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Patch Tuesday: Here's what's new for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1

Today is the second Tuesday of the month, meaning that all supported versions of Windows get updates. While that means that most versions of Windows 10 for their cumulative updates, there are also updates for older versions like Windows 7 and Windows 8.1.

For Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2, the monthly rollup is KB4499151, which you can manually download here. It contains the following fixes:

  • Provides protections against a new subclass of speculative execution side-channel vulnerabilities, known as Microarchitectural Data Sampling, for 64-Bit (x64) versions of Windows (CVE-2018-11091, CVE-2018-12126, CVE-2018-12127, CVE-2018-12130). Use the registry settings as described in the Windows Client and Windows Server articles. (These registry settings are enabled by default for Windows Client OS editions, but disabled by default for Windows Server OS editions).

  • Addresses an issue that may cause “Error 1309” while installing or uninstalling certain types of .msi and .msp files on a virtual drive.

  • Addresses an issue that prevents the Microsoft Visual Studio Simulator from starting.

  • Adds "uk.gov" into the HTTP Strict Transport Security Top Level Domains (HSTS TLD) for Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge.

  • Addresses an issue that may cause the text, layout, or cell size to become narrower or wider than expected in Microsoft Excel when using the MS UI Gothic or MS PGothic fonts.

  • Security updates to Windows App Platform and Frameworks, Microsoft Graphics Component, Windows Storage and Filesystems, Windows Cryptography, Windows Datacenter Networking, Windows Wireless Networking, Windows Kernel, and the Microsoft JET Database Engine.

There are also a few known issues to be aware of:

Symptom Workaround
After installing this update, there may be issues using the Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) to start a device from a Windows Deployment Services (WDS) server configured to use Variable Window Extension. This may cause the connection to the WDS server to terminate prematurely while downloading the image. This issue does not affect clients or devices that are not using Variable Window Extension.

To mitigate the issue, disable the Variable Window Extension on WDS server using one of the following options:

Option 1:
Open an Administrator Command prompt and type the following:

Wdsutil /Set-TransportServer /EnableTftpVariableWindowExtension:No

Option 2:
Use the Windows Deployment Services UI.

  1. Open Windows Deployment Services from Windows Administrative Tools.
  2. Expand Servers and right-click a WDS server.
  3. Open its properties and clear the Enable Variable Window Extension box on the TFTP tab.

Option 3:
Set the following registry value to 0:

“HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\ WDSServer\Providers\WDSTFTP\ EnableVariableWindowExtension”.

Restart the WDSServer service after disabling the Variable Window Extension.

Microsoft is working on a resolution and will provide an update in an upcoming release.

Certain operations, such as rename, that you perform on files or folders that are on a Cluster Shared Volume (CSV) may fail with the error, “STATUS_BAD_IMPERSONATION_LEVEL (0xC00000A5)”. This occurs when you perform the operation on a CSV owner node from a process that doesn’t have administrator privilege.

Do one of the following:

  • Perform the operation from a process that has administrator privilege.
  • Perform the operation from a node that doesn’t have CSV ownership.
Microsoft is working on a resolution and will provide an update in an upcoming release.
Microsoft and McAfee have identified an issue on devices with McAfee Endpoint Security (ENS) Threat Prevention 10.x or McAfee Host Intrusion Prevention (Host IPS) 8.0 or McAfee VirusScan Enterprise (VSE) 8.8 installed. It may cause the system to have slow startup or become unresponsive at restart after installing this update.

We are presently investigating this issue with McAfee.

Guidance for McAfee customers can be found in the following McAfee support articles:

  • McAfee Security (ENS) Threat Prevention 10.x
  • McAfee Host Intrusion Prevention (Host IPS) 8.0
  • McAfee VirusScan Enterprise (VSE) 8.8


There's also a security-only update that you can opt for. KB4499165 contains the first and last things on the above list, and you can manually download it here. It also has only the first two known issues on the above list.

If you're on Windows 7 SP1 or Windows Server 2008 R2, you'll get KB4499164, which can be manually downloaded here. It contains the following fixes:

  • Provides protections against a new subclass of speculative execution side-channel vulnerabilities, known as Microarchitectural Data Sampling, for 64-Bit (x64) versions of Windows (CVE-2018-11091, CVE-2018-12126, CVE-2018-12127, CVE-2018-12130). Use the registry settings as described in the Windows Client and Windows Server articles. (These registry settings are enabled by default for Windows Client OS editions, but disabled by default for Windows Server OS editions).

  • Addresses an issue that prevents the Microsoft Visual Studio Simulator from starting.

  • Addresses an issue that may prevent applications that rely on unconstrained delegation from authenticating after the Kerberos ticket-granting ticket (TGT) expires (the default is 10 hours).

  • Addresses an issue that may cause the text, layout, or cell size to become narrower or wider than expected in Microsoft Excel when using the MS UI Gothic or MS PGothic fonts.

  • Security updates to Windows App Platform and Frameworks, Microsoft Graphics Component, Windows Storage and Filesystems, Windows Cryptography, Windows Wireless Networking, Windows Kernel, Windows Server, and the Microsoft JET Database.

This update only has one known issue:

Symptom Workaround
Microsoft and McAfee have identified an issue on devices with McAfee Endpoint Security (ENS) Threat Prevention 10.x or McAfee Host Intrusion Prevention (Host IPS) 8.0 or McAfee VirusScan Enterprise (VSE) 8.8 installed. It may cause the system to have slow startup or become unresponsive at restart after installing this update.

We are presently investigating this issue with McAfee.

Guidance for McAfee customers can be found in the following McAfee support articles:

  • McAfee Security (ENS) Threat Prevention 10.x
  • McAfee Host Intrusion Prevention (Host IPS) 8.0
  • McAfee VirusScan Enterprise (VSE) 8.8


The security-only update is KB4499175, and you can manually download that here. It contains the first, third, and last fixes from the above list, and in a refreshing change from almost every other major update released today, there are no known issues.

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