Newsletter Archives

• Reminder: How to get Win7, 8.1 and Win10 patched

  Posted on March 4, 2017 at 06:10 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  I received some email (and even a couple of Tweets and a post on Facebook!) asking how to get Windows systems updated, now that we’re at MS-DEFCON 5.

  I used to post the details here on AskWoody, but for the past few months I’ve branched out to a wider audience, and posted the step-by-step procedure in InfoWorld.

  In case you missed it, the details are in this InfoWorld Woody on Windows article. Comments are here.

  Those of you who are in Group B – who want to avoid more Microsoft snooping – would be well advised to read ch100’s recommendations. He’s convinced that you’re much better off going with Group A – install all patches – except three specific patches (six specific patches if you don’t use something called RDP, and most of you don’t).

  Microsoft established the Group B method last October. It’s still holding together, but Group A has a lot of advantages.

  Windows Patches/Security February 2017 Black Tuesday

• MS-DEFCON 5: Rare opportunity to get Windows and Office completely patched

  Posted on March 2, 2017 at 10:22 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  With few outstanding patches, and all but one well-behaved, now’s an excellent time to get caught up.

  InfoWorld Woody on Windows

  Office Patches/Security, Windows Patches/Security February 2017 Black Tuesday, MS-DEFCON 5

• Flash patches for Internet Explorer and Edge due today

  Posted on February 21, 2017 at 07:04 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Many thanks to those of you who sent me copies of the email Microsoft distributed yesterday.

  This is going to be interesting.

  InfoWorld Woody on Windows

  Windows Patches/Security February 2017 Black Tuesday, Flash

• February’s Patch Tuesday will be in March

  Posted on February 15, 2017 at 21:05 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  At least, that’s what the MSRC team notification on the TechNet blog says:

  UPDATE: 2/15/17: We will deliver updates as part of the planned March Update Tuesday, March 14, 2017

  My previous kvetch holds true. There’s no mention about whether this only applies to Windows (Vista, 7, 8.1, 1507, 1511, 1607), or if it also includes Office, .NET, IE and so on.

  There’s some concern about the SMBv3 zero-day that I mentioned on Feb. 3. It’s still out there and active. CERT has published manual steps for thwarting the vulnerability.

  I have a roundup of the history and the problems on InfoWorld.

  By the way, Gunter Born doesn’t think Windows Update is broken, and he offers some powerful arguments in that direction in his latest blog post.

  Windows Patches/Security February 2017 Black Tuesday

• Microsoft calls off Patch Tuesday

  Posted on February 14, 2017 at 11:13 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  As far as I know, this is unprecedented.

  MSRC just posted a blog that says we won’t have Patch Tuesday today.

  This month, we discovered a last minute issue that could impact some customers and was not resolved in time for our planned updates today.

  After considering all options, we made the decision to delay this month’s updates.

  Don’t know about you, but I think that’s great. Better to be a day or two – or even a week – late, than to send out bad patches.

  It’s not clear to me if this includes Windows, Office, Internet Explorer, .NET and other patches. We’ll find out in a few hours.

  h/t Ghacks

  No #Windows #updates today as #Microsoft delays Patch Tuesday.https://t.co/f2w7y01HTM

  — ghacksnews (@ghacks) February 14, 2017

   

  Windows Patches/Security February 2017 Black Tuesday

• MS-DEFCON 2: Time to make sure your Windows machine is locked down

  Posted on February 6, 2017 at 14:01 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  I’m anticipating non-security Office patches tomorrow. That’s the usual drop date, anyway – first Tuesday of the month. I’m not aware of any non-security Office patches that absolutely have to be installed right away, so I’m taking the MS-DEFCON level up (er, down?) a notch, as usual.

  Make sure you have Automatic Update set to “Never check for updates” or use a metered connection or “Pause updates” to keep Microsoft from forcing patches down your throat.

  If you’re using Windows XP, Vista, 7, or 8.1, follow the instructions in AKB1000004: Disable Automatic Update in Vista, Win7 or 8.1

  If you’re using Windows 10, follow the instructions in AKB1000005: Disable Automatic Update in Windows 10

  Then watch here, or keep an eye out for problem reports on the web, before you re-enable Automatic Updates.

  I’m moving us to MS-DEFCON 2: Patch reliability is unclear. Unless you have an immediate, pressing need to install a specific patch, don’t do it.

  Office Patches/Security, Windows Patches/Security February 2017 Black Tuesday

• No previews of Monthly Rollups

  Posted on January 17, 2017 at 15:34 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  The English translation is up on InfoWorld Woody on Windows, Signs point to Microsoft’s imminent release of Windows 7 “Service Pack 3”

  As MrBrian notes in the comments, there’s an error in the chronology listed in the article. Office Security patches arrive on the second Tuesday. The non-security patches are on the first Tuesday.

  Previously:

  If you’re just following along because you want to, you know, get your system patched and be done with it, you can skip this whole announcement. Look for an MS-DEFCON level change shortly.

  Those of you who follow along with all the gory patching details will be happy to know that there are no Previews of Monthly Rollups today, the “C” week Third Tuesday.

  The same thing happened last month – there were no Previews of the January Monthly Rollups for Win7 or 8.1. Which is good because there wasn’t any January Monthly Rollup for Win7, outside of a single security patch – and there wasn’t any January Monthly Rollup for Win 8.1, period.

  Microsoft has just posted that there is no Preview of the February Monthly Rollups. That’s probably because the February Monthly Rollups will only include security updates.

  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/22801/windows-7-sp1-and-windows-server-2008-r2-sp1-update-history

  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/24717/windows-8-1-and-windows-server-2012-r2-update-history

  I’ll try to translate all of this into English for InfoWorld, tomorrow morning.

  Windows Patches/Security February 2017 Black Tuesday