It's a Windows patching clean-up week

[Kathleen Atkins]

PATCH WATCH It's a Windows patching clean-up week By Susan Bradley In a week when Microsoft is keynoting the RSA security conference and announcing Windows 8 Consumer Preview, we're lucky enough to have end-of-the-month patches that are quite tame — almost boring. And that gives us a chance to catch our collective patching breath and revisit some troublesome updates. The full text of this column is posted at http://windowssecrets.com/patch-watc...clean-up-week/ (opens in a new window/tab). Columnists typically cannot reply to comments here, but do incorporate the best tips into future columns.

[BruceR]

Link to article should be http://windowssecrets.com/patch-watc...clean-up-week/

(No "-" in "its".)

[PamKoryn]

I've just read Ms. Bradley's latest Patch Watch column where she is indicating to go ahead and patch .NET versions 3 & 4 on Windows 7. I checked all my hidden updates for these 2 .NET versions and I have 4 updates for .NET 3.5.1(KB2478662, 2539635, 2633873, 2656356) and 7 for .NET 4 (KB 2478663, 2539636, 2633870, 2656351, 2468871, 2533523, 2600217). Should they all be installed and if so, does the order of installation matter? I'm confused about how to go about this since it would seem that older updates should probably be installed first. Or is it a case of the latest updates encompass information in the earlier updates? I really have no idea about this and appreciate Ms. Bradley's guidance! Just need some further clarification on the best way to proceed!

[bobprimak]

I've just read Ms. Bradley's latest Patch Watch column where she is indicating to go ahead and patch .NET versions 3 & 4 on Windows 7. I checked all my hidden updates for these 2 .NET versions and I have 4 updates for .NET 3.5.1(KB2478662, 2539635, 2633873, 2656356) and 7 for .NET 4 (KB 2478663, 2539636, 2633870, 2656351, 2468871, 2533523, 2600217). Should they all be installed and if so, does the order of installation matter? I'm confused about how to go about this since it would seem that older updates should probably be installed first. Or is it a case of the latest updates encompass information in the earlier updates? I really have no idea about this and appreciate Ms. Bradley's guidance! Just need some further clarification on the best way to proceed!

I can answer the issue of the order of applying .NET patches. In almost all cases, MS Updates will automatically insure that patches are installed in the correct order.By returning to MS Updates through the Windows Security Center, you can make sure that if an update is skipped because it requires another update, you can pick up the remaining updates and install them in one or two more passes through MS Updates. In other words, when in doubt, run MS Updates a second time, checking for any new updates as you go.

In answer to the question of which updates to apply and whether one update supersedes another, again, MS Updates will usually take care of that automatically. Just unhide all .NET 3.0 and above updates, and run MS Updates, reboot, and repeat at least once, until no new .NET updates appear. There may be new .NET updates appearing in each pass.

That's one disadvantage of putting off MS Updates patching for long periods of time -- you may have several rounds of patches which cannot all be installed in a single pass.

[ddhaff]

Susan Bradley's column identifies patches by a number, but Windows Update lists updates by KB number. I don't see a correlation between the two. Can you please explain.
Thanks

[gpeyton]

Susan Bradley said to go ahead with NET1 and 2 for Win XP and 3 and 4 for Win7. I have a NET3.5 SP1 (KB2657424)offered for one of my XP machines. This came out in MS11-100. Should this be held or installed? Thanks for any help.
Gary

[bobprimak]

Susan Bradley's column identifies patches by a number, but Windows Update lists updates by KB number. I don't see a correlation between the two. Can you please explain.
Thanks

Several KB Numbers may apply to a single MS Number. The MS Numbers don't change with KB Updates.

[ddhaff]

Thanks for the info, but I'm still confused. How do I use Susan Bradlet's information when I go to the M/S windows update site to update my computer? They only list KB numbers.

[bobprimak]

Thanks for the info, but I'm still confused. How do I use Susan Bradlet's information when I go to the M/S windows update site to update my computer? They only list KB numbers.

Search by KB Number at the Microsoft sites. Then read down to discover the MS Number. That's how Microsoft organizes patch-related articles. And it's how you can discover if several KB Numbers are actually referencing a single patch. Is that better?

[ddhaff]

Thanks, Bob. This is info that has puzzled me for some time. I think I've got it now.