Windows 7 Troubleshooting Standalone Installer and Windows Updates on Laptop

[Fenway16]

I dl'd this to my laptop - it is called a standalone installer. Is that the patch? It says "searching for updates on this computer". Is that the right patch or what. Should I just let it run until it comes up with some updates. Honestly - my laptop hasn't received win updates for a looooong time. When I asked Microsoft about not receiving them last year, they told me I would get them when it was my turn -- or words to that effect. Thanks.

 

[Neemobeer]

The KB for MS17-010 typically will come through Windows update, you can download the stand alone patch from the update catalog.

You can find direct links to the patches from here Link Removed the left hand column contains the links based on the OS version and architecture.

 

[Fenway16]

The KB for MS17-010 typically will come through Windows update, you can download the stand alone patch from the update catalog.

You can find direct links to the patches from here Link Removed the left hand column contains the links based Ton the OS version and architecture.

That is the site I went to and downloaded. It opens as I described in my post. It is still running after half an hour. Is that what should be happening.?

 

[Neemobeer]

There's no definitive answer to give for how long an update will take. I've seen single updates take several hours.

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

Hi Fenway,
I happen to be working on a Customer's W7 laptop that hasn't been used for 6 mos. Her Avast AV program came up with this warning as a must-install security update to help stop the new Wanna Cry & WannaCrypt Ransomware virus that's all over the tv news this week that's infected 55,000 computers in 150 countries.
There are 1-2 other MS updates that also need to get put in as well. You should let those all come in and get installed as Neem said, or download them manually otherwise your machine is a prime target for these new viruses!

That's why you are getting the notice from MS which is overriding WU settings for people who don't want notifications of updates or don't want their computers updated period.

You should make sure all your personal data is backed up to external media before installing all these updates in case something goes wrong.

Let us know how it goes,
Best,
<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>

Sent from my VS986 using WindowsForum mobile app

 

[ragnarok1968]

@Fenway16 & @BIGBEARJEDI , I read in articles about this cyber attack that, in the UK the National Health service for their medical services had Windows XP systems that were NOT patched. The Health service didn't care to. which isn't surprising considering the OS hasn't been supported since April 2014. They should have moved to Windows 10. moving to 7 would be stupid as a government entity seeing how MSFT has been trying to kill off Windows 7 for average users. My alternative plan is to move to a Linux flavor that will allow me to produce videos for my youtube channel. If it comes to that.

there really isn't any excuse for such carelessness. But it also affected users in Asia too. I heard China took a heavy hit. Patch your OS the best you can and don't visit questionable websites. I downloaded EVERY critical update from MSFT for offline installations in the future.

-Rag

 

[nmsuk]

The NHS had no choice, the home secretary in 2015 cut all funding on their IT budget and security. Person who did that is our current prime minister.

 

[Fenway16]

Well -- all very interesting. As I said in my earlier post on this thread, I have not received ms security updates since July of 2016 - this in spite of my automatic update settings, and failing that, my "check for updates" input. Last year, I had a paid subscription to ms Help(????). I contacted them about not receiving updates and the tech guy basically told me I would get them in time and when they became available. I never did.

Monday, when I downloaded the MS17-010 - it did NOT install anything. It took about 45 minutes "searching for updates on this computer" -- when it stopped I checked the Win update page and nothing new was there. I turned to ms help again. The tech went to the same place I did, downloaded the same file that I did - same deal for her. No updates. She then did some remote jiggling around on the system and did a new download and it worked. I now have the patch for that problem. I asked her when the updates were downloading and installing, would this take care of any of the missing updates and would I be caught up? She replied, "yes". Well, don't know about that, tech, as there is nothing new there except the patch. It is not for a lack of trying to keep my laptop secure. I have tried. I am going to run it again today and see if I can get any other updates as needed. Bigbearjedi -- do you have the kb numbers of the other updates that I need? .

