14 DAY TRIAL // It’s Patch Tuesday, so it’s time for a new set of Windows 10 cumulative updates, with the focus this time obviously on security improvements.
Worth noting is that all versions of Windows 10 are getting these security patches, only that only the most recent versions of the operating system are still serviced for Home and Pro SKUs.
The latest Windows 10 feature update available for consumers is the October 2020 Update, or version 20H2, though the rollout is still under way as we speak. On the other hand, the number one release at the time of writing is the May 2020 Update, or version 2004, whose rollout is currently in the last stages.
The new Windows 10 cumulative updates available today are the following:
- Windows 10 version 1507 — KB4586787 (OS Build 10240.18756)
- Windows 10 version 1607 — KB4586830 (OS Build 14393.4046)
- Windows 10 version 1703 — KB4586782 (OS Build 15063.2554)
- Windows 10 version 1709 — EOS
- Windows 10 version 1803 — KB4586785 (OS Build 17134.1845)
- Windows 10 version 1809 — KB4586793 (OS Build 17763.1577)
- Windows 10 version 1903/1909 — KB4586786 (OS Builds 18362.1198 and 18363.1198)
- Windows 10 version 2004 and 20H2 — KB4586781 (OS Builds 19041.630 and 19042.630)
The changelog of these cumulative updates are rather light for the November 2020 Patch Tuesday, and include only a few security improvements.
Microsoft says it has included security updates for the Microsoft Scripting Engine, the Microsoft Graphics component, Windows Input and Composition, the Windows Wallet Service, and the Windows kernel.
Most cumulative updates come with just one known issue, and it’s inherited from the previous releases. It concerns system and user certificates that could be lost after the upgrade to a newer version of Windows 10 with the latest cumulative updates installed.
Microsoft explains the following:
“System and user certificates might be lost when updating a device from Windows 10, version 1809 or later to a later version of Windows 10. Devices will only be impacted if they have already installed any Latest cumulative update (LCU) released September 16, 2020 or later and then proceed to update to a later version of Windows 10 from media or an installation source which does not have an LCU released October 13, 2020 or later integrated. This primarily happens when managed devices are updated using outdated bundles or media through an update management tool such as Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) or Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager. This might also happen when using outdated physical media or ISO images that do not have the latest updates integrated.”
As the Redmond-based software giant said before, the only way to deal with the whole thing is to downgrade to a previous version of Windows 10, if this option is still available. The downgrade is supported in the first 10 days after the upgrade is performed and only if the previous Windows installation files haven’t been removed.
Microsoft says it’s already working on a full fix, and it should go live at a later time.
As far as the new cumulative updates are concerned, they seem to install correctly for everybody, though worth emphasizing is that the rollout is still in its early phases, so more data in this regard would only be available after more devices install the updates.
The good news is that the number of failed installed has decreased substantially in the last few months, which means that Microsoft has more or less managed to improve update reliability on Windows 10.
We’ll continue to monitor how everything goes with these new updates and will post follow-up articles should any problems be discovered on Windows 10.