January 3, 2018 - KB4056897 (Security-only update) Windows 7

[ethel]

Hi Anak, Thank you for replying. When I placed the cursor over that key it turns out the whole key is there,

I just had not put the cursor over it. The Malicious Software Tool did seem to take longer than other updates

to install, I normally just download it from Microsoft, so thank you for that one. This morning I have the

Security Monthly Quality Roll up KB4056894 and the Net.Framework updates, will hold off a little bit with

installing them. Have a nice day.

 

[Hellriser]

Did you only get one .net update or two like I show in post #50?

Only one, the 4.7.1 one (KB4033342).

This is at the bottom of "Known Issues" for the Jan. 8th 2018 Monthly Rollup: This KB only Applies to: Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard
And this in turn has slowed updates for everyone.

So this means Windows 7 users are still in waiting, right?

In any case, I only have Malwarebytes on my PC and that was patched to be compatible and I have it up to date.

I looked for that QualityCompat folder that contained the registry with regedit and I don't have that folder at all. Might this be a problem?

Thank you so much to everyone for their replies. I'm keeping a close eye on this thread.

 

[lehnerus2000]

Can't speak for your system, but I've installed the .NET Framework update with no issues at all. I can't recall ever having an issue with any .NET Framework update I've installed to be honest.

You're lucky.
The last few times I've seen .NET updates in Windows Update they've failed to install.

The last time (a few months ago) I had to manually download the update (and run it) before it would install successfully.

 

[sushiman]

I had BCOD and other issues ( no connection to network ) after this auto updated on the 9th . My PC has the AMD Athlon 2 processor . I had to use restore to Jan. 7th and even then had the same problems until I did a hard boot ( unplugged PC ) . I left the computer on all night , woke up this morning , and got message that new updates had been installed . Just looked and
KB4056894 has been installed again as well as KB890830 and .Net Framework . Now I have to worry about BSOD issues again ? I thought MS stopped issuing KB4056894 because of all the problems those with older AMD processors were having ???

 

[Brds7t7]

You're lucky.
The last few times I've seen .NET updates in Windows Update they've failed to install.

The last time (a few months ago) I had to manually download the update (and run it) before it would install successfully.

The last time I can remember having a problem with a .NET framework update was when I was running Vista - definitely not on Windows 7 though. Other than that, it's been smooth sailing for me. I've just installed the new .NET Framework 4.7.1 that was offered a few hours ago and that installed okay too.

The MS pixies must be watching over me!
I'll probably wake up to a BSOD in the morning for saying all this! :roflmao:

 

[Anak]

Where to Begin...

Brds7t7 and lehnerus2000 my results on how my updates went, the rest of my post branches out to others.

My patch Tuesday updates went okay, although a bit slow:

I did the two .Net updates and saved the MSRT for last. The .Net's took 17" from D/L to finish and the MSRT 9" double my norm for both. I chalked it up to an unusually long time to do a restore point, and as some if not all of us have experienced how the progress indicator advances, I went from setting the restore point to installing then it stopped at 30% a few minutes later it said it finished.There was no indication of the updates D/L'ing. It could of also been the MS servers being slammed with not only the Intel fix but also a high demand on their update catalog site. I wasn't asked to re-boot after the .Net's but for those I always do.
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Hi @ethel, You're welcome, that is a third way to see the whole key or any truncated word, name or phrase in windows, nice catch.
The only caveat that I know of for installing the Jan. 3rd update is that QualityCompat key needs to be set by your AV as related to in my post #10.
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@Hellriser: You may want to force a re-check of your updates to see if the other .Net is available.

From Hellriser:

So this means Windows 7 users are still in waiting, right? Right.

In any case, I only have Malwarebytes on my PC and that was patched to be compatible and I have it up to date. I looked for that QualityCompat folder that contained the registry with regedit and I don't have that folder at all. Might this be a problem?

Yes, Make sure it's up to date, check the version number, from: M-bam, what you need to know:

UPDATE (as of 1/04/18): Since the Malwarebytes Database Update 1.0.3624, all Malwarebytes users are able to receive the Microsoft patch to mitigate Meltdown.

The m-bam link is the same as the one on this page.

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@Nitesco, Everything you show in your attachment in post #58 should be okay to install as they have nothing to do with 6894 and meltdown.
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@sushiman, If windows update (WU) gives you enough time to get to WU in your control panel re-set your updates to "Check but let me choose" If their not already and when you see 6894 right click on it and hide it.
Since you have an AMD CPU remain vigilant, pick one of these results from a google search for MS AMD Meltdown for news on when MS will release the fix for AMD CPU's. Don't listen to the finger pointing blame game that'll only sidetrack you, this page may offer some insight: Windows operating system security update block for some AMD based devices

Even if your AMD is not on the list don't take it as the gospel truth, as no one is really sure how widespread this meltdown/spectre problem is.

