back to article Microsoft makes good with a 23-fix Patch Tuesday

It'll be all hands to the pumps in IT departments around the globe as Microsoft has issued this month's round of patches. There are 23 flaws to be fixed. The seven patches include three critical issues, affecting Microsoft Windows, Office, Silverlight, and the .NET Framework. One patch, MS12-034, sorts ten flaws, some of which …

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  1. Silverburn
    Happy

    At last...no more IE6 fixes? After 200 patches is it eventually fixed?

    1. Captain Scarlet Silver badge
      Megaphone

      Nah

      They're still giving it evils shouting DIE DIE DIE

    2. C Yates
      Happy

      I wonder what they would name a true IE6 fix...

      uninstall.exe? :)

    3. Silverburn
      Facepalm

      Wow - downvote-tastic.

      Someone is obviously still in denial about just how "good" IE6 was...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        @Silverburn

        No mate - they're just disappointed that you're still cracking tired old IE6 jokes. Comedians need new material to prosper, you know?

        1. Silverburn

          Re: @Silverburn

          New Material you say? I suppose Metro/win8 will be out soon. And iphone5. There should be enough comedy in there to last another 12 months.

        2. Tom 13

          Re: @Silverburn

          Or unhappy he doesn't understand what the phrase "unsupported" means.

        3. Captain Scarlet Silver badge
          Paris Hilton

          Re: @Silverburn

          Since when is shouting Die Die Die a joke, its very serious and could get you in a lot of trouble!

  2. JaitcH
    Unhappy

    Another Big Patch Day, and a Week of Start Up Repair Routines

    I bought my wife an ASUS bouncy-bouncy (because it has now survived 19 counter-to-floor drops without damage) Eee PC which she uses for browsing for recipes and e-mail in the kitchen. Only a couple of programs loaded - Firefox and Irfan.

    Then along comes Wednesday (we are one day ahead of Redmond), up pops the Update flag and once again the StartUp Repair kicks in.

    Such fun. Normal service might be restored by Friday. It's enough to drive you to Linux.

    1. Chemist

      Re: Another Big Patch Day, and a Week of Start Up Repair Routines

      I think you'll find that the EeePC runs OpenSuse very well and Firefox and Thunderbird will give all the functionality you currently need.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Another Big Patch Day, and a Week of Start Up Repair Routines

      Phew thanks for the heads up.

      We won't roll out the patches to 3500 machines we have, based on you laptop thats been dropped 19 times.

      Maybe, just maybe,perhaps the machines knackered?

    3. Mystic Megabyte
      Linux

      Re: Another Big Patch Day, and a Week of Start Up Repair Routines

      I already have been driven to Linux but fired up my virtual XP a few days ago. 21 updates took an hour and a half to install. Now I have 23 more to look forward to :(

      FWIW I have had the misfortune to have been using Win7 on work machines, it sucks!

    4. Mystic Megabyte
      Linux

      Re: Another Big Patch Day, and a Week of Start Up Repair Routines

      P.S. Last month I installed Xubuntu 11.10 on a friends eeePC 900. Everything works out of the box and its lightning fast.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Thumb Down

        Re: Another Big Patch Day, and a Week of Start Up Repair Routines

        We're all so happy for you.

        Truely.

        Now, unless you have nothing better to do than bleat on about about how much you detest windows, please go and do something more constructive.

        Oh, FWIW i have been running windows 7 since its inception and its great!!!!!!

        1. jason 7
          Facepalm

          Re: Another Big Patch Day, and a Week of Start Up Repair Routines

          If you have a crappy Windows 7 install then you or your IT dept are not very good.

          Might want to revisit that support contract come renewal time. You know the time they are really eager to help at all costs but then once the ink is dry on the new contract they basically say "FU!" till its renewal time again.

      2. MrZoolook
        FAIL

        Re: Another Big Patch Day, and a Week of Start Up Repair Routines

        Curious. Last time I tried 'buntu I was told I had to download the drivers for my network adapter... it flatly refused to tell me how to do this while the adapter was not currently working.

      3. L1feless
        Linux

        Re: Another Big Patch Day, and a Week of Start Up Repair Routines

        Perhaps a better option to use would be Mint for a beginner? Either way time to jump outta that freezing cold water that MS is and jump onto the iceberg.....

    5. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Another Big Patch Day, and a Week of Start Up Repair Routines

      Do you think that Linux doesn't have updates? The question should really be: Do you want updates to trickle in through the month, or in a monthly batch? As it looks like this machine's required functionallity would be easily covered by Linux or Windows.

      1. eulampios

        Re: Another Big Patch Day, and a Week of Start Up Repair Routines

        It sure does but for ALL packages (including "3d parties" even flashplayer!!!) and more promptly.

        The reboot is only required with a patch for the running kernel. Say, when LO or a web browser get updated, restart the app not the whole system.

