Installing Win 7 Pro on New SSD - AHCI, Dual Boot and Other Questions

Megahertz07 said:

You must have first to install KB3020369.
MS releases SP2 for Windows 7 - Windows 7 Help Forums

Yes I installed KB3020369 first before KB3125574 but couldn't finish the install for KB3125574 successfully. I think it may have been because I installed Win 7 on a partition I created with Mini Tool Partition Wizard and I didn't choose the option to format the partition when installing Win 7. Just a guess. Or maybe the Catalyst drivers I installed for my machine (Phenom II X3 CPU) was buggy. Another guess. Or maybe because I let Windows Update install automatic updates - I didn't immediately set it to Never and to start up Manual - before I installed KB3020369 and KB3125574. Another guess.

So I installed Win 7 again, and this time I chose the option to format the partition, and I didn't install the Catalyst drivers, and I immediately set Windows Update to Never and to start up Manual before it could download updates. This time it worked! I was finally able to install KB3125574.

After that, I installed KB3172605, and then I set Windows Update to install automatically. So as of now, Windows has automatically installed many more updates. I think I made a mistake. From the instructions in the above link you gave, I was under the impression that Windows Update should be set to automatic after installing KB3172605. So that's what I did but I had not yet installed the Security ONLY Updates. I have Windows Updates turned off again but I'm not sure if I should still install the Security ONLY Updates now that Windows Updates has already installed many more updates including security updates that are all not found in the Security ONLY Updates list.

Recently WU is installing some features (Monthly Rollups) that that has security and other stuff that isn't related to security and has spy and tracking features, so now I only install the security only updates.
If you let WU at auto, that is the default, there is nothing wrong. From now on, you may set to never check and manually install the security only updates.

To clean the spy and telemetry, install and run https://download.spybot.info/AntiBea...-2.1-setup.exe

Megahertz07 said:

Recently WU is installing some features (Monthly Rollups) that that has security and other stuff that isn't related to security and has spy and tracking features, so now I only install the security only updates.
If you let WU at auto, that is the default, there is nothing wrong. From now on, you may set to never check and manually install the security only updates.

To clean the spy and telemetry, install and run https://download.spybot.info/AntiBea...-2.1-setup.exe

Thank you so much Meg!

So it's not yet too late to install the Security ONLY Updates? I can still install them even though WU has already installed security updates on my system that *may* have superseded the Security ONLY Updates?

And are you saying that I should always set WU to never check for updates and I should never go back to automatic updates again because of the risk of installing spyware disguised as security updates from Microsoft? Should my system be forever set to never check for updates?

No need to install.
WU installs the Monthly Rollups, that also has the Security Updates.

"And are you saying that I should always set WU to never check for updates and I should never go back to automatic updates again because of the risk of installing spyware disguised as security updates from Microsoft? Should my system be forever set to never check for updates?"

It's up to you. On my computer, WU is set to manual under services and on WU page is set to never check.
I now install the security Only updates.
For MS Office I Monthly manually run Check for updates and choose those for Office security.

Megahertz07 said:

No need to install.
WU installs the Monthly Rollups, that also has the Security Updates.

But if I let WU install the Monthly Rollups automatically, won't that put me at risk of installing spyware disguised as security updates from Microsoft?

If it's alright to do so, I was thinking of installing the Security ONLY Updates manually (even though WU has already installed security updates on my system that *may* have superseded those) and just keep my WU set to manual forever, just like you. Do you think it's alright at this point to install the Security ONLY Updates manually?

No need to install.
- Monthly Rollups = Spy + telemetry + ...+ Security Updates
- Security Only Updates = Security Updates

Megahertz07 said:

No need to install.
- Monthly Rollups = Spy + telemetry + ...+ Security Updates
- Security Only Updates = Security Updates

I'm not sure what you mean by "No need to install". No need to install what? The Monthly Rollups (automatic) or the Security Only Updates (manually)?

No need to install Security Only Updates as they has been already installed by Monthly Rollups.

Megahertz07 said:

No need to install Security Only Updates as they has been already installed by Monthly Rollups.

Oh, okay. So what I should do now is to remove the spyware and telemetry by using the anti-spyware you linked to.

Thank you!