Monthly Rollup... the real truth!

[Pipppero2007]

Hi,

please don't send me to read other stuff because I read many things but I am still very confused.

I will be clear so please help me.

There are many "unofficial" release of Windows 7 around, many of them are updated to the currect month.

INSTEAD, I prefer to use the old official Win7 SP1 ISO that is named: "X17-59215.iso" (64 bit).

Said that, I need to have a cumulative patch to apply after a fresh install.

To achieve that I should use the famous "Monthly Rollup".

But it's not so clear. A rollup *should* be a one and only patch that is cumulative and that take Win7 updated to the month of the rullup.

INSTEAD, many rollup are TOO SMALL to contain HUNDREDS of updates, i.e., the january 2017 rollup is 146MB!!!

I shoud think that a 2012 ISO is updated to NOW (after 5 years!) with a small 146MB patch???

ALSO, there are many patches that must be installed BEFORE apply the rollup, that update Windows Update service...

I am very confused about these concept.

May someone help me to understand it, starting to the fact that I always start from an ISO of 2012?

Thank you very much!

 

[axe0]

Hi Pipppero2007,

There are updates before a monthly rollup can be installed, these are so called prerequisites, requirements that patches in the rollup use.

The concept of the monthly rollup isn't very old, I believe there are hundreds of updates that are not included in any rollup (not in my Win7 installation at least).
All updates that have been released since the monthly rollup started, those are included in the rollup. Of course, the monthly rollup won't grow in size with each month passing, it will only contain the changes since the last monthly rollup and apply them.

I've seen a few times the monthly roll-up being about 150MB, but I already have a few monthly roll-ups installed so the onces I've seen and will see contain the changes since the last installed one.

I hope to have clarified a few things

I don't know if you see 146MB when you've freshly installed Windows 7, but the last time I freshly installed Windows 7 I saw a lot of updates and a monthly roll-up.

 

[dg1261]

Pipppero2007, see the first post in this forum thread, especially the first two graphics. It explains your confusion.

The term "rollup", as Microsoft is using it, refers to updates only from last October. You'll still need to apply all earlier updates separately.

Microsoft plans to eventually include pre-October updates in future rollups, but I don't know if they've started that yet. According to the graphics in that post, they were hoping to start that with the "preview rollup" in February (and, I assume, the regular rollup the following month, though the graphic didn't go that far). But remember that MS had to cancel the February releases, so obviously they've fallen behind schedule, but I don't know by how far.

 

[Pipppero2007]

There're someone like me that use the first official ISO from MS?
Since W7 will install without issue even the latest "rollup", what's wrong if someone use it and then leave the rest to the Windows Update?
That's because the Windows Update wont work because its too old in that very old (but still the only official) ISO.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Yep too much word playing to be anything but complicated and this is supposed to be in plain language that MS is using
Security monthly quality rollup verses "security only" rollup and I believe they even threw quality on it too
Then you get into the ie11 rollups and also net framework rollups :mad2:

 

[tetraps]

I'm still not exactly sure how the rollups work! If a user has been only installing the security-only updates, then decides to do the latest monthly rollup, will the rollup just download the non-security updates that are part of the rollup (since Oct 2016)? Or does everything get reinstalled again?

The size of each monthly rollup seems to be consistent each month, which makes it seem like either old updates are superseded by newer ones. Or, does the monthly rollup first check which post-Oct 2016 updates the user has installed, then download them separately?

Basically I'm wondering if the monthly rollup only downloads the "deltas" (latest changes since last monthly rollup install). If a user hasn't installed a monthly rollup yet, does it recognize that the security-only patches are already installed?

 

[Pipppero2007]

So confusing.

Btw, someone is still using the original ISO?

 

[dg1261]

I still have an assortment of original ISOs I use whenever I need to do a clean install.

If I'm refurbishing a Win7 computer I'll reformat/repartition the hard disk, then use a DVD-RW made from the ISO to do a clean install. After that I install all the pre-October updates (which I have already downloaded and keep on a flash drive using WSUSOfflineUpdate), then finish by installing post-September Security-Only updates.

I do not deal with the monthly rollups, so have only anecdotal insight as to how they actually work. I'm only interested in security updates, and the monthly rollups include non-security updates as well, which I have no interest in installing.

 

[ThrashZone]

So confusing.

Btw, someone is still using the original ISO?

Hi,
As long as the original iso/ dvd has sp1 on it yes
Updating well here's a new process well worth looking into SIW2's post dism++
Reinstalling Windows 7 from Windows 10 - Windows 7 Help Forums

 

[Pipppero2007]

Hi,

Why you speaking about October rollup?

Mine first is april 2016.

Also why only security and not the whole?

 

[dg1261]

October was when Microsoft switched from issuing individual patches to a single update with all that month's patches. The "Security-Only" updates are one per month, and are not cumulative. The "Monthly Rollups" are one per month but are cumulative, so each successive Monthly Rollup includes the previous Monthly Rollups.

Thus, if you choose the Security Only updates you must install one per month, but if you choose the Monthly Rollups you only need to install the latest one.

At least, that's the way it's supposed to work. So far, these address only updates since the policy change in October 2016.

It's expected you're starting from a system that already has all pre-October patches installed. In April 2016 Microsoft issued a "Convenience Rollup" for Windows 7, which was a single update for all patches prior to that time. There are additional updates after April 2016 to bring a system up to date through September, after which you start using either the single Security-Only or Monthly-Rollup updates.

Personally, I only install Security Only updates, not the Monthly Rollups. Security Only updates include only security patches. Monthly Rollups include security patches plus non-security patches. In the past, Microsoft used non-security patches to sneak in telemetry updates and the Windows 10 upgrade files, which I (and others) did not want. I'll accept security patches but do not want anything that is not absolutely necessary. That's why I avoid the Monthly Rollups.

Note that the Windows Update function will not offer you the Security Only updates. It will only offer the Monthly Rollups. If you want the Security Only updates you have to download them individually from the Microsoft Catalog.