        And BTW, have not remembered an arbitrary remote code execution vuln. for a long time (especially, within an office or a web browser).

    6. sabroni Silver badge

      Re: Another Big Patch Day, and a Week of Start Up Repair Routines

      Bought my daughter an ASUS Eee pc for xmas year before last, she loves it and both hardware and software are pretty robust. Nevertheless the ASUS bloatware that came with it is shit and throws exceptions approximately every half hour. She just ok's them and carries on.

      The point I'm making is that these machines have crappy OEM builds of windows with badly written services that don't do what they're supposed to and blow up all the time. That's not really Microsoft's fault, I'm sure ASUS could also mash up an install of UNIX if they tried hard enough...

      1. jason 7

        Re: Another Big Patch Day, and a Week of Start Up Repair Routines

        I make a living cleaning all that crap off PCs. When the customers get them back they ask how they got a CPU and ram upgrade for free, its so much smoother and faster.

        As I've mentioned before if you install Vista on a old PC as a clean bloatware free install and its really smooth, works great.

        It's amazing that MS knows what it's doing but HP/Dell/Acer/Asus/Toshiba/Fujitsu haven't got a bloody clue and just wreck it all. So many people have never experienced the joy of a clean Windows install.

        It's like a car manufacturer making a car and then welding the handbrake up on purpose.

        1. Tom 13

          @jason 7

          I did a clean install of Vista on a home built system. It was total crap and still would be if it were still there, so stop with the bullshit. Vista didn't have near the driver support it should have, and only slightly better software support. Windows 7 is much improved and is stable.

          While I concur most of the vendors install crapware that slogs down the computer, that doesn't necessarily mean the underlying OS is decent. And frankly, if you're talking about the 64-bit versions of the OS, getting apps that run properly in a secured environment is still nigh unto impossible. Whether it is networked printer drivers, high end programs you would expect to be optimized for a 64-bit OS (Yeah Autodesk and Adobe I'm looking at you), or games on the home system, the programmers just don't seem to have any idea who to write and support them.

          1. jason 7
            Happy

            Re: @jason 7

            My experience with doing that on dozens of machines must lead me to think you are doing something wrong.

            You can always let someone like me who knows what they are doing sort it out.

            Doesn't hurt to admit when you are out of your depth.

      2. Dave Bell

        Re: Another Big Patch Day, and a Week of Start Up Repair Routines

        My ancient EEE came with Linux, out of the box.

        It was OK, but ASUS cocked up the support a few months later, and I switched to Ubuntu.

    7. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Another Big Patch Day, and a Week of Start Up Repair Routines

      you want the flaws left unfixed?

      It comes at you free over the internet, you get to choose if it's downloaded automatically and installed or just downloaded,to be installed at your convenience, or downloaded when you want. How is this bad?

      And as someone said, Linux doesn't have updates. You ever run Linux? It has updates. And that's great too.

      Updates mean flaws in the system are corrected.

      I don't know what you guys want, back in the good old days, you got a letter saying that a floppy of fixes was available and you sent off a blank disk and return postage and a handling fee and waited and then installed the upgrades. Course we weren't online in the same way then.

    8. richard 7
      Mushroom

      Re: Another Big Patch Day, and a Week of Start Up Repair Routines

      Uninstall all the rubbish you have, get rid of the bloat ware and at a guess, change the hard disk. Maybe with all the crap and defective hardware gone you can safely blame MS for screwing it.

    9. Blitterbug
      Meh

      Re: Start Up Repair Routines

      FFS it just needs a chkdsk c: /f from a cmd window, which I guarantee will stop your endless startup repair cycle.

      1. Tom 13

        @Blitterbug

        With as many times as he's bounced it off the floor, there's almost certainly damage to at least one of the electronic components. chkdsk c: /f won't fix a broken component. Given that it is a laptop, best thing to do is replace it.

    10. Giles Jones Gold badge

      Re: Another Big Patch Day, and a Week of Start Up Repair Routines

      That's what drives me mad about Windows, way too many updates. The disk doesn't stop going for about 10 minutes after log on. Plus then you have to let your machine install updates on shutdown too.

      If you don't need it on the Internet (niche use purpose these days, but still a possibility) then you're probably best to update it to the latest service pack then disable network connectivity and update systems.

      1. Chewy

        Re: Another Big Patch Day, and a Week of Start Up Repair Routines

        Would you rather MS didn't fix the flaws then? Damned if you do, damned if you don't

    11. MrZoolook
      Facepalm

      Re: Another Big Patch Day, and a Week of Start Up Repair Routines

      Yeah cos Linux 'just works' right?

    12. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Another Big Patch Day, and a Week of Start Up Repair Routines

      How about removing the requirement for a computer in the kitchen?

      1. Buy cookbook

      2. Instead of email, ask her to yell when dinner is ready

      3. Win!

  3. Chandleo
    Thumb Up

    Thank You!

