A dangerous Windows 10 hole needs to be patched urgently. That does not always go smoothly if you wait for the automatic update and in this article we show you how to force the installation of this specific patch.
This week Microsoft is patching a dangerous hole, CVE-2020-0601. This gap can have major consequences for PCs worldwide, because malware makers can very easily identify malicious software as legitimate. For this, according to discoverer NSA and security experts exploits appear on very short term, so that attackers can attack Windows 10 users.
In short, it is very important that you update your PC as quickly as possible to the latest cumulative update of Windows 10. This was released last night. Go to for installation Settings> Update and security> Windows Update. The screen Update and security opens automatically in this section and there you see the button Looking for updates. Click on this to start the process.
It is possible that your PC says here that it has been updated with a final check, for example earlier today, but that does not mean that you have received the patch. For some systems, it is offered later and if required previous patches are missing, the update will not be installed either. Therefore, check whether you have also received the most recent update.
You can find which patches are installed under Settings> Update and security> Windows Update> View update history. These are displayed with the latest updates at the top. Look for the cumulative update of January 2020 there.
Under the first heading you see the Parts updates, or the bi-annual upgrades of the operating system. There you can see in principle that you have been updated to version 1909, which applies to most systems with Windows 10 Home. A system that is found to be incompatible, still in the queue at Microsoft, or a PC with Windows 10 Pro that postpones updates may theoretically also contain an earlier version, back to the last supported version 1709, which will be available until April this year supported.
Below you see Quality updates and there you should see the recent update, namely 2020-01 Cumulative update for Windows 10 [systeemversie] based systems (KB4528760). If the last update in December, in which cumulative updates for the OS and .NET were released, the PC is not updated, as in the screenshot below.
Has it pressed again Looking for updates no effect? Then there is an option to download and install the update yourself. To do this, go to the Microsoft update catalog and search for the desired patch for the gap, namely KB4528760. Note: Make a backup of the system before doing this manually. You can read more about this in this article.
This produces a list of updates for different versions and systems, for example Windows Server, Windows 10, ARM-based, x86 and x64. To check which version you have, look below Settings> Update and security> Windows Update> View update history which has been installed in the past, for example 2019-12 Cumulative update for on Windows 10 Version 1909 for x64 based systems (KB4530684).
Download the correct version, in the example above it is then 2020-01 Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 1903 for x64-based Systems (KB4528760). This patch applies to both 1903 and 1909, since 1909 almost entirely shares the codebase with the version from six months earlier. An update is now downloaded in the form of a file for automatic installation of Windows Updates (.msu) of several hundred MBs.
If you open this file, a stand-alone installation program for Windows Update will start. This asks if you want to install KB4530684. click on Yes. The program then installs the update and keeps you informed of the progress via a status window. This can take quite some time depending on your system.
After the installation is complete, you must restart the PC for the update to take effect. Keep in mind that the update is configured during switching off and on again, so this takes longer than normal and can also take a few minutes.
If the patch (or other updates that you have made) nevertheless makes your system unstable, then Windows 10 will restart if it is correct, so that your data remains intact and the system is effectively rolled back to a version without the patch. Should the PC still crash, which is unlikely but can occur, it is time to restore the backup.
To be sure, check whether the patch is now installed. If you go to again Settings> Update and security> Windows Update> View update history , you can now see it at the top under the heading Quality updates now as well KB4528760: Update for Windows stand.
Note: you have only patched this specific gap, but there are more important and critical updates this month, such as CVE-2020-0609 which is also critical and yields short-term exploits. The relevant hole in Microsoft CryptoAPI is now closed, but keep looking for updates regularly until you have installed the January cumulative update.