Microsoft forces IM upgrades

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February 12th, 2005, 10:55 PM
SDK

Microsoft forces IM upgrades

Quote:

Microsoft on Friday forced its millions of MSN Messenger users to download a new version of the software to plug a vulnerability discovered earlier this week. The mandatory upgrade began early Friday morning after a security company posted a how-to guide describing how the vulnerability can attack computers. MSN Messenger users were then greeted with a notice to upgrade before they could open their instant messaging clients.

The moves come after Microsoft on Tuesday released a series of software patches to plug a series of "critical" weaknesses in a handful of products including Office XP, Internet Explorer 6, Windows Media Player and MSN Messenger. Microsoft was planning on asking Messenger users to upgrade over a longer period of time, but once the security posting went public the company decided to upgrade all users at once, a company representative said.

Source : http://news.zdnet.com/2110-9588_22-5573252.html

That a good move from Microsoft part! They react quick to the thread I post here
February 12th, 2005, 11:01 PM
MrLinus

Really? I didn't get forced to upgrade..
February 13th, 2005, 01:38 AM
XTC46

I got no "forced" upgrade
February 13th, 2005, 01:57 AM
Negative

Only versions lower than 5 are required to upgrade, according to MS... I was running 4.7 or something and didn't get forced to upgrade either.
February 13th, 2005, 03:09 AM
HTRegz

Hey Hey,

Quote:

http://messenger.msn.com/feature/msgr3.aspx
If you use MSN Messenger 6.1 or 6.2 on a PC*, please upgrade now.

Download Now!

This upgrade includes the most robust security measures currently available for MSN Messenger. You will only be able to log onto MSN Messenger if you have upgraded your MSN Messenger software.

*If you are using MSN Messenger 7.0 Beta or are on a MAC operating system, you do not need to download this upgrade.

Everyone I know that was running MSN 6.1 and 6.2 was forced to upgrade.... Is it possible you are running 7.0 Beta already??? MsM and XTC??? As for Neg... 4.7 sounds to me like Windows Messenger... not MSN Messenger... which would explain why there was no upgrade forced there.

Peace,
HT
February 13th, 2005, 06:39 AM
SawPer

Well... I had MSN Messenger v6.1 and after I rebooted my machine it forced me to update to v6.2 to be able to connect at all again.
February 13th, 2005, 06:57 AM
scratchONtheBOX

Version 6.2 (6.2.0205)

The latest Messenger is keep on reminding me too since yesterday!

Version 6.2 (6.2.0205)

As soon as you are connected and your MS Messenger is configured auto-login (auto-run I guessed), it will prompt you for the latest update and ask you to install it ASAP.

Now I run it this morning and it's quite normal.

Never used it too much though.

Yo!
February 13th, 2005, 07:06 AM
zencoder

Quote:

Originally posted here by HTRegz
As for Neg... 4.7 sounds to me like Windows Messenger... not MSN Messenger.

So what is the difference that saves WinMessenger users, but not MSN Messenger users? All Windows messenger does is come preinstalled with XP, and it does a much crappier job of presenting a GUI to the MSN messenger code than does MSNs version.
February 13th, 2005, 07:30 AM
SawPer

Yepp, but they are two completely different products.
Never understood why they made two different ones instead of getting rid of one, concentrating on one instead.

I guess Windows Messenger might be a preferred version if you use it for Exchange in your company though. Might not want all those fancy features and I guess one of those features had the security problem.. ?
February 13th, 2005, 01:01 PM
MrLinus

I'm running MSN 6.2 (6.2.0137) and this morning I got asked if I wanted to upgrade to a newer version. So now I'm 6.2 (6.2.0205). And nothing being requested beyond that.
February 13th, 2005, 03:13 PM
zencoder

I'm running Trillian 3.0 Basic Build 967 and I've yet to hear or see anything that is slightly related to any of this. ;)
February 13th, 2005, 05:18 PM
HTRegz

Quote:

Originally posted here by zencoder
So what is the difference that saves WinMessenger users, but not MSN Messenger users? All Windows messenger does is come preinstalled with XP, and it does a much crappier job of presenting a GUI to the MSN messenger code than does MSNs version.

Hey Hey,

The idea behind Windows Messenger.... aside from being an Internet IM was that it could be a corporate IM. It was thought that companies would pay big bucks for LCS (Live Communications Server) and use it for intraoffice messaging. Basically you could allow your employees to communicate on IM because only internal users would have access to it. That's why it's got an "ugly GUI" and it's "featureless".... It's there for corporate applications, not the 15 year old that wants to tell her friends who she's got a crush on..... or the 60 year old who's pretending to be one of the 15 year olds friends. At the same time it's these lack of features that keep Windows Messenger from being vulnerable to the majority of problems that affect MSN Messenger. That's why Windows Messenger 4.7 is safe, while MSN Messenger 6.1 requires an update.

Peace,
HT
February 13th, 2005, 08:40 PM
valhallen

am on the new beta version - which i mnost say the new features seem a nuisance more than anythign else ¬_¬

v_Ln