    Thanks for the heads up El Reg!

    I can't count the number of times at the end of a workday when your trying to get out the door to be greeted with 'Updating 1 of lord knows how many!'

    1. Ol'Peculier

      Re: Thank You!

      My guess would be once a month?

      1. Tom 13

        Re: once a month?

        No, I've gotten the notice more than once on my home system a couple times in the last 6 months. Given that I normally log on to the system once a day, if they all install at once that shouldn't be the case. Still, if you are hitting the Shutdown button on your way out the door, it shouldn't be an issue, even if it is downloading 23 patches from that huge update they did about 2 years back.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Thank You!

      How many months does this happen on average before the typical user finally learns that updates happen on the second Tuesday?

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Thank You!

      To be fair to MS: If you're seeing this throughout the month, it's your IT department who are trickling updates to you as they're tested and ready, not MS.

    4. Annihilator
      Boffin

      Re: Thank You!

      @chandleo - I've never understood the people who stare frustrated at their machine waiting for it to power down. If my laptop is ever pausing at the "installing x of y updates" I'm usually well out the door, laptop either shoved in a drawer or updating merrily in my bag. It'll power off when complete, there's really no need to keep it company or even connected to a network.

      Hopefully a handy hint to get you towards the pub sooner. Or like me, just never shut it down (standby or hibernate save a lot of time the next morning!)

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Thank You!

        You'd be inpressed how quickly that laptop can overheat in there. If its an nVidia or ATI chipset, one day it'll refuse to ever boot again.

        1. Darryl
          Facepalm

          Re: Thank You!

          I have at least a few users who used to complain to me about how their XP machines were 'always bothering them' about wanting to restart after installing updates, so I decided to watch closer to see what was up... Turns out they never did actually let them restart, so of course they were being nagged. Once I explained to them that if they actually let the machine restart (or shutdown at the end of the day) then it wouldn't constantly bother them, the complaints dried up.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Thank You!

            Brilliant! A slap on the head! Shirley by now there's a huge accumulated surplus of such, usused and once destined for the back of some fool's head. Let's get cracking!

          2. Tom 13

            @Darryl: that'll fix 90% of them.

            The other 10% you need to worry about. It can be indicative of a patch not installing, and that means something else is broken on the system. Probably an incomplete update for something else, but also possibly malware, especially on XP SP3.

  4. Dan 55 Silver badge
    Facepalm

    "Cloned code detection system"

    Or how about not using copy and paste to write code in the first place?

    1. sabroni Silver badge
      Facepalm

      Re: "Cloned code detection system"

      Yeah, let's all write everything from scratch every time we start coding.

      1. Dan 55 Silver badge
        FAIL

        Re: "Cloned code detection system"

        You have heard of shared libraries?

        I'd have thought by now with the amount of dlls scattered about the system that they'd actually be used for what they were originally designed for.

        1. sabroni Silver badge
          Happy

          Re: "Cloned code detection system"

          Yes, I've heard of shared libraries, have you heard of "dll hell"...?

          1. Dan 55 Silver badge

            Re: "Cloned code detection system"

            Yes. Funny how Unix systems manage to get by even so.

            1. sabroni Silver badge

              Re: "Cloned code detection system"

              Sorry, I thought we were talking about Windows...

  5. MH Media
    FAIL

    Oh B*LL*CKS! I just set up an old laptop for my Mother-in-law so she could be an occasional Internet user, going online with her PAYG USB dongle.

    Perhaps I should invest in a second data plan just for the F***** updates!!!

    1. pPPPP

      Autopatcher

      Get Autopatcher. Download updates on fast internet connection. Put on dongle. Run patches on mother in law's PC.

  6. Cheeky Chappie
    Happy

    THANK GOD!!

    Thank God I've retired and all I have to worry about is my own machine

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Up

      Re: THANK GOD!!

      I cant imagine why you were downvoted for this, but I. like you only have my own and immediate family / friends machines to take care since i got out of the soul destroying IT game...

      I'm so much happier!!!!

      PS, i upvoted you to redress the balance.

      1. Tom 13
        Happy

        Re: I cant imagine why you were downvoted

        Could be someone who can't believe he's "still using that M$/Micro$haft crap" or possibly just someone on a rampage. This El Reg after all.

  7. Richard Harris
    Devil

    Once a month pain and resultant bad moods and bloating?

    Maybe this once a month patch should be renamed as the MSenstrual Cycle???

  8. Sim

    Tiny XP

    Tiny Xp is good for Asus netbooks. I cannot tell you where to get it from but google knows...

  9. John 61
    FAIL

    patchy yet again...

    I'm trying to update 3 .NET framework efforts on my XP machine. I'm now in a perpetual cycle of downloading, along with a bunch of others I've bumped into on the MS support forums.

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