I have recently purchased a Chromebook to get away from Windows. I may try a Linux flavor on my Compaq laptop. It's all very frustrating. Thanks to all for input.

 

[Neemobeer]

@Fenway16 Microsoft changed the update model for Windows 7 and 8. Windows updates specifically do not come through the 'Windows Update' mechanism anymore you have to download and manually install the monthly rollup updates released on the update catalog site. You can find them with the search term 'Windows 7 security monthly' on the catalog site. Direct link Microsoft Update Catalog

 

[ragnarok1968]

@Fenway16 Microsoft changed the update model for Windows 7 and 8. Windows updates specifically do not come through the 'Windows Update' mechanism anymore you have to download and manually install the monthly rollup updates released on the update catalog site. You can find them with the search term 'Windows 7 security monthly' on the catalog site. Direct link Microsoft Update Catalog

thanks brother. I've bookmarked that page!

 

[kemical]

As they say it can pay to read the stickies..

Microsoft update changes for Windows 7 and 8.1

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

Well -- all very interesting. As I said in my earlier post on this thread, I have not received ms security updates since July of 2016 - this in spite of my automatic update settings, and failing that, my "check for updates" input. Last year, I had a paid subscription to ms Help(????). I contacted them about not receiving updates and the tech guy basically told me I would get them in time and when they became available. I never did.

Monday, when I downloaded the MS17-010 - it did NOT install anything. It took about 45 minutes "searching for updates on this computer" -- when it stopped I checked the Win update page and nothing new was there. I turned to ms help again. The tech went to the same place I did, downloaded the same file that I did - same deal for her. No updates. She then did some remote jiggling around on the system and did a new download and it worked. I now have the patch for that problem. I asked her when the updates were downloading and installing, would this take care of any of the missing updates and would I be caught up? She replied, "yes". Well, don't know about that, tech, as there is nothing new there except the patch. It is not for a lack of trying to keep my laptop secure. I have tried. I am going to run it again today and see if I can get any other updates as needed. Bigbearjedi -- do you have the kb numbers of the other updates that I need? .

I have recently purchased a Chromebook to get away from Windows. I may try a Linux flavor on my Compaq laptop. It's all very frustrating. Thanks to all for input.

