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Microsoft Pulls Broken XP Update
Cally writes "Yahoo! reports that
Microsoft have pulled a Windows XP update from the Windows Update servers after it killed network access for some users of the claimed 600,000 who installed it. (Does this mean only 600,000 XP users trust Windows Update?) The story hints that the problem was something to do with VPN or IPSec drivers clashing with Symantec software - however I haven't found anything about this on the Microsoft KnowledgeBase (the link Yahoo provide goes to the generic support home page.) Anyone got more info?"
In real life, people don't trust MS patches until they've tested them on their own systems with their own application mixes.
Until MS raises their quality assurance and testing to a higher level than it is now, knowledgeable system admins, responsible for managing lots of Windows systems in their environments, will continue not to trust Windows Update.
"Provided by the management for your protection."
Yes. Look at the "do not use" and missing kernel numbers on www.kernel.org and "Heads UP" announcements on bsd-current.
Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
http://www.sigsegv.cx/
All I know is that, having decided to pull down some of the critical updates (not on auto, you understand) I can no longer get the properties window to appear for a directory in Explorer, except in safe mode. Kind of makes it difficult to administer security that does; oh and the performance went down a heap too. Even tried backing them all out too, but the system restore was disabled - too little disk space apparently, nice of it to tell me in time(!).
Only four hours ago, I was on the phone to MS support. If the p.c. is started with only MS services enabled (there's only Norton or MS ones on this machine) via the msconfig utility, everything is fine. If I disable all the non-MS services in the services window though and do a normal restart, everything is broken again - duh!
I'm going to try unloading/reloading all the Norton stuff again but don't hold out much hope. Oh well, looks like I'm up for another rebuild, the sixth in five months... and no, I won't be using the updates in future
Go permanent? In your dreams and my worst nightmares.
The second-to-last Mac OS X update had a glitch where, on many portables, it would reset the system clock to the epoch on restart. The update after that corrected the problem, of course.
This is somewhat minor compared to losing network access, but only somewhat. This sort of thing happens often when OS updates move from the lab to the real world, and the fact that Microsoft responded the way it did should be considered a virtue rather than a vice.
In fact, there was an exploit in a previous version of MDAC (Microsoft Data Access Components) that was later patched, but someone could exploit patched users by pushing the unpatched MDAC from their web sites. If anyone had selected to always trust Microsoft for downloads, it would be downloaded and installed without ever notifying the user.
Why is it that people always hear what I say, and not what I mean?
According to the article, "Because the software update was considered a security improvement and not an urgent repair, it was available only to customers who specifically visited the Windows Update site Friday. Other repairing patches can be delivered automatically to consumers." This one was not automatically installed.
Which is not to say that automatic update is not a potential source of major problems. QA needs to be really good for something like this, which it clearly was not.
Floating face-down in a river of regret...and thoughts of you...
I guess I was not the only one who got hosed downloading this update recommended to me by MS thru the update site. It ruined my DSL connection and could not be uninstalled. I wound up fdisking and formatting, which of course required the nice little phone call to Microsoft to get this number and that number. When they asked me why I was calling, I told them I downloaded an update from the update site that killed my internet connection - they were very polite after that.....wonder why? :)
When Apple comes out with their new PPC 970 systems I will be first in line to buy one. I dont like what I see coming down the Microsoft trail re DRM and all the spying going on. I liked my G4 when I had it but it was so slow compared to my windows box I sold it. Seems like Mac maight make a comeback, I'm sure I'm not the only one thinking this way. But there's no way I'm buying a G4 unit.
I know any number of people who just use the software that came on their Win98 CDROM, it never even occurs to them to update their software.
Ummmm, yeah!
People think of a computer like a machine. Like a car, or a boat.
Do you take your car in to have the Catalytic converter "upgraded" every year?
Do you subscribe to an "update service" to update the embedded firmware on the onboard computer?
Why would you do this? Why should they?
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.