How i can know the updates that have been applied inside SharePoint server 2013

Question

We have SharePoint server 2013 , and the latest cumulative updates which i have manually applied was on October 2014, where i download it from the following site Link.

after that we were doing the following:-

1. using windows server 2008 R2's windows update tool we were installing all the updates , where SharePoint updates used to appear on the windows update tool. but for a reason or another SharePoint updates no more appears on windows update tool..

2. as part of our internal security policy , we were patching our servers with the latest security updates, including SharePoint security updates.

now i am a bit confused on were do i stand , in respect to the SharePoint updates. now i run the following command :-

PS C:\Windows\system32> (get-spfarm).buildversion

Major  Minor  Build  Revision
-----  -----  -----  --------
15     0      4763   1000

now this build number is for October 2015 CU, and when i checked the "Check product and patch installation status" from our central admin, i found 5 patches which have the following number 15.0.4771.1000 which is for November 2015, and seems these 5 patches did not update the farm build number. so can anyone adivce where i do stand ?? as i mentioned since October 2014 i did not install any updates manually and i was relying on windows update tool, and the security updates ?

Second question. now since i have farm build number = 15.0.4763.1000,, so does this mean that i should have all the updates and patches till October 2015 installed inside our SharePoint server?? or i can not conclude this ??

Thanks

Answer 1

Not all patches update the farm build number. These are typically security hotfixes or non-security hotfixes that do not patch microsoft.sharepoint.dll. It is expected behavior. Applying CUs is the best bet to update the farm build number and of course, all products.

That said, even security patches require testing and you may not want to deploy all of them. Within the past two years, there have been multiple instances of security updates introducing a fairly major regression, with MS16-004 introducing the latest regression.