14 responses to “MS-DEFCON 5: Get patched now”

1. 

   Cliff Sather September 3rd, 2009 at 01:54

   Please help!

   For the last hour I have tried to log in and can not. Neither can I use my E-mail to register another account. Your system stops me every time.

   I can not remember all the junk I filled in to get an account and so forth and I keep getting directed through this infinite loop in your system that will not let me log in, find out my password, or user name, or screen name, yadda, yadda, yadda.

   God, why is it so hard to just ask a question?

   Please tell me how to log in.

   Cliff Sather
   cliff_sather@yahoo.com
   Previous screen name ~~ Flatlander

   I am so frustrated and confused.

   I need notebooks for the notebooks I need to keep track of all the minutiae to just access a web site and ask questions.

   Please forgive the frustration.

   Cliff Sather
   213 North Molly Street
   Bennington, NE USA 68007
   (402) 238-2675

2. 

   Brian September 4th, 2009 at 10:24

   “And if you’re definitely going to upgrade to Win7, I don’t see any reason at all to install Vista Service Pack 2.”

   To do an in-place upgrade from Vista (home premium) to Win 7, do you need to install SP2? Will it work from SP1 Vista?

   (Update isn’t offering me SP2, and I don’t want to go to the trouble of forcing it if there’s no need to)

3. 

   woody September 4th, 2009 at 15:10

   Although I don’t recommend in-place upgrades, yes, you can perform an in-place upgrade from Vista SP1 to Win 7. (Assuming you use one of the allowed upgrade paths.)

4. 

   Bob Primak September 5th, 2009 at 03:05

   I had a very hard time this month and last month getting the Microsoft Updates to download and install (manually through IE8 on Windows XP Pro SP3). There are some updates which are being denied access to Registry Keys, Files and Folders. I finally ran the WGA Diagnostics Tool on line, and the Windows Diagnostics Tool on line. Then I reset my Comodo Firewall Defense+ Proactive Defenses, and set it back to the current setting. (I also run Avast 4.8.) Just resetting the selected Defense+ Presets from the System Tray popup menu allowed D+ to relearn MS Updates Updater upon Windows reboot. WGA Diagnostics also can repair WGA Notifications, so I do not rule out that.

   I would like others to learn from this that if MS Updates won’t let you download or install certain critical updates, check your security settings, especially if you have any proactive defenses, or a predictive program like PC Tools Threatfire 4.5. Merely suspending these programs does not remove their protections against changes in what the vendors consider to be critical system files or Registry Keys. Sometimes uninstalling the offending program and reinstalling it is what it takes to restore MS Updates to full functionality.

   I spent four hours learning this for my computer.

5. 

   John G September 5th, 2009 at 03:57

   Woody,

   Are you thumbs up or thumbs down about installing IE-8 for Firefox users? I’ve heard it slows down systems.

6. 

   woody September 5th, 2009 at 08:26

   John -

   You should install IE8, and keep it updated, but use Firefox.

   I haven’t seen any hard evidence of slowdowns.

7. 

   Bob Primak September 6th, 2009 at 03:22

   I have IE8 but run Firefox 3.5.2 with quite a few extensions. The Extensions can slow down FF loading and readiness to surf, but except for security scanners, nothing else interacts with IE8 and Firefox, so the effect of IE8 on Firefox 3.5 is minimal or none at all, in my experience.

8. 

   Brian September 7th, 2009 at 06:16

   Thanks Woody for the advice.

   I’d like to hear some more thoughts on in-place versus start-from-scratch Win 7 upgrades.

   The hassle for me of backing up and reinstalling every program would be huge. On the other hand, the reason I pre-purchased Win 7 is a hope (naive?) that it would fix all kinds of glitches I experience with Vista. I wouldn’t want those glitches reproduced under Win 7 just because I did the upgrade a lazy way.

   Is there a compromise by partitioning and installing Win 7 on a new partition?

   What’s the best hand-holding advice out there – perhaps you could do a column, or point to whoever you trust the most.

   Thanks again. I’ve been a subscriber to your newsletters for years.

9. 

   EP September 8th, 2009 at 05:45

   WOW WOODY! When was the last time you’ve ever reached MS-DEFCON 5 status?

   @John: If you do install IE8, install the latest IE8 security update and for Firefox, upgrade to the upcoming Firefox 3.5.3 release which will soon be available later this week.

   I’ll be blogging about the upcoming versions of Firefox (3.5.3 and 3.0.14) soon as Mozilla is almost ready to release these security updates for Firefox.

10. 

    woody September 9th, 2009 at 06:19

    HA!

    First time ever, methinks. I wanted to emphasize the fact that people needed to get caught up. The major patches are finally pretty stable. Windows 7 is on the way….

11. 

    EP September 12th, 2009 at 02:33

    The KB973879 Vista patches are for 64bit editions only and are not available for 32bit editions.

12. 

    woody September 12th, 2009 at 09:09

    EP -

    Good point.

13. 

    Mel S October 11th, 2009 at 01:10

    Could we have the patch numbers to get up to speed? Since “5″ & current; we are lost as to what is a use & what is a no-no! Quick…Help!!

14. 

    woody October 12th, 2009 at 21:59

    Mel -

    Install them all. Just beware of the potential conflicts I list in the main column.