Thoughts from the UK

Friday, April 29, 2011

Silence in the popular Tech press about SP1 and Piracy

Any mention that there is a problem with Windows updates seems to be a place where nobody wants to go.
If there is a connection to pirated versions of Windows 7, who knows?

I am not saying there is a connection, but there is no denial that there is.

So far there are at least 5 Windows updates that have failed (on some, unspecified computers) in the last few days.
It would be good if there are others that can confirm whether this is just a problem with SP1 or one that is related to piracy.

Groupon

I have called this a "scam" in the past. It has been reported that it is not as good a deal as it is presented.

In an email from Terry Johnston, Media Relations, CheckinSave - "With Groupon seemingly imploading by the day... perhaps CheckinSave is a story angle that you can sink your teeth into. Do you think this could be an interesting story for The Technology Muse enthusiasts?"

More to come......

Windows update problems 26-29 Apr 2011

I must state that these problems have only been seen on computers that have had Service Pack 1 (SP1) installed.

ALL of the other computers that I run Windows 7 (of various flavours 32 and 64 bit) install these updates with no errors. These computers have had SP1 held-off until it is proven that there are no problems with it.

I have a theory to why this is happening and you can find it on my website.

I cannot find a sensible solution to this problem (apart from mine of course!) - Obinna Osobalu, Nigeria on forum.mintywhite.com suggests that the System Update Readiness tool may solve the problem. This tool was mentioned on the Windows Servicing Guy's blog for solving problems in the installation of SP1 in general - so it may help.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Windows Update Manual Downloads require verification

It is theorized that compromised licenses of Windows 7 are now failing Automatic updates.

Manual updates now seem to require verification (which passes even though run against a "bootleg" copy of Windows 7).

If this is a "stop-gap" measure introduced by Microsoft to curb the use of "leaked" serial numbers and certificates it is going to piss off the legit owners of the equipment that the licenses were issued to.

Or, it could be that SP1 is just "screwed"

The example above is for kb2522422 - Cannot print from Internet Explorer 9 using some Canon printers

Windows 7 freezes on 0% applying updates on boot

The updates that are described in KB2506928, KB2492386 and KB982018 fail on Automatic Updates and are changes to that point are reverted back.

When the machine finally starts the updates will show as "failed" on the Update History. The next time the computer is started you will experience the same prolonged wait until the updates fail and get rolled back.

I have installed these updates manually by visiting the appropriate Microsoft pages for the KBs and now my computer starts as it did before without the wait.

I described solutions for these problems this on my website, these are re-posted on this blog.

The symptom is that the computer takes 3 to 5 mins to boot (start-up) unless these updates are either applied or blocked.

Links to posts relating to this problem on this blog: