Windows Service Pack Question

[Jeffsounds]

I read a thread here and the person referred to his system as Windows 7 SP2. I know my Win 7 machine is only SP1 so I went in search of SP2, found it, installed it and lo and behold...

It still says SP1 in Control Panel-> System

It appears that the installation went okay since I didn't get any error messages. Any of you computer guru's have any ideas? I don't know if SP2 would have any affect on using Reaper but if there's something helpful in SP2, whether for Reaper or for Windows, I want it!

OK, I just threw the "Reaper" stuff in there so that I wouldn't be TOO far off topic.

[karbomusic]

What build does start > run > winver show?

[Glennbo]

I did two complete re-installs of Windows 7 at the beginning of 2017, one 64-bit and the other 32-bit.

Both of these installs went smooth without any issues, and both updated themselves up to Service Pack 1, but then quit successfully installing updates beyond one that came shortly after Service Pack 1.

I found out that that issue was pretty widespread and that a change in the way updates are delivered was the issue. I bookmarked this page that gets into some of what changed and how it introduced the issue. This may or may not be your issue but I saw it happen identically on two machines with Win 7.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...6b36d0c?auth=1


HTH

[grinder]

I am possibly this person jeffsounds
this is what you should install before installing SP2

I have no idea whether you will have to uninstall what you did install first
I would say you do.
This goes in first over SP1

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...er-2008-r2-sp1

Grinder

[JamesPeters]

The second "service pack" released by MS for Windows 7 is called a "convenience rollup/update" pack. It won't show up as "SP2" on your system since they don't actually call it "SP2" officially. So if you're trying to get your version of Windows 7 to report that it's "SP2"...it won't.

Just in case that's what you were expecting to see.

[Jeffsounds]

Originally Posted by karbomusic

What build does start > run > winver show?

Version 6.1 (Build 7601 : Service Pack 1)

Originally Posted by Glennbo

I found out that that issue was pretty widespread and that a certain prerequisite for newer updates never got installed, so subsequent updates were ignored. I bookmarked this page that gets into some of what changed and how it introduced the issue. This may or may not be your issue but I saw it happen identically on two machines with Win 7.

On my machines, both those updates installed, and right after applying them, I got hundreds upon hundreds of additional updates, one of them being Service Pack 2.

HTH

Thanks! I'll check it out.

Originally Posted by grinder

I am possibly this person jeffsounds
this is what you should install before installing SP2

I have no idea whether you will have to uninstall what you did install first
I would say you do.
This goes in first over SP1

Grinder

Hmmm... I remember having to install an update BEFORE I could install the SP2 that I downloaded... But it wasn't the one you linked to.

Originally Posted by JamesPeters

The second "service pack" released by MS for Windows 7 is called a "convenience rollup/update" pack. It won't show up as "SP2" on your system since they don't actually call it "SP2" officially. So if you're trying to get your version of Windows 7 to report that it's "SP2"...it won't.

Just in case that's what you were expecting to see.

That is exactly what I was expecting to see. Why would they LABEL it SP2 but not call it that? I mean other than the fact that it is Microsoft?

[JamesPeters]

Originally Posted by Jeffsounds

That is exactly what I was expecting to see. Why would they LABEL it SP2 but not call it that? I mean other than the fact that it is Microsoft?

MS doesn't label it as SP2 or call it SP2. The only time I saw anyone "from Microsoft" calling it SP2 was just someone on one of their forums referring to it as that (not an MS employee).

[grinder]

I would recommend you use it Microsoft say so worked for me I had to have it for one or two plugins that I have BFD3 in particular
I was put onto that by a great computer builder and I would go so far as to say a great person who I would trust for these things greatly.

Grinder

[Jeffsounds]

Originally Posted by JamesPeters

MS doesn't label it as SP2 or call it SP2. The only time I saw anyone "from Microsoft" calling it SP2 was just someone on one of their forums referring to it as that (not an MS employee).

Well, I got the SP2 download from here and as you can see, it is the Microsoft website and it is called SP2. They also call it a "convenience update." I followed the instructions on that page.

[Jeffsounds]

Originally Posted by grinder

I would recommend you use it Microsoft say so worked for me I had to have it for one or two plugins that I have BFD3 in particular
I was put onto that by a great computer builder and I would go so far as to say a great person who I would trust for these things greatly.

