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Microsoft Ramps Up "Fix it" Support Tool

Posted by kdawson on from the pretty-please dept.

CWmike writes "Microsoft has ramped up its new Windows support assistant 'Fix it for me' nearly three months after it quietly released the automatic repair and configuration tool. The upgrade adds a 'Fix it' button to some of the support documents that Microsoft posts to its Knowledge Base. The blog introducing the changes lists some of the Knowledge Base documents that boast the 'Fix it' button, including one that prevents users from connecting a USB storage device — useful in protecting against one of the infection vectors of the 'Downadup' worm. Have ideas for the tool? In a forum on the 'WinVistaClub' Web site, someone who said he was part of the 'Fix it' team at Microsoft encouraged users to send feedback on the feature to the group at fixit4me@microsoft.com."

108 of 144 comments (clear)

  1. What happens.... by Logical+Zebra · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What happens when the "fix it tool" itself breaks?

    --
    I have a bad feeling about this...
    1. Re:What happens.... by imcclell · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I doubt most people would notice. When people click on something like that and nothing happens, they just assume it can't be fixed, not that the tool itself is broken.

      Think of how many times they've run across a fix button that does nothing in antivirus and antispyware software. People just shrug their shoulders and go on.

      Mind you, not a good attitude to have but people have it anyways.

    2. Re:What happens.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Then you just click the "fix it fix it" link.

    3. Re:What happens.... by garlicbready · · Score: 3, Funny

      (blue screen)
      The Fix it Fix it Fix it Fix it tool has failed,
      do you wish to Fix it or Fail?

    4. Re:What happens.... by Anonymous+Cowbell · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That presupposes that the Fix It tool will work in the first place

      Ever tried to use the Repair option in MS Office? I've used it on dozens of installs, and it has never once repaired a GD thing

    5. Re:What happens.... by im_thatoneguy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Why pick on office.

      I've never once had an install repair utility fix ANY program EVER.

    6. Re:What happens.... by kjb542 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Then you click on the "Fuck It" tool, which surreptitiously installs Linux....

    7. Re:What happens.... by An+ominous+Cow+art · · Score: 5, Funny

      That reminds me of a message we'd occasionally get in the early 90s working with either FoxPro or FoxBase:

      "Error 201 while attempting to report Error 201"

      (I don't know whether 201 was the actual number anymore)

    8. Re:What happens.... by Omniscientist · · Score: 1

      Then the problem was most likely unrelated to the integrity of the installation, since that's all Repair fixes.

    9. Re:What happens.... by QuantumRiff · · Score: 2, Insightful

      And sadly, when People click on something like that, and what's supposed to happen happens, users get used to running applications from websites. This is a very bad thing indeed.

      --

      What are we going to do tonight Brain?
    10. Re:What happens.... by SanityInAnarchy · · Score: 1

      Almost right. On Windows, you poweroff as quickly as you feel like, boot Linux, and restore a known-good Windows disk image, preferably something from ntfsclone.

      --
      Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
    11. Re:What happens.... by Jurily · · Score: 4, Funny

      a known-good Windows disk image

      Umm...

    12. Re:What happens.... by PrescriptionWarning · · Score: 3, Funny

      Not to be confused with the "Fuck Me" tool, which surreptitiously installs Vista

    13. Re:What happens.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Here you go. Apparently it could be either error 14 or error 182, and it was in Visual FoxPro 7.0.

    14. Re:What happens.... by An+ominous+Cow+art · · Score: 1

      It may still have occurred by the time of VFP 7.0, but I remember it from the DOS days - I'm unsure whether it before or after Microsoft 'merged' with Fox.

      I think the one I recall *was* error 14, though.

    15. Re:What happens.... by GF678 · · Score: 1

      I've never once had an install repair utility fix ANY program EVER.

      I have. Specifically I used Windows XP recovery option to fix some boot files which were corrupted/deleted. Worked just fine.

      See? Now my anecdotal evidence is as useful as yours.

    16. Re:What happens.... by ibbie · · Score: 1

      The need to run Windows is why KVM (not the hardware) is so very nice. System going funky? Shut it down, rsync from the nas with a clean copy, and you're back up and running.

      --
      The wise follow a damned path, for to know is to be forsaken.
    17. Re:What happens.... by modestgeek · · Score: 1

      Me too. sfc /scannow and chkdsk /f have fixed quite a few problems. If those fail, the XP recovery utility from the CD has worked a couple of times. Though, I'd rather just reimage the box and be done with it.

    18. Re:What happens.... by Mad+Merlin · · Score: 1

      You mean just close that KVM instance and start it up again, because you're using -snapshot and nothing gets saved to the image?

      --
      Game! - Where the stick is mightier than the sword!
    19. Re:What happens.... by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

      Well, just use the exponential of Fix-it. It contains not only Fix-it and Fix-it Fix-it, but also Fix-it Fix-it Fix-it, Fix-it Fix-it Fix-it Fix-it and so on.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    20. Re:What happens.... by SanityInAnarchy · · Score: 1

      KVM isn't going to be as nice as the bare metal, and an ntfsclone image is going to be easier to handle than a raw (even sparse) image.

      No, the nice part about something like KVM or Qemu is when you run it in snapshot mode -- all changes are written, copy-on-write fashion, to a temporary file. If you need to make a change permanent, you'd boot a fresh version, make the change, then commit.

      But my Windows is mainly for playing games, so my solution is to simply pipe the image back over ssh, then bzcat, then ntfsclone. Or, if I want to try something fun, ntfsclone to lzop to the local Linux partition, restore after the next boot.

      --
      Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
  2. But.. by linal · · Score: 5, Funny

    But Jim has already fixed it for me.

