Windows: Update issues and –re-releases October 2018

[German]Microsoft has re-released its Flash October 2018 update for Windows 10 V1809. There are probably issues with the metadata of the Windows 7-October 2018 updates. And in the Microsoft Update Catalog there are new update packages with the date October 15, 2018. Here is an overview.

Since a few hours actually the C-Day for updates has passed at Microsoft. An update search under Windows 7 SP1 as well as on the web on Microsoft's KB pages didn't actually result in anything new. But there are things to report.

Oddities in the Windows 7 Updates (10/09/2018)

I'll add it here for my English-speaking blog readers. The updates of October 9, 2018 for Windows 7 SP1 have some oddities. 

Update KB4462923 for Windows 7 SP1 pulled?

Within this forum thread Woody Leonhard reported, that Microsoft has pulled update KB4462923 (Rollup Update Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, October 9, 2018). The reactions of the commentators are different – for some the update was still available during the last days, for others it was no longer found during an update search.

But it was noticed several times: The update KB4462923 is now offered as an important update on machines where it appears during the update search, but without a marked checkbox. Can anyone confirm this?

Metadat issue with Windows 7 updates

Within this article at Askwoody Susan Bradley reports installation issues with the Servicing Stack Update (SSU) KB3177467 for Windows 7 SP1. Microsoft had announced a re-release of this update for October 2018, because otherwise there were installation problems with rollup updates.

KB3177467-V2 was released for the patchday (October 9, 2018). Last weekend Susan Bradley tried to install the October 2018 update on her company computers with Windows 7 SP1. After a few hours she discovered that none of the Windows 7 machines had received the October 2018 security update.

The reason was that the October security update depends on the installation of KB3177467. This update KB3177467 was not installed either. This is consistent with comments in my German blog, where people stated that the update KB3177467-V2 was only found after all October 2018 updates had already been installed. 

Susan Bradley notes that she installed KB3177467 from 2016 on the machines. Her conclusion: The whole update process is quite broken under Windows 7 SP1.

Updates from October 15, 2018

Searching the Microsoft Update Catalog I recognized a couple of updates with release date 10/15/2018.

• 2018-10 Security Monthly Quality Rollup for Windows Server 2008 R2 for x64-based Systems (KB4462923)
• 2018-10 Security Monthly Quality Rollup for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems (KB4462923)
• 2018-10 Security Monthly Quality Rollup for Windows Embedded Standard 7 for x86-based Systems (KB4462923)
• 2018-10 Security Monthly Quality Rollup for Windows Embedded Standard 7 for x64-based Systems (KB4462923)
• 2018-10 Security Monthly Quality Rollup for Windows 7 for x86-based Systems (KB4462923)
• 2018-10 Security Monthly Quality Rollup for Windows Server 2008 R2 for Itanium-based Systems (KB4462923)

The updates had already been released on October 9th. I didn't check whether something changed or only metafiles were updated.

Flash update KB4462930 released again

Searching the Microsoft Update Catalog the update for Adobe Flash Player for Windows is partially issued with the date October 16, or with the revision date October 15. The KB article still refers to October 9, 2018.

Colleagues at German site deskmodder.de write here that the update has become 4 KB smaller. Furthermore the update in the .mum manifest files for Windows 10 LTSC versions and the evaluation versions will be released.