Should NTLite remove KB's that have been removed by MS?

[pmikep]

My Win10 1909 has been running fine since I refreshed from 1903 a few weeks ago. But, being time the sometimes obsessive type, today I checked in for Updates using NTLite's Update feature.

In my Refresh, I had only included two KB's for 1909 - KB4538974, which is a Service Stack Update. And KB4534132, which was a .NET update.

Before checking for Updates, I used the Trim function. Trim reported that KB4534132 cannot be found anymore.

My first question is: Does this mean that the KB is obsolete and/or as been pulled by MS? Or does it mean that the KB is simply incorporated in a Cumulative Update now, and so it doesn't appear in any list?

I ask because when I pull up the KB Article for 4132, it doesn't say that it has been pulled. Rather it says that it's part of a Cum Update now.

But somewhat puzzling, now NTLite offers me KB4537572, which is also a .NET update from January.

So did MS reverse itself on the later update? Or not?

Update: I checked the KB Article for 7572, and it appears that I'm back to being confused by NTLite's report of dates for KB's. It turns out that this KB was updated on Feb 28, even tho it reports a date of Jan 13 in NTLite. And the 7572 Article says that it replaces 4132.

So then it appears that I should remove KB-4132 and replace it with the older KB-7572.

Or can I simply update with the new? That is, will it simply overwrite the old? (Will Windows report that both are installed?)

Or is the more correct solution to do another Refresh?

In addition to my trivial case, I see that MS recently removed KB4524244 (the UEFI patch). So if NTLite could alert for pulled KB's and remove them cleanly, that would be cool. (If it is possible.)

 

[pmikep]

So then I started reviewing my installed Updates in Win10.

Among them is KB4517245, the Feature Update to Windows 10 version 1909.

But since I Refreshed 1903 to 1909 using MS's 1909 iso, it appears that I don't need this KB anymore.

So again I'm thinking that it might be a cool feature for NTLite to see what KB's are installed and offer to clean them from a Live Windows when no longer needed/obsolete/removed/replaced. (Unless NTLite does this already and I've missed it.)

 

[pmikep]

Interesting. I tried to remove The 1909 Features Update KB, as well as some others. (Like an Adobe Security KB, because I have removed Flash using NTLite.) But Win10 didn't offer me the Uninstall option.

Also, I could not manually install KB4537572, although whether that's because I'm running SledgeHammer, or because I've turned off a lot of Services, or both or other, I don't know. (The error message said something about a disabled update Service.)

Surprisingly, when I used NTLite to install KB4537572, the obsolete KB4534132 disappeared in the WIndows' list of Installed Updates.

So that took care of one "problem."

I suppose I'll have to do some testing in a VM to see if some KB's are just too ingrained in Win10 after a Refresh to remove them later. (I know, from my Win7 experiences, that old, obsolete Service Stacks cannot be removed on they've been installed.)

This might mean that, after a few years of running Win10 and updating it over those years, that you can never get back to a "clean" (debloated) installation. (Which means reinstalling registered software, and re-doing tweaks for a week.)