GDR, QFE, LDR... WTH?

re: GDR, QFE, LDR... WTH?

Paul Adams MSFT — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 09:05:22 GMT

Hi Artemisia,

I tested the hotfixes myself on XP SP3 and it worked as expected.

Starting point:

shell32.dll (xpsp.080413-2105)

shimgw.dll (xpsp.080413-2105)

Applied KB2286198 with /b:sp3qfe switch to force the included files onto the QFE branch:

shell32.dll (xpsp_sp3_qfe.100726-1753)

shimgw.dll (xpsp.080413-2105)

Applied KB2483185 without any special switch:

shell32.dll (xpsp_sp3_qfe.110121-1719)

shimgw.dll (xpsp_sp3_qfe.110121-1719)

The second hotifx has to move BOTH files to the QFE branch because of a dependency in shell32.dll on non-security code changes in shimgw.dll.

I hope that clears things up a bit :)

Cheers,

Paul

re: GDR, QFE, LDR... WTH?

Artemisia — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:02:56 GMT

Sadly, my experiment does not support your opinion.

kb2286198 (shell32.dll 6.0.2900.6018 gdr/ 6.0.2900.6018 qfe)

, kb2483185(shell32.dll 6.0.2900.6072 gdr/ 6.0.2900.6072 qfe , shimgvw.dll 6.0.2900.6072 gdr/ 6.0.2900.6072 qfe)

----

original os file:

shell32.dll 6.00.2900.5622 gdr

shimgvw.dll 6.0.2900.5512 none

---force qfe branch

after kb2286198 /b:sp3qfe , os file:

shell32.dll 6.00.2900.6018 qfe

--formal install

after kb2483185, os file:

shell32.dll 6.00.2900.6072 qfe

shimgvw.dll 6.0.2900.6072 qfe

re: GDR, QFE, LDR... WTH?

Paul Adams MSFT — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 06:32:51 GMT

Hi Rajat,

Each individual file is either from the LDR or the GDR branch, not the OS as a whole - in fact some binaries do not change from RTM, so neither their version nor branch will ever alter.

Cheers,

Paul

re: GDR, QFE, LDR... WTH?

Rajat — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 04:45:22 GMT

Hi so it the files that are LDR or GDR or there are different OS flavours one GDR and one LDR.Please help out in this regards

re: GDR, QFE, LDR... WTH?

Paul Adams MSFT — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 21:34:26 GMT

Hi, and thanks for the feedback - on re-reading what I had originally put it was vague, so I have edited it.

Yes, you are correct - the $NtUninstallKBxxxxxx$ folders are the backed up copies of the files the hotfix package replaced, and a unique copy of its uninstaller.

(The hotfix packages before Vista had their own update.exe and spuninst.exe to allow for changes to how they worked, but now the Windows Installer service and TrustedInstaller user take care of this in a much neater fashion.)

$hf_mig$ is for "hotfix migration" and is where the files extracted per hotfix are stored to allow the servicing engine to avoid regressions.

The hotfix list as presented in Add/Remove Programs is not built from checking for the existence of $NtUninstallKBxxxxxx$ folders, but is maintained separately under SoftwareDistribution in a database - getting this database out of sync with the real disk contents through manual deletion of folders is another reason to not do so ;)

Cheers,

Paul

Hotfix migration

DragonHawk — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:07:32 GMT

First, thank you for this very informative and useful article. But, a request for clarification:

You wrote that the $NtUninstallKB*$ folders contain also "the extracted contents of the hotfix packages", and they are used for hotfix migration during subsequent updates.

I had thought %SystemRoot%\$hf_mig$ was used for hotfix migration.

I've checked many of those folders on my Win XP SP2 system. Many of the folder contain only the SPUnInst.EXE and its support files. None of them appear to contain more than one copy of any file; the files they do contain appear to be the old files (for restoration if the hotfix is uninstalled).

Am I missing something, or did you accidentally confuse $NtUninstallKB*$ with $hf_mig$ ?

Thanks!