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back to article Quiet May Patch Tuesday follows record April

Microsoft is giving hard-pressed sysadmins a bit of a breather this month with plans to release only two updates during the May edition of its regular Patch Tuesday monthly update cycle. Just one of the two bulletins due to be published next Tuesday covers a critical update, in sharp contrast to the record-breaking crop of 17 …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    and why the hell...

    ...is Microsoft pushing out IE9 as a "critical" update? meaning it will automatically install on any machine with automatic updates set?

    Doesn't this completely negate the "Browser Choice" crap that was all the rage earlier in the year?

    OK so my client machines and servers don't have automatic updates enabled, but it's still a pain hiding the IE update on each machine.

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    1. David 18
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      Re: and why the hell...

      Agree with the sentiments entirely but is there any reason you are causing yourself the admin headache of not using WSUS?

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      1. Anonymous Coward
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        Anonymous Coward

        cost!

        Perhaps anonymous doesn't want to have to install Server 2003 (or better) to run it.

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    2. Ken Hagan Gold badge
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      Re: "critical" updates

      I've just taken half a dozen test systems out of cold storage (er, ghosts) and run them all through Windows Update. I note that the same patches are sometimes considered critical and sometimes merely recommended, apparently depending on the target OS. I also note that although IE9 is part of the "critical" list, it is not selected for installation by default, unlike nearly every other critical patch. (Patches for VS2005 and VS2010 runtime libraries are similarly critical-in-name-only.)

      I haven't found a case where a "recommended" patch is ticked by default. Even so, I think someone at MS needs to look up "critical" in the dictionary. What's the point of ticking the "automatically install all critical updates" box if you have to manually check the blasted thing afterwards?

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    3. Sureo
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      IE9

      IE9 is an 'important' update on my Win7 system and has been sitting there for some time since I have been ignoring it.

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @david 18

    Because I don't want the admin headache which is WSUS ;-)

    And, as theodore sort of guessed, the bean-counters won't stump up the cash to do it properly with a dedicated server and a domain environment - "it's only the office network"!!

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    1. ZweiBlumen
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      FAIL

      @AC

      Where's the headache in using automated windows updates? I have it set on all 3 PCs I use as well as the 7 individual servers I administrate and have never had a problem once.

      And as for IE9 being a critical update: this is not true. It is a recommended update and will not install without you ticking it in the updates screen.

      Stop spreading FUD.

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      1. Anonymous Coward
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        Anonymous Coward

        not spreading FUD

        Every machine I have been on recently has had this update pre-ticked.

        You are right, it's not a "critical" update, it's an "important" update, but it WILL automatically install without user intervention... it has done it on a number of my users machines when they ran windows update without me telling them to.

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