    1. Re:But.. by Skiron · · Score: 1

      I doubt anybody outside England and under 40 years old gets that joke - and/but to be honest, I don't even Jim could fix MS crap.

    2. Re:But.. by Bearhouse · · Score: 1

      For those non-Brit and/or youngsters out there:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Saville

    3. Re:But.. by Tdawgless · · Score: 1

      I doubt anybody outside England and under 40 years old gets that joke

      I know I don't.

    4. Re:But.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Surely this would have been better to explain the joke?

    5. Re:But.. by Skiron · · Score: 1

      No it isn't. It is England.

  3. Seems exploitable by Dyinobal · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This seems rather exploitable, I wonder how long before we have viruses that hijack this application when an infected user tries to use it. They are better off with a good online knowledge base for common problems than some 'fix it for me' tool. Education is the key to solving the most common issues. I remember removing a number of viruses and spyware from this one ladies computer. She would then promptly go back and download the 'games' that gave her the viruses in the first place. Great for income, not so great when the customers accuses of you not fixing a problem the first time around. More times than not I feel like I should be working on the user instead of the PC. I guess all this goes back to the teach a man to fish analogy.

    1. Re:Seems exploitable by gad_zuki! · · Score: 4, Informative

      If the virus can modify the fixit binary then it already has admin access. Why would the author go through another hoop? Just attack the system.

      The attack Im thinking of is spoofing the fixit4me button on a random webpage and hoping the user downloads your malware, but that's a trojan/social attack that works for just about anything (click here to install flash, etc).

      Some kind of intelligent tool should be doable. Most PC problems are pretty basic and automating the fix straight from the KB makes sense for non-techies. I imagine a common scenario for this will be used by people who know a little tech, but are afraid of modifying the registry or installing a patch as opposed to the clueless grandma. This person would probably see the problem in the event viewer, click on the "what does this mean" button and be sent to the KB with the fixit tool sitting there.

      >Education is the key to solving the most common issues.

      Thats true of most problems, but a lot of people will never learn and simply will require hand-holding forever. Automated tools can do a lot of this hand-holding for them. Automated tools can also help those who understand the issue but may not be technical enough to perform their own fix.

    2. Re:Seems exploitable by JustinOpinion · · Score: 4, Insightful

      In addition to the possibility of exploits in this kind of system, I really worry about what it will do with respect to the very user education issue you mention.

      If Microsoft's official site trains people to trust (and click on) an agreeable-looking "Fit it!" icon, it won't be long before other sites use a surprisingly similar-looking "Fit it!" icon to induce people to click on malware (and click through the various warnings that appear--after all, I trust this thing to fix my computer!). There will always be some users who are easily fooled... but Microsoft should not exacerbate the situation by making people comfortable with the idea of launching system-altering utilities directly from the web browser.

      To me this is no better than the IT department asking you for your password. Yes, you should trust the IT department (and they could no doubt determine your password if they really wanted to)... but it creates a bad habit, where users are accustomed to emailing their passwords to whoever asks and seems even slightly legitimate.

    3. Re:Seems exploitable by Rary · · Score: 3, Insightful

      There's really nothing here to exploit that hasn't always existed.

      All they've added to the KB document is a link to download an MSI file that, when executed, fixes the problem. As long as the web has existed it has been possible to put a link on a webpage saying "download this little utility which will fix all your problems, honest".

      Really, it just makes sense. If you're already browsing Microsoft's knowledge base, and you've found the document that explains your problem, instead of following the step-by-step "fix it" instructions provided in the document, why not just click on a link that does the work for you.

      So, now they're providing instructions for the people who want to do it themselves, and a convenient utility for the people who don't. Sounds reasonable to me.

      --

      "You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war." -- Albert Einstein

    4. Re:Seems exploitable by Scholasticus · · Score: 1

      I do a little Windows maintenance for beer money, so what I'm about to write probably doesn't apply to you. Anyway, if I remove viruses or fix some other problem for somebody and then tell them how avoid the problem in the future, often they admit it's their fault. If they do that, I'll fix the same problem without question. If they blame me, I tell them to fix it themselves and never go back there again.

    5. Re:Seems exploitable by SanityInAnarchy · · Score: 1

      That would be the ultimate "Fixed it for you."

      --
      Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
    6. Re:Seems exploitable by SanityInAnarchy · · Score: 1

      Whoops, meant to reply to this comment.

      --
      Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
    7. Re:Seems exploitable by omglolbah · · Score: 1

      Or the people like myself who have spent enough of their life fixing registry keys and other buggered things that could be automated had someone just bothered writing the damn script.

      The KB is very useful for a lot of things but damnit, I hate manually editing a pile of registry keys... Give me a .reg already! (At least for the common and simple problems like swapping a bit in a binary key..)

  4. get hacking, guys! by gEvil+(beta) · · Score: 5, Funny

    This seems like a great thing to try to hack. 5 bucks to the first one who gets the "Fix It" button to download and fire up an Ubuntu installer.

    --
    This guy's the limit!
    1. Re:get hacking, guys! by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 1

      5 bucks? That's the best you can do? At least make it worth my while. A free laptop, or a free iPod or a free annual paid-up subscription to Stream or free broadband for a year. Somethin'.

      --
      My blog
    2. Re:get hacking, guys! by Jurily · · Score: 1

      This seems like a great thing to try to hack. 5 bucks to the first one who gets the "Fix It" button to download and fire up an Ubuntu installer.

      Sounds good for irony, but realistically, it would suck. Imagine a metric shitload of fresh Ubuntu users searching for drive C:.

