Why was version 6 of WindowsUpdate necessary?

5 different machines ... 5 different issues with this new version of
WindowsUpdate ... none of them satisfactorily updated.

Bring back the older release ... at least it worked flawlessly, each and
every time, letting us choose what, and when we could update.

If not bring it back ... at least publish a simple chronological list
(most recent first) of each and every update available ... so that the
end-user can then download them manually from the Download site without
having to wade through thousands of entries trying to figure out what's
what, and which is which.

I had intentionally withheld doing any WindowsUpdate for more than a
year ... hoping against all hope that Microsoft would actually release a
Service Pack 5 for W2K .. but alas that is not going to happen,
therefore I finally bit the bullet and tried to use the Updater to find
things were no longer as they had been, and it's successor doesn't work
worth a damn.

Here's what I think is supposed to happen:

1) WindowsUpdate chicks for version 6 of the applet, and downloads to
some new-fangled sub-directory of Windows entitled
"SoftwareDistribution", it in turn having some half-dozen
sub-directories of it's own.

2) Once enabled with version 6, WindowsUpdate then scans for the
presence of the "Microsoft Genuine Advantage thingie, version 1.6 of the
MSI Installer, and one other I can't remember.

3) Having determined the existence (or non-existence of the three
mentioned above, it downloads and instals the three applets if required.

4) Having gotten that little piece of nonsense out of the way,
WindowsUpdate then scans for relevant Updates according to your OS ...
on one machine (the only one which more or less rant the whole drill) it
found 16 Essential Updates and 3 Optional, for a total of 19 (some 70
million bytes of data. Unfortunately I was not wise (no make that
savvy) enough to do a screen capture of the list ... at least that way I
would have had the KB I.D.'s and been able to locate the files manually
(what a nightmare that is, but you gotta do what you gotta do, right?)

5) If any of this fails, I have discovered you have to restore a backup
of the Windows Registry inorder to try again, and even that is not a
cert, as if it actually ever did get around to installing either the
version 6 of the Updater, or any of the three other preliminary files,
you're f**ked with little or no recourse but to wipe the drive and start
all over again, because whether the Registry contains the valid pointers
or not, if it finds the files present, it will not run the WindowsUpdate
programme, nor will it allow you to uninstal any of the 4 aforementioned
apps to try it again, or anything.

THIS IS A LEAP FORWARD?

Give me a break.

Warren C. E. Austin
Toronto, Canada

Warren C. E. Austin wrote:

> 5 different machines ... 5 different issues with this new version of
> WindowsUpdate ... none of them satisfactorily updated.
>
> Bring back the older release ... at least it worked flawlessly, each and
> every time, letting us choose what, and when we could update.
>
> If not bring it back ... at least publish a simple chronological list
> (most recent first) of each and every update available ... so that the
> end-user can then download them manually from the Download site without
> having to wade through thousands of entries trying to figure out what's
> what, and which is which.
>
> I had intentionally withheld doing any WindowsUpdate for more than a
> year ... hoping against all hope that Microsoft would actually release a
> Service Pack 5 for W2K .. but alas that is not going to happen,
> therefore I finally bit the bullet and tried to use the Updater to find
> things were no longer as they had been, and it's successor doesn't work
> worth a damn.
>
> Here's what I think is supposed to happen:
>
> 1) WindowsUpdate chicks for version 6 of the applet, and downloads to
> some new-fangled sub-directory of Windows entitled
> "SoftwareDistribution", it in turn having some half-dozen
> sub-directories of it's own.
>
> 2) Once enabled with version 6, WindowsUpdate then scans for the
> presence of the "Microsoft Genuine Advantage thingie, version 1.6 of the
> MSI Installer, and one other I can't remember.
>
> 3) Having determined the existence (or non-existence of the three
> mentioned above, it downloads and instals the three applets if required.
>
> 4) Having gotten that little piece of nonsense out of the way,
> WindowsUpdate then scans for relevant Updates according to your OS ...
> on one machine (the only one which more or less rant the whole drill) it
> found 16 Essential Updates and 3 Optional, for a total of 19 (some 70
> million bytes of data. Unfortunately I was not wise (no make that
> savvy) enough to do a screen capture of the list ... at least that way I
> would have had the KB I.D.'s and been able to locate the files manually
> (what a nightmare that is, but you gotta do what you gotta do, right?)
>
> 5) If any of this fails, I have discovered you have to restore a backup
> of the Windows Registry inorder to try again, and even that is not a
> cert, as if it actually ever did get around to installing either the
> version 6 of the Updater, or any of the three other preliminary files,
> you're f**ked with little or no recourse but to wipe the drive and start
> all over again, because whether the Registry contains the valid pointers
> or not, if it finds the files present, it will not run the WindowsUpdate
> programme, nor will it allow you to uninstal any of the 4 aforementioned
> apps to try it again, or anything.
>
> THIS IS A LEAP FORWARD?
>
> Give me a break.


