Using this method gives me control of the WU process and I have never seen any update 'sneak' through without my permission.

(This can be the same in Win 8.1.) When I know new updates are available, I manually check for updates, then download and install the ones I want. The WU setting I use is 'never check for updates'. To say it another way, you could block the svchost instance (that includes WU) using your firewall and still be infected by Conficker by every documented means I saw. From what I saw, the infecting/hijacking of svchost by Conficker is a symptom of infection by other means, not the source of infection. And following that, looked at several other pages discussing Conficker. So far, my method seems successful, but is there something I am missing? Any general advice to finding the correct downloads for my PC?Ĭlick to expand.I took a look at the link you listed. In this case, there were several download links for the KB, but only one for Windows 8.1 X64. I followed a similar procedure for another update link provided by Belarc Advisor. I searched for 'KB2538242' on that page and found one link for a download. On the above page, I followed the link for IT professionals to here: I think this update applies to my PC because one of the installed programs is 'Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable'. I have installed Belarc Advisor, which tells me which applicable MS updates have not yet been installed. So far, I haven't connected my new PC to the internet.

I could use advice from forum members who already do manual updates. I have a legal copy of Windows 8.1, but I don't want to allow automatic downloads of Microsoft updates because it would involve a firewall rule allowing svchost.exe to send to all IP addresses, and svchost.exe is a vector for malware/spyware.

Kb2538242 what does it fix