      However, it raises an interesting question: do we have good utilities to make migration easier?

    3. Re:get hacking, guys! by clarkn0va · · Score: 1

      I'll throw in another 5.

      --
      I am literally 3000 tokens away from the chaotic crossbow --Stephen
    4. Re:get hacking, guys! by Facegarden · · Score: 1

      This seems like a great thing to try to hack. 5 bucks to the first one who gets the "Fix It" button to download and fire up an Ubuntu installer.

      Sounds good for irony, but realistically, it would suck. Imagine a metric shitload of fresh Ubuntu users searching for drive C:.

      However, it raises an interesting question: do we have good utilities to make migration easier?

      Well, With WUBI, I hear it's a pretty nice install and they can still dual boot, so if it just installed itself that way and set it as the default, people could at least see it, and then if they paid attention at boot they could pick windows instead. Heh.
      -Taylor

      --
      Worldwide Military budgets: $2100 billion. Worldwide Space Exploration budgets: $38 billion. Really, world? Really?
    5. Re:get hacking, guys! by kpainter · · Score: 1

      5 bucks? That's the best you can do?

      And you can steal his CC info.

    6. Re:get hacking, guys! by Jurily · · Score: 1

      Well, With WUBI, I hear it's a pretty nice install and they can still dual boot, so if it just installed itself that way and set it as the default, people could at least see it, and then if they paid attention at boot they could pick windows instead. Heh.

      Does it resize partitions? Most Windows boxes I've seen have one big partition cover the whole drive. Does it copy the home directory over to the new system? How about multiple users? And other files? How much space does it claim? What if the home directory is larger?

      We need some serious thinking to make this work.

      (Side note: Firefox thinks "resize" is a typo.)

    7. Re:get hacking, guys! by Facegarden · · Score: 1

      Well, With WUBI, I hear it's a pretty nice install and they can still dual boot, so if it just installed itself that way and set it as the default, people could at least see it, and then if they paid attention at boot they could pick windows instead. Heh.

      Does it resize partitions? Most Windows boxes I've seen have one big partition cover the whole drive. Does it copy the home directory over to the new system? How about multiple users? And other files? How much space does it claim? What if the home directory is larger?

      We need some serious thinking to make this work.

      (Side note: Firefox thinks "resize" is a typo.)

      Wubi doesn't need it's own partition, and it doesn't change the bootloader. It runs from one folder in the windows partition. It may only support one user, nor sure about that, but aside from that I've heard its basically identical to a clean install. It can be installed in one click too, so it would be great for this kind of thing (although i don't actually suggest we try that, it would make people think linux was just a virus or something).

      But yeah, wubi is neat, I haven't tried it, but the site here explains more: http://wubi-installer.org/
      -Taylor

      --
      Worldwide Military budgets: $2100 billion. Worldwide Space Exploration budgets: $38 billion. Really, world? Really?
    8. Re:get hacking, guys! by Jurily · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It can be installed in one click too, so it would be great for this kind of thing (although i don't actually suggest we try that, it would make people think linux was just a virus or something).

      That's a stupid idea anyway. Linux is about choice. We only take the willing :)

    9. Re:get hacking, guys! by SanityInAnarchy · · Score: 1

      That would be the ultimate "Fixed it for you."

      (Accidentally posted it here.)

      --
      Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
    10. Re:get hacking, guys! by sumdumass · · Score: 1

      I don't think this is about creating lasting Linux users. I think it is more like the Irony of having to resort to fixes like that instead of having the code secure in the first place. The installing linux is where the irony part comes in, it wouldn't be so much as to get Linux users as it would be to show MS the dangers of relying on something like this.

    11. Re:get hacking, guys! by Jurily · · Score: 1

      it wouldn't be so much as to get Linux users as it would be to show MS the dangers of relying on something like this.

      Still, it would be a huge PR blow for Linux as a whole. Why not just sacrifice something crappy, like NetBSD?

      (Yeah, yeah, I know. But the would be users don't. To compensate, we could offer to sell them a toaster. Win-win.)

  5. What does it do? by Pete+LaGrange · · Score: 1, Redundant

    Install Linux?

    --
    loyalty above all, save honor
    1. Re:What does it do? by morcego · · Score: 1

      Considering that at least 90% of the time the user is the source of the problem, it will probably kill the user.

      --
      morcego
  6. That's a step in the right direction by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    ultimately they need to add a "Fuck It" button that, when pressed, formats the HD and installs Ubuntu

  7. Zen by dazedNconfuzed · · Score: 5, Interesting

    the 'Fix it' button, including one that prevents users from connecting a USB storage device -- useful in protecting against one of the infection vectors of the 'Downadup' worm.

    Funny, something I just sent a co-worker fits this.

    "Everything, from people to rocks, axiomatically has a basic nature to what it does, what it just tends to do and how. I find life is much simpler and more pleasant when I recognize what that is, and interact on it/he/she/they on it's own terms and in its own way. This G-D net-nanny [or, in TFA's case, "Fix It" disabling functionality] stuff is just another example of what screws up human existence: instead of facilitating things happening, it stands in the way and interferes in obtuse ways."

    The problem isn't people attaching USB storage devices, it's that OS design flaws allow for malicious misuse. Of course, M$'s "Fix It" solution is to kill the messenger, not fix the "yeah I'll do anything you say" OS - and we all know what kind of annoyance, headaches, breakage and new infection vectors will follow as a result.

    --
    Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
    1. Re:Zen by bjourne · · Score: 1

      There are lots of work places where they do not want you to bring classified documents home on a USB stick. Some of them even runs Linux!

      --
      Football Odds
  8. Wubi, Wubi, true to me; now I have to pee! by rts008 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Beat me to it.

