Windows Update ridiculosity

Discussion in 'Computer Science & Culture' started by glaucon, Aug 24, 2004.

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  1. glaucon tending tangentially Registered Senior Member

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    Greetings,
    What the hell happened to Windows Update???? I had no choice but to install some new Win Update program, and now when I visit I cannot select certain available updates (they're 'greyed out), and I cannot unselect certain updates (e.g.: SP1).
    If anyone knows some way around this, please let me know.
    TIA


    Seriously considering going Mac way....
     
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  3. Avatar smoking revolver Valued Senior Member

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    Maybe try Linux way

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    Mandrake 10 should be comfortable/ More comfortable thanWindows anyways..
    --
    I really can't help you on this one because I've never used the Live Update (manual update all the way).
    Are you sure that you installed a M$ made update program and not some hacker hoax prog?
     
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  5. Dreamwalker Whatever Valued Senior Member

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    Well, I can only say that the update is standart and it does not look like hacking software. (Well, if you do not consider Windows software in general as such)

    But all I get is an error message because I deactivated Windows update...so I cannot help you with the rest. But that new Update programm seems to be vital for the new upgrades. (no idea why...)
     
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  7. Gifted World Wanderer Registered Senior Member

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    Windows comes with an auto update program. It connects to the server automatically to get updates at a user set time. If there are updates, it does whatever you told it to do in such a situation: automatically install, let you know that it's installing updates, or ask you if you want them.

    I think browsers can have an effect. Autoupdate only works with IE, and it's been tricking out on me the couple of times its come up since I installed Firefox.
     
  8. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    Speaking as a 35-year veteran of the software industry, I can't believe that anyone would dare to install a so-called "upgrade" that is not only merely a collection of patches, but patches to a full five percent of the Windows code, and intended, for the eightieth or ninetieth time, to satisfy the original, implicit user requirements for quality and security.

    If you hired someone to build a huge application for you, and eight years later it still didn't work, and hackers kept finding wormholes that your software project teams hadn't found and fixed in eight years, so the managers of those very same project teams said the solution was to let them install the world's largest software patch and tamper with five percent of the code, that they couldn't build right the first time, what would you do?

    Would you volunteer to be the beta test site? Or would you throw the application off the roof, followed by all those incompetent project team managers? And reorganize the company so that it started treating software development as an engineering discipline rather than a medieval black art?

    And go buy yourself a Macintosh and start enjoying the time you spend with your computer, instead of spending half of your life being a software mechanic, without being paid for it.
     
  9. Avatar smoking revolver Valued Senior Member

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    Actually I quite enjoy it. Yes, I'm spoiled. But then.. Linux is more interesting. About macs... to my mind come words from one of Mike Oldfield's songs (not that the words are very special): Is anybody there?
     
  10. Dreamwalker Whatever Valued Senior Member

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    But there is so much fun of exploring and repairing in a windows system.

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    Seriously, if I would not play so many computer games, this piece of junk-code would be annihilated.
     
  11. glaucon tending tangentially Registered Senior Member

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    I'm not using Live Update (eeek, why would one give away control of one's computer like that...lol). I've always done manual, selective updating, and now it seems that that is no longer possible. Arrg. Microsoft.
    Hmm.. maybe another format and clean install will do nicely.

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    Thanks guys.
     
  12. river-wind Valued Senior Member

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    There was alot of feedback about how many buisness application were broken due to SP2, so LiveUpdate was "paused" for 90 days for certain users. It's possible that you somehow ended up on that list, so SP2 as a whole is not available to you.

    I agree with the Mac sentiment. I love Macs, as do an estimated 30% of the law industry. Not to mention music, video, and print graphics industries. They don't hold the massive market share that they used to in those areas (like in education, where Dell is now the leader), but they still hold double digits. Its the buiness and home family markets which have killed Apple's overall market %'s.
    Then again, MS Office 2004 for OS X still doesn't handle Exchange server calendar and task data like MS Office XP does.

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