MS Updates from H***

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I’m more than familiar with MS updates that go sour and corrupt a Windows PC, but this week tops the heap.

First, I got a call from a Gentleman who downloaded and installed I.E.8 to his Windows XP Home, Dell desktop.
For some reason it didn’t take, so he got in touch with a MS helper who sent him a two page instruction how to edit his registry to fix the problem. It not only didn’t fix the problem but afterward his PC would not boot. None of the standard repairs worked. So I’m in the process of rebuilding his HD from the ground up.

Second, I have an Acer Laptop in for a complete tuneup and when I first booted it up (Vista Home), it was half way through a MS Update, so I let it continue. When the update was complete, the main user was GONE. The only thing left was an administrator account. Thank goodness, the System Restore still worked and it was able to restore the little PC back to before the update made a mess of it.

I just don’t trust MS Updates any more and have turned it off on all my PC’s.

I’d like to hear from others who have had (recently) MS Updates that have corrupted their PC’s.

Cheers Mates!
The Doctor

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Unfortunately your always going to get issues with MS updates.
The sheer variation in software environments between people’s computers makes this an inevitability on some scale, albeit a small scale.
The best you can do is ensure you have an adequate means of data backup and recovery in the most efficient time frame possible; 20 to 30 minutes.

You operating system should be viewed as a means to an end, and not the end in itself.

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While updates can go wrong, I think disabling them can bring different problems, especially security wise. Just read Robert Vamosi’s column in the recent newsletter:http://windowssecrets.com/forums/showthread//141837-The-myths-and-facts-of-zero-day-threats

So I wouldn’t disable Windows updates on my computers and I certainly wouldn’t advise less experienced computer users to do that. The risks outweight the perceived advantages.

What should be the strategy to void update issues? The first line of defense, IMO, is to have System Restore enabled. If things go wrong and a computer gets into a state that you cannot uninstall problematic updates, System Restore may be able to fix that.
The second line of defense is, IMO, a sound backup strategy based on imaging. Keeping an updated image, maybe even imaging before applying Windows Updates, as members like Ted Myers so frequently have advocated, is the ultimate life saviour, if things go wrong and System Restore cannot help.

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Rui, thanks for the recommendation. I do not create Images quite as frequently as perhaps I should, but my Images are recent enough that if MS updates breaks something (has never happened yet, fingers crossed) I can get back to close to where I was in about 10 minutes. Since I am never 100% sure what update breaks something (was it MS or perhaps an app update) I feel more comfortable with Images rather than System Restore. I have had problems in the past with System Restore so I use Imaging and have turned off System Restore. Perhaps I should not do this, but it has not failed me yet.

Where my problems occur is when I am “playing” with something I should not be or I screw something up. In these cases System Restore is often unsuccessful. In these cases, thank God for my Images.

I guess to address DrWho original point, I have not had MS Updates break anything yet, but then I am only working with our PC’s, not other people’s PCs. All 3 of our PCs in house are Win 7 (1 desktop 32 Bit, 2 laptop 64 Bits). These are all Up To Date with ALL Windows Updates, and all work fine. I suppose it would be fun to work with other’s PCs, but I do not presently have the time nor where with all to get started.

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The only time I’ve experienced a Windows Update failure has been on infected PCs including my own and the PCs I fix. That includes XP, Vista, and Windows 7 PCs.

Jerry

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Since XP was originally released I can count on one hand the number of problems I’ve had with Windows Update. They have been confined to known issues updating an imbedded version of SQL Server 2005 on two PCs and a problem with a corrupted . NET installation on one PC. I’ve never had a PC completely trashed. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen because with a billion installations some problems are bound to occur. Even a small percentage will be a significant number. We tend to see only the problems not the very vast majority that install fixes month after month on a wide variety of hardware with no problems.

Joe

--Joe

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Thanks for the responses, guys.

Yeah, you have to get out of your comfort zone and get out among the unwashed masses to really see what’s going on in the world.
This has been my world for about 30 years and I’ve seen a lot more things than I feel comfortable remembering right now. Every PC that has to be brought into my shop, gets a Ghost backup, before it goes home. When the customer is totally irresponsible, I just drop the backup CD’s in a file here.

I read and work about 20 of these computer forums and Worldwide, there are way too many PC’s being trashed by windows updates.
Most of the updates for the past umpteen years have been to fix the unfixable ,,,,, the security HOLES in I.E.
I don’t and WON’T even use it so the updates mean nothing to me.
I run and install for my customers a great package of Security Software and we all stay safe.

To each his own. Eh?

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Each to his own indeed.

In the office here, my Win 7 box has 79 updates for MS Office (various components thereof), and only 71 for Windows (of which only some will be for IE). So at least in my system, IE is far from the top of the list. Office, being one of the major attack vectors, is a very important software suite to maintain through updates.

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I agree with the majority of posters here that disabling Windows update is irresponsible. I’ve been working with computers for over 40 years and have plenty of experience with the “unwashed” as well. If Windows update is not working, there is obviously some thing wrong with the computer and it should be fixed although that is not always easy. I’ve never returned a computer to a client with Windows Update non functional. Security software is important but so is Windows Update although nothing is 100% effective against the bad guys.

Jerry

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