    As soon as I saw the headline, I wondered how long it would take for some intrepid joker to hack the site...linking all of the 'Fix It' buttons to 'Wubi.exe'.

      LOL!!! Hilarity then ensues!

    The year of Linux on the Desktop, indeed...by hook or crook!!

    I would have to celebrate this with a drunken ROFLCOPTER while wearing my Groucho Glasses, and making fart noises with my armpit!

    --
    Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
  9. My idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    A kbase entry with a "fix it" button for when my network card is not working.

    1. Re:My idea by Jurily · · Score: 1

      A kbase entry with a "fix it" button for when my network card is not working.

      Ouch. You hit my sweet spot right there.

      I remember all too well the fresh XP installs and my broken driver CD.

      "Hmmm, the network driver is hosed. I know, I'll look it up on Goo... AAARRRRGGGHHH!"

  10. As my family's support guy..... by Samschnooks · · Score: 5, Insightful
    none of them even Google on how to fix a problem.(I know why should they when they got me.) I talked to a family friend about issues with her computer. She took it to Best Buy and didn't like the way they sounded ($79 to diagnose the problem and then more to fix. The $79 was to be put towards any fixes that may arise. They gave the creeps.), so I talked to her.

    The problem with her computer was between the chair and the keyboard. Anyway, to shorten the story, I asked her if she's ever Googled for answer to her problems or looked at the manual. Nope.

    Folks like that who would actually benefit from something like that will never come across it because they don't even think of searching the net for a solution; let alone of actually reading the manual and following the trouble shooting guide in the back.

    People like us, tech savy, will never trust a script like that from MS.

    This is doomed to fail.

    1. Re:As my family's support guy..... by eulernet · · Score: 1

      Sorry, but you are wrong when you say that the problem is between the chair and the keyboard.

      It's probably true for 99% of people, but not in my case.
      I'm a developer.
      I just installed dotNet 3.5 SP1, and it broke entirely my Visual Studio running on Vista, and I can assure you that I'm an advanced user, and I don't install any malware.
      After a few hours of work, I discovered that my problem is some obscure registry permissions, that Vista f**ed badly. I'm currently applying an obscure subinacl command.
      This is the second time I had such problems on Vista (and on 2 different computers !).

      So please, stop saying that the error always comes from the user, in my case it's due to the OS !

    2. Re:As my family's support guy..... by Myopic · · Score: 1

      Good thing most users are neither like you, nor like your family member! Users come all along the spectrum, so it doesn't necessarily mean failure to launch a product which doesn't appeal to the people on the edges of the bell curve.

      I predict failure for another reason: I assume that this feature will simply not work.

    3. Re:As my family's support guy..... by Jophiel04 · · Score: 1

      I think this is definitely the wrong approach to the problem. Everyone wants their computer to work properly but too many users are completely lost when it comes to fixing a problem. Rather than giving them a fix it for me button, better education about how to use the operating system, and a better knowledge-base would be a much better thing for everyone in my opinion.

      If Microsoft wants to really help the masses, I think an online video series on their website that people could stream, essentially a video tutorial of how to use the OS, and offering some basic security tips would be far more productive. As to Microsoft's ability to do that competently, that is a whole other matter.

      Teach people to fish, don't show them how to microwave fishsticks..

    4. Re:As my family's support guy..... by Tacvek · · Score: 1

      I know the .NET drill. I recent was trying to install a .Net SP and found it failed. I had to try to uninstall all old .NET installations (Excpet for the one that is considered an OS component). Since some of the installers were missing, I had to use the special .NET obliterating tool Microsoft makes available. I then re-install All the recent .Nets. Later a .Net 2.0 app complains with that crytpic error meesaage on startup that it could not find .NET 2.0. It turns out something had killed some random .Net related registry entries. So I try to re-install all the recent .Nets to fix this. Well some of the installers crash (uncaught exception) rather than propperly install. So I'm probably going to have to blow away all of .Net and start again.

      And this was on XP! Sigh. And is it just me or is it odd that 1.1 was a replacement for 1.0, and 2.0 was a replacement for 1.1, but 3.0 was just a small collection of add-on assemblies for 2.0, and 3.5 is add-on assemblies for 3.0?

      --
      Stylish sheet to fix many problems in Slashdot's D3: https://gist.github.com/801524
  11. Next Logical Step by NonUniqueNickname · · Score: 5, Funny

    Can we get a "Don't break this for me" checkbox instead?

    1. Re:Next Logical Step by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Let's hope for "cancel" and "allow" buttons to be replaced with the more accurate :
      "Please, for the love of God, NOOOO!" and "I'm feeling lucky..."

  12. Seriously: apturl. by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Actually, in all seriousness, it's possible for us to have this very technology on Linux: apturl.

    Since .deb packages can contain scripts and configuration files and whatnot, it wouldn't be too hard to create .deb packages that fix common problems.

    --
    My blog
  13. Meta-fix It by weighn · · Score: 1, Informative

    There's a meta fix for any broken Fit It tools available here.

    --
    Mongrel News all the news that fits and froths
    1. Re:Meta-fix It by Nerdposeur · · Score: 1

      When I install Ubuntu and try to boot into it, I get a blinking cursor and nothing else.

      Is there a Fix It tool for that, or do I have to learn how to compile the kernel or something?

    2. Re:Meta-fix It by Hucko · · Score: 1

      Sorry one click won't work; you need 6 clicks to install

      --
      Semi-automatic amateur armchair Australian philosopher; conjecture ready at any moment...
  14. Could be useful... by Facegarden · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I've always thought it was strange how KB articles can get to have some really complicated actions, yet they can't just give you a script to do what they're telling you to do. That would be really helpful.

