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  • Lifehacker: Pause updates, with a nod to SMBGhost

    Posted on June 10, 2020 at 11:55 CDT by • Comment in the Forums

    David Murphy at Lifehacker gets it.

    Were I you—and this is what I do, too—I’d make sure I’m using at least Windows version 1909. I’d then use its ability to pause Windows Updates, found via Settings > Update & Security, to keep your operating system from downloading and installing updates the moment they’re released.

    As for how long you should wait before you install one, that’s up to you and the severity of the update in question. If an update is patching a zero-day exploit, you might want to err on the side of installing it sooner; if it’s a gigantic feature update, you can probably wait a week (or two weeks) to make sure that system-breaking bugs haven’t revealed themselves as part of the update’s public launch.

    Is this taxing? Yes. Will you forget about it? Sure. Will you remember it when you can’t understand why your system worked well on Tuesday, but is coughing up some terrible glitch on a Wednesday morning? You will now.

    His explanation is set in the context of the newly-armed security hole known as SMBGhost. It’s a hole in Microsoft’s SMBv3 communication protocol that was fixed in March.

    Yes, you need to install updates sooner or later. But you don’t have to do it immediately after the patch is released. In spite of what the “security experts” say. Many of them have never had to deal with a Windows machine that’s crawling around on the dirt after a pushed update.

    Windows Patches/Security
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