows 7 machines. Neither update has an MS number on the MS Download site. What’s the skinny on these two?

For KB’s 2847311, 2862335, 2868038, and 2883150: See KB 2870008 on the Patch List, which covers the recommendation for all the patches covered in Microsoft Bulletin M13-081. If the other KB’s also apply to Kernel/USB vulnerabilities, they may be covered there, as well. The Patch List recommendation for the KB’s covered in MS13-081, except for KB 2862330, is to Install. There’s a separate recommendation in the Description column of the Patch List for that one.

I’m not sure if all Automatic Updates work the same way, but I find the MS Bulletin number for theKB’s I’m offerred by highlighting the KB and then clicking on the MS link that shows up in the details, and that usually takes me to the appropriate MS Bulletin. If a particular KB that I’ve been offerred doesn’t show up on the Patch List in the Patch column, I then can usually find the recommendation by looking for the Bulletin number in the Description column. Hope this helps.

Thank you. Lost track of the rollup KB number 2870008; had been looking for the individual KB numbers.

Susan, maybe I missed it, but I couldn’t find any recommendations for the rest of that slew of Wait patches in October, KB2847311, KB2855844, KB2862335, KB2864202, KB2868038, KB2876284, KB2883150 and KB2884256.

Install or still wait?

Sorry, then. For the reasons I outlined in my last post, I don’t think this is possible. Good luck finding something that does it.

If by “off” you mean you pressed the on/off button on the monitor, there is no way to put up a warning message. The monitor is dead as far as the CPU is concerned, and even if some small part of it is really still running as long as it’s plugged into house current (like the CPU, even when it’s supposedly off) the monitor knows nothing about what happens with the shutdown button. That goes to the computer, and it has no way to turn the monitor on.

Maybe it’s time to break an old habit. Try putting a post-it note over the on/off switch to remind you to think twice before automatically pushing it.

A shutdown when you press the On/Off button (technically, it’s no longer really a “power” button because the machine’s power doesn’t run through it) means two things:

1. You have the button set to do that and
2. The machine was not in Sleep (Standby) mode when you pressed the button. Pressing the button to wake up the machine works only when the machine is asleep. If the machine’s already awake, and the button is so set, it forces a shutdown (great if the keyboard died or the machine has frozen). Generally, to waken the machine, press any key on the keyboard (the CTRL, Shift and ALT keys are best because they don’t cause anything much to happen by themselves). If this doesn’t work, then the keyboard may not be set to wake up the machine. Look in Device Manager under Power Management for the keyboard to set this.

Also, machines lately tend to show the Sleep/Awake state of the machine with a color change somewhere on the front panel of the machine. One of my HP machines changes the On/Off button from blue to amber when the machine is snoozing; another HP machine changes a big blue-colored bar to amber. Don’t press the button if it’s Blue.

As noted elsewhere in these responses, it’s easy to change what the On/Off button actually does.