    Here's an example of something i saw the other day:

    1. Insert the CD into the CD drive or DVD drive.
          2. Click Start, and then click Run.
          3. In the Open box, type cmd, and then click OK.
          4. At the command prompt, type the following commands, pressing ENTER after each command:

                expand CD-ROM Drive Letter:\i386\config.nt_ c:\windows\system32\config.nt
                expand CD-ROM Drive Letter:\i386\autoexec.nt_ c:\windows\system32\autoexec.nt
                expand CD-ROM Drive Letter:\i386\command.co_ c:\windows\system32\command.com
                exit
          5. Start or install the program. If the issue is resolved, do not complete the remaining steps. If the issue is not resolved, go to the next step.
          6. Note: The Command.com file is not edited or created in the following process. Because of this, you may have to expand it from your Windows XP CD-ROM.

                Start Notepad.
          7. In Notepad, type the following entries:

                      dos=high, umb
                device=%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\himem.sys
                files=40

          8. On the File menu, click Save As.
          9. In the File Name box, type Config.nt, and then click Save. Close the Config.nt file.
        10. On the File menu, click New.
        11. In the new blank document, type the following entries:

                @echo off
                        lh %SYSTEMROOT%\system32\mscdexnt.exe
                        lh %SYSTEMROOT%\system32\redir
                        lh %SYSTEMROOT%\system32\dosx
                        SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 P330 T3

        12. On the File menu, click Save As.
        13. In the File Name box, type Autoexec.nt, and then click Save. Close the Autoexec.nt file.
        14. Start Windows Explorer. Locate the Config.nt file, right-click the Config.nt file, and then click Copy.
        15. Right-click the %SYSTEMROOT%\System32 folder, and then click Paste.
        16. Locate the Autoexec.nt file, right-click the Autoexec.nt file, and then click Copy.
        17. Right-click the %SYSTEMROOT%\System32 folder, and then click Paste.
        18. Locate the Command.com file, right-click the expanded Command.com file, and then click Copy.
        19. Right-click the %SYSTEMROOT%\System32 folder, and then click Paste. Restart your computer.

    If the issue continues to occur, copy the Autoexec.nt and Config.nt files from the Repair folder in Windows to the System folder. To do so, follow these steps:

          1. Click Start, click Run, type c:\windows\repair, and then click OK.
          2. Right-click Autoexec.nt, and then click Copy.
          3. Click Start, click Run, type c:\windows\system32, and then click OK.
          4. Right-click anywhere in that folder, and then click Paste.
          5. Right-click the Autoexec.nt file that you just copied, and then click Properties.
          6. Click to select Read-Only, and then click OK.
          7. Repeat steps 1 through 6 to copy the Config.nt file.

    Note You must enable Read-Only permissions or the files will be removed after you restart Windows.

    They can't just give me a script to run? It's simple for me to do all that, but time consuming and annoying.
    -Taylor

    --
    Worldwide Military budgets: $2100 billion. Worldwide Space Exploration budgets: $38 billion. Really, world? Really?
    1. Re:Could be useful... by b4dc0d3r · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Exactly. What I always found frustrating is the "You could damage your computer by using regedit" warnings. but then the instructions say to navigate to this key, then this key, then this one, and right-click here, new, and be sure to use DWORD because if you specify any other type it won't work.

      It would be so much easier to just "Save this.reg file and double-click on it." that way it's impossible for the idiot user to screw up. At least closer to impossible anyway.

      Or at least give a way to navigate directly to the subkey, like a "goto line number" function in a text editor. Of course they do have the "Select a file" dialog that allows you to select by clicking and waiting for the folder browser to read all the files and folders, and the subfolders as well to determine if it needs to put a plus sign there, but not paste in something from the clipboard which you already have. so maybe it was the same design team.

    2. Re:Could be useful... by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      When Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 Beta came out, I was interested in installing it and looking at it. However, I had to be able to revert to pre-SP1 fast if I needed to. The uninstall procedure (for a beta) involved over twenty different actions, to be performed manually in order, with vague but dire warnings for those who strayed from the path.

      Now, of course, there's a script to uninstall VS 2008 SP1. My colleague who used it said it took about two hours. You see, he needed to install the 64-bit compilers, and couldn't find a way other than to uninstall and reinstall VS, and couldn't just uninstall it without uninstalling the service pack.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    3. Re:Could be useful... by Jurily · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I've always thought it was strange how KB articles can get to have some really complicated actions, yet they can't just give you a script to do what they're telling you to do.

      And then they have the nerve to tell us Linux is complicated.

    4. Re:Could be useful... by rantingkitten · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Amazing. This is what it takes to solve many Microsoft-related problems (ones that aren't "solved" by reinstalling something, which isn't a solution), yet thousands of Windows fanboys proudly thump their chests at how usable it is, while making snotty remarks if a Linux user has to so much as glance sideways at an xterm.

      And at least in Linux, a cursory knowledge of any Unix-based system is enough to get around. There are manpages for stuff. There are things that explain what these options or those switches do, and logfiles to help you understand what's going wrong, so there are ways to figure out, on your own, what to do.

      I'm a veteran user/admin of both systems and the above KB article, and tons more like it, completely flummox me. Sure, I could mindlessly execute the instructions but there's no way I'd ever figure out to do any of that on my own, and I don't see any way to deduce any of it either. To even understand half of it requires some knowledge of should-be-obsolete-by-now DOS hijinks. And just what the hell is "SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 P330 T3"?

