Major flaw in Windows Update?

I wanted to see how Windows Update (Windows XP) handled the situation
where you get disconnected from the Internet while downloading updates,
so I pulled out the router network cable after 11 of 25 updates had
downloaded. There's no dial-up connection.
To my surprise, Windows Update continued to say that it was downloading
and installing all of the 25 updates. After restart, I went back to the
Windows Update website, and it said there were no remaining updates to
be installed.
The items are also shown in Add/Remove Programs.
Is this a major flaw in the latest version of Windows Update? It
doesn't seem possible that these updates actually were installed.

I'd be grateful for anybody's thoughts.

On 24 Jul 2005 08:33:42 -0700, "Computer-man" <> wrote:

>I wanted to see how Windows Update (Windows XP) handled the situation
>where you get disconnected from the Internet while downloading updates,
>so I pulled out the router network cable after 11 of 25 updates had
>downloaded. There's no dial-up connection.
>To my surprise, Windows Update continued to say that it was downloading
>and installing all of the 25 updates. After restart, I went back to the
>Windows Update website, and it said there were no remaining updates to
>be installed.
>The items are also shown in Add/Remove Programs.
>Is this a major flaw in the latest version of Windows Update? It
>doesn't seem possible that these updates actually were installed.
>
>I'd be grateful for anybody's thoughts.

You probably pulled the cable after it had downloaded the updates to the
'C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution' folder. It installed them from there.

Download the Belarc Advisor (*FREE*) and see if the updates are actually installed.
http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

Thanks for the suggestion, but does Belarc Advisor have some
independent means of verifying that downloads have actually been
installed, or does it just look at the same part of the Registry that
Windows Update uses?
(Assuming that Windows Update is using the Registry - if not, the same
question still applies)

More than likely you had downloaded the updates and were in the process of
installing.
If that was the case, installation would continue as you saw.
All are downloaded first before any installations.
Is it possible you were not looking closely as the data downloaded 1 - 25
and you missed the count start over as the installation then started at one
again?

What does MBSA show:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sec.../mbsahome.mspx

You could also check the article for each update.
The article will tell you what files were changed, the dates and versions of
the data.

--
Jupiter Jones [MVP]
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar
http://www.dts-l.org


"Computer-man" <> wrote in message
news: oups.com...
>I wanted to see how Windows Update (Windows XP) handled the situation
> where you get disconnected from the Internet while downloading updates,
> so I pulled out the router network cable after 11 of 25 updates had
> downloaded. There's no dial-up connection.
> To my surprise, Windows Update continued to say that it was downloading
> and installing all of the 25 updates. After restart, I went back to the
> Windows Update website, and it said there were no remaining updates to
> be installed.
> The items are also shown in Add/Remove Programs.
> Is this a major flaw in the latest version of Windows Update? It
> doesn't seem possible that these updates actually were installed.
>
> I'd be grateful for anybody's thoughts.

Computer-man wrote:
> I wanted to see how Windows Update (Windows XP) handled the situation
> where you get disconnected from the Internet while downloading
> updates, so I pulled out the router network cable ....

>
> I'd be grateful for anybody's thoughts.

The first thought is that Yes, anyone can break a computer if they do
unreasonable things. Yanking out cables while a computer is "hot"
(on) is a surefire method for emptying your checking account the cost of
a new computer.

Further thoughts:

If you have all 25 of those updates listed in Add&Remove Programs and in
various "C:\WINDOWS\$NtUninstallKBxxxxxx$" folders then somehow they
were all installed. If listed in ARP but no folder, the package did not
install.

It would be interesting to read (but no need for you to post it here)
what the WindowsUpdate.LOG file has to say about those 25 updates.

Last, this quote I found (but didn't find the author's name, sorry):

"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to
build
bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to
produce
bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning."

Looks like in this case the Universe just went a few points ahead once
again. <g>

--

....Sky

Tom "Sky" King
=============