What exactly does KB2952664 do?

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.

Not sure the monthly rollups are worth it anyway.  It IS worth considering when staring with a new WIn7 install, which is what I'm sure Dell will be installing.  Bad enough that you have tons of individual things to install, but some aren't discovered until you install earlier ones (on some cases the earlier ones was a partial fix -0 for instance, you could get upgraded to one version of IE, maybe then they upgrade you to another, or at least you get upgraded to IE11 and only then do you need to apply maintenance to IE11.  Even worse, there are some updates that can screw things up, others that may loop through and either keep installing or keep failing.  It's a mess.

And then yo uhave to reboot after many of those rounds.

So there is some sense to a rollup.  I was so careful in reading, that GWX10 Control Panel, which I finally installed, found NOTHING.  But now I'm starting on a whole new system.

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"?

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

Anyone familiar with this new "SP2" type bundle?

I have to believe that will include all those dirty tricks.  Is it sufficient to install the GWX Control Panel save me? 

It appears that if you install the new "SP2" type bundle, and afterwards run the GWX Control Panel, you will be protected from the various Windows 10 nags.

However, I have not read about any definitive proof of that yet. So, if I were you, I would wait awhile to see exactly what the new "SP2" type bundle does or does not do.

One thing seems clear, the new "SP2" type bundle WILL include all of the various Window 10 nag updates, and will also include all of the telemetry updates (i.e., those that capture data about your computer and send that information to Microsoft) that Microsoft has released over the past year. The GWX Control Panel may protect you from the Windows 10 nags, but if you have also hidden all of the various telemetry updates, then running the new "SP2" type bundle will result in those telemetry updates being installed.

You have to decide whether the time saved by running the "SP2" type bundle (as compared to individually installing all of the updates that have been released since SP1) is worth the potential privacy exposure from having the telemetry updates installed (which are included in the SP2 type bundle).

For those who have their Windows 7 system relatively up to date, I would not recommend running the new SP2 type bundle ... it will only result in having all of the various updates that you have hidden (such as the Windows 10 nags and the telemetry updates) being installed.

The other issue is the monthly non-security update roll-up that was also just announced. I have stopped installing all non-security updates (because that is how Microsoft has been sneaking new the Windows 10 nags and new telemetry updates). Thus I really do not need to run a roll-up of non-security updates (because I just hide all non-security updates). 

If you do install non-security updates, then consider this issue ...

It appears the non-security rollup is all or nothing .... when you run the rollup, you get ALL of the month's non-security updates (you cannot pick and choose). If you have a problem and uninstall the non-security rollup, then ALL of the month's non-security updates are removed (you cannot pick and choose).

If you have used the non-security rollup, and if one of the non-security updates (in the rollup) causes a problem, then you must uninstall the non-security rollup (which will uninstall ALL of the non-security updates). Then, you would have to individually install all of the non-security updates except the one that causes problems.

This is a lot more work than if you had originally installed each individual non-security update. In that case, if one of the non-security updates is bad, then all you would need to do is uninstall the one bad update.

Based on Microsoft's behavior this past year, I have lost all trust. I see the new non-security rollup as just a trojan horse that can be used by Microsoft to sneak in more Windows 10 nags and telemetry updates. Use at your own risk!

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

Anyone familiar with this new "SP2" type bundle?

I have to believe that will include all those dirty tricks.  Is it sufficient to install the GWX Control Panel save me?  I just ordered a new machine coming with a Win10 license but "upgraded" (my term) to Win7 Pro..

Otherwise I'll have to spend days doing multiple upgrades, each time checking them all (hundreds in total) against lists posted here.