Posted on 03/25/2008 8:43:40 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Symantec, Windows users beset by Vista SP1 flaws
By Tom Espiner, ZDNet UK
Monday, March 24, 2008 10:56 AM
Security vendor Symantec has said that updated drivers to replace those adversely affected by Windows Vista Service Pack 1 are not yet available.
The company said users will have to wait for the updated drivers, which will be available "in the coming weeks". The drivers in question are for Endpoint Protection and Network Access Control, two of Symantec's flagship enterprise security products.
Microsoft released Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) to Windows Update on Tuesday. However, in the Vista team blog, Vista product manager Nick White wrote that some vendors' drivers "may be problematic after an update from Windows Vista to Windows Vista SP1". Symantec Endpoint Protection and Network Access Control clients were among the list of drivers affected by SP1.
On Thursday, Symantec said that, while it was aware of the problems SP1 had caused for its drivers and customers, updated drivers for Endpoint Protection were not yet available. Symantec made no explicit mention of Network Access Control drivers in an e-mail response to ZDNet Asia's sister site ZDNet UK.
"Symantec [is] aware of this issue and has updated the affected driver to resolve the issue," Symantec said in its e-mail statement. "The currently available version of Symantec Endpoint Protection (Maintenance Release 1) is not certified for use with Vista SP1 and could potentially be impacted by this issue. The next upcoming maintenance release of Symantec Endpoint Protection, which is currently with beta customers and due to be available for general release in the coming weeks, will be fully certified for Vista SP1 and will include an updated driver which is not impacted by this issue."
As well as vendors, some Microsoft customers were also affected by downloading SP1. In comments on Nick White's blog post, a user called "iggy23" said downloading Vista SP1 had caused a "blue screen", which can be displayed by Windows in the event of a critical system error.
"I downloaded [SP1] via Windows Update and got a blue screen on the third part of the update," wrote iggy23. "[It] took five hours to 'revert to previous'. So I downloaded the package version and tried that. Same blue screen. Same hours."
Another user experienced problems with their graphics drivers after downloading Vista SP1.
"Well, I installed Vista SP1 after seeing it on Windows Update last night," wrote the user. "In retrospect, not my finest decision. What a disaster! It exiled all of my Nvidia drivers to the Bermuda Triangle... they're simply all gone. Okay, no big deal, go to the Nvidia site, download the latest drivers, install and nada. Zip, zilch, nothing changes. The install fails... every time, without fail."
One irate Windows user claiming to be Howard Terry, a researcher at Berkeley and Stanford universities, said that university professors and students were considering a class action lawsuit if Microsoft did not resolve this problem.
"This is a very serious matter--tell someone in charge that Stanford and... Berkeley professors and students will begin a class action lawsuit very soon if this SP1 update problem is not fixed for Vista [business] users asap," wrote "drqc terry". "What have you people done to this new OS...?"
The majority of comments responding to White's blog post were positive, however.
Microsoft had not explained why it had released SP1 in the knowledge that it could break third-party drivers at the time of writing. However, a spokesperson for the company said that Microsoft would ultimately automatically push out updated drivers ahead of SP1 downloads.
"We've spent the last couple of months or so investigating the driver issues we shared back in February," said Microsoft in an e-mail. "Since then, we [have] identified a small set of device drivers that, if installed on a Windows Vista PC that is subsequently updated to SP1, may be problematic. We were pleased to find that many of the reports that caused our original concern were on pre-release builds of the service pack and were addressed by improvements made between the release candidate and final builds. Although many driver issues were addressed, there are a small number of issues around specific device drivers remaining."
"We want our customers to have the best possible experience with Windows Vista SP1, so we have configured Windows Update to initially delay offering the service pack to PCs with these identified drivers until the issues are resolved," said Microsoft.
"In order to deliver SP1 to these PCs, we worked with our partners to produce driver updates for the drivers that were reported to be problematic when updating to SP1. Updated drivers for the many of the issues found are available on Windows Update as 'optional' updates today. Ultimately, we will be using Windows Update to automatically deliver these updated drivers to PCs in advance of offering them SP1," added the software giant.
