Recently I ran into an issue that was fixed by applying a Microsoft hotfix for the Volume Shadow Service on Windows 2003SP2. The fix was KB929774, and when I searched to the KB one of the Google results mentioned that this fix was obsolete and that KB940252 should be used. So my question is, where on the Microsoft knowledge base does it show what replaces an older, obsoleted patch? For example on the Sunsolve site every patch in the "PatchFinder" will be marked as obsolete with a link to a newer version. Does antyhing like this exist for Microsoft hotfixes?
SnapOverflow
Those two KB's are not for the same issue. While someone somewhere may indicate that one obsolete's the other because it worked in their scenario, it is not necessarily the case.
Microsoft include information on associated KBs in the Introduction portion of the KB or the Resolution section, such as with KB948609 (can't add a link as I'm new). As with KB924895, there is usually a section that states something like:
I don't know that this is used consistently though, and of course, Microsoft has no control over what people write in forums on the Internet.
If you compare file information for KB929774 and KB940252 (for the same base OS and SP level), you will see that these hotfixes include exactly the same set of files, but all file versions in KB940252 are newer than KB929774. This means that installing KB940252 after KB929774 will give the same result as installing KB940252 alone, so in effect KB940252 replaces KB929774 (and actually includes all changes from KB929774 and any previous hotfixes for these files).
Additional information:
If you use WSUS (Windows Server Update services) and install it on a machine somewhere on your network it will distribute patches out to all your desktops/servers on a schedule you decide, you can also manually approve patches or have everything automatically approved.
When you go to approve a patch it will tell you whether it has been superseeded by another.
WSUS will give you this information, all nicely collected in a single central location. Even if you don't use it for patch management, it's worth installing it in "dead mode" for this alone. Put it on your PC or somewhere, set it up to sync but not download, and don't configure any policies for it. Result.