Definitive answer to Windows 7 updates after clean install?

Good morning,

I am trying (and I have been for many many weeks now) to get a definitive answer to this question because when you Google this scenario there are so many different answers and variations available that it makes it confusing and impossible to know exactly what is correct and what isn't.

I am attempting to clarify this not only for myself but for anyone else coming across this thread (or through Google etc) that is in the same situation that I find myself in.

I am going to do a clean install of Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 x64 on my Fujitsu.

There are two questions please:

(1) Are these ALL of the updates that I need to do after the clean install, and if so, are they in the CORRECT order please?

(2) Can I slipstream ALL of the updates below in the order thay appear and create a new ISO for a clean install please?

Here are the updates:

(01) IE11-Windows6.1-KB2841134-x64.cab (57,095 KB) - CAB File.
Does this also need any prerequisite files (I am only using English)?
i.e. KB2729094, KB2670838, KB2834140, KB2786081, KB2731771, KB2533623, KB2639308, KB2882822 and KB2888049.

There is also an .EXE file IE11-Windows6.1-x64-en-us (54,605 KB) which I assume could only be used AFTER a clean install but cannot be slipstreamed as it is an .EXE.

(02) windows6.1-kb3020369-x64_5393066469758e619f21731fc31ff2d109595445.msu (9.35 MB) - Microsoft Update Standalone Package.
April 2015 Servicing Stack update for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

(03) windows6.1-KB3125574-v4-x64.msu (488,327 KB) - Microsoft Update Standalone Package.
Microsoft don’t call it SP2 (Service Pack 2), but that’s really what it is. IS THIS REALLY NEEDED?
Please see the note at the bottom of this post.

(04) windows6.1-kb3172605-x64_2bb9bc55f347eee34b1454b50c436eb6fd9301fc.msu (29.96 MB) - Microsoft Update Standalone Package.
[THIS ONE IS IMPORTANT I BELIEVE?]

Security Only Quality Update For Windows 7 for x64-Based Systems (ALL Microsoft Update Standalone Packages):

(05) windows6.1-kb3192391-x64_8acd94d8d268a6507c2852b0d9917f4ae1349b6c.msu (81.05 MB)
2016 October.

(06) windows6.1-kb3197867-x64_6f8f45a5706eeee8ac05aa16fa91c984a9edb929.msu (90.13MB)
2016 November.

(07) windows6.1-kb3205394-x64_71d0c657d24bc852f074996c32987fb936c07774.msu (64.50 MB)
2016 December.

(08) windows6.1-kb3212642-x64_f3633176091129fc428d899c93545bdc7821e689.msu (6.34 MB)
2017 January.

<<< NO UPDATES 2017 February >>>

(09) windows6.1-kb4012212-x64_2decefaa02e2058dcd965702509a992d8c4e92b3.msu (33.98 MB)
2017 March.

(10) windows6.1-kb4015546-x64_4ff5653990d74c465d48adfba21aca6453be99aa.msu (38.43 MB)
2017 April.

(11) windows6.1-kb4019263-x64_d64d8b6f91434754fdd2a552d8732c95a6e64f30.msu (31.29 MB)
2017 May.

(12) windows6.1-kb4022722-x64_ee5b5fae02d1c48dbd94beaff4d3ee4fe3cd2ac2.msu (48.13 MB)
2017 June.

(13) windows6.1-kb4025337-x64_c013b7fcf3486a0f71c4f58fc361bfdb715c4e94.msu (27.01 MB)
2017 July.

(14) windows6.1-kb4034679-x64_ccabab6aefd6c16454fac39163ae5abc2f4f1303.msu (30.98 MB)
2017 August.

(15) windows6.1-kb4038779-x64_101eabd1c808a526c500d2589dc7077417693d79.msu (42.76 MB)
2017 September.

(16) windows6.1-kb4041678-x64_f55123caaf35a98d2056dc81a5d4a185f148601a.msu (32.28 MB)
2017 October.

