Patch Tuesday: Tip for Accessing Unavailable KB Articles

It can be frustrating to see Microsoft's security updates roll out only to find that the associated KB articles haven't surfaced yet.

This month, March 2015, is a great example. Microsoft delivered the Bulletin Summary page and then the security updates themselves became available shortly after. But, the Bulletin Summary page was full of links to supplementary KB articles that didn't yet exist, making it impossible for patching admins to get a full grasp on what Microsoft was delivering and where potential problems existed. Cart before the horse.

But, here's a tip. Those KB articles actually do exist, they just haven't synched to the final destination yet.

Microsoft rolls out KB articles to a staging server first and these are then replicated to the final destination. When the company provides links in the Bulletin Summary, it embeds them as:

https://support.microsoft.com/kb/XXXXXXX

This is the destination location for Microsoft KB articles.

The staging server is:

https://support2.microsoft.com/kb/XXXXXXX

Notice the difference? Support versus Support2.

So, if you locate a link to a KB article that doesn't exist, alter the URL and insert the '2' after support.

Incidentally, the KB article will continue to exist in both locations.