      It just astonishes me that gibberish like the above, or having to manually expand cab files, or alter hex values buried thirteen layers deep in the registry, or extract files out of a CD by hand, is considered okay by so many, but god forbid you instruct a user to "apt-get install" something, because ha! ha! that's just difficult and non-intuitive!

      --
      mirrorshades radio -- darkwave, industrial, futurepop, ebm.
    5. Re:Could be useful... by Facegarden · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Amazing. This is what it takes to solve many Microsoft-related problems...

      Well, not really. I've never actually had to do anything that complicated, it was just an example of things i wish they would automate, not me trying to say windows sucks. Turns out that the issue I had with that KB article was solved by rebooting (it has to do with windows giving out larger than 16 bit handles to 16 bit programs), which most users would try anyway first, and there was also a "Method 2" to the KB article (not sure why it wasn't method 1...) that was simpler:

      Method 2

            1. Click Start, click Run, type C:\windows\repair, and then click OK.
            2. Right-click the Autoexec.nt file, and then click Copy.
            3. Click Start, click Run, type %windir%\system32, and then click OK.
            4. In the System32 folder, press Ctrl + V to paste the Autoexec.nt file in this folder.

      My point was just that i wish that KB things could be more automated, it wasn't supposed to be an example of how terrible windows is or isn't/ And for the record, having just started with ubuntu after the 8.10 release, I've had to mess with it in strange ways in the last 2 months probably more than i've ever had to mess with Windows in strange ways.
      -Taylor

      --
      Worldwide Military budgets: $2100 billion. Worldwide Space Exploration budgets: $38 billion. Really, world? Really?
    6. Re:Could be useful... by Tacvek · · Score: 1

      For what it is worth, the set blaster line instructs old DOS soundblaster drivers to use certain settings, which Window's NT's VDM supports. Please keep in mind that this is essential for proper operation of sound in certain 16-bit Windows applications (read Windows 3.X apps).

      --
      Stylish sheet to fix many problems in Slashdot's D3: https://gist.github.com/801524
    7. Re:Could be useful... by rantingkitten · · Score: 1

      I know your point wasn't really about whether Windows sucks or Linux sucks. It just caught my attention because I'd recently been griping about that very thing -- Microsoft KBs that purport to solve problems, but in reality, they have several different articles for any given problem, and each of them are full of arcane, incomprehensible gibberish involving adding unknown values to unknown registry entries, making text files and magically incanting them to insert themselves somewhere, and the like. None of it is ever explained, there's no way to find out on your own what's going on, and no way to find out on your own how to do any of it. That last part is what really bothers me -- I don't expect anyone to have in-born knowledge of any OS, but with most Unixes the resources are available to find out what's going on for yourself if you're so inclined. With Microsoft, it's all a complete mystery unless you want to shell out money for stupid classes. And even then, half the MCSEs I know still don't know what the hell is going on.

      To me it's comparable to the way math is taught in schools -- here's the quadratic formula. Memorize it, and grind through it on command. I can do that with my eyes closed now, but ten years later I still have no idea what it actually does, what it means, what the purpose of it is, or how anyone figured it out. It's just handed down from on high.

      And the thing is, I have had to do these little Microsoft dances before. My own machines rarely get bollocksed up to the point where it's necessary but somehow our sales staff manages to do weird things to their machines on a weekly basis. I always have to resort to this sort of thing because Windows itself, as far as I can tell, provides zero diagnostic tools -- no logfiles, no way to run something from a cli to see what it's doing. If you're lucky you'll get an 0xDEADBEEF error, like that helps.

      Okay, end of speech.

      --
      mirrorshades radio -- darkwave, industrial, futurepop, ebm.
  15. Im with him. by Noxn · · Score: 2, Funny

    I will give 100 dollars to the guy who does this.
    We should do some kind of campaign or contest for this.

    So this will fix stuff for me? I dont really think this will work to well.

    cmd:fixitforme.exe -get -girlfriend

    --
    By reading this you agree to give me (Noxn) 1 dollar.
  16. Well by fluor2 · · Score: 1

    It's just scripted patches with e.g. included modified files, but included within an MSI.

    I don't see why this cannot be deployed as patches/hotfixes instead of just calling it "FIX IT" scripts.

    I find this amusing. My guess is that Microsoft had so many "IT Professionals" reporting that the fixes in KB articles failed due to UAC blocking them, thus this fix it is coming to town, popping up a window asking for administration privileges.

  17. Not my experience by Bearhouse · · Score: 2, Informative

    Way back in the day, when Pournelle was still posting on BIX and writing in Byte, he recommended Norton Windoctor. For a while, (before, like all Norton products, it was ruined by bloat), it automagically fixed Win95/98 and even some XP installations quite well.

    Worth trying if you're trying to fix one of those old installations and don't really want to re-install.

    1. Re:Not my experience by sumdumass · · Score: 4, Informative

      Actually, windows 98 had some half way decent fix tools inside it is you got into a jam. I'm surprised that there wasn't something more appropriate availible for the NT line.

      Take regedit for instance, from a command line you could use the /opt switch to remove whitespace and more or less compact the registry resulting in a faster operating system. You could use the /fix switch that repaired file errors and did something with invalid keys that could cause all sorts of issues. You could even use the /restore switch to go to a recent version of the registry. You could also save an active state registry when everything was working fine, store it off the computer, then reload it when necessary. Of course the ERD programs sort of did this automatically but in WinNT systems, you have to do a repair install in order to restore something from it.

      Fdisk also had the ability to back up the boot sector and store it on another drive. The chkdsk and fixboot utilities seem to have these functions but fail to restore more then the first partition leaving you sort of stuck doing data recovery instead of just having the second partitions.

