Etcher website < https://etcher.io/ > allows you to quickly and easily create bootable USB flash drives, based on ISOs. There are installers for Mac OS X (native app and homebrew); Windows; Linux (AppImage, deb, and rpm). There is also a command line version available for Mac/Linux and Windows.
We have used Etcher for creating CentOS installers and have found it to be very reliable. A superb, no fuss, cross-platform solution.
You may be required to adjust hibernation settings and the pagefile values for Desktop based SSDs, in order to prevent valuable storage space from being used by Windows.
Disable hibernation by running an elevated command prompt and issuing:
powercfg -h off
You should be able to confirm this via Power Options (Control Panel)
Have had no need to adjust pagefile values yet. However, the procedure would be:
Control Panel > System and Security > System > Advanced system settings > Advanced tab > Performance settings > Advanced tab > Virtual memory change
Uncheck “automatically manage paging file for all drives” box and then set desired value. If you wish, you can disable the paging file (this may upset some applications). A smaller paging file can be set by clicking on the “custom size” option and entering starting size and maximum size values.
This minor reset can be used when Windows 7 fails to find updates i.e progress bar never stops.
Open an elevated command prompt and run these commands:
net stop wuauserv net stop cryptsvc
Delete or rename %windir%\SoftwareDistribution directory
Delete or rename %windir%\System32\catroot2
Restart the services we had previously stopped:
net start wuauserv net start cryptsvc
Install latest Windows Update Client from:
W7 64bit: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=53332
W7 32bit: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=53335
Restart the computer
You should then be able to check for updates manually and get the PC fully patched
If the above fails, Microsoft have documented a ‘hard reset’ at:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/kb/971058
Microsoft Security Response Center
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/dn440717.aspx
Security TechCenter
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/default
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2017, October 25th:
Ransom: Bad Rabbit Win32/Tibbar.A
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/wdsi/threats/malware-encyclopedia-description?Name=Ransom:Win32/Tibbar.A
Windows Defender Offline Scan
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/threat-protection/windows-defender-antivirus/windows-defender-offline#run-a-scan
Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 update history
https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/4009469
2017, June 28th:
Microsoft Malware Protection Engine flaw (CVE-2017-8558) – now patched at 1.1.13903.0+
https://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-US/security-guidance/advisory/CVE-2017-8558
2017, June 13th:
Microsoft Security Advisory 4025685
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/security/4025685
4025685: Guidance for older platforms: June 13, 2017
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4025687/microsoft-security-advisory-4025685-guidance-for-older-platforms
Microsoft Security Scanner https://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx Manual updates for Microsoft Security products https://www.microsoft.com/security/portal/definitions/adl.aspx
2017, May 5th:
Microsoft Customer Guidance for Wannacrypt attacks
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/msrc/2017/05/12/customer-guidance-for-wannacrypt-attacks/