Critical Windows fix on the way
Quote:
Microsoft has announced that it will release three patches for its Windows operating system next week.
The fixes, which will carry a maximum threat rating of "critical," will be issued Tuesday, the company said. Under its two-month-old advance notification program, Microsoft typically gives the public early notice of the number of updates it plans to deliver and of the severity of the vulnerabilities the updates fix.
The only other detail the software giant revealed Thursday was that people may have to restart their Windows systems for the patches to take effect.
Microsoft did not say whether the patches will fix several three-month-old flaws in Internet Explorer. A security group released code at the end of December that demonstrates how to take advantage of the security holes and compromise a computer. That disclosure caused a security information company to raise the threat of those flaws to "extremely critical" on Friday.
Perceived security problems with Internet Explorer have resulted in the top browser shedding market share to its open-source rival Firefox.
Source : http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5517567.html
Re: Critical Windows fix on the way
Quote:
Originally posted here by SDK
The only other detail the software giant revealed Thursday was that people may have to restart their Windows systems for the patches to take effect.
They have to announce that now?
This, imo, is the most annoying thing about Windows. My AV updated itself and gave me a popup saying 'click here to restart your computer'. Sigh, so I clicked the [x], cause I didn't feel like restarting all of my downloads. (Pc restarts). Sigh, oh well.. I'll stop ranting now.
It's about time M$ did a good security update, Secunia has only had unpatched flaws listed for their products since who knows when..
yes it is a big deal sometimes
It may not be hard to restart your pc as such but it is a major hassle when you have to administer LANs full of PCs and also servers.
Some servers can take up to 30mins to fully reboot and even minimal servers take no less than 5 to 10 mins while this sounds like a short period of time it is not just that time; you have to notify all your users the server will be offline for a period of time you rarely get this info to everyone and someone loses something they are halfway through. Users and especially managemant do not understand the realities of these things nor do they care. It stops them working and costs companies money,
The update system on microsoft systems is bizzare to say the least, take the windows 2000 server family service packs you had to install windows media player in order to be able to install the service pack now why for the love of god would anyone want a media player on a frigging server
now almost 90% of the security updates are for the media player some requiring yet more reboots.
I cannot remember the last i did any upgrades or updates on my *nix boxes that forced me to reboot the machine.
I am not a mad *nix zelout but it things like this that microsoft has to get a grip of we are forced to deal with a shoddy M$ approuch to producing stable secure code on a daily basis so the longer they bury there heads in the sand about this the more customers they are going to lose to alternatives.
Network admins have enough work to do without unnecessary reboots and additonal problems caused by the patches that fixes something but breaks 2 other things in the process.
