The GDR patch

  • Comments posted to this topic are about the item The GDR patch

  • Good question, complete stab in the dark and got it wrong! Learned something however so thanks for the question Steve

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  • Knew it must one of the first two options, but got it wrong.
    Learnt something though.

  • I don't think the answer is quite correct.  At least I think it was incorrect back when I had to understand this stuff, which was a long time ago.  Paul Adams blogged about it some time during the last few months before I retired, about mid 2009, and unless my memory is failing the GDR he described was more flexible (and more useful) than the answer suggests, roughly as follows:
    If  a QFE has been applied to some file (so that the file now in use is an LDR version) , a later GDR that includes this file has to be able to reconstruct that file so as to include the earlier QFE as well as new changes to that file included in this GDR , resulting in an upgraded LDR version of that file, so the GDR has to include the LDR elelments it needs to do that. The GDR will not upgrade an a file currently GDR to LDR, nor will it upgrade a file from LDR to GDR unless it is actually a SERVICE PACK.  So effectively it includes a LDR elements for every file that for which a QFE has been released that applies to the current base systemm (RTM or service pack).  And it can contain files from a currently unreleased build of an SP as well, if they contain urgent security fixes that are relevant to all users and the SP as a whole isn't yet releasable. The big advantage with this approach is that people who have some LDR components can apply new GDRs without losing the non-GDR fixes that resulted in those LDR components, while a user who hasn't applied those non-GDR fixes gets the new GDR fixes without getting those unwanted non-GDR fixes.  I imagine that it cost Microsoft quite a lot in a messy multitude of versions but improved the efective security seen by customers.

    Tom

  • Interesting question, thanks Steve.

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