Ever heard of "new and improved"? Not sure what Microsoft
is thinking about other than to devise a method by which
it can satisfy its paranoia that all those getting updates
are legitimate purchasers of its products. IOW, all others
are criminals, felons, pirates or worse. As for the leap
forward, an unsatisfactory reaction from Windows users may
well lead to a backlash that will doom Windows Vista.

Ghostrider wrote:

> Ever heard of "new and improved"? Not sure what Microsoft
> is thinking about other than to devise a method by which
> it can satisfy its paranoia that all those getting updates
> are legitimate purchasers of its products. IOW, all others
> are criminals, felons, pirates or worse. As for the leap
> forward, an unsatisfactory reaction from Windows users may
> well lead to a backlash that will doom Windows Vista.
>

Don't bet on it. Windows Vista, good or bad, will prevail when
it is released because Dell, HP, Gateway, etc., cannot sell
computers without an OS installed. Windows Vista will be the only
operating system available for the general populace.

.... as it would seem that on each of the 5-machines in question, I had,
just as in every other instance in the past disabled my AntiVirus engine
and Firewall to "in effect" enable the system to update using
WindowsUpdate; unfortunately, Microsoft's servers appear to have been
targeted by those ubiquitous malcontents and their little goodies
(interestingly most were SunJava-based applets), and whilst attempting
to download the "new and improved" version 6 of the WindowsUpdater some
half-dozen or more key-loggers, and other assorted goodies, were
downloaded instead, which effective ground WindowsUpdate to a halt on
each of the machines.

I became aware of this early yesterday evening when I re-booted my
primary machine (for the first-time since attempting to use
WindowsUpdate, and my having authored this thread) restoring the
AntiVirus engine and the Firewall.

WHAM! Did I get a wake up call. Interesting to say the least; but alas
my comments about system restore and not being able to restart
WindowsUpdate remain the same. There simply has to be a better way to do
this. Hell's bell's, as you apparently can get infected with virii
attempting to update your Virus Signatures at Symantec, why should I be
surprised that something similar should occur using WindowsUpdate.

I am able to report that after scrubbing my primary machine of errant
files and directories, restoring a backup image of "Windows" and all
it's contents, a reboot of the system and Registry recovery of the
Software Hive, and subsequent re-use of version 6 of WindowsUpdate, this
machine is now updated as of 15:00 Hrs EST this afternoon.

