Microsoft distributes free CDs in Japan to patch Windows

Wed Aug 27 08:51:31 UTC 2003

At 04:03 PM 8/25/2003, Andy Walden wrote:

>On Mon, 25 Aug 2003, Henry Linneweh wrote:
>
> > Microsoft has a task scheduler that people should learn to use to remind
> > them to check update to make sure their patches are current, it is
> > located in the control panel and labled Scheduled Tasks and has an
> > Add Scheduled Tasks icon to add update, FYI
>
>As I read that, I wondered why it is that I haven't patched any of my
>windows systems if it was just as simple as reminding myself to do so. It
>occurred to me that I just simply don't trust Microsoft to properly patch
>my systems.

And that's a very wise decision.

I was called in to help someone with a "slow computer" today.  He's running 
Microsoft ME, and it's an OS that I have very little experience with.  I 
disabled a bunch of crap in his startup folder, then I took a look at the 
OS itself.  I ran Windows update which told us that there was a service 
pack with "critical updates" that we should install before doing anything 
else, and I foolishly decided to follow these instructions without 
researching first.  (Oh well, live and learn!)

The machine hung at 62% installed.  Trying to cancel the install via the 
"cancel" button resulted in the cancel message warning you that if you 
didn't let it complete it's special cancel process and tried to restart the 
machine instead, you could fatally ruin the computer (I don't recall the 
exact message, but it was pretty emphatic that you had to let MS finish 
"canceling" the install).  10 minutes later, with no sign that the computer 
was doing anything (no disk activity) or would ever complete this 
cancelation, we rebooted.  I had to reboot and shut down several times 
before it would shut down cleanly and reboot cleanly.

Later I learned that this "critical update" package was mostly for 
installing IE6, and that there are a lot of people who have had this same 
problem trying to install IE6 on ME, and that it's a well known issue at 
many ISPs and OEMs, but of course MS still insists that there's nothing 
wrong and that you should still install that update.  Yeah, when the devil 
starts building snowmen.

jc