Here we are again-Patch Tuesday

Thanks robinb9, I've installed the Windows updates on both my machines (one's for my part-time work, the other for gaming), minus the couple that you mentioned and which I agree weren't worth the risk. So far so good. Only the work machine has Office on it, and I'll probably review the situation on those updates next week with a view to installing all but the looping three if they haven't been fixed by then.

I feel that MS need to review the whole monthly update concept. It's got beyond a joke now, to the point where most people operating software and hardware firewalls along with anti-virus and anti-malware software with wired connections on a single-user machine are more likely to suffer problems from installing the updates than they are from the security issues they're intended to prevent. Perhaps a few more should be labelled "critical" and the rest dropped. Or perhaps replace the mass of poorly tested individual monthly updates with a fully tested service pack 3 or 4 times a year.

It simply isn't viable to have typically around 20 updates every month, several of which are broken, with goodness knows how much time spent sifting through the forums trying to guess which ones are going to crash your system. When Windows came in it was supposed to simplify things, not make them even more complicated and time-consuming than every other OS before or since (not to mention more insecure if the constant stream of updates really is needed)!

A fix has now been applied to the Office updates:-

"September 2013 Office Update: Targeting and Repeated Offering - Office Sustained Engineering - Site Home - TechNet Blogs:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/office_sustained_engineering/archive/2013/09/12/september-2013-public-update-update-targeting-for-microsoft-update-wsus-and-sccm.aspx

Since the shipment of the September 2013 Security Bulletin Release, we have received reports of updates being offered for installation multiple times, or certain cases where updates were not offered via Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) or System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM).
We have investigated the issue, established the cause, and we have released new updates that will cease the unnecessary re-targeting of the updates or the correct offering of these updates.
We have received escalations related to targeting for the following KB's.
MICROSOFT SECURITY BULLETIN MS13-072

• Security Update for Word 2003 (KB2817682)
• Security Update for Office 2003 (KB2817474)
• Security Update for Microsoft Office 2007 suites (KB2760411)
• Security Update for Microsoft Office 2007 suites (KB2597973)
• Security Update for Microsoft Office Word 2007 (KB2767773)
• Security Update for Microsoft Word 2010 (KB2760769)
• Security Update for Microsoft Office 2010 (KB2767913)
• Security Update for Word Viewer (KB2817683)
• Security Update for Microsoft Office 2007 suites (KB2760823)

MICROSOFT SECURITY BULLETIN MS13-073

• Security Update for Excel 2003 (KB2810048)
• Security Update for Microsoft Office Excel 2007 (KB2760583)
• Security Update for Microsoft Excel 2010 (KB2760597)
• Security Update for Microsoft Excel 2013 (KB2768017)
• Security Update for Microsoft Office Excel Viewer 2007 (KB2760590)
• Security Update for Microsoft Office 2007 suites (KB2760588)

Non-Security Updates:

• Update for Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 (KB2553145)
• Update for Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer 2010 (KB2553351)

Please inform us of any other KB's where you are experiencing multiple re-installation offers or missing installations from deployment products."

Windows Update KB2760411, KB2760588, KB2760583 - Microsoft Community

I haven't tried installing the Office updates yet, some are saying it is fixed, some are saying they're still getting the update prompts after installing them, and MS say it might take a little time to filter through. I think I'll stick to Plan A and install them in a few days.

I'm not in a spot where I can help this new member...
(and I'm not asking anyone in this thread to take the thread)
...I just thought those in this thread might want to read this seemingly update related issue:
https://www.sevenforums.com/general-d...ml#post2531626

:-(

I was lucky - all updates installed on 2 VMs and 2 real systems without a problem and none asked to be re-installed.