Jump to content

What's Up with the bevy of Optional Windows 8.1 updates?


NoelC

Recommended Posts

Today a big list of optional updates showed up.

 

Reading the KB articles seems to imply that they're all relatively small bugfixes (sometimes bugfixes of previous bugfixes) or slight feature improvements.  But they're mostly quite vague.

 

Not that bugfixes aren't usually welcome, but what's up with this?  Usually bugfixes get "rolled up" into bigger packages.  Is Microsoft trying to drive home the thought that we don't really want to be managing updates microscopically, and therefore will start to welcome the "hands off" approach Windows 10 is delivering?

 

What worries me is that they're optional.  Have they been tested less?  How can we really know whether it would be beneficial or detrimental to install such optional updates?  I don't really know whether most folks always install all the optional ones or never do...

 

-Noel

Link to comment
Share on other sites


WIMBOOT Systems are the cause. Microsoft runs into servicing issues with WIMBOOT (reason why it gets removed in Win10):

 

To save drive space, we’ve limited offering only the following types of updates from Windows Update to WIMBoot devices with 32GB or less of storage space:

 Critical updates that keep the system or programs running.

 Security updates and security advisory updates.

 

 

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn594399.aspx

 

 

And the large updates don't supersede each other all time, so disk usage grows and DISM can't cleanup WinSxS. With smaller updates, the chances are higher that newer fixes replace older ones, so that DISM can remove them to keep Windows smaller.

 

 

Btw, update KB3022345 (Update to enable the Diagnostics Tracking Service in Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2
)
fails to install on NON en-US Windows versions. Microsoft forgot to add MUI files for other languages.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

WIMBOOT Systems are the cause. Microsoft runs into servicing issues with WIMBOOT (reason why it gets removed in Win10):

...

  

And the large updates don't supersede each other all time, so disk usage grows and DISM can't cleanup WinSxS. With smaller updates, the chances are higher that newer fixes replace older ones, so that DISM can remove them to keep Windows smaller.

...

Which translates nicely, in my perverted mind into:

since an interesting, new, very valid and proved to be working flawlessly technology conflicts with an old, wrong, stupid update method, the former is removed and the latter (due to some of it's inherent shortcomings and more generally to the lack of a proper method in creating the updates) is dumbed down (if possible at all) and made more complex and error prone for the user.

Fascinating as my friend Mr. Spock would define it. :whistle:

 

Btw, update KB3022345 (Update to enable the Diagnostics Tracking Service in Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2

) fails to install on NON en-US Windows versions. Microsoft forgot to add MUI files for other languages.

Compliments to the MS "Internationalizing Team" :w00t: I mean ;)

you-had-one-job-9.jpg

 

jaclaz

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Several of those optional updates might affect me, though I've not seen any actual problems.

 

Other than that one (KB3022345) that's reported to be problematic, I've tested them all in a VM without problems, and so I've just gone ahead and installed them on my workstation. 

 

KB3022345 specifically I've avoided installing and hidden instead as I don't see any advantage for me in Microsoft collecting data about functional issues in Windows components from my systems.

 

I think it's ridiculous that they publish what looks like an entire page of documentation, but which really only contains a couple of vague sentences.  All the rest is boilerplate.

 

-Noel

Edited by NoelC
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's been suggested here to manually download and install the update in your specific language.

Unfortunately there is no download for different flavours of English, so that's no help to me as my system is UK English, on which it's failing, both from WU and from a manual install!

:no:

I suppose I could try temporarily changing the system to US English, installing the patch, and then switching back again!

What a PITA......

Edited by Dave-H
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It looks like KB3022345 may have been pulled.

Even though it didn't install, I'm no longer being offered it as an optional update.

Presumably a fixed version is on its way!

:)

 
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Do you know that you want KB3022345, beyond the general principle (which is being called more and more into question lately) that Microsoft knows best what you need?

 

For what it's worth, I've been running all the other optional updates noted above for 3 days now without downside.

 

-Noel

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 months later...

I think it must have been deemed spam by the mods.  It was a guy trying to sell a disk compression solution.

 

If you'd like to talk about improving Windows performance, please start a thread.  It's a subject that interests me greatly.

 

-Noel

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hmm, that does make sense, but I'm still getting e-mail notifications (two this morning) of new posts to this thread, which when I follow the link in the e-mail, they're not there!

:dubbio:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And again this afternoon!

I guess they are being immediately removed.

Certainly that removes all doubt about the messages being spam, they are all identical, but all apparently posted by different people!

:lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...