"We continue to work with partners to produce resolutions for several other issues," Microsoft said.
What rights to the Linux kernel does RMS personally own?
Agree. Tried to use the free 90 day Norton anti-virus that came with new computers and had issues trying to network three computers and also issues with my POS system. Got rid of Norton and installed Kaspersky and the issues went away.
No foolin'. The only way to do it is to reformat your hard drive.
To remove Norton from you computer you need to download an uninstall tool from Symantec's website. What a PIA.
Not all apps that I need will run under Linux.
GE is the resident tech troll. He insists that RMS is evil yet refuses to admit Billy or Steve is just as far left as RMS is. Yet he prefers to give them money rather than just use GNU stuff for free.
Yeah, go figure...
I haven’t used antivirus in years. Never got a virus, trojan, or any other such malware.
For someone who is computer literate, stays away from Internet Explorer, and doesn’t routinely visit dangerous websites (porn, pirate sites, and the like), there is little actual risk of getting a virus.
I’m convinced that more damage and wasted time has resulted from antivirus programs than from viruses themselves.
I did that. It did not remove Norton. The Searches I did found dozens of Norton/Symantec files.
for manual de-installation destructions. All I can tell you is that the newer the version the less of this stuff there is, but if the de-installer is broke there's a LOT of residue laying around. Hope it helps.
iggy23 is an idiot. If he installed the service pack without first making a mirror image of his drive, then he deserves the blue screen of death.
BTW, I installed Vista SP1 on my notebook in less than an hour and have had no problems whatsoever, even though I run Norton Internet Security 2008 and Norton Ghost.
Real user friendly huh?
I just checked my Symantec e-mail Folder and there are 38 communiques between Symantec and myself.
None of their advice worked. I cut and pasted print screens into my emails and still we went round and round with those fools. They couldn't figure it out.
No you wouldn't.
You have proven time and time again that you don't have what it takes to understand, much less use, a real operating system.
Just keep shilling for Microsoft. That's all you are good for.
So Symantec’s software, once again, sucks and they’re blaming Windows. Maybe in Symantec didn’t have such a history of crap I’d agree with them, but they’ve ruined way too many great products.
Well, he's okay with free under very specific circumstances.
For instance, if you licensed software from a company and as part of the license you promised to pay them a percentage for every copy you sold...then gave the product away for free to help leverage your monopoly to crush an innovative American software company (and bankrupting the company you licensed the product from), that would be okay.
And it's okay to deny the U.S. Government and your customers your source code, but give it away to the Chinese Communists.
Those kinds of "free" are okay with GE.
But to give a product away for free to everyone equally with no strings attached to using it, that's an evil communist plot by the radical foreigners in North Carolina.
It's not surprising, given Vista's problems, that Bill would send out his minions to preach the word of the Ori.. er... windows.
It may be a PITA but unless you do it, Symantec ain't goin' nowhere. Add-Remove Programs just won't do the job.
I gave up on them entirely after their "2003" products. After that, installing Symantec products always seemed to break something else, and they were massive resource hogs. One of their products, Norton WinDoctor, should properly have been called RegistryWrecker. It made utterly insane recommendations for registry "fixes."
I have never read a company history of Symantec, but I bet there was a point when the competent engineering types, the ones who had created the products and understood them from the ground up, left or were fired as a group.
Yep. My new computer with Vista is in the closet and I am using an old 2000. Too much hassle dealing with the new one.
I'm no troll, just a conservative American who prefers US products over cheap foreign knockoffs, especially when those knockoffs are backed by Green Party radicals like Richard Stallman who now owns more copyrights in a typical Linux distro than anyone. You're welcome to prefer your foreign clone, and continue to post countless threads from foreign news sources praising it over the American originals, but you should just admit the facts and drop the name calling.
Ridiculous, of course, the free software movement you support allows the Chinese government to not only view the source code of Linux, but to copy it, modify it, even rename and resale it, just as they do with "Red Hat" Linux which is built in North Carolina but renamed and resold as "Red Flag" in China with all proceeds going to the Chinese government. But rather than speak out against that absurdity, you rail against successful US corporations instead.
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