February's Windows and Office patches look ripe, but look out for Win 8.1
Microsoft’s February patches have been relatively benign, for all except those running Windows 8.1. Since I wrote about the outstanding problems last week, we’ve had a few interesting new developments:
- Microsoft released the second February cumulative update for Windows 10 version 1809, KB 4482887. It has three dozen bug fixes, including a fix for the Access95-era Jet database bug, but appears to be quite solid.
- There’s a mysterious new “Compatibility update for upgrading to and recovering Windows 10, version 1809: March 1, 2019” KB 4489491 that’s so poorly documented it could do just about anything. I often wonder how admins with regulatory responsibilities can install stuff like this.
- The “Access 95 Jet database bug” introduced by this month’s Win7 and 8.1 Monthly Rollups and Security-only patches now have standalone fixes in the Microsoft Catalog -- KB 4490511 for Win7 and KB 4490512 for Win8.1.
- I’m seeing reports of bluescreens after installing this month’s Win 8.1 Monthly Rollup, KB 4487000. If you’re using Windows 8.1, you should be prepared to roll back the Monthly Rollup.
All of this comes in addition to the “Internet Explorer doesn’t understand the backslash” bug I described last week. @PKCano further admonishes, “Watch out for the KB 4491113 hotfix Cumulative update for IE 11, which can cause additional problems. Unless you are having that specific problem – and you can’t avoid using IE 11 – avoid the fix.”