Advice Request Microsoft Releases Windows 7 and 8.1 Preview Update Rollups for December

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Microsoft Releases Windows 7 and 8.1 Preview Update Rollups for December

Microsoft has rolled out new update rollup previews for Windows 7 and 8.1 to provide users with early access to next month’s patching cycle as per the company’s new approach that came into effect in October.

Specifically, Microsoft is no longer releasing individual patches, but rollups that include all updates for every month, and the company is giving users the chance to try out the next month's updates with so-called Security Monthly Quality Rollups available as optional.

Basically, these updates are only aimed at users who want to test in advance the company’s latest patches, but also for IT admins who need to prepare for the next Patch Tuesday cycle in their organizations. These updates are released on the third Tuesday of each month and can be downloaded from Microsoft’s Update Catalog.

A few hours ago, the company pushed this month’s preview for Windows 7 and 8.1 systems, and if you’re planning to install them, KB3197869 and KB3197875, respectively, are the ones you should be looking for.

What’s in these updates?
Individually, KB3197869 is called November 2016 Preview of Monthly Quality Rollup for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 and comes with improvements and bug fixes for the operating system and some of the built-in features - you can check out the full changelog in the box after the jump.

Additionally, KB3197875 is the November 2016 Preview of Monthly Quality Rollup for Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 and includes many more changes, all of which are detailed below.

According to the official KB page, “this update includes improvements and fixes that were a part of Monthly Rollup KB3197874 (released November 8, 2016). This update also includes these new quality improvements and is a preview of the next Monthly Rollup update.”

You can download these updates using the Microsoft Update Catalog, and the direct links are available on the KB page of each of the two patches listed above.

Spoiler: KB3197869 And KB3197875

KB3197869 - November 2016 Preview of Monthly Quality Rollup for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1

This update includes improvements and fixes that were a part of Monthly Rollup KB3197868 (released November 8, 2016). This update also includes these new quality improvements and is a preview of the next Monthly Rollup update. Key changes include:

• Addressed issue where event logging fails to log the IP addresses of incoming Remote Desktop Protocol calls.
• Made updates to support the deprecation of SHA1 server authentication certificates where applications can opt in to the new behavior.
• Updated Belarus’ ISO 4217 code from BYN to BYR.
• Addressed issue with devices that intermittently fail to shut down correctly.
• Addressed issue where external authentications through the Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) Proxy role start failing after renewing the token signing certificate

KB3197875 - November 2016 Preview of Monthly Quality Rollup for Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2

This update includes improvements and fixes that were a part of Monthly Rollup KB3197874 (released November 8, 2016). This update also includes these new quality improvements and is a preview of the next Monthly Rollup update. Key changes include:

• Addressed issue where updating the driver for the onboard RAID controller to a version higher than the RTM version causes all impacted servers to stop responding indefinitely
• Addressed issue where the Internet Information Services (IIS) W3C logging service stops working when using custom logging fields to track user requests.
• Addressed issue where a cluster node that has lost network connectivity doesn’t fail over properly to the partner node that has full network connectivity. On the node with full network connectivity, the cluster services shut down.
• Addressed issue with an error that occurs when retiring and removing a physical disk using the Cloud Platform Suite (CPS) field-replaceable unit (FRU) procedure. After replacing the disk, it fails.
• Improved support for networks by adding new entries to the Access Point Name (APN) database.
• Addressed issue where a Network File System (NFS) server crashes when a user tries to back up data files to it. The error code is “STOP 0x4E”.
• Addressed issue where, after enabling the Cluster Service’s IgnorePersistentStateOnStartup switch for troubleshooting, you must restart the entire cluster to exit diagnostic mode when troubleshooting is done.
• Addressed issue where event logging fails to log the IP addresses of incoming Remote Desktop Protocol calls.
• Addressed issue with a consistent five-second delay during network data transfer to a Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Server.
• Addressed issue where the dynamic DNS registration process often causes failures and queue buildup when a reverse lookup zone is not present.
• Made updates to support the deprecation of SHA1 server authentication certificates where applications can opt in to the new behavior.
• Addressed an issue with the domain controller running out of memory during security descriptor propagation to a very large number of Active Directory objects.
• Addressed issue where a disk that’s configured with the Resilient File System (ReFS) stops working when it’s under heavy loads and is using software that makes calls to a Direct Access Storage Device (DASD) I/O. Any infrastructure or components that rely on this disk will also stop working.
• Addressed issue where some cluster nodes become unresponsive when the Wmiprvse service fails.
• Updated Belarus’ ISO 4217 code from BYN to BYR.
• Addressed issue with the boot partition appearing in File Explorer after installing MS16-100.
• Addressed issue with lost access to a shared Resilient File System (ReFS) volume folder when a write operation occurs and its parent folder is being renamed concurrently. The file server (ReFS) becomes unavailable.
• Addressed issue with input/output errors in the Microsoft Cloud Platform Suite (CPS) when a Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) enclosure management module (EMM) malfunctions.
• Added a feature for Windows virtual machines called In Machine Configuration (IMC). IMC will reduce boot time by eliminating the reboot performed during specialization.
• Improved server’s first boot time.
• Addressed issue so that the In Machine Configuration (IMC) sequence number is reset after sysprep to support policy-based error handling for IMC.
• Addressed issue where timeout failures occur when using Microsoft Multipath I/O (MPIO.SYS) and a path temporarily fails.
• Addressed issue where the Remote Desktop Service gets into a deadlock during virtual channel management and can’t accept new connections. This leads to a black screen or brief window before the client disconnects.