Windows XP update fails in infinite .NET patch loop Microsoft has issued guidance on how to fix problems created by its last bunch of patches. Redmond's patches for May brought pain to Windows XP users who have installed the .NET framework. The problem seems to involve updates KB2633880, KB2518864 and KB2572073. Each download the updates and installs them, but then insists on …
Well here is the news:
* DOS is crap and what you call it is not DOS anyway, it's just full-screen console; was nice but I dont miss it terribly.
* NETBIOS is crap and it caused enough problems with high LAN loads already. Simple to setup but pain to troubleshoot, esp. when you also run SMB on IP stack in the same network.
* you cannot run 16bit applications under 64bit version of Windows (in case you have nostalgia for that too).
Some people just move on. The ones who believe in old times fallacy usually also believe in conspiracy of AV vendors.
Also, if you've got a load of old DOS 16bit apps kicking around, you could choose DOSBOX, a FOSS DOS VM. It works really well, on Windows, MacOS (incl PPC) and Linux and provides virtual IPX/SPX tunnels over TCP/IP. It supports iso images as CDROM drives and, well, is generally great.
DOS / full screen console
Whatever it is, it is still needed, when you have a HUGE system written by a small team over many years, it takes a while to convert to Windows, our 16bit VGA graphics DOS apps are still out there running multi million pound businesses. People do not necessary like change, one large very efficient customer only moved this year and are still using a couple of the older dos applications as well.
Now do I convert a screen used at one site? or do I write new code to sell for money?
As to Netbios, managed to get an application running in 25 line mode (32 bit Windows 7), but it was unable to communicate to the database server, why? MS removed code from Windows the program relied upon.
What this means is rather than spend time writing new code we can sell, I have to sit there porting old code to a new language. Is this making money for our company? NO!
BTW we use the same database server for all programs, been using it since Netware 3.12 days, they have been hit by the netbios screw up as well, as their DOS IP layer needs it.
Customer PCs are mainly XP, ONE Vista, quite a few Windows 2000, a few Windows 98 and a sprinkling of Windows 7, customer servers are Win 2000, 2003, 2008, NW4.2 and NW6.
I'm using Win7 and an XP machine for the DOS code
I looked on our WSUS server, and I can see that these patches were reissued yesterday. If you look on the Microsoft Answers threat, the first question and reply are on 8/9th May, followed by a bunch of new posts yesterday.
Windows Update isn't doing anything that abnormal IMO, I think these are simply updates to existing patches.
Updated the UPS on the mother-in-laws computer last week - it needed a 15Mb download ... a pain but easily done in a couple of hours ... and then insisted on getting .NET 2.0 and 3.5 + updates to install ... a further 100+Mb ...
and all via a 14kb modem ... (she's actually got a 56kb modem but it's a long phone line ...).
.NET is simply the rise of the (virtual) machines ... it will do us all in if it keeps on like this.
Once again I ask, why am I not affected, and why aren't clients of mine affected?
I have 200+ WSUS clients at one site alone, which are a mix of XP and Windows 7 desktops. Installation took a while, as .NET updates tend to do, but that's why we have scheduled updates over the weekend.
... for updates", make yourself some kind of note and recheck one a week or so to see if it's fixed. Or, since MS has trustworthy computing just check back next patch Tuesday. Meh ... a non problem. Hide the updates if they offend you. Revert to a state that was running right then hide the offending updates. Oh yeah, sorry ... got dozen or hundreds of boxes to administer? Oh well, keep on carping and whining; that always helps. Makes IT look like the good guys too.
See this blog post for a description of many of the problems with patching .NET 2.0:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/heaths/archive/2008/04/18/microsoft-net-framework-2-0-service-pack-1-fails-to-install.aspx
and this KB article:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/951950
Usually, if a patch is trying to install itself repeatedly through Windows Update, it's sufficient to uninstall the patch from Control Panel, and then download the standalone patch from Microsoft's Download Center.
The list of affected package numbers goes back to last June, and I'm surprised that they're reappearing. The recent MS12-035 (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/bulletin/MS12-035) includes packages that replace the three mentioned updates, so it's possible that the problem is actually that the new package has been installed, and the detection code for the three previous updates is not detecting this.
As I understand it, Microsoft offer free-at-point-of-use technical support for all security updates, so if you're experiencing this problem, CALL THEM.
In WHAT fucking parallel universe????
I can't wait for the wailing and gnashing to come out of 'big business' at the prospect of having to retrain office staff to have to deal with Metro.
Then again, spoken by a freetard who ripped Unity off this Ubuntu box.
My own personal experiences of .NET via Windows Update on XP have always been fairly hideous any time more than one patch at a time is concerned - it is almost like WU deliberately patches out of order and then trips up on itself, so not seeing anything new except perhaps the KB numbers... "the numbers have been changed to protect the guilty, I mean innocent" :)
This is why on the office network I ended up keeping 8 different .NET installers so that on a new machine I could set XP up, disable updates, run each installer in a specific order and only then turn on updates.
Thankfully Win 7 WU seems much more robust...
Ages ago I had exactly the same thing happen on Windows 7 64-bit and 32-bit editions too — two updates of .NET got into infinite update loops.
Wasted best part of a day trying to fix it myself and finally spent ages on phone to Microsoft Support — via MSDN subscription — and their conclusion in the end (after more than an hour on phone) was "Back up your data. Format drive. Re-install."
I was staggered that a 21st century 64-bit OS could be completely shagged by an update from its author, and require such radical fix.
First time around, the Automatic Updates icon popped up and indicated the need for a few .NET Framework updates. Okay, fine, fair enough. I let them run in the background.
After a while, the icon just disappeared, which was fairly odd. I would have expected the "updates complete" or "you need to restart your computer to finish updating" notice, but I got neither. Automatic Updates popped back up a few moments later with the same updates. Strange. Maybe the updates failed to install themselves...oh well, might as well let it try again. I did, and the same thing happened.
What eventually sorted it was going to the Microsoft/Windows Update web site. It's not been back since doing so.
If any of you are running Peachtree by Sage on your client machines, restore a system image from a backup image anytime before this Fu*kin Tuesday, May 22nd as the app wont repair from cd, uninstall, or reinstall correctly after this patch. Application WILL NOT RUN. .Net repair tool a waste of time (for me). Daily Drive Image backups just saved my ass...again
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