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You know it’s going to be an Alice in Wonderland month when some sites report that Microsoft plugged 54 vulnerabilities on Patch Tuesday, while others report 53. Fact is, patching has become so brutal — and so banal — that there’s no consensus on counting, much less on what’s good and bad.

Suffice to say that, once again this month, there was a huge number of security patches (129 individual patches, according to the Microsoft Update Catalog), with no pressing security fixes unless you’re using the Edge browser or Internet Explorer. Microsoft changed Win10 version 1803 to “Semi-Annual Channel,” but the term now means less than it ever has before. If that’s possible.

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Windows 7 customers should be on the lookout for a couple of, uh, challenges this month, as the Win10 1803 trail of tears continues and Win10 1709 finally looks pretty solid.

The Win7/Server 2008R2 network card bugs continue

First, the good news. If you installed last month’s Win7/Server 2008R2 patches and your network connections didn’t go kablooey, you’re almost undoubtedly OK to proceed with this month’s patches.

On the other hand, if you’ve been waiting to install patches on your Win7 or Server 2008R2 machine, you need to be aware of a bug that Microsoft has acknowledged. It was introduced by a patch back in March, according to the KB articles, and hasn’t been fixed yet:

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Microsoft’s Windows 10 patching pace is so fast at this point that one Patch Tuesday doesn’t cover all the bases. Instead, we’re seeing one massive Cumulative Update on Patch Tuesday, and a second — typically large — grab bag of patches later in the month.

You have to wonder what’s happening, though, when Microsoft can deliver its second bundle of patches for 1709, 1703 and 1607 before the second patch for the latest version, 1803, sees light of day.

The Win10 patches

KB 4284822 for Win10 1709

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At least the really bad bugs, introduced by “security” patches earlier this month, have been fixed. The problems that remain reside in the dregs — not likely to bite, but worth knowing about in case something suddenly goes bump in the night.

And if you’re using Win10 1803, you should definitely ask Microsoft for an increase in combat-duty pay. 

The ongoing Win7/Server 2008 R2 patching threat

Remember when Win7 was relatively stable? OK, OK; “stable” is a relative term that’s unlikely to apply to any version of Windows, but you know what I mean. Win7 and Server 2008 R2 have gone through months of problems with networking in general, and apoplectic network interface cards in particular.

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