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

We're 13 days into October, but it's not truly a new month until Microsoft releases its Patch Tuesday updates for Windows, and as we're on the second Tuesday of the month, that happens today. Along with all supported versions of Windows 10, there are also new cumulative updates rolling out to Windows 8.1 and some Windows 7 users.

There are two kinds of updates for each operating system - the monthly rollup update and the security-only update. For Windows 8.1, the monthly rollup update is KB4580347 and you can download it manually here. It includes the following changes:

  • Corrects the end date for daylight savings time (DST) in 2021 for the Fiji Islands. For more information, see DST correction in Windows for the Fiji Islands: October 13, 2020.
  • Addresses an issue where Group Policy recursively deletes critical files when the "Delete local user profile policy" is enabled.
  • Addresses an issue in which a Null port is created through the user interface.
  • Adds a notification to Internet Explorer 11 that informs users about the end of support for Adobe Flash in December 2020. For more information, see KB4581051.
  • Addresses an issue with Microsoft Edge IE Mode that occurs when you enable Configure enhanced hang detection for Internet Explorer mode in Microsoft Edge.
  • Allows administrators to disable JScript in specific security zones.
  • Security updates to Windows App Platform and Frameworks, Windows Graphics, Windows Shell, Windows Silicon Platform, Windows Cloud Infrastructure, Windows Fundamentals, Windows Authentication, Windows Virtualization, Windows Kernel, Windows Core Networking, Windows Network Security and Containers, Windows Remote Desktop, and Windows SQL components.

It also has a couple of known issues:

Symptom Workaround
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.

When installing a third-party driver, you might receive the error, “Windows can’t verify the publisher of this driver software”. You may also see the error “No signature was present in the subject” when attempting to view the signature properties using Windows Explorer.

This issue occurs when an improperly formatted catalog file is identified during validation by Windows. Starting with this release, Windows will require the validity of DER encoded PKCS#7 content in catalog files. Catalogs files must be signed per section 11.6 of describing DER-encoding for SET OF members in X.690.

If this happens, you should contact the driver vendor or device manufacturer (OEM) and ask them for an updated driver to correct the issue.

As for the security-only update, it's KB4580358 and you can download it manually here. It only includes the first and last of the bullet points from the monthly rollup. It also has the same known issues as the monthly rollup.

Of course, for Windows 7, only certain businesses can legitimately obtain the updates, since you need to be paying for extended security updates (ESU) after Microsoft dropped extended support for the operating system at the start of the year. The monthly rollup here is KB4580345, and you can download it manually here. It includes the following changes:

  • Addresses an issue that might cause the Graphics Device Interface (GDI) to access internal regions incorrectly causing unexpected UI experiences. This issue can cause additional or missing screen elements, screen flickering, or a trailing screen.
  • Corrects the end date for daylight savings time (DST) in 2021 for the Fiji Islands. For more information, see DST correction in Windows for the Fiji Islands: October 13, 2020.
  • Addresses an issue where Group Policy recursively deletes critical files when the "Delete local user profile policy" is enabled.
  • Addresses an issue in which a Null port is created through the user interface.
  • Security updates to Windows App Platform and Frameworks, Windows Graphics, Windows Shell, Windows Silicon Platform, Windows Cloud Infrastructure, Windows Fundamentals, Windows Authentication, Windows Virtualization, Windows Core Networking, Windows Network Security and Containers, Windows Storage and Filesystems, Windows SQL components, and Windows Remote Desktop.

The update has one known issue:

Symptom Workaround
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.

The security-only update here is KB4580387 and you can get it manually here. It includes the same changes as the monthly rollup, except the third and fourth bullet points. It also has the same known issue.

As usual, the monthly rollup updates should install automatically sooner or later, but if you want the security-only updates, you'll need to install them manually from the links above.

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