(17) windows6.1-kb4048960-x64_e86abddbeecff64956c21d98e329372edb54a413.msu (23.91 MB)
2017 November.

(18) windows6.1-kb4054521-x64_8db86e8518b1254d044f9633a205ec1077a29cd9.msu (1.42 MB)
2017 December.

(19) windows6.1-kb4056897-x64_2af35062f69ce80c4cd6eef030eda31ca5c109ed.msu (68.56 MB)
2018 January.

(20) windows6.1-kb4074587-x64_cdc1b385546eca73c15e870e3b5f9e55e2d0ba3a.msu (29.71 MB)
2018 February.

Note: I have found that the windows6.1-KB3125574-v4-x64.msu in number (03) above includes the following updates:

KB2574819 KB2603229 KB2607047 KB2607576 KB2633952 KB2639308
KB2640148 KB2647753 KB2660075 KB2661254 KB2677070 KB2679255
KB2699779 KB2709630 KB2709981 KB2719857 KB2726535 KB2731771
KB2732059 KB2732487 KB2732500 KB2735855 KB2739159 KB2741355
KB2749655 KB2756822 KB2760730 KB2762895 KB2763523 KB2773072
KB2779562 KB2786081 KB2786400 KB2791765 KB2794119 KB2798162
KB2799926 KB2800095 KB2808679 KB2813956 KB2829104 KB2830477
KB2834140 KB2835174 KB2836502 KB2843630 KB2846960 KB2847077
KB2852386 KB2853952 KB2863058 KB2868116 KB2882822 KB2888049
KB2890882 KB2891804 KB2893519 KB2904266 KB2905454 KB2908783
KB2913152 KB2913431 KB2913751 KB2918077 KB2919469 KB2922717
KB2923398 KB2923545 KB2928562 KB2929733 KB2929755 KB2966583
KB2970228 KB2973337 KB2977728 KB2978092 KB2980245 KB2981580
KB2985461 KB2994023 KB2998527 KB2999226 KB3000988 KB3001554
KB3004394 KB3005788 KB3006121 KB3006137 KB3006625 KB3008627
KB3009736 KB3013410 KB3013531 KB3014406 KB3020338 KB3020370
KB3040272 KB3045645 KB3048761 KB3049874 KB3054476 KB3065979
KB3068708 KB3075249 KB3077715 KB3078667 KB3080079 KB3080149
KB3081954 KB3092627 KB3095649 KB3102429 KB3107998 KB3112148
KB3118401 KB3121255 KB3133977 KB3137061 KB3138378 KB3138901
KB3147071 KB3148851

Are there any in the above updates that would cause/force Windows 10 to be downloaded?

Thanks very very much in advance.

Hi Paul,

Dell Linux Recovery Image


This Tool can be ran on a non-Dell system provided that a Dell Service Tag is input. There seems to be no limitations on how many times a Service Tag is input:

• 5KR9DC2 - Windows 7 Pro 64 Bit
• 7GXLCS1 - Windows 7 Pro 32 Bit

This is a multi-lingual .iso so can be used for all languages and with some minor workarounds can be used for all OEM and Retail Licenses.

To Convert it to Home Premium you will need this tool

winisoutils - Windows ISO Disc Image Utilities



The Windows 7 Pro Edition has been updated until January 2016 and unlike Microsoft's 2010 .iso contains IE11, USB 3 drivers and Storage Controller drivers for up to 6th generation Intel Skylake Systems but only for the Pro Edition making it far superior to Microsoft's 2010 Installation Media.



