Windows Update – Schrödinger’s KB

windows 7windows update

So I am trying to install Atmel Studio 7 on a Windows 7 SP1 machine. Atmel Studio requires SHA-2 signing to be compatible with Windows 10, therefore requiring SHA-2 support on earlier operating systems as well. For Windows 7 SP1 this is added through KB3033929, and as part of the installation process Atmel Studio checks for this KB. This is where it gets fun…

  • Atmel Studio 7 detects KB3033929 as missing, providing a link to the microsoft webpage to download and install manually.
  • Running the .msu downloaded from microsoft and it claims the update is already installed.
  • Update is not showing in installed updates
  • When attempting to uninstall update using .msu, WUSI claims update is not installed.

So microsoft is claiming it is both installed and not installed simultaneously. See the two screenshots for proof. Installed and then not installed

Is there any way to definitively check whether it is installed, and if so how to get it to recognise as installed reliably.

Best Answer

Extract the MSU (with 7-zip), open a CMD.exe as admin and run

dism /online /add-package /packagepath:C:\Windows6.1-KB3033929-x64.cab

this skips the check if the update is required or not. Now try to install Atmel Studio.

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