Warren C. E. Austin
Toronto, Canada


Warren C. E. Austin wrote:
> 5 different machines ... 5 different issues with this new version of
> WindowsUpdate ... none of them satisfactorily updated.
>
> Bring back the older release ... at least it worked flawlessly, each and
> every time, letting us choose what, and when we could update.
>
> If not bring it back ... at least publish a simple chronological list
> (most recent first) of each and every update available ... so that the
> end-user can then download them manually from the Download site without
> having to wade through thousands of entries trying to figure out what's
> what, and which is which.
>
> I had intentionally withheld doing any WindowsUpdate for more than a
> year ... hoping against all hope that Microsoft would actually release a
> Service Pack 5 for W2K .. but alas that is not going to happen,
> therefore I finally bit the bullet and tried to use the Updater to find
> things were no longer as they had been, and it's successor doesn't work
> worth a damn.
>
> Here's what I think is supposed to happen:
>
> 1) WindowsUpdate chicks for version 6 of the applet, and downloads to
> some new-fangled sub-directory of Windows entitled
> "SoftwareDistribution", it in turn having some half-dozen
> sub-directories of it's own.
>
> 2) Once enabled with version 6, WindowsUpdate then scans for the
> presence of the "Microsoft Genuine Advantage thingie, version 1.6 of the
> MSI Installer, and one other I can't remember.
>
> 3) Having determined the existence (or non-existence of the three
> mentioned above, it downloads and instals the three applets if required.
>
> 4) Having gotten that little piece of nonsense out of the way,
> WindowsUpdate then scans for relevant Updates according to your OS ...
> on one machine (the only one which more or less rant the whole drill) it
> found 16 Essential Updates and 3 Optional, for a total of 19 (some 70
> million bytes of data. Unfortunately I was not wise (no make that
> savvy) enough to do a screen capture of the list ... at least that way I
> would have had the KB I.D.'s and been able to locate the files manually
> (what a nightmare that is, but you gotta do what you gotta do, right?)
>
> 5) If any of this fails, I have discovered you have to restore a backup
> of the Windows Registry inorder to try again, and even that is not a
> cert, as if it actually ever did get around to installing either the
> version 6 of the Updater, or any of the three other preliminary files,
> you're f**ked with little or no recourse but to wipe the drive and start
> all over again, because whether the Registry contains the valid pointers
> or not, if it finds the files present, it will not run the WindowsUpdate
> programme, nor will it allow you to uninstal any of the 4 aforementioned
> apps to try it again, or anything.
>
> THIS IS A LEAP FORWARD?
>
> Give me a break.
>
> Warren C. E. Austin
> Toronto, Canada
>

"Warren C. E. Austin" wrote:

> 5 different machines ... 5 different issues with this new version of
> WindowsUpdate ... none of them satisfactorily updated.
>
> Bring back the older release ... at least it worked flawlessly, each and
> every time, letting us choose what, and when we could update.
>
> If not bring it back ... at least publish a simple chronological list
> (most recent first) of each and every update available ... so that the
> end-user can then download them manually from the Download site without
> having to wade through thousands of entries trying to figure out what's
> what, and which is which.
>
> I had intentionally withheld doing any WindowsUpdate for more than a
> year ... hoping against all hope that Microsoft would actually release a
> Service Pack 5 for W2K .. but alas that is not going to happen,
> therefore I finally bit the bullet and tried to use the Updater to find
> things were no longer as they had been, and it's successor doesn't work
> worth a damn.
>
> Here's what I think is supposed to happen:
>
> 1) WindowsUpdate chicks for version 6 of the applet, and downloads to
> some new-fangled sub-directory of Windows entitled
> "SoftwareDistribution", it in turn having some half-dozen
> sub-directories of it's own.
>
> 2) Once enabled with version 6, WindowsUpdate then scans for the
> presence of the "Microsoft Genuine Advantage thingie, version 1.6 of the
> MSI Installer, and one other I can't remember.
>
> 3) Having determined the existence (or non-existence of the three
> mentioned above, it downloads and instals the three applets if required.
>
> 4) Having gotten that little piece of nonsense out of the way,
> WindowsUpdate then scans for relevant Updates according to your OS ...
> on one machine (the only one which more or less rant the whole drill) it
> found 16 Essential Updates and 3 Optional, for a total of 19 (some 70
> million bytes of data. Unfortunately I was not wise (no make that
> savvy) enough to do a screen capture of the list ... at least that way I
> would have had the KB I.D.'s and been able to locate the files manually
> (what a nightmare that is, but you gotta do what you gotta do, right?)
>
> 5) If any of this fails, I have discovered you have to restore a backup
> of the Windows Registry inorder to try again, and even that is not a
> cert, as if it actually ever did get around to installing either the
> version 6 of the Updater, or any of the three other preliminary files,
> you're f**ked with little or no recourse but to wipe the drive and start
> all over again, because whether the Registry contains the valid pointers
> or not, if it finds the files present, it will not run the WindowsUpdate
> programme, nor will it allow you to uninstal any of the 4 aforementioned
> apps to try it again, or anything.
>
> THIS IS A LEAP FORWARD?
>
> Give me a break.
>
> Warren C. E. Austin
> Toronto, Canada
> ----------------------------
My system restore doesn't work.I think I have to uninstal windows installer in
order for my computer to work properly.I've winxp in my computer.Can anybody
help me?

>