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Windows 7 Update KB977074: Full of Reliability! Or is it…
Edit: After receiving a rather harsh comment about this post, I thought I would make it clear that the point of this post was for the sake of comedy rather than to say this patch is going to screw up everyone’s computer. Having a sense of humor is okay sometimes, you know? /rant
So, just a little bit of comedy for you here. I came home, fired up my laptop which I haven’t been on in about a week, and I see Windows Update pop up and tell me I have some important updates ready to install. Now, typically, I just say, “yeah, yeah… whatever” and let them install after verifying none of them appear at first glance to be anything stupid that I don’t want on my system (i.e. language packs, drivers I don’t need, etc.). Well, just out of pure curiosity, I decided to take a look at the description of one of these updates and boy was it ever a revelation! Check out how full of reliability this update is (along with my minor observations noted):
Seriously, though. What the hell does that even mean? hahaha. Well, I decided to try to decipher that rather vague-yet-reliable description by searching for the update on Microsoft’s website. As it turns out, it provides the exact same description! So, just what in the world is update KB977074 (besides reliable, of course)? As if it wasn’t already hilarious enough, just wait until you see how ironic this gets when you find it that update KB977074 appears to be anything BUT reliable! Check out the threads started here and here.
From those links, it appears update KB977074 affects explorer.exe and causes some hang-ups and freezes for a number of users. Seeing this, I’m extremely happy that I have yet to install this update… and I almost can’t believe that of all the updates I’ve never read about, this is the one I finally decided to! Excellent. =) With all of that in mind, perhaps we can cook up a better description for update KB977074:
This is a crash/freeze update. This update creates some crash/freeze issues in Windows 7. By applying this update, you can achieve better crash/freeze in various scenarios. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.
Okay, so I know that last crash/freeze didn’t fit, but it doesn’t make any less sense than the original description, so it stays as-is! Should you dare to install KB977074, you can nab it here.
-Stephen
http://www.msftkichen.com
random fud?
i would expect you to be the first one to install an update and find out what it does wrong. if you are going to be like every other person whats the point of me reading your posts?
Mine installed on 1/27/2010 and have not seen any issues yet…..
@Iqbal Shahid: No one’s forcing you to read my blog. If you can’t take a humorous post in context, then by all means, feel free to never read another one of my posts again. I think it’s fairly obvious that I’m not like every other person with the content I post. Perhaps you’ve missed that, though? Seriously, though. I provided two links on very active boards where the issue is being discussed. My blog is not a technical blog. I don’t fancy installing a vaguely-described update that brings up users experiencing errors when I try to seek out more about it. For what it’s worth, I noted the issue to Rafael Rivera @ withinwindows.com to see if he was interested at all in it. He’s the one who has the means and the know-how to dig deep with an issue like this, so maybe his blog would better suit you.
@Keith: Thanks for the input! I may install it myself here soon and see what happens…
-Stephen
This update fixed my keyboard problem, so I’m pretty happy with the fix. I guess that’s what they mean by reliability. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
@Eric – Thanks for your comment. What was the error you were having with your keyboard that it fixed (just so others who might stumble upon this post can also give it a shot if they have the same issue)?
-Stephen
LOL. I did the exact same thing as you when I saw how vague the description was. I was disappointed that the KB article did not reveal much more except that it patched explorer.exe…
I have installed in and not had any noticeble probs. I think if you Google for any update you will always at least find a few who blame/pinpoint a random update as the cause of a likely unrelated issue.
Lol actually I remember seeing this description a couple of times before too. The title of the update was same, though not every “Update for Windows 7 for x64 based systems” seems to be a “reliable” update.
I agree with leith. You can Google almost any update and get complaints. You should note how carefully Microsoft tests Windows updates to be sure they fix problems and don’t create them.
I, for one, agree with you about the vague descriptions. OK if it’s vague at the Windows dialog box, but there should be a tiny “More info…” button right there, popping up a dialog that tells exactly what it does to what components of Windows.
This should not only satisfy the curious, BUT also help track down weird issues that may crop up at times. If you know an update affected a system component, it’s of course easier to see what the culprit was.
More details: function keys on may laptop worked intermittantly or not at all. For example the mute key (Fn+F6) would only sometimes work. That’s where I noticed the most but other keys had troubles too. I’m used to muting/unmuting often when people are coming and going and so it was readily apparent that there was an issue.
I couldn’t make this happen on my other Win 7 machine, so I suspect this was something more specific to my laptop configuration.
More details on this fix here http://keyliner.blogspot.com/
It does appear that you did not read the entire support doc as eric points out three specific issues are fixed. I would call them more like bug fixes. They really dont dont fix anything crashing so Im not sure if reliablty is exacvtly the right term.
Yes, Microsoft. I’m sure it makes Windows 7 more reliable… but HOW???. Lol.
I agree with Iqbal. What a pointless article
Issue experienced here with a Dell Inspiron 1420 running Windows 7 Home Premium. After the updates (including KB977074) were applied, the system would hang during startup and try to do a system repair. This ran for a very long time and then said it was unable to perform a repair. It did have a detailed error message and one of the indications was bad driver. I was able to do a System Restore from an image prior to the updates and get the computer operational again. I then hid all February Tuesday updates and all is well. After seeing this thread and some others it does appear that the KB977074 update is the culprit. (I plan to unhide all the other updates and leave this one hidden). Oddly enough, my EEE 1000HE PC running Windows 7 Ultimate has not experienced any issues after applying all of the February Tuesday patch updates.
Haha – nice post, very humorous if I do say so myself! Do you think you’ll read all of the update descriptions now? …well maybe not all, but more?
(http://bit.ly/cECboT)
I really can´t get an answer about this awsome update.
Some tell that fixed their problem, some talk about the old microsoft trademark, BLUE SCREEN.
In my computer this update is hidden till further notice.
I looked in Windows Update | Update History, and KB977074 showed up as “Update for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems (KB977074),” but when I looked in Installed Updates, it’s just not there to uninstall! So, the plot thickens. It was my understanding that ANY update could be uninstalled, but I guess not. Please enlighten me.
This hotfix most likely fu**** up my system (caused very frequent blackouts of screen, completely freezing my laptop, rendering it useless for anything.) on MSI GX620, the best you can do, install this only if you are experiencing troubles, it might help, or, it might screw things up… (after removing this update and deleting it from my system, the problem appear to be solved…)
I have a windows 7 64bit edition running on a Dell Optiplex and I get the Random Black Screen similar to Jan. and the only fix is to hard reset the system.
I cannot correlate when the hotfix was applied and when the issue began occurring but I have looked almost every other possible solution and now I am suspect of this
I plan to remove the hotfix this evening.
I will post a response when I feel comfortable the issues is resolved. Unfortunately the Black Screen occurs randomly so I won’t feel comfortable until I have had at least a week of no Black Screen issues
Stay tuned……