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::End of Line

 

[Hellriser]

Anak Uninstalled Malwarebytes, checked for Updates; reinstalled the latest Malwarebytes, checked again. Nothing. Seems I'll just have to wait for Windows to release the update for my region. From what I understand, there are no signs that the exploits are already used in the open, so there's no immediate threat. Thank you for your helpful answers.

 

[Nitesco]

@Anak: Thanks for checking in with your post. I really appreciate that.

I decided to go ahead with installing these updates. I'm hoping everything goes okay.

 

[Anak]

Hellriser, Nitesco You're welcome.

@Hellriser, Kinda dumb question here, but you are using mbam premium aren't you? The reason I ask is with all the different permutations some users don't have paid versions of an AV and run periodic scans. I know, livin' life on the wild side but it does occur. I have looked but haven't found if free versions set the key.
I would believe the trade-off would be "you don't pay, you don't get the key"

   Note

I'm retracting this statement after Lady Fitzgerald's confirmation in the following post #70 thank you LF, I still believe it would be detrimental to the health of any of your machines if you set the key yourself and your AV of choice was not prepared.

@Nitesco, Don't be alarmed if the updates take longer than what your used to, those MS servers must be glowing red from all the requests for updates. Post back on how it went.
About your space problem; Have you thought of running disk cleanup? There are programs out there like slimcleaner and shouldIremoveit that offer community ratings/reviews to help you determine if you should get rid of a program for lack of use. I know I'm guilty of installing a program to see if I could use it and then forgetting about it.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

...I have looked but haven't found if free versions set the key...

Avast Free has set the key on my desktop machine.

 

[Anak]

Thanks for the confirmation Jeannie! I'll make the correction.

Steve

 

[Brds7t7]

Not sure how reliable Tom's Hardware is as a source - but if this is true, then I'm also going to hold off on any BIOS updates for a while too. I'm still running Haswell and it's apparently causing some issues on both Haswell and Broadwell CPUs.

Intel's Spectre BIOS Fix Causes Crashes On Broadwell, Haswell Systems

 

[Nitesco]

@Nitesco, Don't be alarmed if the updates take longer than what your used to, those MS servers must be glowing red from all the requests for updates. Post back on how it went.

It's been around 1 day since I installed these four updates, which did take a while to download. No doubt that MS's servers are probably getting hammered for updates.

Aside from a weird, possibly unrelated issue during restarting where my monitor couldn't detect any HDMI output from my PC (another restart fixed this), nothing out of the ordinary to report so far.

 

[Anak]

It's been around 1 day since I installed these four updates, which did take a while to download. No doubt that MS's servers are probably getting hammered for updates.

That's good news!

Aside from a weird, possibly unrelated issue during restarting where my monitor couldn't detect any HDMI output from my PC (another restart fixed this), nothing out of the ordinary to report so far.

Not to worry you but I looked up your sapphire GPU, doesn't that have an AMD chip in it? You might have dodged a bullet...:shock: I can't find anything on if AMD GPU's would act the same as their CPU's the GPU is on a different level and I'm thinking your i5 shielded it and when you did the 2nd boot it cleared out the cobwebs.

I'd just keep an eye on it and see how it goes, it may of just been a hiccup. Run your machine like you normally would, maybe a little harder, do you game?
Test it with a demanding game an see if you can tell if it runs the same now as compared to before the updates. If you don't normally shut down between uses try that like overnight and see how it acts on a cold re-start.

http://www.sapphiretech.com

 

[Nitesco]

That's good news!

Not to worry you but I looked up your sapphire GPU, doesn't that have an AMD chip in it? You might have dodged a bullet...:shock: I can't find anything on if AMD GPU's would act the same as their CPU's the GPU is on a different level and I'm thinking your i5 shielded it and when you did the 2nd boot it cleared out the cobwebs.

I'd just keep an eye on it and see how it goes, it may of just been a hiccup. Run your machine like you normally would, maybe a little harder, do you game?
Test it with a demanding game an see if you can tell if it runs the same now as compared to before the updates. If you don't normally shut down between uses try that like overnight and see how it acts on a cold re-start.

http://www.sapphiretech.com

I've tested my RX480 with some fairly demanding games, and it has been running as normal. I'll keep an eye on things, but nothing bad to report.

