14 DAY TRIAL // The April 2022 Patch Tuesday rollout also brought a new monthly rollup for Windows 7 devices, though it’s important to keep in mind the 2009 operating system is no longer getting updates as part of the typical channels.
This is because Windows 7 reached the end of life in January 2020, so right now, only computers that are registered to be serviced through the ESU program are still receiving patches.
This month’s update is KB5012626, and it includes a fix aimed at the Windows Media Center. Microsoft says some users had to reconfigure the app on each start, as all changes were lost, so the update comes to resolve this surprising problem.
The update is live right now
There are obviously additional improvements, most of them aimed at companies that are still running Windows 7 on their devices. For instance, Windows 7 sometimes made it impossible to change a password that has expired when signing in, so KB5012626 is supposed to correct it.
“Addresses a memory leak that was introduced by the PacRequestorEnforcement registry key in the November 2021 Cumulative Update that causes a decrease in performance on domain controllers. Addresses an issue in which Event ID 37 might be logged during certain password change scenarios,” Microsoft explains in the changelog.
“Addresses an issue that occurs when you try to write a service principal name (SPN) alias (such as www/contoso) and HOST/NAME already exists on another object. If the user has the RIGHT_DS_WRITE_PROPERTY on the SPN attribute of the colliding object, you receive an “Access Denied” error. Addresses an issue in which domain joins may fail in environments that use disjoint DNS hostnames.”
While this update can be downloaded through the typical update channels, including the Microsoft Update Catalog, it’s important to keep in mind it won’t install on your device unless it’s configured to be serviced through the ESU program.