      There are quite a but more useful tools that came with windows 98. Most of the Fix it tools either automated their uses for most of us who didn't want to learn ever function of every file on the computer. Some of them actually replaced the tools with their own that could be run from recovery disks too. I imagine win doctor was similar to that. Something I generally liked was Fix It Utilities from ontrack/ it seems they are avanquest now (or maybe my memory is losing it). I haven't used them since version 5 or something, they are up to 9 now if that gives you an idea of how long ago we are talking.

    2. Re:Not my experience by JoonasD6 · · Score: 1

      Why, oh why did you not tell me all this ten years ago? ;_;

    3. Re:Not my experience by QuietObserver · · Score: 1

      Another tool Win98 had that was replaced in ME and XP with "System Restore" was SFC (System File Check); it could check the information, or lack thereof, on the system files on the computer and replace those that had been hosed by other applications or horked with the original files. None of the "System Restore" features provided since are as selective. About my only complaint with SFC was that it wasn't as unobtrusive as it could have been.

  18. Re:Seriously: apturl. by Nazlfrag · · Score: 1

    This is just what we need, having the power of downloading and executing arbitrary code with a single click will finally put Linux on par with Internet Explorer!

  19. yeah because the linux way is way simpler. by prozaker · · Score: 1


    you just open up the browser and put in your question. then search between vulnerability reports and archived mailing lists.
    or posting on some forum and wait for your question to be answered.
    wait, that doesn't seem better...

  20. including one that prevents users from connecting by frovingslosh · · Score: 1

    including one that prevents users from connecting a USB storage device

    OK, I've read the blog, still can't find the UBS autorun fix. Considering that it is well knows that just turning off Autorun in XP doesn't really work, it very well might be nice to have this fix. Anyone know where the "fix it" link to this is?

    --
    I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
  21. I'll also give them by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 4, Informative

    That their tools can detect some things you might not think to look for. I've used the "Check for solutions online," thing before. Usually it doesn't get anything, meaning no answer found. Sometimes, it gets generic info that I already knew. Like it'll say "Your graphics driver caused the crash," which is evident from the STOP 0xA in nv4_disp.dll. No real fix, but that could be useful to someone less knowledgeable. I happen to know the files for the graphics driver, and what a STOP 0xA error is, most users probably don't.

    However occasionally, it has been real useful. For example I was trying to install a Sound Blaster X-Fi. I'd launch it's installation CD, and it would crash. Had no idea what was going on. I decided "Ok smart guy, go ahead and check." It responded that Quicktime was the problem. Fine, I'll play ball, I uninstall Quicktime. Sure as shit, installer runs fine. Not something I ever would have though to check.

    So while I certainly won't be running an automated fix script, I do applaud them in trying to increase their ability to check system errors. While I know everyone on Slashdot likes to give MS shit about being the source of all problems, that's really not the case. 3rd party software causes plenty of trouble.

    1. Re:I'll also give them by daveime · · Score: 1

      Uninstalling Quicktime ALWAYS fixes something ...

      Whether it's not making your computer run like shit, or whether it's not rehacking itself into the startup sequence even after you manually removed the registry entries ... something will always work better once Quicktime is gone.

    2. Re:I'll also give them by Sj0 · · Score: 1

      This.

      I find it ironic that everyone considers Apple the antipode to Microsoft, when I do everything I can to use open source alternatives to Apple's insane software. Microsoft digs their software into the OS a little. Apple refuses to ever let go.

      --
      It's been a long time.
  22. Microsoft needs to fix the defaults of Windows by jonwil · · Score: 2

    For example, there is no legitimate reason for AutoRun to work on any device other than an optical disk (and even then, the rationale is debatable given the crap Sony pulled with the rootkit). Change the default to make AutoRun only work for optical disks.

    Or that stupid "hide extensions for known file types" which just makes it harder to tell the difference between porn.jpg (harmless pornography) and porn.jpg.exe (malware pretending to be harmless pornography)

    Also, lets disable the stuff in Outlook and Outlook Express (and other mail clients) that allows code to run just by reading an email. Better yet, introduce "show only text, not HTML" options ala SeaMonkey and others and encourage users to use those options. HTML email is only used for SPAM and other nasty stuff.

    1. Re:Microsoft needs to fix the defaults of Windows by yanos · · Score: 2, Interesting

      A bit off topic here, but, about Autorun...
      I never understood why MS is sticking to this way of doing things. I don't really want to go into the whole Mac vs PC thing, but OSX really nailed that I think. It's nice to have something that popups when you put a CDROM in the drive (for the average user anyway). But executing random code from a foreign media is of course terrible. So, in OSX, it's Finder (a bit like explorer) that pop ups, displaying the files on the CD. And since you can determine in advance the view style and the way the icon are arranged (and even put a coloured background) it *looks* just like the way you would expect, with a nice, big icon in the middle of the window, in order to install the software. No need to run arbitrary code. Autorun is just retared.

    2. Re:Microsoft needs to fix the defaults of Windows by ThePeeWeeMan · · Score: 1

      Actually, Outlook and Outlook Express already have options to read mail in plain-text. Now, whether those options should be checked by default (they're currently not), is another matter...

      I don't quite recall everything clearly, but I remember a lot of people were unhappy when Windows Mail (the successor to Outlook Express) was removed in Windows 7, because they were no longer able to use their HTML templates. Sure, you don't use HTML email, but that doesn't mean no one should use it.

      I agree with you on the other two points.

    3. Re:Microsoft needs to fix the defaults of Windows by bytta · · Score: 1
      Amen to that.
      I currently live in India, and I've taken my flash drive to about half a dozen photo shops to print pictures.

