Windows Update - How will it change your system?

Anonymous
2016-10-14T16:11:13+00:00

You need to make a decision about where you want to be with your system.

My advice is to change the Windows Update (WU) setting to never.

It really depends on where you want to be with your Windows 7 system.

Woody Leonhard has described the situation something like this.  Note, I am using my own words here and describing it from my own perspective:

http://www.infoworld.com/article/3128983/microsoft-windows/how-to-prepare-for-the-windows-781-patchocalypse.html

Group A:  Roll over and just let MS install what ever they wish on your computer and just don't worry about privacy and the spyware they will install.  With this option you leave WU as Delayed start, and set the WU setting at Recommended.  This is the easy way and requires no effort or concentration.  You just let happen what will.  This is essentially what you have with a Windows 10 system.

Group B:  Refuse to accept any updates except Security ones.  In that case you follow my initial recommendation and leave WU set at Never.  You get the Security only updates from the "catalog".   There is risk here in B.  You are trusting that MS will not put anything in that group that does things you do not want done. A sort of level of trust in MS that I am not sure they deserve.   Keep in mind that they have done the same thing with this set of updates they did in the main one.  It is all one agglomeration of whatever number of security updates they decide to put in it. 

Group C (AKA W): Shut down WU permanently and never again accept a Windows Update.  This group feels that the risk of MS changing their machine in unacceptable ways or even bricking it is greater than the risk of a hacker breaking in because some security patch was not installed.   I suspect that most people who even think about this topic will opt for this.  However since most people think of their computer like a potato peeler, they will not even think about this and things will just happen without them even knowing.  They will be Group A and won't even know it.

I am in Group W and would like to be in Group B.   It depends on whether I can find a satisfactory way for my 150 or so client machines to be updated.  They are average Joes and Janes.

Note that this may not apply to NON-Windows updates such as Office.  I am not sure how you can be in group B or W and do this, but I am working on it.

UPDATE November 19, 2016:

It now appears that B is an impractical strategy for 99% of users.  And, here is the reason why:  When an error is made in a security-only update, if the error turns out not to have a security affect, it may be corrected in a non-security update.  In that case if you were following B strategy, you would be left with an un-corrected defective update installed on your computer.  If you were extremely diligent and knew about it, you may be able to get the correction in specific cases.  This would entail an extreme amount of diligence that few would be willing or able to provide.

The new rollup style of updates that Microsoft is now providing to what we would call Group A, which include all kinds of updates (security and non-security), are cumulative.  That means if you miss a month or even more, it will not matter because by installing the latest month's rollup, you would be up to date.

NOTE well, that Security-only updates are NOT cumulative.  Which means if you miss a month, you may never get the missed updates.

So one strategy that you may wish to consider is following Group C, but still updating .net and Microsoft Office through Windows Update, but installing no Windows updates at all.  It would be advisable in this case that you stop using Internet Explorer because you would not be getting those updates, but instead use an alternative browser.

Then, after following this strategy for some time, if things take a turn for the worse, and you decide you made the wrong choice (Group C with .net an Office updates), you can easily shift to A by simply using the latest offered Rollup offered in Windows Update.

So, as things have evolved, it looks like the vast majority have really only two choices:  A as described above or C (modified as described above).  The good news is that if you follow the modified C strategy, you have a way back to the Microsoft way, that is easy to implement.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Windows update

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-10-17T20:03:03+00:00

    I have two Windows 7 PCs.

    One has never had an update problem and

    the Tuesday updates work fine. And download

    fast. No issue with Checking for hours.

    Just like in XP days.

    But other PC is on a dialup and updates went

    bonkers 2 months ago during update process

    after line hung up. Usually not an issue to stop

    and start downloads midstream.

    And now i get update notice when on dialup -

    then take to a location with dsl line to download

    and install. Yet not able to do the optional ones

    later unless go back to dialup site. Even change

    the IE settings from proxy settings to automatic.

