Windows Update

There are many different types of update for Windows 10, some of which are more important than others. To make things easier to manage, both for the company itself and for end users, Microsoft is now integrating servicing stack updates (SSUs) into the latest cumulative updates (LCUs).

Cumulative updates should be familiar to most Windows 10 users, but SSUs are not something that everyone will be aware of. Nonetheless, the change Microsoft is introducing is a important one that should help to reduce update problems in future.

Ahead of March's Patch Tuesday releases, Microsoft has released a preview of the KB4601382 update. This cumulative update is available for Windows 10 2004 (Windows 10 May 2020 Update) and Windows 10 20H2 (Windows 10 October 2020 Update), and it includes a number of important fixes.

Some of the highlights of this particular update include addressing a screen flicker issue during video playback, fixing a problem that prevented some keyboard keys from working, and improving application startup times in certain scenarios.

The death of Flash has been on the cards for quite some time. What was once a staple of the online experience soon became little more than a security nightmare, and all of the major web browsers have slowly but surely dropped support for the software. Back in October, Microsoft released an update to not only remove Flash from Windows, but also prevent it from being reinstalled.

Now the company is upping the ante, and is pushing out the KB4577586 update to Windows users. The update is installed automatically and kills Flash once and for all.

Microsoft has acknowledged a problem with an update for Windows 10 that was released earlier this month. The KB4601319 update was part of February Patch Tuesday releases, and it is causing issues with webcams for some users.

While the impact of the problem appears to be limited to a fairly small number of webcams, the issue is no less irritating for those affected. Thankfully, Microsoft is not only aware of the problem and is working on a fix, but also provides details of a workaround in the meantime.

Windows 10 users are keenly awaiting the release of the next big update to the operating system. Due for release in the next four months -- in June if a recent leak is correct -- Windows 10 21H1 is not a major release, and this has important implications.

The fear with milestone releases to Windows 10 is that hardware requirements change. But ahead of the release of Windows 10 21H1, Microsoft has made it clear that this will not be the case with this update.

A cumulative update for Windows 10 is making another appearance as Microsoft prepares users' systems for more significant service updates further down the line.

This is far from being the first time Microsoft has pushed the KB4023057 update, and it's not hard to understand why. This update improves the reliability of the Windows Update Service components which will prove so essential when a bigger feature update is released later in the year.

Just days after the regular update release date of Patch Tuesday, Microsoft has released an out-of-band patch to address a problem with WPA3 connections in Windows 10.

The KB5001028 update is for Windows 10 version 1909, and it fixes a problem that caused blue screens and stop error 0x7E in nwifi.sys when using a WPA3 connection. Microsoft says that the problems arose after users installed the KB4598298 or KB4601315 updates.

Whenever Microsoft releases updates for Windows, the company is always keen for as many people as possible to get the patch installed. But with this month's Patch Tuesday bug fixes, the company is encouraging Windows users even more than usual.

Referring to two Critical security issues and one Important one, all affecting TCP/IP, Microsoft says that "it is essential that customers apply Windows updates to address these vulnerabilities as soon as possible". The CVE-2021-24074, CVE-2021-24086 and CVE-2021-24094 vulnerabilities affect Windows 7 upwards.

This Patch Tuesday -- the second Tuesday of February, yesterday -- Microsoft released fixes for a slew of Windows 10 flaws. Included among a total of 56 vulnerabilities is a critical zero-day which was being actively exploited to gain admin privileges on victims' systems.

But the fix for CVE-2021-1732 (Windows Win32k Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability) is just one of 11 fixes for critical bugs this month. In addition, Microsoft has fixed two Moderate vulnerabilities, as well as 43 that are marked as Important.

Microsoft has acknowledged that two recent updates for Windows 10 are causing problems for users. People who have installed KB4598299 and KB4598301 are reporting BSoDs as well as app crashes.

The two updates (released Windows 10 versions 1909, 2004 and 20H2) were supposed to address issues in .NET Framework 3.5 and 4.8, but they have -- as is increasingly common with Windows updates -- introduced new problems of their own.

Microsoft has changed the status of both Windows 10 version 2004 and version 1909, marking them as being ready for "broad deployment".

In the case of Windows 10 version 1909 (or Windows 10 November 2019 Update), the company says it is "designated ready for broad deployment for all users via Windows Update". For Windows 10 version 2004 (aka Windows 10 May 2020 Update), however, the status has been updated to indicate that it is merely "designated for broad deployment". And there is a reason for the difference between the two.

Microsoft has released a new update for Windows 10, addressing various issues that have plagued users.

Although the KB4598291 update is an optional one, it fixes so many problems that many people are going to want to get it installed straight away. This particular update is only available for Windows 10 May 2020 Update (version 2004) and Windows 10 October 2020 Update (20H2).

Installing updates in Windows 10 can be something of a gamble -- will the latest patches make things better or worse? For people with Conexant ISST audio drivers, there have been numerous issues in Windows 10 May 2020 Update (or Windows 10 version 2004).

Users trying to update these drivers found that the update process would fail or produce errors during or after setup. Having worked with Synaptics, Microsoft has identified a compatibility issue and also provided details of a workaround.

Normally when Microsoft adds new features to Windows 10, it does so using the twice-yearly Feature Updates -- such as Windows 10 May 2020 Update and Windows 10 October 2020 Update (20H2). But this is changing.

We have seen references to Windows Feature Experience Pack updates in preview builds of Windows 10, and now Microsoft is starting to test out the feature. Using the new method of delivering updates, the company is bringing some interesting new features and options to the operating system.

The latest update for Windows 10 that is proving to be problematic for people is the recently released KB4586781. While not causing quite as many issues as other updates, it is still causing plenty of problems.

KB4586781 is a cumulative update for people running Windows 10 May 2020 Update and Windows 10 October 2020 Update. Among the issues being reported by users are error codes 0x8007000d and 0x800f0831.