Windows 7: Recent updates are unchecked in Windows Update. Why?

Windows Update is showing that I need two "Important" updates. These are KB2656356 and KB2656351. No other updates are shown. Usually "Important" updates such as these are already check by windows update but these show up as unchecked updates. This is a little confusing. Does anyone know why these are not checked?
Windows 7 64bit Pro.

Those updates seem to be problematic on some machines. They may have tried to install and failed.

Try checking them and updating and see if they work. If they fail, look here:

My Win 7 Ultimate Windows Update KB2656356 continues to fail - Microsoft Answers

I had to manually install those on my work machine but not on my home machines. I didn't have to do anything too fancy, just DLed the stand alone installer and installed it fine.

It seems there are certain issues with these two updates in particular.

Have a look at this Microsoft article and click the link for each update for further information.

MS11-100: Vulnerability in the .NET Framework could allow elevation of privilege: December 29, 2011

@Seavixen32:

I also see these two updates unchecked (I have manually selected win updates)
I have a home system, and have not chosen to install SP1 .

Do you think I will have an issue installing those without SP1?

Maybe you can cull the information down a bit in the MS11-100 bulletin into layman's terms if possible.Thanks.

With apologies to Seavixen, and to you also legacy:

I seem to recall, but it escapes me now, that there was an update to Windows 7 that would facilitate future updates. Back around last Summer. (Northern Hemisphere) But that was with SP1 installed. There have been others.

Some developers at MS have enough foresight to realize that some future updates may compromise some machines, so in the next campaign they trot out a compatibility update that hopefully will not harm certain system configurations.

To be blunt.....
If you have any form of .NET Framework installed on your machine, and do not install these updates, you are leaving your machine wide open to future infections of malware especially since these vulnerabilities are now known.

A set of previous updates that were thought to of fixed the problem, did not.
This set is supposed to take care of that.

Not sure if its related, but after selecting these two updates and installing them on my laptop (Sony Vaio Z 47G/D {HK}), I kept getting the BSoD. Finally decided to uninstall it and now waiting to see if that was the cause or not.

Anak:

By all means thank you for your directness. While I know quite a bit about Windows OS I am by no means an expert and thus for very complicated involved issues I have as much clue as the typical consumer.

I reread the MS11-100 Bulletin and I did gather that the patch from these two .net updates were very serious and critical ...but the only thing holding me back from trying to install them was that they were unchecked. I will attempt to install them and see how it goes. Worst case I uninstall them if they cause serious operating issues. At least I have MSE constantly updating automatically.

Your welcome!

It is an interesting conundrum, with no pun intended. Tweakit has asked an excellent question!

I found this buried in the Windows Update Applet in Control Panel under Help and Support.
Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Windows Update\Change settings:To me, that statement would imply that under Microsoft's determination they are sure the user needs the checked ones, and not sure about the ones that are unchecked, but we are going to send you all the ones we have for this "Patch Campaign". We leave those up to you to install or not.

The patch Tuesday coming up next week is supposed to have 1 critical, and 6 important updates for a total of 7. It would be interesting for all of us to come back here next week and post how they were presented.

I would expect 1 would be checked, and the other 6 not.

If you go here Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification for January 2012
Then click on Affected Software under Bulletin Information.
Then >Windows Operating System and Components.
Scroll down to Windows 7.

There it shows only 6 updates/bulletins 2 are not applicable, and nothing critical, only important.

I have seen here in posts made by members, recent campaigns were a user will receive the right total of updates, some have received less, and even some, more that what was listed.

So I might only get 4 updates, maybe none checked, only time will tell.

Just a random snippet of information

Those updates update the Servicing Stack. Simplistically, those updates tell Windows the version numbers of a new Service Pack. Microsoft cannot predict the future, and so Windows cannot recognise something newer than itself when it was last built. For this reason, those updates just let Windows recognise a new milestone or service pack, and so work better with that Service Pack.

I think that you were talking about An update that prevents a "0xC0000034" error message when you try to install Windows 7 SP1 or Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 is available, which was soon replaced by An update that prevents a "0xC0000034" error message when you try to install Windows 7 SP1 or Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 is available

@Tweakit: As far as I know, and I am confident in my answer here, Microsoft can directly control which updates will be automatically selected, and which ones won't be. Quite how they decide, I don't know!

Just because an update doesn't mean that it doesn't apply to your computer (it will apply), or that it is likely to fail (it isn't).

Richard

Well here is how my patches were presented. The first is a snip of our 7box (6), and the second is the XPbox (7).


I did select, and install KB2585542