>>>>You're welcome, fenway!! Sorry to hear about all your problems. I'm just running into those now, as Neem said MS changed their whole model during last year and did away with automatic updates on W7/W8x and older windows! That sucks for us repair Techs and IT folks who have to support those versions. I have a couple of other comments, but let me answer your question about the KB numbers you wanted.
(1.) KB4012212, 3/28/2017, 33.2MB; (2.) KB4012215, 3/12/2017, 145.5MB, and (3.) KB 4013389 (not currently available on Microsoft Update Catalog).
The bad news is that I tried to manually install both of these 2 KB's on my Customer's Dell Inpsiron 17 W7 laptop, multiple times; they fail to install repeatedly! I then tried to install both those 2 updates and 6 more updates found by WU (Windows Update) through the Check Updates feature. Also no Bueno! So, either the WU feature is broken on this laptop, or it's a hardware failure. I tested the Hard Drive and RAM memory and found them to be Ok. That's means it's either a borked W7 install (registry corruption), or something else like a virus/malware attacking the WU feature, of which they are many. Running virus scanners now, have yet to find anything that could do this.
Most other folks probably stopped reading this by now if they are searching for a quick fix.
To continue a bit more since we've talked before, I cannot guarantee that these KB's and Updates would work on a healthy machine with W7. However, I rebuilt this laptop back in Nov. 2016 and I took all precautions including erasing the entire hard drive prior to reinstalling W7. I then installed 5 layers of antivirus/antispyware/anti-rootkit/Bootkit protection and all required web updates (Adobe & Java), which is my standard load. Looking at this machine more now, I discovered that 2 of the antivirus/antispyware programs I always use were MISSING, presumably removed. Also, 3 missing web updates (Adobe Air, Adobe Shockwave, and Java). I know this Customer quite well, and I know for a fact she doesn't have anyone else work on her computers but me. AND, she does not even know how to remove programs from her computers; I've asked her to do it and she cannot! This means that some virus/malware purposely removed 5 programs from her laptop! I've been seeing this a lot lately; there are a lot of new viruses that target both AV/AS/Malware programs and disable or remove them as well needed Adobe & Java updates for web streaming media. Most of my previous Customers I haven't been sure about them removing these programs, as most of them can barely turn a PC on. However, this Customer does not know how to remove programs herself, and has never done so; until recently.
I cannot be certain about the behavior of the 2 new KB's from Microsoft Update Catalog until I cross-check it on one of my W7 test machines which I intend to do later this weekend. If I can get either or both of those KB's in that machine, then it might be that one of the viruses I found on this Customer's laptop removed these 5 programs and also attacked and disabled the WU. I haven't seen very much of that before, because it takes a very sophisticated virus to do this sort of thing. I'll post back on that result later. My point here is that if you are not aware of all the programs you have installed on your PC (and let's face it most people are not), or you don't have a paper list or a printed screenshot how will you know when those security programs or web updates are missing? Usually only professionals look for this sort of thing.
I've been suspecting this behavior from malware for a couple of years now, and that's another reason I make Macrium image file backups for every single machine I repair or install. Of course this takes up a lot of space and I'm up to about 13TB of external storage to do this. More and more PCs are coming in to my shop with this problem; so I believe it's beginning to be endemic. The real issue that's also being discussed on this thread is that MS is changing their support model on older windows versions (W7/W8x mostly) and have downgraded their weekly push-updates to W7/W8x to monthly, and also downgraded from automatic installation monthly to manual installation *which you are trying to do* monthly and each user or Tech has to now go and visit the MUC (Microsoft Update Catalog) and figure out all the necessary KB's and updates and rollups needed to properly secure a W7/W8x windows machine. The real issue is that MS is making it harder and harder to support these older windows OSes by making it more difficult to keep them secure. By the end of the year, I've already heard that updates on MUC for W7/W8x will go to quarterly (once every 3 months). Next year they may go to once a year and by 2019 they will begin to disappear entirely! The reason why MS is doing this is obvious to all of us; MS wants people, the 400 million or so folks who haven't switched to W10 to begin doing so to increase their revenue stream. If you take 400 million PCs and have people pay you $100 per PC for the W10 update (it's no longer free!), that's quite a bit of cash for them and I get that. $40 billion dollars is a lot of reasons to do just that.
I could be wrong about the current W7 situation, and the W8/W8.1 situation is already beginning to follow suit from what I've seen on the W10 AT upgrade.
So maybe Chromebook or Linux. I'm running Windows-Linux dual-boots and have been for 5 years for backup situations.
Hope that proves helpful; though I haven't finished nailing down my problem, but it could very well be unsolvable even if I wiped that Customer laptop and completely reinstalled W7 from scratch. <<<<

Best,
<<<BBJ>>>

 

[nmsuk]

Another unreadable post as the colours you've chosen clash with the dark theme. Are the colours really necessary?

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

No, I guess not. Sorry, forgot about people with high-end video systems. I'll see if I can fix that post and going forward.. Is the italicizing also a problem?

BBJ

 

[Neemobeer]

I think orange is a good color to highlight some point, seems to look fine on light and dark themes.

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

Done!

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

Thanks, Neem. I'll restrict that to important information only.

BBJ

 

[Fenway16]

Yikes...and thanks. Don't mean to be flippant, but yikes. Your input BBJ is always "deep" and instructive. This one was quite a lot to absorb but will review upon the morrow as they say somewhere. Also appreciate Neem's input.

If I could figure out how to download my chosen library books from my local library and then offload them to my mp3 player using Chrome I would be a happy old camper! Have discussed this with Acer Chromebook tech support and they say -- no go. Any thoughts Winows forum? Thanks again.