What exactly does KB2952664 do?

Barry,

I do not think that the newly announced "SP2" rollup for Windows 7 will include every update/patch/fix that Microsoft has released since SP1.

I think it is just a rollup of the monthly updates since SP1.

If you have purposely hidden some of the monthly updates (because they were Windows 10 nagware, because they resulted in sending telemetry to Microsoft,  because they were known to cause problems, etc) and you install the new "SP2" rollup, then all of those previously hidden updates will be installed.

The new "SP2" rollup can save time when doing a fresh upgrade from Windows SP1, but (in my opinion) the value of the new "SP2" rollup is questionable for a Windows 7 system that is mostly up to date with monthly updates.

As far as the newly announced monthly rollup of non-security updates ... I do not see much value. I  have decided not to install non-security updates.

For those who do install non-security updates, they need to consider the benefit of individually installing each non-security update (which then gives you the ability to uninstall individual  non-security updates if one causes a problem) versus the monthly non-security rollup (which is all-or-nothing ... all non-security updates are installed/uninstalled with no ability to pick and choose which non-security updates you want).

I think so far that's a couple of replies that seem to suggest that with GWX10 control panel I don't have to be so diligent.  Just install GWX10 first, maybe even use it in monitor mode, then immediately run it after installing the bundle.

Unfortunately I have to do something ASAP, as this weekend I'll be getting the computer that is years behind.  I will manually make the registry change that should prevent GWX10 (NOT the control panel) from running, and if the support is there, the group policy too.  Unfortunately while I think those may prevent the actual upgrade (or downloading same), I'm not sure if the control also removes the nagware.  I've been clean so far, but with hundreds of things to install in multiple iterations, OR the rollup, I'm sure I'll be installing all of them.

I believe I did google something like that after I posted, and found some, although all the ones I found seem to only send data if you opt in (or don't opt out) of some "experience" thing that I believe I opted out of.

BTW, I thought all the telemetry was on Win10, with at least partial rationalization that "We're CAN do it because you got the OS for free".  Is there a list of Win7 telemetry "fixes"?

BDSolomon,

Microsoft has been quietly releasing updates for Windows 7 that collect "telemetry" and sends it to Microsoft. Some people (myself included) feel this is a privacy issue and have been hiding these updates ... if Microsoft needs to collect telemetry, then at least they should give customers a way to opt out.

I am sure there are sites that list these Windows 7 telemetry updates (I don't have a list). Try searching for:

Windows 7 telemetry updates.

> Microsoft's new Windows 7 patch bundles five years of updates in one easy download

I am not familiar with this "patch bundle ".  According to KB3156417, there are two fixes in this patch - One an error when the domain password is changed, and one to fix a memory leak in lsass.exe.  This seems not to be a roll-up patch.

And I believe that KB3139923 is not a Win 10 nagware patch, and I am not sure why it was re-released.  I assume that the first patch did not completely resolve the reported problem.

With respect to a Windows 7 patch roll-up - I saw something in a newsfeed about a year ago, but I have not seen anything since.  I would like to see such a roll-up.  What MS releases on Patch Tuesday and out-of-band patches are fixes for problems that MS deems important.   If a customer reports a problem, MS releases a fix, but MS does not think that that problem is important, then the fix will not released.   Another customer who experiences the same problem will not get the patch unless he/she does research and locates the patch.  When I look at the EventLog (and WER filenames during a backup), I see many reports of MS application crashes.  I have no idea why these applications have crashed, but I would very much like to get fixes, if MS has released them.  MS does not release these to the general public because the patches have not been tested in large environments.  I assume that MS has a test environment that contains all of the WU-released patches, and they use that testbed fir WU-released patches.  I know that MS has its employees use systems that are current in patches, but I assume that most, if not all, MS employees are using Win `10 machines at their desks/cubicles.

If there is a "SP2" roll-up for Win 7, then I will gladly install it, even if it has Win 10 "nagware" patches.  I can always use the GWX tool to remove or disable those specific patches.