      Every single time it has come back with some sort of virus, that would have tried to run on my computer if I hadn't disabled AutoRun on my laptop. By now I usually open it up on a Mac first, to delete the stuff...

    4. Re:Microsoft needs to fix the defaults of Windows by bytta · · Score: 1

      Autorun is just retared.

      Have you tried to untar it, then?

  23. Re: "yeah I'll do anything you say" OS by TheSpoom · · Score: 1

    The problem isn't that you can do what you want with your OS. The problem is that there are so many holes in its security that programs that you don't even know exist and are communicating with your system can do what they want as well.

    --
    It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
    - E. Debs
  24. thanks by frovingslosh · · Score: 1

    Thanks. This does indeed seem to be what the /. summary was talking about, but I was hoping for a fix-it that just corrects the autorun problems in XP, which would prevent many of the viruses that are transmitted by USB flash drives and other autorun things automatically starting and infecting you before you can even inspect them. I guess I have to admit that if you completely muck things up so that a USB storage device can't be used at all that this might also "fix" the Microsoft created problem, at least in Microsoft's mind, but it turns out to not really be the fix-it that I was hoping for.

    --
    I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
    1. Re:thanks by Schmoov · · Score: 2, Informative

      Send e-mail to fixit4me@microsoft.com with your automation recommendation. The team will analyze the request, attempt to understand all of the scenarios, and post a Fix it package.

    2. Re:thanks by Schmoov · · Score: 1

      Additionally, in the interim, you can use the NoDriveTypeAutoRun key to adjust how Autorun reacts. http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/reskit/regentry/93502.mspx?mfr=true 0x4 is the bit you are after. More information is here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953252 I'll recommend this to the Fix it team and we'll see what happens.

  25. HA! by iminplaya · · Score: 1

    I would rather download a nice little utility, but Microsoft seems to want to take this direction. Now that's progress!

    You may find it easier to follow the steps if you burn down your house first.

    --
    What?
  26. that's actually a really good idea by v1 · · Score: 1

    A lot of windows software (not MS software specifically) have fixit instructions on their web page to take care of problems - a lot of these are lists of things I wouldn't want my mom trying without my standing over her shoulder. "Start by downloading and opening this registry editing tool...."

    Symantec is god of this phenomena, and tried to give the MAC community a "uninstaller" for their antivirus software (don't even get me started) that was something like 119 terminal commands to type. (no, I am not kidding, lots of kill and rm -rf) It didn't remove it all either, but ignoring that, they finally released an uninstaller tool which was a bash script that just did what they told you to type. There's a serious mentality issue that has to be overcome and that "fix it" button is a step in the right direction.

    It's one thing to tell someone how to fix the problem, (and in a way that the user may be completely incapable of doing on their own) and quite another to give them a one click solution.

    Though you can't avoid that fostering the opposite issue, users willing to click any button that promises to "fix" things for them. Windows AV 2009 anyone? In the end the only real fix is education.

    --
    I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
  27. Vista Backup by modestgeek · · Score: 1

    I'd like the tool to be able to fix the problem with Microsoft Vista backup. If you have a nonstandard boot loader (such as grub) and multiple partitions, the backup utility in won't detect any devices to back up to... have to rely on third party tools.

  28. Fix it! by Fastball · · Score: 1

    This is long overdue. Seriously. They need to identify the problems and FIX IT!.

  29. Fedora has already had something similar by gzipped_tar · · Score: 1

    FirstAidKit

    Summary

    Firstaidkit is an automated recovery tool that brings together common recovery processes and applies them to a system. The way that Firstaidkit handles the recovery processes is by means of plugins. The idea being that a plugin will focus on a particular issue in the system, like grub, init scripts or Xserver. Firstaidkit is designed to automatically fix problems while focusing on maintaining user data integrity. In other words, Firstaidkit will try its best to fix your system while giving you the possibility to revert the changes.

    I never tried this one personally though. Last time I fried my MBR I recovered it "by hand".

    --
    Colorless green Cthulhu waits dreaming furiously.
  30. In related news... by Stuarticus · · Score: 1

    Microsoft announced that the MSCE exam course can now be completed in less than half an hour!

    --
    If you think someone isn't free to have a different definition of "freedom" you may be a tyrant.
  31. So... by ThatsNotPudding · · Score: 1

    Ctrl + Alt + Linux?

  32. Let me get this straight by ThatsNotPudding · · Score: 1

    Your company decided to use cheaper labor in China rather than hire US citizens, and you're complaining the Chinese are not conducting their business in a MORAL fashion? LOL: while composing this post, the ad is from the BSA. Maybe that's your answer.

    1. Re:Let me get this straight by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

      He's complaining that the Chinese are not conducting their business in a legal fashion. That's an important difference.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  33. Re:Might as well get to the root of the problem. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    . ... from a cannon. into the sun.

  34. Re:Seriously: apturl. by sagematt · · Score: 1

    Except that apturl only allows you to install packages that are already in your repositories. You'd need to tell someone to add the malicious repository to your sources.list file first. And even then, if they don't add a GPG key to authenticate, APT will tell them that the package they are trying to install is not authenticated.

  35. Jim'll Fix it! by Sonicprogress · · Score: 1

    Jim'll Fix it!

  36. Re:yeah because the GNU/linux way is way simpler. by prozaker · · Score: 1

    unfortunately irc wasnt very helpful either, I don't know if it's the whole community or just the places I've been in.
    irc channels I've tried that werent very helpful were:
    #gentoo #samba #debian
    the norm was either repeat the question more than twice, and then typing in caps to see if anyone could answer it.
    you are right tho, sometimes it's just trying to find out how to make a program work.