Solved Question about KB3004394

[pokeefe0001]

I have seen lots of web pages about fix KB3004394 released last December. It sounds like a very bad, buggy fix. Well, I now see a KB3004394, published 2/10/2015 waiting to be installed on my PC. I can very few references to it. There's a description from MS. I don't have a copy of the 14/12/2014 description but the current description sounds like what was described in the December war stories.

Is it safe to install this fix? Do we need "Support for urgent Trusted Root updates"? (I've lived without it with no noticeable problems.)

 

[NoelDP]

It sounds as if MS have re-released the update (and I never noticed??)... Indeed they have!

This one appears to have been properly tested (and worked so smoothly in my machine that I never noticed it.

 

[pokeefe0001]

I decided to try it on an old "backup" PC and nothing bad happened so I've now installed it on my work-a-day PC. All seems well.

Considering the notoriety of the first version, I would have thought they'd release an updated version with a new number. Oh well.

 

[NoelDP]

This is really going to make my life hell for the next few weeks! - I'm still getting people with he first version installed and messing up their machines. The problem is that with only the version number to go on, it's difficult to work out how to explain to a newbie how to determine the version that's installed. (Sometimes they have problems finding the Update History...).

Oh, well...

 

[pokeefe0001]

The "Published:" date of the new one is 2/10/2015. That's no help once it's installed, of course. And it might not be just newbies that would have trouble telling which version they have installed. I knew I had the new one installed and still had trouble. But I didn't know what I was looking for. I'd never had to do this kind of research before. (Oh. I guess that makes me a newbie after all.)

I could not find the folder named in "Location" in Installed Updates, so I searched my C disk for KB3004394. I found "windows6.1-kb3004394-v2-x64-express.cab" with a "Date modified:" of 1/28/2015. That "v2" is probably a clue, but I have no idea what the original fix file was named. The date "1/28/2015" is a definite clue since the original release date was earlier than that. And within that .cab folder many of the files have a "Modified" date of 12/15/2014.

So a search for KB3004394 is a good start for a newbie. It will at least show which version was downloaded.

 

[NoelDP]

Thanks for the additional info!
yes, the v2 in the filename is sufficient to identify the version, but it's not conclusive, since the other version may have been installed previously (even if uninstalled now) and may still be present. It does at least show that the system has attempted to install the new patch.