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

Today is Patch Tuesday, which means that it's time for Microsoft to release new updates for all supported versions of Windows. Along with four cumulative updates for the various versions of Windows 10, Windows 7 and 8.1 also saw some love, along with their Server counterparts, 2008, and 2012.

Windows 7 SP1 and Server 2008 R2 SP1 got KB4041681, which you can manually download here. Here's what got fixed:

  • Addressed issue with docking and undocking Internet Explorer windows.

  • Addressed issue with form submissions in Internet Explorer.

  • Addressed issue with URL encoding in Internet Explorer.

  • Addressed issue that prevents an element from receiving focus in Internet Explorer.

  • Addressed issue with the rendering of a graphics element in Internet Explorer.

  • Addressed issue where USBHUB.SYS randomly causes memory corruption that results in random system crashes that are extremely difficult to diagnose.

  • Security updates to Microsoft Windows Search Component, Windows kernel-mode drivers, Microsoft Graphics Component, Internet Explorer, Windows kernel, Windows Wireless Networking, Microsoft JET Database Engine, and the Windows SMB Server.

There's also a known issue to be aware of, which also affects the update for Windows 8.1 and Server 2012 R2.

Symptom Workaround
After installing KB4041681, package users may see an error dialog that indicates that an application exception has occurred when closing some applications. This can affect applications that use mshtml.dll to load web content. The failure only occurs when a process is already shutting down and will not impact application functionality. Microsoft is working on a resolution and will provide an update in an upcoming release.


There's also a security-only update, KB4041678, which only contain the security fixes outlined in the last part of the changelog. You can download that here.

Windows 8.1 and Server 2012 R2 got KB4041693, which also contains a range of fixes:

  • Addressed issue with docking and undocking Internet Explorer windows.

  • Addressed issue with form submissions in Internet Explorer.

  • Addressed issue where Internet Explorer stops responding to a navigation request.

  • Addressed issue that occurs in the WebView Control of Internet Explorer in certain scenarios.

  • Addressed issue with URL encoding in Internet Explorer.

  • Addressed issue that prevents an element from receiving focus in Internet Explorer.

  • Addressed issue caused by a pop-up window in Internet Explorer.

  • Addressed issue with the rendering of a graphics element in Internet Explorer.

  • Addressed issue in Internet Explorer caused by a redirection link.

  • Addressed issue where messages that should be in a non-English language display in English in Internet Explorer.

  • Addressed issue where USBHUB.SYS randomly causes memory corruption that results in random system crashes that are extremely difficult to diagnose.

  • Security updates to Microsoft Windows Search Component, Windows kernel-mode drivers, Microsoft Graphics Component, Internet Explorer, Windows kernel, Windows Wireless Networking, Windows Storage and Filesystems, Microsoft Windows DNS, Windows Server, Microsoft JET Database Engine, and the Windows SMB Server.

You can download KB4041693 here, although as always, you can get these updates through Windows Update. Like the update for Windows 7, there's a security-only variant, KB4041687, which you can manually grab here.

Finally, there's one more update, which is for Windows Server 2012. You can download it here, and it contains a couple of fixes:

  • Addressed issue where USBHUB.SYS randomly causes memory corruption that results in random system crashes that are extremely difficult to diagnose.

  • Security updates to Microsoft Windows Search Component, Windows kernel-mode drivers, Microsoft Graphics Component, Internet Explorer, Windows kernel, Windows Wireless Networking, Windows Storage and Filesystems, Microsoft Windows DNS, Microsoft JET Database Engine, and the Windows SMB Server.

KB4041679 is the security-only version, and you can grab that here.

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