Newsletter Archives

• MS-DEFCON 4: Go ahead and get patched

  Posted on June 4, 2012 at 21:29 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  It looks like Microsoft has finally fixed the “dependency” problem that led to widespread panic when folks with Automatic Update turned on discovered that they had three patches that wouldn’t install.

  I’m still not happy with this month’s .NET patches – there’s been so much clamor about the three patches that wouldn’t install, it’s hard to tell what other problems may exist. Still, I haven’t heard of any specific problems, so I’m going to give the go-ahead.

  There’s a new out-of-band patch, just out of the chute, that I talk about in the next post. Security Advisory 2718704 raises some soul-searching questions about the methods Microsoft uses to generate security certs. For now, it’s a good idea to get that patch installed, too.

  I’m changing us to MS-DEFCON 4: There are isolated problems with current patches, but they are well-known and documented here. Check this site to see if you’re affected and if things look OK, go ahead and patch.

  Get all of the Microsoft patches applied, then turn off Automatic Updates (see the tab above). We’ll see how much damage next week’s Black Tuesday brings.

  Windows Patches/Security May 2012 Black Tuesday, SA 2718704

• A solution to the MS12-034 0x8007F0F4 problem?

  Posted on May 10, 2012 at 12:48 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  A Windows expert I know (thanks again, SB!) claims she found out why she couldn’t get the MS12-034 .NET patch installed on her computer. It kept dying with an Error 0x8007F0F4 error, as described in my earlier post.

  A long, long time ago she re-mapped the Scroll key on her PC, following the advice in “I’ve Hit F12 For the Last Time – Jesper’s Blog“. Since the patch is playing around with keyboard layout files, apparently that was enough to make the MS12-034 installer go kablooey.

  Her advice:

  From a command prompt copy the following:

  reg delete “hklm\system\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout” /v “Scancode Map” /f

  and hit Enter. Reboot your PC, re-install the patch, and it works.

  Anybody else encountering the problem? Does this fix it?

  Windows Patches/Security Error 0x8007F0F4, fix, KB 2676562, May 2012 Black Tuesday, MS12-034

• MS-DEFCON 1: the .NET patches are causing havoc

  Posted on May 9, 2012 at 17:23 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Every time we have a .NET patch, it seems, there’s something that goes wrong.

  This time, not only do we have installation terminations (see next blog), I’m also seeing reports of endless loops. From a friend, HH:

  Not sure what MS did with the .NET framework patches but the installation takes ages again and again, very annoying… and after 3 hours I still don’t know if something is broken again because the machines are still installing and the Server waits a reboot.

  I’m putting us up to MS-DEFCON 1: Current Microsoft patches are causing havoc. Don’t patch. And I’m beginning to wonder if Microsoft can ever deliver a .NET patch that works. This is ridiculous.

  Windows Patches/Security again, broken .NET patch, May 2012 Black Tuesday, MS-DEFCON 1