back to article MS hits refresh on Windows 7 SP1 for select few

Microsoft pumped out fresh beta builds of its first service packs for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 late last week. The company released Windows SP1 public betas for the firm’s current operating system at its annual partner shindig in July this year. Last Friday it hit refresh on the beta by spinning out build 7601. …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. DEAD4EVER

    sp1 for win 7

    will this sp1 include the update that detects if your windows version is using a pirated product key sorta speak if it does il pass thanks lol not saying i have a pirated but heh

    1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

      KB971033

      KB971033 is not my friend. I have seen several perfectly legitimate Windows 7 installs go the kaboom thanks to this little menace. By "perfectly legitimate" I mean "brand new comptuer that I just finished installing myself and activating using the OEM Sticker I just put on the side of the PC."

      The ticket seems to be the arbitrary nature of what it considers a "hardware change." Flash the BIOS and for whatever reason it decides you've changed something too much apart from it's liking and blows up. Similarly, Ghosting from a spinning disk to a flash drive on the same system (both using OEM and MAKs) has caused me some pain. In one case, a windows update applied several months after KB970133 seemed to have gone sideways, because the OS suddenly turned into a pumpkin for no reason I could discern.

      As such I've just stopped loading that particular KB. Well, that...or I just downgrade the system to XP. (Still have a LOT of XPdeployed.) I would be quite sad if they include it in SP1 without fixing the bits that seem designed to punish paying customers. I'm all about protecting one's intellectual property investment...

      ...but it's getting to the point that for a lot of computers Windows 7 quite simply isn't worth the hassle. Unless the computer in question absolutely has to play video games or use some MS only software, I’m just putting Fedora on it. This isn’t because I’m unwilling to pay the Microsoft tax, it’s because I don’t need the stress of having systems self-destruct for inane reasons or when there is a minor upgrade.

      The hell of it is, other than an initial spate of grousing across the tubes when KB971033 initially came out, I haven’t heard of a single pirated copy of windows falling prey to this thing. The newer versions of Windows 7 loader (which everyone seems to be using) became immune to it ages ago.

      It’s easy for people to lash out at anyone who dislikes windows activation as a filthy pirate, but I felt it worth bringing up that not everyone with these concerns is a cheapskate. For what it’s worth, on every system I have installed Fedora or Ubuntu out of no greater desire than to avoid dealing with Windows 7 activation headaches, I have contributed the full cost of a Windows 7 Pro OEM license to a worthy open source project.

      For some of us, the KB971033 worries simply aren’t related to piracy or money; they are related to wanting to be able to deploy a computer into the field and not have to worry about it (other than hardware failures) ever again.

  2. Tigra 07
    IT Angle

    Not really a security issue, but...

    I installed ZoneAlarm Firewall on my Windows 7 laptop friday because so many people rave about it.

    Not only did the install not work, but it KOd my laptop and i had to do a system restore.

    Apparently it's a common problem involving a driver ZA adds.

    Do i blame ZA (who i've never used) or Microsoft (who i've never had trouble with)?

    1. Tom 13

      If you've never had a problem with Microsoft software,

      blame the wetware behind the keyboard.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Up

      Neither

      go get sphinx software firewall control for windows 7, WAY better and no stupid install issues. ZA used to be really good, then it got bloated!

      1. Tigra 07
        Happy

        No chance cornz...

        I'm leaving the firewalls alone after that.

        Never had trouble with windows firewall, so why replace it?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    ZA, SP1 anti-piracy?

    Did I step back in time to 2001?

    Ditch ZoneAlarm, I've never had anything nice to say about their product, ever. Hell Windows built in packet filtering is just as good as ZA. Oh, and you've never had trouble with Microsoft? I love when people missed out on Windows ME. :P

    Also Windows 7 is quite active in seeking out its pirates, if you pass WGA and can get patches now you can expect to pass WGA to get SP1 unless Microsoft is sitting on a new blacklist.

  4. DJ 2
    WTF?

    Youtube BSOD would be nice.

    I'm p'ed off with my 8 core 6gb memory machine having BSOD's every time a flash animation comes on screen.

    Fix the Windows 7 64x reboot problems now.

    you can google "youtube windows 7 bsod" but don't watch any of the youtube videos if you have windows 7.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      BSOD

      Looks more like 3rd party driver issues. Same old same old...of course could be a million & 1 things. Hell I have had Linux reboot everytime I visted certain sites. Again, duff drivers.

      http://nzgeek.org/blog/dxgmms1-sys-crash-blue-screen-of-death/

  5. Psymon
    Troll

    @DJ2

    By what twisted logic can you lay that blame for Flash crashing your machine at the feet of MS?

    That's Adobe (one of the flakiest mainstream software developers on the planet) not fully testing their x64 implementation of the flash plugin.

    As for Zone Alarm, don't touch it with a ten foot barge pole. I didn't even think they were still going. There's certainly no market for the product since XP SP2.

    I can't remember that last time I've seen a BSOD that hasn't been caused by dodgey software, dodgey drivers, or hardware failiure.

    MS's greatest weakness, is when you run the OS and application stack on insuficiently powered hardware. If you keep the CPU/GPU/RAM/HDD maxxed out for long enough, apps will start to fall over.

    This is no different to any other OS.

    Now cue the trolls "Linux has a smaller footprint..."

    1. Vic

      It is Microsoft's fault.

      > By what twisted logic can you lay that blame for Flash crashing your machine at the feet of MS?

      By the simple, non-twisted logic that it's MS' fault.

      Flash can crash - that's down to Adobe. It might even take down the browser - that's understandable, as the browser was relying on it.

      But taking down the whole machine? That's an unstable OS.

  6. mmm mmm

    Zonealarm

    You want it because you can stop stuff going out as well as coming in, like you might have something dodgy calling itself iexplore.exe and windows fw will let it through, ZA won't. Just set it to XPSP3 in compatibility and everything is sweet. If you're too lazy,stupid or bloody-minded to do that then you deserve what's coming to you.

This topic is closed for new posts.