This month's second Patch Tuesday brings 34 Windows updates, all optional

[RV_]

I just got through downloading and installing the updates on my three desktops and my three tablets. No failures after install all seems fine. None of these are critical but as usual Ed Bott does an in depth look into them if anyone wants to install only the ones they think their machine needs. Let's also remember that it is less than two months to the release worldwide of the Windows 10 upgrade for all Windows 7 and 8/8.1 computers. That upgrade will only be free for one year after it is released so any folks that want to hang back until they get some good reviews need to upgrade before July 2017. There are some patches and updates to Windows that are named internally UGX files. UpGrade to X (10.)

 

Excerpt:

 

"It's Patch Tuesday again.

 

No, you didn't oversleep by a few weeks. Today is the other Patch Tuesday, when Microsoft delivers optional, non-security-related updates for Windows. Normally, Microsoft releases updates on the second and fourth Tuesday of the month. This crop arrived a bit early, it appears.

 

Today's list is much larger than normal, with 34 patches all rated Optional, meaning they will not be installed automatically. You have to open Windows Update and manually select one or more updates to install them.

 

Not all of these updates are applicable to every Windows version, of course. If your PC runs Windows 7, you get off relatively easy, with a maximum of six updates in the pipeline. (My test PC running Windows 7 Enterprise only had three updates available.)

 

On a newer device, though, you'll have a longer list to sort through. I counted 20 fresh updates on my Windows 8.1 desktop. Virtually all of them are tiny. The total download for all 20 patches was only 20 MB.

 

Most of today's patches represent fixes for relatively obscure conditions, including hardware combinations you probably don't own. On systems where the update doesn't apply, you should be able to install it anyway and not see any adverse consequences. If you'd prefer not to install one or more updates, you can open the desktop Control Panel, right-click on an update, and choose the option to hide it."

 

Ed goes on to inventory all of the patches for those interested in the full article here: http://www.zdnet.com/article/this-months-second-patch-tuesday-brings-34-updates-all-optional/?tag=nl.e541&s_cid=e541&ttag=e541&ftag=TRE7ce1dc9