SoylentNews

martyb [soylentnews.org] writes:

Over the past year or two, I've noticed fewer details presented in Microsoft Windows' "Patch Tuesday" update descriptions. I immediately ask myself, "What does that update REALLY do? Do I really want to install it?"

I am intending to move off of Windows, but in the meantime, I want to maintain my PC's security. I am very privacy conscious and have many ad-blocking and privacy-protecting addons installed on my browser [palemoon.org]. I use a HOSTS file to block certain sites. I use DuckDuckGo [duckduckgo.com] for search.

I have read reports where some updates needed to be revoked as they caused issues on some users systems. More recently, there are reports of telemetry in Windows 10, and those updates being back-ported into earlier version of Windows.

I prefer to wait about a week before installing updates just to make sure that any potential issues are caught by others, so I don't have to. That said, I would like to know what resources my fellow Soylentils have found useful in accessing each update. Given Redmond's increasing reticence in providing patch details, where do you go to find details on each update? How do you decide if any give update is useful, benign, or problematic? How do you determine the privacy implications of installing an update?

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