And according to a quick search, AMD GPUs are not affected by Meltdown or Spectre.

From The Verge:

AMD is also revealing that its Radeon GPU architecture isn’t impacted by Meltdown or Spectre, simply because those GPUs “do not use speculative execution and thus are not susceptible to these threats.” AMD says it plans to issue further statements as it continues to develop security updates for its processors.

Also, from a post on AMD's own forums asking about the issue:

No GPUs are affected by Meltdown and Spectre, nVidia only patched their vulnerable software.

 

[Hellriser]

@Hellriser, Kinda dumb question here, but you are using mbam premium aren't you? The reason I ask is with all the different permutations some users don't have paid versions of an AV and run periodic scans. I know, livin' life on the wild side but it does occur. I have looked but haven't found if free versions set the key.

Anak: I do live on the wild side and use the free version, but I don't think there should be a discrepancy. In any case, I tried to check for updates with Mbam uninstalled completely and still nothing... No idea what's going on...

 

[LevelBest]

I installed the update this morning after installing ten others, bit by bit, creating additional restore points along the way, finishing with creating two system images on different drives for safe measure and checking for any last minute McAfee updates.

It took about 12 minutes to install and configure. Everything seems to be running as normal, I haven't noticed any slow down in performance or any error messages.

 

[Anak]

Nitesco,
In case something would crop up you could point to this thread but you should start a new thread here: https://Graphic Cards | www.sevenforums.com. You've probably heard of Furmark, here's a tutorial on how to run the stress test: Video Card - Stress Test with Furmark remember to check the related tutorials at the bottom.

On the Geeks3D Softwares page you might be interested in: GPU Shark is a lightweight GPU monitoring utility for AMD Radeon and NVIDIA GeForce cards. It's second from the bottom.

I'd keep those two links so you could periodically check back for updates. Here's one from AMD that I missed , it's at the bottom of Updates and before the Information section(s):

There have also been questions about GPU architectures. AMD Radeon GPU architectures do not use speculative execution and thus are not susceptible to these threats.

Hellriser,
I've been reading this page from mbam that started on the 4th of Jan.: Meltdown Mitigation It should be for business support but the mods there are allowing discussion for consumers, paid and free, free starts at post#12. I've read it to the last post that was 15hours ago and in it you'll see discussion about how the action center is set, running mb-check, and post#25 on how the different versions of mbam act towards setting the key.

@kimiraikkonen what happens is when you check for updates, Windows Updates looks to see if you have security software registered in Windows Action Center. If you do, it looks to see if that registry key exists, because that key should be put in place by the security vendor. If that key is missing, the update won't be pulled down. If the key is there, the update is installed.

As for the question of what Free users need to do, it's nothing. This only impacts Malwarebytes if you have Malwarebytes registered in Windows Action Center. You can only register Malwarebytes in Windows Action Center in the Premium/Trial mode, free mode does not provide real time protection, and therefore does not register.

From what I can gather, and since you like livin' on the wild side I'm thinking that you don't have any AV running and you need at least MSE to be running and that will set the key.
if you go to your action center and expand the security section i.e. - click on the down arrow to the right of Security do you see these two settings turned to on?

If not start up MSE, check to verify the settings, if they're on then force a check in windows updates.
there is also discussion and I stand corrected, that you can manually create the

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\QualityCompat

key but, I would strongly suggest that you have good backups of your system if anything goes wrong.


LevelBest,
On any given updates exercise bit by bit is sound practice when you have that many to do, it allows the creation of those extra restore points and makes it easier to troubleshoot any problems. With the extra images it looks like you're all set.
Did you check your installed updates to see if KB4056897 and in some cases like mine KB4056894 was installed? They both relate to the meltdown issue.
Instead of clicking on history, click on installed at the bottom, let the list populate then check.


Image courtesy of Brinks tutorial

 

[LevelBest]

Anak, like you I had KB4056894 rather than 6897 and of the 10 updates, I left that one until last, having at that point created two system images. So it's now in my list of successfully installed updates. I spent a fair bit of time on the computer yesterday and all was well.

 

[Hellriser]

@Anak: I can report successful install of KB4056894. I followed your advice and installed MSE, it created the registry, forced check updates, KB4056894 and KB4055532 appeared, installed, uninstalled MSE, restarted the PC a few times during this process, everything seems to run OK.

The only difference I saw is that Windows takes an extra 1-1.5 seconds to start up.

Thank you very much for your time, you really helped me with this. Too bad I can't rep.