I hear a lot of complaints from people who have spent good money getting Win7 Extended Security updates but haven’t seen this month’s patches. There is a reason for that. Microsoft has not told us that you need a new patch that was released yesterday to receive Win7 ESU updates. You must download the new patch KB 4538483 from the Microsoft catalog and install it manually before the updates appear.
People who spent money getting patches for February and later are angry.
Yesterday, after the February updates were released, Microsoft changed its ESU procedural side to add this step:
- Download and install the Extended Security Updates (ESU) preparation package. For more information, see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
- 4538483 Advanced Security Update (ESU) preparation package for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
- 4538484 Advanced Security Update (ESU) preparation package for Windows Server 2008 SP2
The result: If you (or your company) paid for extended updates unless you know from Osmose that you need to install this additional package and then download and install KB 4538483 manually, no patches will be displayed in February.
If your computer is ready to receive advanced security updates – following the instructions that were in place yesterday – and you don’t install KB 4538483 (or KB 4538484) manually, you won’t even see it the office patches for this machine.
This new patch for KB 4538483 must be installed manually, even if it is on your computer Microsoft passed KB 4528069 tests to check if ESU is set up properly.
Patch Lady Susan Bradley does it this way: “While I’m happy that Microsoft has offered small businesses enhanced Win7 security updates, I’m also concerned that I’ve now delivered small businesses to a less-than-planned implementation. To be patched by Windows Update, you have to come across a brand new blog post today and only download a patch from the catalog site. The idea behind paid security patches is to make patching easier while you’re still running Windows 7 and not to make it more difficult to get updates. “
