The update is not applicable to your computer – KB2896496 KB2919355

Problem:

“The update is not applicable to your computer”

I have come across this a number of times, primarily when applying Windows Updates manually.

Solution:

Use windows updates and don’t manually installl patches, it knows what to do.

If you really wan to do this manually, or windows updates is not working properly, find a “good PC” and get a list of hotfixes and compare your hotfixes on each and see what is missing.

Short answer with this:

KB2896496 and KB2919355  probably have a prerequisite that you have not installed.

Long answer:

I have been creating a master image of Windows Server 2012 R2

With my first master image I allowed windows updates to install all important and recommended patches APART from KB2919355. I then manually installed KB2919355 and it worked fine.

With my second master image  I use Audit Mode that will not allow you to use Windows Updates , so I needed to download all the patches manually (using catalog.microsoft.com) and install them one by one. I installed them in order based on KB number (lowest to highest)

KB2896496 it came up with the “this update is not applicable”

A quick look at the KB Article showed no prerequisites…hmmmm…. so I thought, I would carry on and install the rest of the hotfixes… yep that worked fine….. until…when installed KB2919355 it came up with the “this update is not applicable”

A quick look at the KB Article showed that KB2919442 was a prerequisite and of course I had not installed that yet as it was a greater number….

So installing KB2919442 , then installing KB2919355 worked successfully.

Great! one down , one to go, so I tried to install  KB2896496 and it work! I can only assume that KB2919355 which was the “cumulative update” (aka Windows 2012 R2 SP1) , so it probably installed the undocumented prerequisite for  KB2919442