How accurate is the 'supersede' term regarding older updates in WSUS?

Question

Been recently playing around with different options for management of my servers. One of these is WSUS.

Getting a beginning list of updates was simplistic enough (though, the list is a bit...long) but a question of terms comes into play.

MS uses the term Supersede when describing older updates that have been covered by a newer patch/service pack. But does this mean I can just flat out decline all updates that are superseded?

Or is there a pitfall with this attitude going forth due to poor terms or implementation on WSUS' part?

If so, is there a best way to identify when this is a poor idea for updates (declining all updates of Office 2003 and just installing SP3), or is it a matter of manually going through each update (making sure every update is installed preceding SP3)?

Answer 1

Some of the newer updates have older updates/fixes implemented in them. And as far as SPs go, some have prerequisites that you can look up which ones they are. Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Declining updates that are superseded by a service pack is a fine way to do things as long as you know your base image will include the service pack.

I've had experiences where the service pack failed to install when individual updates were still applied. If your base image does not have the service pack preloaded, then I would consider approving the individual updates as well.