Microsoft has officially acknowledged two bugs in Tuesday’s KB 4034658, the August cumulative update for Windows 10 Anniversary Update (version 1607) and Server 2016, which brings both up to build 14393.1539. Now I’m seeing reports of two additional bugs that warrant your attention.
Microsoft describes the first bug this way:
For some users, their “Update History” does not list previously installed updates.
Some users? Meh. As far as I know, everyone who installs KB 4034658 has their Update History wiped clean.
Microsoft provides this workaround:
As an alternative, to see which quality updates have been applied, navigate to the inventory by going to Control Panel -> Programs -> “View Installed Updates”
Microsoft is investigating this issue and will provide an update as soon as possible.
I won’t hold my breath.
@abbodi86 on the AskWoody Lounge has an explanation for what happened. On July 18, Microsoft released a massive manual-download-only patch called KB 4025334. Part of that patch included a new Windows Update Agent that requires a refreshed Windows Update database. Instead of rebuilding your Windows Update database as part of the installation procedure, KB 4025334 simply wipes it out. You start with an empty Windows Update database.
KB 4034658, being a cumulative update, includes the changes in the earlier KB 4025334. Few people installed the July 18 patch, but everybody who isn't blocking Auto Update got KB 4034658. Apparently this database wipe-out wasn’t caught until it got pushed out to a wider audience on Tuesday.
+ Related: Windows 10 1607 cumulative update KB 4034658 wipes out Update History +
Abbodi86 goes on to explain that the old Control Panel still has the list of updates because it relies on a database of actual installed updates, which is maintained separately from the Windows Update database.
Microsoft’s official acknowledgement goes on to say:
Some users may find that updates that were previously hidden may not be offered after installing this update.
There’s that “some users” stuff again. Infuriating. Every Windows 10 1607/Server 2016 customer who installed this month’s cumulative update got their hidden update list knocked out. @MrBrian believes the hidden updates bug is a result of this patch-deleting datastore.edb.
Deleting the hidden updates list is a big deal for people who, like @NetDef, had the Creators Update/1703 upgrade held at bay by hiding the update. It’s also a real pain for anyone who’s protecting a specific driver by telling Windows to skip its buggy version. The only workaround offered by Microsoft is to go back in and hide the patches you don’t want.
But wait, there are 2 more unofficial bugs
Those are the two officially acknowledged bugs. (A hat tip to the folks at MS who posted this information quickly!) But I’m seeing reports of two more bugs.
The patch, at least when applied to the Long Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) 2016, seems to break the connection to the Update server WSUS. From an anonymous poster on AskWoody:
We are using in our company W10 LTSB2016 (1607) and are facing the same problem wiping out the update history. But we have second problem. All clients that got the update KB 4034658 via WSUS not only loose their update history, they also loose the connection to the WSUS-Server. Looking for update will time out with 0x8024401c. All clients that have KB 4034658 not yet installed connect with no problems to the WSUS server. Thanks goodness that we rollout client updates only to small number of clients to see what Microsoft put into present box.
This may be an apparition of the bug reported with KB 4025336, where per Günter Born, the July cumulative update for Server 2012 and 2012 R2 blocks the connection to WSUS.
And from poster CADesertRat:
It also wiped out all but my 2 most recent Restore Points for some reason.
Can you corroborate either or both of those reports? Sound off on the AskWoody Lounge.