Microsoft’s Delay Of This Month’s Security Patch Bundle Makes Little Sense

[Lucian Armasu]

Microsoft delayed the whole February patch bundle until March, leaving Windows users vulnerable to potentially dozens of security vulnerabilities that could have been fixed this month.

Microsoft’s Delay Of This Month’s Security Patch Bundle Makes Little Sense : Read more

 

[ethanolson]

I'm kinda relieved. My Server 2016 installs have been barking constantly about updates. Maybe I'll have a break for a bit.

 

[Math Geek]

considering they chose to "patch" win 10 with a full many GB iso file each and every time. a single problem would stop the whole thing from coming out. sucks but how they been doing it since win 10 came out.

they are playing with individual patches like we were used to in the past with the insider builds and they said all should shift back to them after the next big public update in april. we shall see. we are seeing smaller updates as insiders at times, others are full isos still, so hopefully this trend will continue forever.

was funny when they made the announcement to the insiders. they made it out like it was this new awesome idea they just came up with. no mention of the fact that this was how we got updates since windows has come out. wonder how much of a bonus some exec got for that brilliant idea he had!!!

 

[ah]

Since upgrade to Windows 10, I've had a lot of issues. Finally I decided to have a clean install 2 weeks ago. Now, my system cannot do a restore point, nor undo it. Technicians from ms support remotely access my computer trying to resolve the issue, after 2 hours they gave up. Now I'm having a paid technician come to my place this afternoon. Thank u very much

 

[alextheblue]

A lot of very vocal people (including some journalists) are practically flipping out over this. Personally, I don't think it's a big enough deal to warrant more than a raised eyebrow.

 

[tomhreader]

Once I install a windows operating system, I freeze it as it is, I put a firewall on it and block all updates, shutdown all services calling to microsoft and make a disk image backup. If something breaks, in 5 minutes I have the system back as it was when I installed it.

 

[JamesSneed]

There is a lot of hoopla for not knowing. Could this just be they did all there regression testing with this patch, found an issue, and realized when they back it out it could have other implications? Now they don't have time to retest, so they are pulling everything?

 

[2Be_or_Not2Be]

Once I install a windows operating system, I freeze it as it is, I put a firewall on it and block all updates, shutdown all services calling to microsoft and make a disk image backup. If something breaks, in 5 minutes I have the system back as it was when I installed it.

That's a bad practice. That means you can get compromised by every exploit that happens after you've "frozen" your image. You may not even know you've been compromised with how deeply & quietly some malware can operate. Blocking all updates is a terrible idea for any OS, and should never be endorsed or recommended.

The only way you could justify never updating at all is the PC is never connected to any network or the Internet, and it can't be accessed externally.

 

[tomhreader]

Once I install a windows operating system, I freeze it as it is, I put a firewall on it and block all updates, shutdown all services calling to microsoft and make a disk image backup. If something breaks, in 5 minutes I have the system back as it was when I installed it.

That's a bad practice. That means you can get compromised by every exploit that happens after you've "frozen" your image. You may not even know you've been compromised with how deeply & quietly some malware can operate. Blocking all updates is a terrible idea for any OS, and should never be endorsed or recommended.

The only way you could justify never updating at all is the PC is never connected to any network or the Internet, and it can't be accessed externally.

Never had (at least until now) any problems. As I said I use a firewall, only entry point in my system is the browser, which I regularly update and protect it with malwarebyte anti-exploit.

 

[Guest]

Windows 10 is just a train wreck. Windows 7 Update was never broken until they purposely slowed down update servers. In my opinion Windows 10 won't live long. OS is too buggy, unpredictable, and often causes compatibility issues with new updates or things simply break. By 2020 shareholders will have something to say about it.

 

[2Be_or_Not2Be]

Once I install a windows operating system, I freeze it as it is, I put a firewall on it and block all updates, shutdown all services calling to microsoft and make a disk image backup. If something breaks, in 5 minutes I have the system back as it was when I installed it.

That's a bad practice. That means you can get compromised by every exploit that happens after you've "frozen" your image. You may not even know you've been compromised with how deeply & quietly some malware can operate. Blocking all updates is a terrible idea for any OS, and should never be endorsed or recommended.