With the Updated Image of the Dell Windows 7 Professional .wim 192 Updates are preinstalled taking this Windows Installation Media up to date until January 2016:
Then install
https://download.microsoft.com/download/5/D/0/5D0821EB-A92D-4CA2-9020-EC41D56B074F/Windows6.1-KB3020369-x64.msu
and the 2 latest roll-ups


further reading
Download Dell Windows 7 Pro OEM Skylake Reinstallation.iso – The Unofficial Windows 10 Reinstallation Guide


As for W10 im NOT sure if the 192 updates includes them or not, If it does it will not automatically update to it. If you install Offline it cant do it anyway - reset updates to let me choose BEFORE you go back on-line

if you let the system update normally NO W10 nag updates will be installed




Roy

Thanks for the reply Roy, it is appreciated.
I will have a look at that tomorrow.
Have a great weekend!

torchwood said:

Then install
https://download.microsoft.com/down...020-EC41D56B074F/Windows6.1-KB3020369-x64.msu
and the 2 latest roll-ups

Click to expand...

wait u mean install the (old) service stack then straight up install the latest rollups?

so not install the convenience rollup? this one is almost 400mb how can 200mb rollups also include a 400 update?

also why install the *two* latest rollups? ain't the rollups cumulative? so shouldn't only the latest be enough?
now I even more confused :huh:

Good evening,

I decided to test out the DISM tool.
I read many many articles on the Internet with regard to this and also watched some videos on YouTube.
I set everything up on my 32 bit test machine and downloaded the 32 bit versions of the updates (there are a string of numbers after the x86 and before the .msu which I have left out of the below for easier reading BUT I HAVE INCLUDED THEM IN THE STRING IN THE DISM COMMANDS):

windows6.1-kb3020369-x86.msu April 2015 Servicing Stack update.
windows6.1-KB3125574-v4-x86.msu Convenience Rollup Update Package
windows6.1-kb3172605-x86.msu [THIS ONE IS IMPORTANT I BELIEVE?]
windows6.1-kb3192391-x86.msu 2016 October.
windows6.1-kb3197867-x86.msu 2016 November.
windows6.1-kb3205394-x86.msu 2016 December.

I wrote out a plan (cheat sheet really) of what needed to be done in what order and when.
I then setup:

A folder: C:\Win7ISO (and extracted the ISO files to it).
A folder: C:\Win7ISOUpdates (and put the 6 downloaded updates above from Windows Catalog into it).
A folder: C:\Win7ISO\OFFLine (this was created by the mkdir C:\Win7ISO\OFFLine command).

I ran:

Dism /Get-WIMInfo /WimFile:C:\Win7ISO\sources\install.wim - OK.

mkdir C:\Win7ISO\OFFLine - OK.

Dism /Mount-WIM /WimFile:C:\Win7ISO\sources\install.wim /Name:"Windows 7 HOMEPREMIUM" /MountDir:C:\Win7ISO\OFFLine - OK.

Dism /Image:C:\Win7ISO\OFFLine /Add-Package /PackagePath:C:\Win7ISOUpdates\windows6.1-kb3020369-x86_82e168117c23f7c479a97ee96c82af788d07452e.msu - OK.

Dism /Image:C:\Win7ISO\OFFLine /Add-Package /PackagePath:C:\Win7ISOUpdates\windows6.1-kb3125574-v4-x86_ba1ff5537312561795cc04db0b02fbb0a74b2cbd.msu - NOT OK.

Everything went well until I tried to integrate the Convenience Rollup Update Package KB3125574 ABOVE:
It said that the Component store had been corrupted. It gave me an error: 0x80073712
This evidently means that the file required to Windows Update Centre is damaged or missing?

Any help will be greatly appreciated please!

Hi Paul,,

there were problems with that KB it installed a second USBhub winsxs entry, it was resolved by kb3181988
there are other associated errors

can you post the CBS log

Roy

Thanks for the reply Roy,

torchwood said:

There were problems with that KB it installed a second USBhub winsxs entry, it was resolved by kb3181988, there are other associated errors.

Can you post the CBS log?

Click to expand...

Firstly (after I had done some research on Google I found out the following), because I knew that I was going to have to restart from scratch, and you can't just delete the folder where the mounted image is because it gives the error Destination Folder Access Denied: You need permission to perform this action, and even the SHIFT+DELETE key combination didn't work, I ran:

DISM /Cleanup-Wim
DISM /Get-MountedWimInfo

Then I deleted the C:\Win7ISO\OFFLine folder successfully ready to start a fresh.

