8 responses to “Why did Microsoft re-offer the old .NET patches?”

1. 

   Jonathan Breton May 23rd, 2012 at 09:19

   Does we really need .NET in the first place ?

2. 

   Van May 23rd, 2012 at 10:47

   No definite solution? I sent you a definite solution many hours ago. Link again below.

   What are you going on and on about? Just to stir it?

   http://support.microsoft.com/kb/910339

   You may acknowledge and say thank you.

3. 

   woody May 23rd, 2012 at 12:52

   @Van -

   Microsoft hasn’t uttered one word about this screw-up – so the solution you offer isn’t definitive, in the sense that Microsoft hasn’t confirmed that it’s correct.

   That said, I believe resetting Windows Update components (the first line in the referenced KB article) will do the trick.

   I don’t do anything just to stir it. I’m looking for definitive answers from the company that sold us the product.

4. 

   woody May 23rd, 2012 at 12:53

   @Jonathan -

   That’s the 64 million dollar question. Answer is that many people have programs that require .NET Framework — older versions of .NET Framework, because the versions aren’t compatible.

5. 

   woody May 23rd, 2012 at 13:58

   @Van -

   By the way, I went back and checked, and I didn’t get a post from you earlier.

   You can always email me with anything important – woody at ask woody dot com.

6. 

   TMK May 23rd, 2012 at 18:17

   I had this problem on around 50 XP desktops (installed over the last 5 years) and two Server 2003 boxes that were built just *two weeks* ago, so I knew it was an MS problem. Luckily I could easily disable Automatic Updates in the GPO and sit tight while Microsoft worked out which one was its elbow.

   To see the same old “run the .NET cleanup tool and then reinstall all version of .NET” solutions being wheeled out nearly gave me an aneurysm. People who recommend doing this sort of thing must think IT departments have nothing else to do.

   Why they couldn’t have one version of .NET that is backwards compatible with all others instead of four (and a half) versions that all interfere with each other and regularly break I’ll never know.

   Er… rant over! )

7. 

   Reade May 24th, 2012 at 03:16

   Woody:

   I’ve spent some time reading the attached MS bulletins. Each of the bulletins has a series of replacement KB’s in many different operating systems and .NET frameworks. In the case specifically of XP SP3, it appears to me that the problem arises because the KB’s attached to the MS bulletins were mislabeled.

   Specifically, for MS-035, in .NET Framework 2.0 SP2, three KB’s are to be replaced with one new one: the three being replaced are KB’s 2518863, 2572073 and 2633880. These three are to be replaced by KB2604092. OK, right? NO! The three updates were TITLED 2518864, 2572073 and 2633880. Needless to say, when the update was completed, the three were erased! Ergo, they were not in the update list under Add/Remove programs.

   I have carefully gone through all the steps that were to bee applied, and in every case except two, the old KB’s to be replaced are gone, and the new ones to be installed are installed. The only remaining problem is that two old KB’s which were supposed to be replaced as part of the operating system XP SP3 are still showing, as are the new replacement KB’s. Probably I should delete the old ones?

8. 

   woody May 24th, 2012 at 07:08

   @Reade -

   It’s possible you hit a transition time, where MS yanked some of the KBs but left others.

   At any rate, if you’re talking about “deleting” them from the Windows Update list, yes, absolutely.