The only way you could justify never updating at all is the PC is never connected to any network or the Internet, and it can't be accessed externally.

Never had (at least until now) any problems. As I said I use a firewall, only entry point in my system is the browser, which I regularly update and protect it with malwarebyte anti-exploit.

I understand the intent, but your vulnerability to exploits increases every day you ignore security patches. That's because new exploits are created all the time, and that means the number of things to which you are vulnerable increases consequentially if you're not patching.

A firewall won't stop malware that hits you through ad networks, nor will it stop anything that might hit you through downloads or social networks. Malwarebytes can detect quite the number of bad stuff, but often that's only AFTER you were affected. You could have keyloggers or other things that have disabled your protection & are merrily running in the background, recording and transmitting all of your passwords. All because it got into your system through a browser exploit that wasn't patched or an unpatched system vulnerability attacked through a file download.

I can understand being wary of automatic patches & trying to understand what is going on before installing some patches, but never patching is a terrible idea and should NEVER be encouraged.

 

[USAFRet]

Once I install a windows operating system, I freeze it as it is, I put a firewall on it and block all updates, shutdown all services calling to microsoft and make a disk image backup. If something breaks, in 5 minutes I have the system back as it was when I installed it.

This is why MS made updates with Win 10 mostly non-negotiable.

Millions of unpatched XP/Vista/7/8 systems...all clueless parts of the global botnet. Dumping petabytes/sec of spam (and worse), screwing up the entire internet for the rest of us.

 

[tomhreader]

Once I install a windows operating system, I freeze it as it is, I put a firewall on it and block all updates, shutdown all services calling to microsoft and make a disk image backup. If something breaks, in 5 minutes I have the system back as it was when I installed it.

That's a bad practice. That means you can get compromised by every exploit that happens after you've "frozen" your image. You may not even know you've been compromised with how deeply & quietly some malware can operate. Blocking all updates is a terrible idea for any OS, and should never be endorsed or recommended.

The only way you could justify never updating at all is the PC is never connected to any network or the Internet, and it can't be accessed externally.

Never had (at least until now) any problems. As I said I use a firewall, only entry point in my system is the browser, which I regularly update and protect it with malwarebyte anti-exploit.

I understand the intent, but your vulnerability to exploits increases every day you ignore security patches. That's because new exploits are created all the time, and that means the number of things to which you are vulnerable increases consequentially if you're not patching.

A firewall won't stop malware that hits you through ad networks, nor will it stop anything that might hit you through downloads or social networks. Malwarebytes can detect quite the number of bad stuff, but often that's only AFTER you were affected. You could have keyloggers or other things that have disabled your protection & are merrily running in the background, recording and transmitting all of your passwords. All because it got into your system through a browser exploit that wasn't patched or an unpatched system vulnerability attacked through a file download.

I can understand being wary of automatic patches & trying to understand what is going on before installing some patches, but never patching is a terrible idea and should NEVER be encouraged.

You don't seem to be very familiar with firewalls. If the exploit is not targeted at the firewall itself, a firewall will detect any suspicious process, those not allowed to run or not allowed to connect to internet... My firewall is always on custom settings.

I do not recommend either to inexperienced users to not update their system.

 

[tomhreader]

Once I install a windows operating system, I freeze it as it is, I put a firewall on it and block all updates, shutdown all services calling to microsoft and make a disk image backup. If something breaks, in 5 minutes I have the system back as it was when I installed it.

This is why MS made updates with Win 10 mostly non-negotiable.

Millions of unpatched XP/Vista/7/8 systems...all clueless parts of the global botnet. Dumping petabytes/sec of spam (and worse), screwing up the entire internet for the rest of us.

Mostly ... but not with me. I prefer to have total control of my system, I don't like when my OS is doing unknown shit in background.

 

[Roger Wilco]

Makes little sense?
Hmmm, I'm losing faith in you Toms Hardware. It's already bad enough you've become a billboard for ads EVERYWHERE, now you're showing a bit of ignorance on patches..

 

[surphninja]

The lack of transparency and abundance of boneheaded decisions from this company in the past 10 years is getting ridiculous. Thank goodness for Microsoft that there's no solid competitor for them right now, because anyone competent would've been able to shut them down.