I have looked in the C:\Windows\Logs\CBS and it is empty!

Are you saying that I need to install KB3181988 prior to the Convenience Rollup Update Package KB3125574 or is it more complicated than that? I suppose I do need to integrate this though don't I?

Thanks in advance Roy.

EDIT:

As my thread title indicates, I am trying to get a definitive answer to this.
I have a Windows 7 SP1 ISO that I want to customise to include ALL the updates after SP1 to the current Security Only Quality Update.
I then want to create a new Windows 7 ISO to clean install.
This will reduce the many many hours of waiting for Windows Updates to download and install and the many many restarts needed, not to mention the number of times that Windows Update has to be run in order to get everything up to date.
I know that there will obviously be some updates to download and install.
Is the list of updates that I included in my initial post complete and correct and is this the right way to go about achieving this or am I totally wrong and well of base?
Do I need all of the updates or just some of them or more of them?
I was recommended to use DISM by a couple of members on this forum which is why I did a lot of research on the Internet by reading many articles and also watching YouTube videos.
I thought I had quite a good crasp until it all went wrong.

Good morning,

I have been doing some more research on this.

On one website it appears that the following updates should be installed:

• KB3020369 (April 2015 Servicing Stack Update).
• KB3125574 (April 2016 Convenience Update Rollup).

Then to install most of the other updates/patches between April 2016 and October 2016 include the following updates:

• KB2841134 (Internet Explorer 11, Optional).
• KB3172605 (July 2016 Functional Update Rollup) <--- THIS ONE IS IMPORTANT.
• KB3179573 (August 2016 Functional Update Rollup) <--- NOT included in my post #1 list.
• KB3177467 (September 2016 Servicing Stack Update) <--- NOT included in my post #1 list.
• KB3185330 (October 2016 Monthly Quality Rollup, contains September 2016 Functional Update Rollup) <--- NOT included in my post #1 list.

Then it suggests that the last update above can be REPLACED with the LATEST Security Only Quality Monthly Rollup. So this would mean replacing KB3185330 with KB4074587 (Security Only Quality Update – 2018 February).

Somewhere else I found that Microsoft have released a hotfix (KB3181988 - SFC integrity scan reports and fixes an error in the usbhub.sys.mui file in Windows 7 SP1) which fixes the SFC errors when you integrate the Convenience Update Rollup Update (KB3172605). Similar to your post #6 Roy.

I read that ONLY the KB3020369 and KB3125574 updates can be integrated using DISM and then you need to unmount and continue integrating the updates in a VM.

Would it be best to extract the .cab files from within the .msu files and use them instead. The thing is that there is usually more than one .cab file within the .msu files, so would I just use the biggest one?

One final point, I am testing this on my test machine which is a Windows Vista Ultimate SP2 Ultimate but I have the necessary WAIK, DISM etc installed.

There are so many different variations, opinions and fixes out there that I am beginning to think that I will never get a definitive answer to this.

Thanks in advance.

The people who I know that are the most knowledgeable about integrating like Murphy, Abbodi, Slave, Enthousiast and too many others to mention, can best be found by going to forums.mydigitallife. When I did multiple installs Weekly, I'd keep an up-to-date ISO, but as I'm not doing that anymore, I found since the wheel has already been invented, I don't need to try and invent it again.

The Simplix Pack for Windows 7 is updated every Month and excludes superseded or Telemetry related updates. It's also tested by the above mentioned MDL members as well as Mr.X who does the translations, and also Daz and other Mods on MDL. You can check which updates are included here: Google Translate Or if You'd prefer to keep track of the updates yourself, read the Repository thread on MDL by Abbodi.

Paul Black said:

I read that ONLY the KB3020369 and KB3125574 updates can be integrated using DISM and then you need to unmount and continue integrating the updates in a VM.

