Farewell Patch Tuesday fragmentation: from October, MS will roll just one monthly patch

Re: reliability eh?

Convenient?

Sure, when it works.

But that's not the point - Microsoft are again moving to restrict our control of our own systems.

Re: reliability eh?

"I won't even go into what happens when MS want to pull another KB2952644, I guess you get the shit with the updates this way don't you."

At least for now they said the rollup is just for security updates for those of us not on 10 (though it should be noted that Windows 7, now in extended support, is only supposed to be getting security and bugfix updates now anyway, which are the kinds of updates we do want. We're not supposed to be getting new "features" like telemetry, adware, and such).

Win 10 does the "rollup" for everything, security and otherwise, and predicates future updates of all types on taking the previous installment. All or nothing.

The fact that you have to take the crap with the updates is one of the reasons so many of us rejected 10. The irony is that Microsoft's efforts to promote Windows 10, a product that offers no choice in updates, are the best demonstration I can imagine of why we need choice in updates.

Linux, as always, will be patched as soon as the updates become available; no waiting a month for MS to get around to providing a big monolithic update.

Re: reliability eh?

> so does this mean they will be testing patches thoroughly

Why start now? It's not exactly been a feature of theirs up to now..

Re: reliability eh?

I know they just want to roll telemetry and whatever else they want into my Win7/8 systems and I'm not going to tolerate it. Up until the step change with Windows 10 I used to be a big advocate for MS. I liked showing Mac guys my recording setup and how it blew theirs out of the water for about 60% of the price.

I loved Windows 8 when it came out, hell no - not the UI but the fact I got a legit upgrade to my old XP Pro system for £25 and I could make it run like a more efficient version of 7. I bought 3 more copies (including 1 full retail) for my new recording box which I did safe in the knowledge I could use this machine for everything and if there was an issue (had already been there with the file explorer issue on 8) I could solve it by hiding a problematic update. I avoided 10 like it was the bubonic plague with the forced updates policy being among the primary reasons.

They (MS) actually say on their website that they are doing this based on "feedback from users", I wonder who these users are and what their deal is? Me I am obviously some out of step control freak for wanting my box to a) work, b) not send my personal data to a company who (at the end of the day) only provide an OS for a computer which I have paid to licence.

They are out of control.

Re: Does this mean Windows Update won't 'think about it' for 15 minutes?

15 minutes - more like 8+ hours on one of my machines

You beat me to it.. Are we just all getting paranoid or do we know they are out to get us? Luckily I've got a laptop around that gets minimal use so I'll be using it as the sacrificial lamb to see what hits.

Re: And the bandwidth for this?

Well, you could always switch off updates, a luxury not available to victims of Windows 10.

Yeah, nice, little Operating system you have there. Would be a shame if anything happened to it...

And... I'm still wondering if all this 'Patch Tuesday' business is just some massive con job to allow MS to keep control over peoples' computers. Almost like a conspiracy between MS and these so called 'security researchers' to keep the Windows patch cycle running forever. Most of these alleged security issues are never seen in the wild anyway.

I have a friend who is using Windows 7 SP1 online and it has had no updates whatsoever installed since SP1 and he has never had a problem with viruses, malware, ransomware, etc. despite the fact that he goes to some fairly dodgy websites (warez) from time to time.

If MS start playing around with W7 updates (well, more than they have already) from October and Simplix suddenly won't work anymore (I'm sure MS would love to sabotage it or shut it down) then I won't be installing any more updates and I'll take my chances. A good system image made weekly with something like Macrium Reflect is better protection anyway in my opinion.