Critical Windows fix on the way

C|Net News ^ | January 7, 2005 | Robert Lemos

[holymoly]

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.

[holymoly]

Perceived security problems with Internet Explorer

Translation: It's all a figment of your imagination.

[blackie]

Roger that!

[evolved_rage]

Article Next week: Firefox users on Windows XP report spontaneous re-boots.

[KoRn]

Security Ping!

[skip_intro]

Perceived security problems with Internet Explorer

Well, they've got a point. IE is only a problem if you use it to connect to the internet.

[Decombobulator]

IE is a bloated virus prone piece of crap. I have been much happier since I've used Firefox.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Geez, how many hundred critical security fixes have they already issued? IE has more holes than the sieve that I use to drain my spaghetti.

I still haven't downloaded SP2 because a friend of mine did it and it totally shut down his system. I won't download it until I'm convinced that they've fixed the myriad of bugs with SP2.

[AntiGuv]

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.

Wow - imagine that.. Good thing they warned us!!!

[handy old one]

DIY's please take note our help is need to repair windows every where. Remove offending window and replace with nonbug, nonleaking version ##.01 or what ever the newest value you are able to find at the nearest window replacement center closest to your problem sight /// site or what ever.

[Capitalism2003]

Yet another reason to go with Firefox, and non MS products whenbever possible.

www.getfirefox.com

[rwfromkansas]

Yeah, who would have thought that to install something and implement the changes properly, you may have to restart it.

Yeah......we need to be told this.

Never mind that Microsoft will pop up a dialog box and shut us down anyway, so why do they need to tell us? :)

[taxed2death]

I downloaded SP2. Now I can only connect at 33,000 bps.

[Fintan]

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.

 

Imagine that.

[monkeyshine]

Mine too. I downloaded SP2 and the machine crashed in mid-install. Luckily when it recovered it automatically reversed the update. I also switched to firefox. I like it so much, I'm now considering learning linux. IMHO, as a computer user, it might be time to short MSFT.

[holymoly]

I won't download it until I'm convinced that they've fixed the myriad of bugs with SP2.

Which should be about 12-18 months after "Longhorn" is released. ;)

[DeFault User]

Yesterday a friend asked me to "fix" his notebook which was extremely slow and inserting gibberish text in his emails. The guy had not been using any virus protection or spam blockers and the first virus exterminator I ran on it removed 363 files with worms.

I ran the update for Windows which downloaded 23 patches before I installed SR-2. (When did that appear, 11/04?) Anyway, the machine downloaded 6 more patches to "fix" SR-2.

Now I read about even more holes that haven't been patched. I fixed him up with free virus checkers and spam blockers and as a parting "gift", I installed Firefox on the machine. That should take care of most of his problems (after he dumps AOL, that is.)

[upchuck]

Is it just me or does it seem to others as well that MSFT is slowly becoming less and less responsive to these problems?

The threat was exposed in Dec, 2004 and MSFT is, maybe, finally, issuing a patch?

And, as usual with MSFT patches, these is the distinct possibility that applying this patch will harm or destroy some other part of the OS.

MSFT's quality control is criminal in nature!

Oops!! I mean...

[upchuck]

I downloaded SP2. Now I can only connect at 33,000 bps.

Some junior MSFT programmer was probably mucking about in the dialer code trying to change the default setting for MSFT's firewall(!) from "off" to "on" and mucked where they shouldn't have :)

[Next_Time_NJ]

I love SP2.. Most of the time SP2 shuts down a system when the system itself is a POS. A lot of poeple installed windows XP on systems that should have stuck with 98/ME. Also, if your copy of windows is illegal SP2 will shut it down unless you patched the system prior to installing it.

[TommyDale]

The biggest problem right now is a huge security breach with SP2's new "firewall" which allows anyone on the outside to gain access to your shared folders or drives if you are on a local area network. In addition to working on another patch, Microsoft actually is advising people to put ANOTHER FIREWALL in front!! LOL! That is some firewall protection they have!