Newsletter Archives

• What’s a Service Pack?

  Posted on May 1, 2009 at 05:37 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Reader D writes:

  Hi Woody, Thanks for all your help.
  

  I have upgraded to Firefox 3.0.10.

  I give up, I thought I knew what Windows Service Pack is, but I guess I don’t.

  I don’t think I ever loaded any update with Service Pack in it. Vista is running fine.

  I have KB955430 as an update in waiting. I checked out the “details” online and found a page saying that some PC have trouble rebooting after the update, instructions on removing it, nothing positive…

  What exactly is a Service Pack ?

  A Service Pack is  a big rollup of patches, sometimes including new features, that Microsoft releases from time to time. Some Service Packs are relatively minor. Others are tantamount to an entirely new release of the product.

  KB 955430 is [a prerequisite for*] Vista Service Pack 2. For now, I recommend that you hold off on installing it – for precisely the reason you mention, people are reporting some problems. That’s expectable with a Service Pack. Microsoft is “pushing” it through Automatic Updates and, like most changes pushed through Automatic Updates, there’s no reason to run out and blithely install what Microsoft says you should install. Far better to wait and see what problems develop.

  Watch the MS-DEFCON level.

  [* Thanks to JP for pointing out that this KB article is NOT the Service Pack. It’s a prerequisite for Vista SP2, which isn’t out yet.]

  Windows Patches/Security KB 955430, Windows Vista Service Pack 2

• MS-DEFCON 2: Office 2007 Pack 2 is up – avoid all patches for now

  Posted on April 30, 2009 at 09:22 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  I’m raising us to MS-DEFCON 2:

  Hot on the heels of Office 2007 Service Pack 2 / KB 953195, Microsoft has just released Windows Vista Service Pack 2 [* to manufacturing – expect to see it widely available at some indeterminate point in the not-too-distant future].

  About a week ago, Microsoft started “pushing” Internet Explorer 8 via Automatic Update.

  I strongly recommend that you HOLD OFF on all three. IE 8 has been through the wringer, and I remain ambivalent about installing it, but the other two patches haven’t been out in the wild long enough to see what problems crop up.

  Because of the two new patches and the third that’s long in the tooth but still unproven, we’re at MS-DEFCON 2: Patch reliability is unclear. Unless you have an immediate, pressing need to install a specific patch, don’t do it.

  UPDATE: *Man, am I embarrassed. I’ve been knee-deep in Windows 7 stuff, and erroneously reported that Vista SP2 is out in the wild. It isn’t. Microsoft announced that Vista SP2 is complete – it’s been “released to manufacturing” (precisely what is being “manufactured” isn’t at all clear, but I digress). “We expect Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 SP2 to be publicly available in Q2 2009.”

  … as I go slinking back to my Windows 7 hovel, tail firmly between legs…

  I feel that the pushing of Office 2007 Service Pack 2 and Internet Explorer 8, though, warrant staying at MS-DEFCON 2.

  Windows Patches/Security Internet Explorer 8, KB 953195, KB 955430, Office 2007 Service Pack 2, Office 2007 SP2, Vista SP2, Windows Vista Service Pack 2