Windows Update KB2952664 for Windows 7 is back…

[rell6534]

…for those of you who managed to keep your Win7 OS against all the odds - don’t worry there’s no GWX in it - just a shed load of other stuff you probably don't want either.

 “This update performs diagnostics on the Windows systems that participate in the Windows Customer Experience Improvement Program. The diagnostics evaluate the compatibility status of the Windows ecosystem, and help Microsoft to ensure application and device compatibility for all updates to Windows. There is no GWX or upgrade functionality contained in this update.”  

[otherego]

Interesting. I haven't fired the W7 partitions up since the scheduled changes to the update procedure (was that about September?). My impression was that MS was shifting to a "convenience model" where, instead of offering individual updates which could be accepted or rejected, users were to be given a whole bunch of updates in one go.

Perhaps I misunderstood that. It struck me as an ideal way for them to sneak more snooping aboard add telemetry and other enhancements to the user experience - without the use actually knowing what was going on.

If this is not the case and it's still possible to choose and install/reject updates individually, then I'd quite like to get W7 running again. As you say, that "shed load of other stuff you probably don't want either" is a major cause for concern - especially as I seem to remember that they had already added telemetry to W7 and 8.1 via the update system - but at least those updates could be researched and individually hunted down and killed.

[rell6534]

Yes you’re quite right; from last October we started to get “Preview of Monthly Quality/ Security Monthly Quality Rollups” containing goodness knows what.

Up until the end of last year there were also some separate updates for MS Office.

In January there was a rollup + malicious software remover, but this month only the dreaded 2952664 (optional) + malicious software removal tool have come through on my system.

I haven’t the first idea what’s going on, unless they are curtailing support for Win7 already and will eventually make updating it virtually impossible as they have done for Vista.

I’ve decided to try Linux rather than struggle on with Vista for another couple months.

I haven’t tried Linux Mint yet, but I will do and shall probably run it from a flash drive.

I looked at your guide and also treated myself to a magazine which came with two discs.

I ran Ubuntu 16.04 from one of the discs and was pleasantly surprised, I really like the look of it and if I can get to grips with the finer points, I think it could work for me.

The disc also has Lxle Linux and the other disc has Bodhi 4.0, antix 16 and Fedora 25, but the Fedora is 64bit, so shall have to run that on my Win7 laptop instead, when I’m feeling brave enough!

[otherego]

I must say that Linux has looked after me pretty well so far.

Sadly, more and more distros are dropping support for 32-bit computers (virtually all of mine, in other words), but I think the Ubuntu-based ones are OK for a few years yet.

I've found Bodhi and AntX excellent on my older equipment, but must say that I keep coming back to Mint for day-to-day stuff. It's just - easy...