Win7 updates for upgrading to Win10

[Per Hansson]

Re: Win7 updates for upgrading to Win10

Well that was not my intention of the thread, my intention was so you'd know which updates to skip if you don't want the free Win10 upgrade offer.
Simply not ticking the checkbox "Give me recommended updates the same way I receive important updates" in Windows Update (it's off by default).
Will mean that all these updates show up under the "optional updates" category:
And thus they wont be installed without user intervention, simple as that

[momaka]

Re: Win7 updates for upgrading to Win10

Nice thread, thank you for sharing all of that information.

I just set up a laptop for my uncle with Windows 7 on it and was wondering if I should update it or not before giving it to him. But after reading this thread, I guess I won't. Security holes be damned!

[Per Hansson]

Re: Win7 updates for upgrading to Win10

Those two are the main ones for doing the Win10 upgrade: KB2952664 is updated continuously (now at version 13) to provide compatibility fixes for the upgrade.
And KB3035583 gives you the actual tray icon in the taskbar for offering you the free upgrade to Windows 10, unless your computer is part of a domain; then it's not offered.

But I'm not sure I would call them the "root of all evil"
Because if you look at the other updates I've written they provide "telemetry" data.
That is they are what scan your system for compatibility problems, so that Microsoft can revise the KB2952664 update to fix upgrade issues that they detect.
They can also provide fixes for other updates that these telemetry updates locate.
Note in particular how this month two new ones where added, one related to the UAC prompt.

So in my view it's actually these other updates that are "the root of all evil" because they are what send data back to Microsoft...

[Topcat]

Re: Win7 updates for upgrading to Win10

Ok, so is the root of all evil still these two updates?

KB2952664 and 3035583

If those are not installed, system is safe? True or False?

[Per Hansson]

Re: Win7 updates for upgrading to Win10

lti: I had the exact same experience.
What's good though is that I learned something new in the process:
Revised updates need to have all their revisions uninstalled.
And there is no way to see which revision you have in the "programs & features" console.
The no-reboot requirement is probably due to the fact that the first revisions did not need to change so much in Windows, thus not requiring a restart...

I just booted up an old install of Win7 I had on a RAID5 array that I replaced some months ago.
It had the first version of update KB2952664 listed in WindowsUpdate.log it was dated April 2014...
It had after that installed up to version 3, no reboot was required to uninstall it, and only one uninstall was enough.

[lti]

Re: Win7 updates for upgrading to Win10

I uninstalled KB2952664 yesterday, and it seems to be gone now. Strangely, I only had to restart after the first three uninstall attempts.

[lti]

Re: Win7 updates for upgrading to Win10

I had to uninstall KB2952664 four times.

After KB3035583 installed itself, I configured Windows Update to not install recommended updates automatically. These updates won't install automatically unless they are marked as important. I also check the list of available updates to make sure none of these updates are selected.

[stj]

Re: Win7 updates for upgrading to Win10

wouldnt using a diff browser be safer!

[Per Hansson]

Re: Win7 updates for upgrading to Win10

No the IE fix only patches IE related files, apply it immediately if you actually use IE, as it's used in exploited advertising networks etc, so simply visiting any website could be game over, since they buy their AD's from a network...

[stj]

Re: Win7 updates for upgrading to Win10

do the "emergency" patches just released have any relation to this junk?

[Per Hansson]

Re: Win7 updates for upgrading to Win10

Updated the OP for Augusts "patch tuesday"
I added two patches: KB3075249 & KB3080149 that are related to Telemetry...

I also moved some off topic posts to the more relevant thread "more win10 stuff"
Please try to stay on-topic.

[Per Hansson]

Re: Win7 updates for upgrading to Win10

Saw the telemetry in action on my parents PC today, it's a Dimension 9200: Socket 775 with a Xeon X3230 CPU (2.66Ghz 8MB cache) 3GB memory and two 500GB 7200RPM HDD's in RAID-1
Firefox felt sluggish, it's running Win7 SP1 with all updates applied.
Fired up Process Explorer and saw that CompatTelRunner.exe (Microsoft Compatibility Telemetry) was causing allot of disk I/O.
So yea, unless you are intending to do the free upgrade probably best to just uninstall those updates listed in my OP...
The file is included in the update KB2952664 which gets constantly revised. (Currently at revision 13 as said previously).

Also I found out that this particular update has a version that is compatible with Win7 RTM: KB2977759
All the updates I've listed in my OP require SP1, and Microsoft has said the same when it comes to upgrading from Win7 to Win10 (requires SP1)
I found a list of what it checks on my work laptop on which I have deleted all those Windows updates in a leftover Temp folder.
Basically it's information about the hardware and all installed software, so the system can advice what things you need to upgrade etc for compatibility with Win10.

[Topcat]

Re: Win7 updates for upgrading to Win10

if they stay as optional only, I'm fine with that. I never install optionals unless I know exactly what they do.

[diif]

Re: Win7 updates for upgrading to Win10

didnt microfuck change it to an "important" category recently?

Not on my PC although i have seen it on a couple.

[Per Hansson]

Re: Win7 updates for upgrading to Win10

There where certainly some reports of that, in any case right now on my system all those updates I've listed are shown as optional...
Keep in mind there is also an option in Windows Update to show optional updates as important updates...

[stj]

Re: Win7 updates for upgrading to Win10

didnt microfuck change it to an "important" category recently?

[diif]

Re: Win7 updates for upgrading to Win10

When you install Win 7, select important updates only. Then there will be no sign of Windows 10 and the updates that are listed above will all remain Optional.

Disabling important updates is unnecessary and a bad idea, there are far to many exploits that rely on an unpatched Windows.

[Per Hansson]

Re: Win7 updates for upgrading to Win10

KB2952664 keeps appearing in Windows Update, even though it's already installed. Updating the updates could explain that. Also, it won't uninstall. Attempting to uninstall it just causes the date it was installed on to change.

You might need to uninstall it up to 13 times, since removing for example the latest KB2952664-v13 update would mean going back to KB2952664-v10 if you had previously installed that update.
Please try it and see if I'm correct, it's only a theory
EDIT: I saw the same thing as you on my company laptop, I had to uninstall 5 editions of KB2952664 and then it finally does not show up as installed anymore

[stj]

Re: Win7 updates for upgrading to Win10

so "telemetry" is ms new word for spying i see.

[Topcat]

Re: Win7 updates for upgrading to Win10

anymore, I do Win7 SP1 and then disable all updates thereafter. so sad that windows has come to this.