Dave-H

Yes, one of my machines needed the switch to get a full install, the other one didn't. Strangely it was the relatively basic single processor machine that needed the switch, not the more complex dual processor one!

My friend's PC has an AMD Athlon II P320 processor. The registry key is present, and I assume it was added by Norton 360. No BSODs (touch wood!)

Perhaps the furore around Meltdown and Spectre made them look more closely at related things generally, and they found a whole nest of security bugs that hadn't been addressed before! As an off-topic aside again, I applied the Patch Tuesday updates to a friend's Windows 7 machine this morning, and for the first time ever, although it prompted for a reboot as usual, there was no "installing updates, don't switch off your computer" progress prompt either before shutdown or after reboot as there normally is. That was very strange, but I don't know if it's significant. It does say that all the updates installed successfully.

So what exactly was it for then? Surely you don't release an out of sequence update to fundamental system files which haven't been updated for ten years, like ntfs.sys, unless there's a very critical reason for doing so!

Still way off-topic, but in case anyone was wondering about the non-updating of my Windows 8.1 installation, I read that MS are not rolling out the patch for Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 for normal installations until the normal Patch Tuesday (tomorrow). Only those on the WSUS channel will get it now. I'm not quite sure that I believe that as a friend's Windows 7 machine was offered the update, several days ago, and he certainly isn't on the WSUS channel! All a bit strange, but as there was still no sign of the update from Windows Update on my machine I downloaded and applied the KB4056898 patch manually to my Windows 8.1 installation today anyway, with no apparent ill effects. Strangely I could find no mention of this in the Windows 8/8.1 forum here.

That's good to hear @SD73! As far as I'm concerned, if Microsoft Update says that there are no patches needing to be installed, I've always been happy with that, even though the yellow shield still sometimes sticks in the system tray. I've had that happen many times before, and usually the shield eventually goes away. This time I eventually tried installing the patch again from the yellow shield, but it just went through the motions very quickly, I don't think it actually did anything, and then it disappeared, for good I hope until the next lot of updates, which I assume are still expected in a couple of days time.

Thanks, but I already managed to fully install the patch as I detailed earlier. I am an administrator on the machine anyway, and it still didn't fully install because of some OEM incompatibility which I had to over-ride to get all the files replaced.

@glnz NTKRPAMP.EXE and NTKRNLMP.EXE aren't in \System32 on my system either, so I assume that's normal. @SD73 It could be my internet security software stopping the update (Trend), but the same security software (albeit an earlier version) is independently installed on the XP side of the machine, and that didn't stop it being offered there. Mind you, the registry key isn't there either on XP! Anyway, I thought that adding the registry key manually, if your internet security software vendor didn't do it for you, should over-ride that and allow WU to offer it anyway. Trend have said they will not be adding the key for people, but their software is compatible and they've given instructions on how to add it yourself. This does not seem to be happening however, which is a bit puzzling.

Well the XP side of my netbook still seems to be OK, thank goodness. I'm still puzzled as to why before the over-ride switch was added the patch didn't update two files in the \System32 folder, but did update the equivalents in the \DLLCache folder. That makes no sense at all to me! Just another very quick query, which is of course completely off-topic here. The 8.1 side of my netbook is stubbornly refusing to detect that it needs the update, despite me adding the necessary registry key which should allow Windows Update to offer it. I've scanned several times manually, and it still obstinately says "no updates available". Anyone any quick suggestions as to why that might be? Thanks, Dave.

Hi, back again! I tried running the KB4056615 installer using the /overwriteoem switch, and this time it updated all the files correctly. No adverse effects noticed so far, touch wood! I've still got a yellow shield in the system tray telling me it needs to be installed, but a scan on MS Update now comes up clean, so I'm assuming the shield will eventually go away. It does stick around for a while sometimes on some updates anyway. I'm not sure whether reading recent post that the update was necessary for me anyway. My main machine is X5460 Xeons, and the netbook is an Atom N2800.

@dencorso @cdob Thanks guys, but the problem is not with my dual processor machine, which updated fine, it's with my netbook, which is a pretty basic single processor machine.

Yep, that's exactly what's in the log! Will try using the over-ride switch later. I do have an ISO backup!

NTKRNLPA.EXE is the problem. If I just manually substitute NTOSKRNL.EXE the system still boots fine. I will do a grab of my Device Manager and check the log later on. At first glance i don't think my problem machine has much in common with SD73's!

Same for me. I tried using the standalone installer, same result, and again in Safe Mode, same result. I then tried the nuclear option of booting into Windows 8.1 (it's a dual boot machine) and manually substituting NTKRNLPA.EXE and NTOSKRNL.EXE in the \System32 folder with the (later) versions in the \DLLCache folder. The result of that was that the machine wouldn't boot at all, just hanging on a black screen! Don't know what to try next.

@SD73 I've just checked and I now know why KB4056615 is repeatedly installing. Whatever the system says, it hasn't actually installed completely! NTKRNLPA.EXE in my \System32 folder is still version 5.1.2600.7259, and so is NTOSKRNL.EXE. The versions in the \DLLCache folder are correct, and all the other files are correct everywhere. I'm going to try the standalone installer, and if that doesn't work either, I'll try in Safe Mode. I guess the files aren't being replaced because of some access problem.

Hmm, I'm getting the same problem on my netbook, although it hasn't happened on my main machine. KB4056615 keeps saying it need to be installed when it already is installed! I seems to remember this was a common problem with updates years ago, that some would just not "stick", but I haven't seen it for a very long time.

Both updates installed fine here, and there seem to be no problems. Scanned and found them very fast too, which was good! According to my system file tracker, the files replaced were - ATMFD.DLL version 5.1 Build 252 to 5.1 Build 253 NTKRNLPA.EXE version 5.1.2600.7259 to 5.1.2600.7392 NTOSKRNL.EXE version 5.1.2600.7259 to 5.1.2600.7392 NTKRPAMP.EXE version 5.1.2600.7259 to 5.1.2600.7392 NTKRNLMP.EXE version 5.1.2600.7259 to 5.1.2600.7392 NTFS.SYS version 5.1.2600.5512 to 5.1.2600.7392 (the former was from 2008!) I use Trend Internet Security, and the registry key referred to earlier has not been added to my system. I'm using Firefox 52.5.3ESR quite happily. Is there a later patched version then, or is that it?

Well I'm not holding my breath for any patches for my 2009 motherboard and processors!

Just got the update on my Windows 10, which just uses the built-in Windows Defender. It will be interesting to see if we get another update in a weeks time when it should have been! No sign of anything for POSReady/XP as yet on Microsoft Update.

That whole message was just spam? Shows how perceptive I am about that sort of thing! I guess it was just to get you to go to moviesonline.gy?

@yazzie03 Why have you got exactly the same signature as me, surely we can't possibly have identical machines!

The last full version of AutoPatcher was released in December 2007. The file is 286MB. Subsequently an update was released in December 2008, which should be 45.3MB. You cannot use that by itself, install the full version first, and then the update.

Indeed so!

I have no idea what you mean by that!

Well this month everything seems to be back to normal! It says "x64-based" again in the label for the Cumulative Update instead of "amd64-based", and the Malicious Software Removal Tool entry looks normal again now too. I guess last month was a one-off glitch!