    Does MS download server track where slow

    dialup systems are located and change settings

    on server? Or switch to an XP era server?

    Have done a factory reset too to try to fix problem.

    Not work  like XP.

    Progress and Change.

    And the manual updater does the same moronic

    search when try to use that method to get updates.

    Also tried most of the recommended Cmd fixes.

    But did check the SERVICES to be sure most things

    on Automatic.

    Thought it the solution. Or compared the settings

    of the working PC to the goofy PC. The goofy one

    is also an HDMI . Working one is not.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-10-18T00:21:41+00:00

    I'm going to apologize, because I will sort of move this thread away from specific troubleshooting to what I thought it was supposed to be -- a discussion that was supposed to encompass the setting of a trend or two because of this company's direction toward removing control from us individual types.

    And by "individual types" I mean that Microsoft must be allowing the corporate buyers of the software to have more control over issues about what information goes from a corporation's computers into the Microsoft collection of information from a given corporation.

    BUT, I'm taking my own post off-topic.

    I want to ask for an opinion from some of you folks that have been doing more homework than I.

    Does anyone think it would be illegal to try and design some software that would break a Windows Update package into pieces so that only certain "pieces" could then be installed by one of us?

    Has that idea already been brought up by somebody else?  Maybe by you, Woody?

    Thank you for any ideas.

    An even bigger thank you will be issued if I have stepped over the line and should retract my thinking from this thread and you tell me to do so without banning me.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-10-18T02:07:23+00:00

    HFM47, I welcome your participation and your ideas.   Your question is a good one.  You are really raising the question of how to deal with your system (your investment really) can hold its value.

    The bigger question would be whether the "individual types" as you call them would be willing to cough up real money for such a service.  If a marketplace could be established, that business would be at the mercy of MS tactics and techniques.

    I think a better opportunity lies in a complete competitor.  One that offers an OS for sale that can compete in the marketplace with Windows.  The obvious base would be Linux.  It would take a very substantial investment and some very determined people willing to stick it out for long enough to become a significant player.

    There is no doubt in my mind that this opportunity exists and it is a huge one.  MS has a huge, gargantuan relatively captive market.  Clearly, it has lost touch with "the customer".   History has repeatedly shown that when a business loses track of what customers want to buy, it is on the downside of its curve, and competitive opportunity is fertile. 

    There is no question in my mind as to whether there is such a market.  The real question is whether some group of very wealthy investors are willing to go the distance.  Sure there would be legal challenges, but that is what a large part of the investment would be for.

    In the OS market, people don't often buy an OS.  They buy computers.  So, the market really starts with the OEM, but can be advanced or blocked by the individuals they want to sell to.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-10-18T02:32:12+00:00

    Windows Update is so secure it does not work?

    But it likely MS wants to make it difficult to patch their OS.

    Did hope they rolled up the updates in to a newer SP2 as

    many have suggested.

    So when need to  rebuild a PC , it much faster and certain.

    Yet the puzzle is finding out reason for some PCs working

    fine with current update software.

    Suspect registry fixer software one cause. But no proof.

    But update problem should not exist. It is an embarrassment

    to MS. Or should be one.

    And a priority to fix - without all the hoops. Just a patch.

    Mr Fixit?

    Someone should be able to compare a running PC with a

    problem PC and note the differences.

    A bit check.... A hash check on critical things.

    It not rocket science.

    A log would help. Or tell where the looping occurs.

    But MS must know how much time a PC spends in trying

    to Update a patch tuesday - and fails. Or if it takes days or

    not work. So it a lack of management skill at work. Asleep

    at the wheel, clueless, careless, incompetent, etc?

    Maybe the problem PCs installed the GWX blocker?

    Revenge of the nerds?

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  5. Anonymous
    2016-10-18T02:36:47+00:00

    Most Windows updates seem to break computer than fix them. There is no testing being done by MS.

    Evidence for this statement please. Not hearsay, not your best guess, but real concrete evidence.

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