Grinder

The update I mentioned earlier is on the page that I linked to in the previous post.

[Glennbo]

Originally Posted by Glennbo

I did two complete re-installs of Windows 7 at the beginning of 2017, one 64-bit and the other 32-bit.

Both of these installs went smooth without any issues, and both updated themselves up to Service Pack 1, but then quit successfully installing updates beyond one that came shortly after Service Pack 1.

I found out that that issue was pretty widespread and that a certain prerequisite for newer updates never got installed, so subsequent updates were ignored. I bookmarked this page that gets into some of what changed and how it introduced the issue. This may or may not be your issue but I saw it happen identically on two machines with Win 7.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...6b36d0c?auth=1

HTH

BTW, the reason this article has you temporarily turn off automatic updates is that with it enabled, it will fail to install the patches linked to in the article. What happens is it will start to apply the patch, but if it can check the internet for updates, and it will never stop looking. You may be missing one or both of them. In updating my two fresh installs of Win7 64-bit and Win7 32-bit I only needed one of the two updates. The other one ran for a minute and came back with some message that it was already installed.

Anyway, with automatic updates turned off, I ran both updates, one of the two installed, and upon rebooting I turned automatic updates back on and told Windows to check for updates. It came back pretty quick with something like 80 or 90 updates I needed, and for the next day or two I kept getting groups of 60 to 80 additional updates to catch the machines up to current.

One thing I might add is, the default choice in the settings for Windows 7 updates is to also send me "Recommended" updates. That is the one that lets things like the obnoxious "GWX.EXE" thing onto your system that pestered and even tricked some people into "Getting Windows Ten". I run ALL my Windows machines with this option un-ticked, and only receive "Important" updates which are the security related ones.

[JamesPeters]

Originally Posted by Jeffsounds

Well, I got the SP2 download from here and as you can see, it is the Microsoft website and it is called SP2. They also call it a "convenience update." I followed the instructions on that page.

Yeah, that's a forum moderator and even he says that "we can call it SP2". MS however does not.

Sorry to be pedantic but calling it "SP2" leads to confusion that's better to be avoided so that others don't spin their wheels worrying about an update they probably already have (or for their being able to find/install the update). Normally I can find stuff like this pretty quickly but because it was called "SP2" even I had to run around and go "what the hell are people talking about?"

I think it would've been better for MS to just outright call it "SP2" and then have an indicator of that in the OS system info. But since they didn't...no one will ever see it there.

[karbomusic]

From that link...

Note: Installing the convenience update won't affect the version of Windows listed in system properties. It will remain listed as Service Pack 1.

WinVer agrees. It is an update that is a cumulative package of all Win7 updates so that you didn't install Windows 7 fresh, then spend 3 days with windows update installing 100s of updates, this just puts them all in one package/install.

[Jeffsounds]

Awesome! That clears things up for me. Thanks to all!

[mikeroephonics]

Can the convenience rollup be installed on Windows 7 without SP1? Just a bare, original Windows 7installation? Or do you need SP1 at the very least?

[grinder]

Tp be safe install SP1 first.

Grinder

[eliot]

"make sure you have at least 5 GB of free space, and that you have Windows 7 SP1 installed."

Anyway, thanks for mentioning this, because I was unaware of anything past SP1. What kind of stuff does it fix? I can't seem to work that out from Microsoft's pages.

[somebodyelseuk]

There never was a 'SP2' for Windows 7.

I dread to think what you may have installed, but I highly recommend a malware scan ASAP.

From the original release, the major update path is - SP1, SP1 Convenience Rollup, April 2015 Convenience Rollup, and then about 17 'monthly rollups' since then.

If you're reinstalling from a day 1 disc, you'd need to manually download and install most of these. because of the numerous times Windows Update got modified over time - there's a point before which where WU is unable to connect with Microsoft. Easiest way is to download the latest ISO from MS.

[JamesPeters]

Originally Posted by somebodyelseuk

There never was a 'SP2' for Windows 7.

I dread to think what you may have installed, but I highly recommend a malware scan ASAP.

No worries. It's just a convenience rollup package. An moderator on the MS forms referred to it as "SP2" (which I think is a mistake since people "Google first, read second"...if that) but he just pointed to the link for the appropriate rollup package.