March 13, 2018 - KB4088878 (Security-only update) Windows 7

Thank you Brink

Like others I just install the Security only updates. So far this Black Tuesday I have been offered KB890830 & 4088875. I hid 875 and installed the 830.
Last month was a mess. On 4 Feb I got KB4054518 together with 34 hidden updates. After hiding these I then got a series of previous Monthly Quality updates together with other previously hidden non essential stuff.
Finished up with 54 total hidden updates.
On 14 Feb I got all the 54 hidden updates plus 2 more non essential updates.
56 were now hidden
This left me with no further updates on offer and I went ahead and installed the security only KB4074587 on 16 Feb.
After booting and the desktop appeared I immediately noticed that the word and excel documents had strange looking icons and none would open.
So I did a system restore as I had made no changes or additions to my system other than the security update and these icons appeared as normal and opened.
For the moment I have not installed this month's security only update and of course the Feb one 4074587 is no longer installed.
To date I am informed that I have no updates, so fingers crossed I will not get all 56 hidden updates yet again. Feb was the sixth time hidden updates were offered again, since Nov 2016 - why does MS keep digging them out?

Antioch

BlueGuy said:

This not listening to users is not endemic to Microslop alone. Just sayin', while waxing nostalgic .

'tis a growing trend in the tech world unfortunately. Force features on people that nobody wants and take away user choices. You're right that it definitely isn't endemic to MS. I'm seeing it a lot more in consumer products. There's a large number of people who just pull something out of the box and use it as is. But, there's also a large number of people who want control over their own devices - which they paid for! You buy something these days and it's more like you're renting it from the company, instead of actually owning anything!

Wasn't specifically talking about Windows - that's always been a rented software. But it seems more and more things are moving over to the rented/subscription/borrowed service model. Whatever one chooses to call it.

You buy hardware these days and they somehow force you to have smart features on which ties you in to some sort of EULA or licence. I recently took back a TV because you more or less couldn't do anything with it unless it's connected to the Internet - just let me watch the damn TV! I had to change it for another one which has Smart features, but doesn't try to cram them down my throat and force me to use them. I'd prefer to buy one without to be honest, but it'll be hard to find that in 10 years from now.

If I buy hardware (not licenced software) then I should have the right to do with it as I please. I own that piece of hardware which I bought with my own hard earned money. I dread the days when digital products start to fully push out physical products. I'd rather not have to agree to sell my soul or hand over my DNA just to switch a TV on!

Excuse the off-topic ranty stuff! I'll get back in my cage now.

Well, I'm skipping the March, aside from the Malicious s/w tool. In the meantime, since I have to look at my budget before building the Blender/Poser 64-bit machine, I may invoke PAE in this one as a compromise. As my initial decision in 2013 was dictated by legacy gear that had no 64 bit drivers, like the MyHD MDP-130 capture card. Since the Sempron 145 that I unlocked to a Athlon II is now toast, replaced by a better AM3 CPU (and man! was that hard to get hold of), when I couldn't get the second capture card to run under Win7, despite an entire thread over at AVS forum on it. The main PVR box runs XP Pro, just to keep things simple. That only affects two functions, DVD playback and playing files over N.A.S. The old thing prefers single cores, but Windows still has the /one cpu switch that you can use in a batch file prior to full booting, just in case Sempron 100 series can't be found anymore. I'm not too concerned about anyone getting into that XP machine because all they'll find are the recorded TV shows and the text files I edit for the channel lists and scheduling reservations, but I did include the old Outpost firewall, which is good enough for blocking unwanted incoming and outgoing signals that one doesn't want. These issues, as Lady F. has pointed out, seems to affect mainly Intel cpu and chipsets. My use of AMD is primarily budget related, yet I do not like their integrated ATI graphics line, preferring the nVidia line, which I've been using since switching from Atari to Windows '98 in that same year, 1998. What P.O. me off at ATI was that they came out with the first ATSC tuner but were not selling it in Canada[at least not for another 2-3 years], despite being a CDN company (before the AMD buyout) then I saw the MDP-130 after a web search one day and was hooked, it has its quirks but so far has been the best PVR solution. I'm getting off topic again, sorry. I'll shut up now..besides gotta go and make supper, be back when there's an email notification.

Brink said:

Thank you Painter. First post updated. :)

Thanks for the update Shawn.

I have the Security-only update installed and haven't noticed any network issues within VMs. But, I wonder if I should uninstall the update, apply the vbs script and then reinstall the update, in case it causes any issues in future?