Exclude List Doubts

[zanko]

Hi,

I have been reading around the forum and could not find a definitive answer. So can somebody please explain to me if possible!

There are so many ways to exclude stuff namely

1) ../client/exclude/ExcludeList.txt
2) ../client/exclude/custom/ExcludeList.txt
3) ../exclude/ExcludeList.txt
4) ../exclude/custom/ExcludeList.txt
5) ../client/exclude/ExcludeListForce-all.txt
6) ../client/exclude/custom/ExcludeListForce-all.txt
7) ../exclude/ExcludeListForce-all.txt
8) ../exclude/custom/ExcludeListForce-all.txt


I am just listing out the possibilities (some of which might not even work).

So my goal is to not DOWNLOAD and not UPDATE kb9999999. Which txt file should I specified this to?

Thank you so much!

[aker]

Which update do you want to block?

If it is a dynamic update, use
.\exclude\custom\ExcludeList-<platform>-<arch>.txt
.\client\exclude\custom\ExcludeList.txt

If it is a static update, use
.\exclude\custom\ExcludeListForce-all.txt

[zanko]

Hi! Thank you for the reply. I am blocking windows 7 updates that related to telemetry and stuff. Do you mind explaining on how to know if the type of update that I am blocking is dynamic or static?

Also correct me if I'm wrong. Regarding dynamic update, when I exclude in client it prevent INSTALLTION right? And when I exclude it in the root directory (not client) it prevent DOWNLOADING?

Lastly is it just a convention to create a new ExcludeList.txt in custom folder? I saw that there is already a text file with the following name outside of custom folder.

Thank you so much!

[zanko]

Thank you!

[boco]

First, only ever use the lists in the 'custom' subdirectories! The non-custom lists will be possibly overwritten by WSUSOU updates.

For Telemetry/Win10 malware blocking, use the .\exclude\custom\ExcludeListForce-all.txt list. That way, you do not have to care if it's static or dynamic. The Force list blocks downloading of everything defined there.
Note: That list blocks only downloads, so you might get warnings at install time ("KB9999999 not found"). You can use the install blacklist .\client\exclude\custom\ExcludeList.txt to silence most warnings, but you'll have to live a few warnings left (for the static and prereqs stuff).