Patch Tuesday - Has It Been Abandoned? KB2998527 KB3001554

[Eric G]

Has Microsoft abandoned Patch Tuesday? There are certainly no articles announcing it that I can find, yet they've just released two new Windows Updates in the past two weeks. The first update was KB2998527, a patch that adds support for a time zone change taking place in Russia on October 26th. That could have easily waited for an October 7th release. The patch from today, KB3001554, "improve customer experiences in DVD playback in Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center in Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1)."

Neither of these updates require the user to restart, so it's not an interruption unless you're compelled to restart after every update like me. Still, this is very odd behavior for Microsoft. What's the deal?

 

[Berton]

I have KB3001554 listed in Windows Updates to be installed.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/3001554

 

[LMiller7]

Not really that unusual. Microsoft can, and has done so in the past, release updates whenever they consider it desirable. Whether it is "Patch Tuesday" or not.

Patch Tuesday - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[NoN]

No not that unusual... It had happened many times MS popping up some updates & reliability updates out Patch Tuesday.

Well, the Dvd Playback DLL had been patched twice since SP1! They still care for Windows 7 Users and that's the most important!

 

[MSWin7User]

Sure it's nice they are continuing to support Win7. Although, it's a curious phrasing I've seen with other vendors, too. "improve customer experiences" in some contexts means the application will send back usage information when it is used. Some people would like to opt out of that sort of thing.

Perhaps more appropriate is has anyone seen a problem after installing this? I see a report at Help nothing working right today - World Golf Tour that a person's application changed how it worked and made the application mostly unusable. I think the person had on automatic updates. They said once they uninstalled KB3001554, their application worked the way it was intended.

I keep automatic updates OFF and install after giving a little bit of time to see if people report problems and if I should be concerned about their reports. The reports can be related to something not applicable to me, a very rare situation that no one else reports, or a user problem. But I like to wait a little bit on some of these. Recently, it paid off; I think that was August's Patch Tuesday fiasco.

 

[ThrashZone]

If you care about a Russian time zone kb2998527 is for you,
After the ruble symbol update deal I'll pass on that one
I might add both are Optional updates but I imagine the dvd one is recommended but issued last week not this week

 

[Urthboundmisfit]

Just FYI for those (like me) who keep a library of Post SP1 updates for reinstallation/integration purposes KB3001554 supersedes KB2709981 ; Win Update Cleanup removes pkg:

2014-10-01 04:08:08, Info                  CBS    Adding: Package_for_KB2709981~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.1.2.0

This is a summary of the new and changed content to be released on Tuesday, September 30, 2014.

New non-security content:
Update for Windows 7 (KB3001554)

Locale: All
Deployment: Recommended/Automatic Updates, WSUS, and Catalog
Classification: Updates, Non-Security
Supersedes: KB2709981 in Windows 7
Target platforms:
Approximate file sizes:

Windows 7 for x64-based Systems update: ~ 417KB
Windows 7 update: ~ 268KB

Description:
Install this update to resolve issues in Windows. For a complete listing of the issues that are included in this update, see the associated Microsoft Knowledge Base article for more information. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/3001554

Only D/L link I found is thru Microsoft Update Catalog ;

Direct d/l links:
http://download.windowsupdate.com/d..._64735252fbe96831df75b22fb0e429a9dbf30ef7.msu
http://download.windowsupdate.com/d..._cd3974dae38a98a8458d5926ff831b834e057fa1.msu

HTH

If you care about a Russian time zone kb2998527 is for you,After the ruble symbol update deal I'll pass on that one

***SNICKER*** Me too!

 

[ThisIsMadness91]

Sure it's nice they are continuing to support Win7. Although, it's a curious phrasing I've seen with other vendors, too. "improve customer experiences" in some contexts means the application will send back usage information when it is used. Some people would like to opt out of that sort of thing.

Perhaps more appropriate is has anyone seen a problem after installing this? I see a report at Help nothing working right today - World Golf Tour that a person's application changed how it worked and made the application mostly unusable. I think the person had on automatic updates. They said once they uninstalled KB3001554, their application worked the way it was intended.

I keep automatic updates OFF and install after giving a little bit of time to see if people report problems and if I should be concerned about their reports. The reports can be related to something not applicable to me, a very rare situation that no one else reports, or a user problem. But I like to wait a little bit on some of these. Recently, it paid off; I think that was August's Patch Tuesday fiasco.

I installed the update this morning, and when I got home this afternoon, I found that two programs I have set to launch on startup (Avire Free Antivirus and Packard Bell's Hotkey Utility) either started slowly or didn't start at all. After restarting three times and still having this problem, I did a system restore and the problem stopped. I'll keep an eye out to see if anyone else has a problem before trying it again, or just leaving it.

 

[LazyTom]

Sure it's nice they are continuing to support Win7. Although, it's a curious phrasing I've seen with other vendors, too. "improve customer experiences" in some contexts means the application will send back usage information when it is used. Some people would like to opt out of that sort of thing.

Perhaps more appropriate is has anyone seen a problem after installing this? I see a report at Help nothing working right today - World Golf Tour that a person's application changed how it worked and made the application mostly unusable. I think the person had on automatic updates. They said once they uninstalled KB3001554, their application worked the way it was intended.

I keep automatic updates OFF and install after giving a little bit of time to see if people report problems and if I should be concerned about their reports. The reports can be related to something not applicable to me, a very rare situation that no one else reports, or a user problem. But I like to wait a little bit on some of these. Recently, it paid off; I think that was August's Patch Tuesday fiasco.

I installed the update this morning, and when I got home this afternoon, I found that two programs I have set to launch on startup (Avire Free Antivirus and Packard Bell's Hotkey Utility) either started slowly or didn't start at all. After restarting three times and still having this problem, I did a system restore and the problem stopped. I'll keep an eye out to see if anyone else has a problem before trying it again, or just leaving it.

Why didn't you just uninstall KB3001554 first and see if the problem went away, instead of doing a system restore... which is a way more PITA move than simply just uninstall the update imo. :sarc:

 

[Berton]

I haven't seen any problem yet, can play music on the HDD, video on the HDD and a movie DVD.

 

[techtitan100]

I haven't played a DVD since Monday so I shall find out soon enough what changed for me