Click to expand...

??? I integrated many other things as well (offline I mean using dism)

I tested using a clean win 7 x64 SP1 iso

did the dism updating using a .bat file, from a win 7 x64 PE recovery environment (a small 160mb iso which I put on a bootable usb drive)
started with integrating service stack update, then a bunch of other small updates, then the convenience rollup, followed by the other smaller rollups in the few following months, then again a bunch of other small updates (including the "corrupt usb system file fix") , then the latest monthly cumulative rollup, and finally the newest service stack update kb3177467 (which must be integrated last cause for some reason NO ONE knows, it's impossible to integrate any other update offline using dism, after you've integrated kb3177467)

I made a new iso using the new install.wim just created, then made a virtual machine in virtualbox using that iso which installed just fine, and most importantly I ran sfc /verifyonly & it said no integrity violations were found (which means everything's ok & the installation went well right?)

What is the simplix pack? Is it used for updating windows? Please explain.

7point5,

7point5 said:

...did the dism updating using a .bat file, from a win 7 x64 PE recovery environment (a small 160mb iso which I put on a bootable usb drive). Started with integrating service stack update, then a bunch of other small updates, then the convenience rollup, followed by the other smaller rollups in the few following months, then again a bunch of other small updates (including the "corrupt usb system file fix") , then the latest monthly cumulative rollup, and finally the newest service stack update kb3177467 (which must be integrated last cause for some reason NO ONE knows, it's impossible to integrate any other update offline using dism, after you've integrated kb3177467)

Click to expand...

So are you saying that you only managed to get the new ISO that you made updated to October 2016?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

townsbg,

Funny enough I was investigating Simplex yesterday.
Besides the link kindly posted by Bat1 (thanks for that by the way), I came across this post:

https://forums.mydigitallife.net/th...egrate-hotfixes-into-win7-distribution.45005/

From what I can make out it basically includes ALL the updates needed for a clean install which you can integrate into the distribution (install.wim) either online or offline. It says it includes all critical, recommended, and security updates as well as updates for all versions of Internet Explorer and excludes telemetry updates. It is Forum based and the post is very long though. You do need to sign up which takes about one minute.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When I first started investigating (weeks ago now and I don't appear to be any closer) integrating the updates into the install.wim file and creating a new ISO to clean install I was of the understanding that this could be done fairly easily using DISM commands etc. My plan was working out until I tried to integarate KB3125574.

My ultimate aim was to customise the install.wim file by removing a handful of things using RTSe7enLite or similar, create a new ISO, then use the newly created ISO to integrate the updates (sounds easy I know).

I would now just be happy to be able to create a fully updated ISO (as much as possible) up until February 2018. I know that there will obviously be updates to do but no where near the hours and hours it takes to download and install the updates needed on a clean install and the numerous restarts that would be needed.

Enthousiast is i really great guy so if you run into any problems I'm sure he'll be willing to help you out. Enth also sufferers from OCT "Obsessive Compulsive Testing" Syndrome He also has the Knowledge, Equipment and Internet speed where He can download and test the Simplix Pack every Month while some of us are still downloading it while he's posting the results. Good Luck

Paul Black said:

So are you saying that you only managed to get the new ISO that you made updated to October 2016?

Click to expand...

more than october 2016 it was updated up to february 2018



ps. if you include the latest monthly rollup (like the one for february 2018) then - after the convenience superrollup - you only need to include KB3179573 & KB3172605 (july & august 2016)

so you can skip KB3185330 & KB3185278 (september & october 2016) which have been superseded by all the later rollups & thus avoiding bloating your install.wim unnecessarily

I know cause I tried installing KB3185330 & KB3185278 on an 2018-updated windows setup & it said "not applicable" (they install normally on a fresh SP1-only windows setup)

Thanks 7point5,

7point5 said:

ps. if you include the latest monthly rollup (like the one for february 2018) then - after the convenience superrollup - you only need to include KB3179573 & KB3172605 (july & august 2016).

