KB3000850 - BIG update - Windows 8.1.2?

[NoelC]

Yeah, but a strategy of "keeping up to date" is largely good... 

 

What versions of OS files do you think new work will be more tested with?  Frankly, Microsoft making their big updates optional is another "penny wise and pound foolish" mistake they're making. 

 

It's really a ticking time bomb.  How does a company manage essentially multiple different distributions of an OS in the field?  By adding more talented people to the test organization?  What are the chances of that?

 

Perhaps they want people to get into trouble by mixing and matching OS files, so that Windows 10 looks all the more attractive when the time comes.

 

-Noel

[truexfan81]

i used to use avast, i removed it when it became nag ware, always bugging me "try this product" "try this new addon" etc

[Starraider]

I had to make a fresh new install of Win 8.1, because i bought a new SSD, after installing all Updates including the big KB 3000850, i`ve installed StartIsBack+ 1.7, Aero Glass 1.3.1 and everything works fine, also my Avast Internet Security does not make any Problems but as i wrote, i`ve installed everything fresh after installing all Windows Updates.

[NoelC]

Yeah, Avast has corrected the specific incompatibility.  They still slow things down a lot in the latest version, though.

 

If you have I/O critical things you do, test with and without Avast so that you know what the impact is.

 

-Noel

[hj_fr]

Hi,

Does the november update (KB3000850) replace/supersede the august update (KB2975719) ?

What to do in a fresh install (udpate 1 -> august update -> november update or just update 1 -> november update) ?

[NoelC]

No, I have not heard specifically that the November update supersedes any particular prior set of updates.

 

I think you'll want to do whatever Windows Update delivers to you (which is probably to install them all). 

 

-Noel

[gull_s_777]

new ISOs are up on MSDN with this update and many others pre-integrated

[osRe]

Yes. Looks like this is Win8 SP3.

So, now that's out for a while, any benefits or problems?

[NoelC]

Can't say I've seen too much in the way of benefits or problems with it.  Seems to just work.  Right now I'm running on my current bootup 10 days of heavy use on my fully updated workstation without any problems.  A Subversion Server update installation mandated that reboot; before that it ran a couple of weeks without trouble.

 

 

 

The System Event Log is pretty clean.  Used to be my nightly System Image backup jobs at 2 am would log occasional errors, but that seems to have stopped.

 

 

 

Careful benchmarking (which I do after every update and software installation to keep abreast of problems) shows it to be no faster than its predecessors...  In fact one particular measurement got quite a bit slower with the last big update:  As of the November update, Direct 2D has dropped to about half its former speed (Passmark PerformanceTest reading dropped from 17.6 to 8.0).  I am not sure if anything I use actually does any Direct 2D so it's not been a problem.  I've not noticed anything I do slowing down.

 

Based on observation I think the latest Win 8.1 uses a little more RAM (per Task Manager) while it sits idle, but it fluctuates, and I have enough RAM that I'm never really pushing limits, so for me this is a non-problem as well.  If it's found something good to do with the RAM (e.g., increased file system caching) I'm happy it's using it.

 

If it's at all interesting to you, here's a sequence of benchmark results, showing recent months, then the various major Windows 8.1 updates, and one measurement done with Windows 7.  These are listed older to newer from top to bottom, with my last Windows 7 benchmark at the top and my most recent Windows 8.1 benchmark (with all updates) at the bottom.  Note that the overall performance trend is for the worse as time goes on.  Microsoft is certainly not making things faster as time goes on, regardless of their marketing hype.

 

 

 

 

 

-Noel

[osRe]

Thanks. A radical change in that Direct2D test. Any other D2D benchmarks? There's also that Disk Mark showing large differences.

I think I'll hold off for the time being. I dislike large updates, and this one doesn't seem to bring anything beneficial.

[NoelC]

The Disk Mark test has jumped around a bit more than I like over the past year, though it has done so much less lately I since I've resolved performance issues stemming from Avast antivirus.  I completely ditched Avast at the beginning of December and have been getting more consistent 11,000+ readings since then. 

 

As an example, I build several of my software products completely from sources into 32 and 64 bit executables in about 30 seconds now.  It was 30 seconds early last year, but late in the year got much worse (almost a full minute).  That led me to a root cause analysis that pinpointed recent changes in Avast's product for the worse.  Fortunately I had done benchmarks around the time I installed Win 8.1 at the end of 2013 with and without Avast, which at the time showed Avast to be a little faster at doing its job than Windows Defender.  That's WAY different now.

 

Operationally my I/O subsystem feels back to its former self, so I don't think that was Microsoft's doing.

 

-Noel

[osRe]

Maybe another variable influenced that 2D score? Or did you also check the score immediately pre-update?

[NoelC]

It's possible.  I don't always check immediately before and after, just after, but I'd give better than even odds it's update-related.  I don't recall changing much else around that time.

 

The very same thing happened once earlier in the year at the time of a Windows Update, and at the time as I recall Microsoft had said something fundamental was done to change Direct 2D.  Then soon thereafter another update came along and sped the performance back up again.  Maybe it was tied to one of the updates they ended up having to back out for another reason, then finally put back in.

 

Like I said, it doesn't seem to affect what I normally do at all.

 

-Noel

[osRe]

There's nothing quite like the interplay of an endless number of 1st and 3rd party subsystems and pieces of software that change behind your back.

[NoelC]

What's actually quite interesting is that the amount of software that must run perfectly for your computer to remain functional for even one second is staggering.  That takes more than just will; it takes good, solid documentation.

 

Anyone notice that the amount and quality of documentation on virtually everything is declining rapidly lately?  Try to find info on an event in the Windows event log, for example...

 

 

-Noel