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re: Microsoft Moves To Weekly Software Updates
While bricking a cell phone means it cannot be recovered from, MS has certainly released updates that have caused hours upon hours of work to recover from -or- where the system had to be formatted, though for a limited number of users due to the inability to test every possible situation. Here are some basic example of Microsoft Update problems:
Windows 2000 Update Rollup 1 for SP4 caused every system running a Lexmark-based printer (including most of Dell's at the time) to BSOD every time one printed because of the way Lexmark jury-rigged the printing subsystem.
MS has tried to push out video drivers for the wrong video card and currently MS is pushing a driver for a Dell RAID controller as newer than one just released by Dell and yet it's not newer. Incorrect drivers can certainly for a reinstall of Windows.
.Net Framework and Core XML updates constantly fail to properly patch. I have seen systems where it's faster to reinstall Windows than to fool with getting them to install. Microsoft XML Core Services 4.0 SP2 (KB936181) fails to install all the time and it's a pain to fix. There are several other examples.
I have a few Win7 x64 SP1 Pro boxes that have some updates that have failed every month since April and I know others in the same boat and Microsoft's solution is to reinstall. That will become an all-too-often "solution" if their testing doesn't get a whole lot better very fast.
Just about every frekin' time MS pushes an update out for Outlook they violate the law (see consent decree) by making Outlook the default e-mail client. Not all of us use Outlook as our e-mail client. It's a great scheduling tool, but is a horrible e-mail client. It's a royal pain to have to change that every time you patch Office/Outlook.
Anyway, MS has absolutely pushed out bad updates and has misconfigured systems with their updates and while no update has "bricked" a system in the same way a bad hacked ROM update can brick a cell phone, Microsoft will need to get a lot better very fast or this will backfire on Microsoft. I'm all about frequent security updates, but not at the expense of reliability.
Windows 2000 Update Rollup 1 for SP4 caused every system running a Lexmark-based printer (including most of Dell's at the time) to BSOD every time one printed because of the way Lexmark jury-rigged the printing subsystem.
MS has tried to push out video drivers for the wrong video card and currently MS is pushing a driver for a Dell RAID controller as newer than one just released by Dell and yet it's not newer. Incorrect drivers can certainly for a reinstall of Windows.
.Net Framework and Core XML updates constantly fail to properly patch. I have seen systems where it's faster to reinstall Windows than to fool with getting them to install. Microsoft XML Core Services 4.0 SP2 (KB936181) fails to install all the time and it's a pain to fix. There are several other examples.
I have a few Win7 x64 SP1 Pro boxes that have some updates that have failed every month since April and I know others in the same boat and Microsoft's solution is to reinstall. That will become an all-too-often "solution" if their testing doesn't get a whole lot better very fast.
Just about every frekin' time MS pushes an update out for Outlook they violate the law (see consent decree) by making Outlook the default e-mail client. Not all of us use Outlook as our e-mail client. It's a great scheduling tool, but is a horrible e-mail client. It's a royal pain to have to change that every time you patch Office/Outlook.
Anyway, MS has absolutely pushed out bad updates and has misconfigured systems with their updates and while no update has "bricked" a system in the same way a bad hacked ROM update can brick a cell phone, Microsoft will need to get a lot better very fast or this will backfire on Microsoft. I'm all about frequent security updates, but not at the expense of reliability.
re: Microsoft Moves To Weekly Software Updates
Quick, name the top five updates that literally bricked a system.
[crickets chirping...]
[crickets chirping...]
re: Microsoft Moves To Weekly Software Updates
I've already taken to calling the new update system "Microsoft Brick" because one day soon that is exactly what MS will do to their users computer systems with these rushed (and historically poorly designed) updates. It has happened before, and it *WILL* happen again!
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7/2/2013 | 6:54:40 PM
Most of the time that updates fail, it is because of Registry or file access issues. I have much less trouble with updates installing correctly by rebooting the system and logging in as an administrator prior to running the updates. It's not such a big deal since it is generally only once a month. On larger Domain based client's - using WSUS to manage updating generally works well for me. Again, we'll trigger a reboot in the middle of the night prior to running the updates.
I think the OP does have one valid point though. And that is that MS will be under a lot of scrutiny about the quality of their updates as they move to a more fast and furious release cycle. We shall see.