So you can skip KB3185330 & KB3185278 (september & october 2016) which have been superseded by all the later rollups & thus avoiding bloating your install.wim unnecessarily

Click to expand...

OK, let me see if this is along the right track.

The updates that I need to install offline in a Windows 7 ISO using DISM are the following:

KB3020369 - April 2015 Servicing Stack Update.
(although it appears that KB3177467 supersedes KB3020369 and works as prerequisite of the Convienience Rollup Update).

KB3125574 - Convienience Rollup Update Package.

KB3181988 -

After installing the Convienience Rollup Update Package, every SFC integrity scan reported and fixed an error regarding this file:
%windir%\system32\drivers\en-US\usbhub.sys.mui

The issue occured because usbhub.sys.mui is referenced and linked in two winsxs components:
usb.inf.resources
usbport.inf.resources

Microsoft has solved this issue with the update KB3181988 that includes both components with a higher version:
usbport.inf.Resources 6.1.7601.23529
usb.inf.Resources 6.1.7601.23529

KB3172605 - July 2016 Functional Update Rollup Package.
KB3179573 - August 2016 Functional Update Rollup Package.
KB4074587 - Security Only Quality Update - 2018 February.

(1) Are these correct and in the correct order?
(2) Are there ANY other updates that need to be included.
(3) Can KB2841134 - IE11 be integrated offline, and if so, where in the above list
(4) Are there ANY prerequisites to KB2841134 - IE11?

Thanks very much in advance.

Thanks Bat 1,

Bat 1 said:

Enthousiast is a really great guy so if you run into any problems I'm sure he'll be willing to help you out.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the information and thumbs up, I appreciate it.

P.S. I like the OCT "Obsessive Compulsive Testing" Syndrome observation.

Paul Black said:

Thanks 7point5,



OK, let me see if this is along the right track.

The updates that I need to install offline in a Windows 7 ISO using DISM are the following:

KB3020369 ...

KB3125574 ...
KB3181988...
...

KB3172605 - July 2016 Functional Update Rollup Package.
KB3179573 - August 2016 Functional Update Rollup Package.

(1) Are these correct and in the correct order?

Click to expand...

yup

in fact I didn't even need to include KB3181988 anymore (maybe it was superseded by one of the many minor updates I included after the superrollup, or maybe by the latest monthly rollup itself, dunno)

about the last one in ur list:

KB4074587 - Security Only Quality Update - 2018 February.

Click to expand...

this is where I differ: I use the cumulative monthly updates not the security-only ones

notice that the security-only ones are very small compare to the cumulative ones & sometimes the next one's smaller then the previous one: that means they're not cumulative (they can't be unless the programmers @ MS use magic or something)
and that means if you go the security-only update route then you must install every quality update since the super-rollup without skipping a single one ^^

instead if you go the cumulative route & forget a monthly rollup then no biggie you can install the next one which automatically includes all the previous rollups post-KB3179573


so instead of KB4074587 I included the big kb4074598 instead

(2) Are there ANY other updates that need to be included.

Click to expand...

if u mean any minor updates in between the ones you listed then I can't answer I can only speak for myself & what worked on my config (both the virtualbox VM & my PC)
and by "worked" I mean the sfc /verifyonly command gave no errors if that's enough a test

KB3020369
KB2670838
KB917607
KB2639308
KB2547666
kb2698365
kb2598845
KB2729094-v2
kb2912390
KB2574819-v2
kb2900986
kb2894844
kb2862330-v2
KB2685811
KB2685813
kb3046269
KB3059317
KB3064209
kb3150220
kb3161958
kb3156016
kb3156019
KB3125574-v4
kb3172605
kb3179573
kb4074598
KB3184143
kb3161102
kb4019990
kb4054998
kb4018271
kb3177467

can't remember exacly what led me to make, this list but a lot of checking & cross-checking & even there there could be some redundancy

notice I didn't even put the kb4074598 rollup last I included other ones after that. iirc some are dotnet-related others have to do with disabling useless telemetry. I put them last just in case the last rollup reactivates them somehow hehe...
and the final in the list if the new service stack for some reason it's impossible to dism that one & then dism another update after that, go figure

(3) Can KB2841134 - IE11 be integrated offline, and if so, where in the above list
(4) Are there ANY prerequisites to KB2841134 - IE11?

Click to expand...

I didn't integrate IE11 so I dunno about that one (I use IE to download other browsers like firefox or opera. bleh)

but KB2841134 is not an update (not a msu or cab file) it's an .exe file so you can't integrate those anyway...???

Wow, thanks for the detailed answer 7point5, it is appreciated.

I will have a more thorough look later as I am just on my way out.

7point5 said:

I didn't integrate IE11 so I dunno about that one.
But KB2841134 is not an update (not a msu or cab file) it's an .exe file so you can't integrate those anyway...???

Click to expand...

You can extract the .cab from the .exe using 7-Zip or such like.

There is a .cab version of I.E.11 here in Post 1:

https://msfn.org/board/topic/159082-internet-explorer-11-updated-13022018/

I will have a proper look later to see which one needs to be downloaded and integrated.
It also references Updates since the release of IE11 (Only install KB4074736 if you haven't installed the security monthly rollup!) here.

https://support.microsoft.com/kb/4074736

Thanks in advance.

Paul Black said:

Wow, thanks for the detailed answer 7point5, it is appreciated.

Click to expand...

no prob I've OCT too

You can extract the .cab from the .exe using 7-Zip or such like.

Click to expand...

not that simple

for starters you can open the .exe file (I used the ie11-windows6.1-x64-en-us_ddec9ddc256ffa7d97831af148f6cc45130c6857.exe one, 53mb size) at least two different ways: with winrar & with 7zip

and the weird part is these 2 apps open that .exe in completely different way (they show radically different content)

from there it gets even weirder:

1) winrar only shows a content of 4 files: an xml file, a txt file & 2 cab files (one of which appears to be the "right" one: Windows6.3-KB2849696-x86.cab but it can't be cause it's way too small: only 1.6mb after decompression)
and since this wasn't weird enough: the combined size of these 4 files is nowhere near the size of the .exe file even after decompression

so winrar can't open it properly

2) 7zip shows a lot more files - shitloads of them actually including tons of folders like amd64_microsoft-jsintl.resources_31bf3856ad364e35_6.3.9600.16428_en-us_890c3bca68e856fa (each of them with only 1 file in them, sometimes a .dll & sometimes a .dll.mui file) and just as many .manifest files, plus some .cat files.................and it shows none of the files shown by winrar
on the plus size the total size is about 163mb when decompressed by 7zip so it fares a bit better than winrar, but unlike winrar 7zip doesn't show any .cab files inside the .exe

so 7zip can't open it properly either


so it seems there's no app that could properly open an IE11 .exe setup file
looks like MS somehow manage to make a self-extracting archive that shows different contents depending on the app used to open it, and each time never the correct content, and that...that is a mystery I bet no one here could explain *_*

Just a small update.

For information:

KB3020369 - April 2015 Servicing Stack Update.
KB3125574 - Convienience Rollup Update Package.
KB3177467 - Supersedes KB3020369.

As mentioned in my post #15 that KB3177467 supersedes/replaces KB3020369 this is true.
However, it is NOT suitable as a prerequisite for the offline installation of the KB3125574!

Also, I found a possible reason why I was successfully able to integrate KB3020369 and then it gave me an error when I tried to integrate KB3125574. I have read on a couple of sites that KB3125574 needs to be done as a seperate session. By this I assume that they mean once the KB3020369 has been applied and completed successfully then I need to Unmount and Re-Mount to continue? Or is there something else that I need to do?

Thanks in advance.