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Windows Vista SP1 Meeting Sour Reception In Places

Posted by Zonk on from the just-a-bit-more-testing dept.

Stony Stevenson writes "A day after it was released for public download, Windows Vista SP1 is drawing barbs from some computer users who say the software wrecked their systems. 'I downloaded it via Windows Update, and got a bluescreen on the third part of the update,' wrote 'Iggy33' in a comment posted Wednesday on Microsoft's Vista team blog. Iggy33 was just one of dozens of posters complaining about Vista Service Pack 1's effect on their PCs. Other troubles reported by Vista SP1 users ranged from a simple inability to download the software from Microsoft's Windows Update site to sudden spikes in memory usage. To top it all off, the service pack will not install on computers that use peripheral device drivers that Microsoft has deemed incompatible."

12 of 501 comments (clear)

  1. And the problem is...? by bigstrat2003 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    So, SP1 won't install if there's an incompatible driver present (as opposed to installing and then crashing all the time, or just removing the driver)? That sounds pretty fucking sensible to me, what exactly are we supposed to find bad about that?

    Obviously it'd be better if no such incompatibility existed, but if you have to deal with such a situation, this seems like the best way to do it, by far.

    --
    "16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
    1. Re:And the problem is...? by ScrewMaster · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I hate to say it, but I tend to take Microsoft's side on this one. If you do that, the vast majority of people won't care and will just click OK no matter what. Just like when their firewall says, "this is a potentially unsafe Web site". They click OK anyway because they just don't care.

      --
      The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
    2. Re:And the problem is...? by vux984 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Or, God forbid, we just ask the user's permission to load a potentially unsafe driver!

      I sense a double standard.

      If someone loaded a driver that was known not to work with a given linux kernel and then it didn't work and caused kernel panics, what would we hear? Something like -- you're an idiot, you brought this on yourself, linux even warned you it was incompatible when you installed it, how much of a dipshit are you? What exactly did you expect?

      The same thing happens on Windows and we'll hear chants of "Vista sucks because it crashes all the time" followed by a slashdot "Amen!" The fact that its crashing because the user loaded a driver Vista warned him not too? Well its still Vista's fault for some reason.

    3. Re:And the problem is...? by ansa · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Maybe it's because they PAID for Vista... I'm sure RHEL customers will bitch a lot too with RH support if something like this happens...

      --

      --
      "The crux of the biscuit is the Apostrophe(*)" - FZ
  2. A bad thing? by Drakin020 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    To top it all off, the service pack will not install on computers that use peripheral device drivers that Microsoft has deemed incompatible."
    And that's a bad thing? The way I see it, this prevents even more problems. Honestly though I have heard great things about the upgrade from many users. Also Engadget was running a story and most of the people that commented had good things to say.

    It's know that anytime an update is released there will always be some problems. http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/some-vista-sp1-early-adopters-reporting-problems-how-about-you/#comments

    --
    The greatest revenge in life is massive success.
  3. 12 blog comments = news ? by urbanriot · · Score: 5, Insightful

    12 blog commentors claim to have had problems installing SP1 and that's newsworthy? I'd be curious to see their system configuration, as I'm so far nine for nine successful installs on various system configurations with no issues whatsoever (in fact, some systems had issues corrected).

  4. Vocal Minority, as Usual by ThinkFr33ly · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Dozens? Seriously? So that represents, what, about .0005% of users installing SP1?

    Why is it news that a few dozen people have issues with a service pack installation? Oh, that's right... this is Slashdot.

    Slashdot should just get it over with and change their slogan to "News for people who hate Microsoft. Stuff that we made up."

  5. How about ... by khasim · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Install and just disable the device?

    Or rather, how about installing the parts that CAN be installed and skipping anything else?

    This is about getting PATCHES in place. Not whether you have an unsupported CD-ROM and, therefore, you will not be allowed to apply the OTHER patches.

    1. Re:How about ... by bigstrat2003 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Are you kidding? Disabling the device would have users furious, and rightly so. And it may not be possible to skip the parts which are incompatible... but only Microsoft can tell us that one.

      --
      "16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
    2. Re:How about ... by ozphx · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Probably the usual deal.

      Microsoft to Realtek:
      "Heres the driver API!"

      Realtek:
      "Argh this is hard. Fortunately I'm clever and can use this undocumented function."

      (time passes)

      Realtek:
      "Ack, fuck. What happened to my fucking undocumented function?"

      --
      3laws: No freebies, no backsies, GTFO.
  6. Re:I said "Ubuntu can do it". by MrNaz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm a Slashdotter, and I like Linux as much as any other. It earns me my bread. But seriously, dude, if you think that Linux distro's "Just Work", and all updates never cause dependency or conflict issues, then you're dreaming. Not even Ubuntu's upgrades always go smoothly, especially when you have exotic server hardware thrown into the mix, or obscure or complex packages running.

    --
    I hate printers.
  7. From a vista user's perspective by Kahless2k · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I've been using Vista for a while now (I need to know it for work) and have followed the SP1 saga for some time - and from a lot of the posts above, I seem to be one of very few...

    There are a handful of drivers (there is a list on technet I believe, but Im too lazy to dig a link up, but check one of the first posts in the last SP1 post on slashdot) which for one reason or another install themselves in such a way as SP1 makes them inoperable. The solution is to reinstall the drivers after SP1. Microsoft is trying to make this smooth - with Vista's reputation, what do you think would happen when Joe Public installs an update and their sound driver goes bad? Simple solution or not it is only going to hurt the reputation further.

    It is very good to see that at least SP1 backs out cleanly when it sees it cannot complete the update, and from what I have read and heard from customers (mainly Joe Public types) that SP1 is installing without real issue for the majority of people. Personally, I installed last night without any issues - I actually noticed that my machine feels more responsive in a number of areas.

    With that said, it is a service pack.. sometimes there are compatibility issues, look at XP SP2 when it came out but nobody bitches about that anymore; if the negative impact is minimized, then good for them.

    Put away your pitchforks for once.. I've had enough updates on my Linux boxes go wrong that I find the "Evil Microsoft, Linux perfect" comments being hypocritical - but then, this IS slashdot..

    (I know I'll be modded into oblivion because of that last comment, but I had to say it)