Microsoft has confirmed that Windows XP users who repair the operating system cannot update their PCs with the latest patches because of a file included with the stealth update pushed out to machines this summer.
“When an XP repair CD is used, it replaces all system files (including Windows Update) on your machine with older versions of those files and restores the registry,” said Nate Clinton, program manager for Windows Update (WU), in a post to the Microsoft company blog dedicated to the update service. “However, the latest version of Windows Update includes ‘wups2.dll’ that was not originally present in Windows XP. Therefore, after the repair install of the OS, wups2.dll remains on the system, but its registry entries are missing. This mismatch causes updates to fail installation.”
The Windows Secrets newsletter reported the patch installation failures after tests on Windows XP machines that had been restored by an in-place reinstall. The root of the problem, said the publication, is that seven DLLs from the latest revision to WU — not just one — failed to register themselves with XP. Microsoft could not provide an explanation for the discrepancy between the claims.
John noted this in yesterday’s Tech5 podcast. Thought I’d provide a source with additional detail.
I have to wonder about a company with programming and R&D staff the size of Microsoft – and no one tested for something like this? Should be part of software design 101. Or was it deliberate?
Vote for Pedro.
#13 you talking about mac, right? because that’s exactly what mac does, harasing customer and putting up updates that discble their hardware for not doing Steve’s bed.
It seems that you concur with me that MS behaves everyday more like mac.
#16 didn’t happen here. And I did that upgrade ages ago. You must be mistaken with a quicktime update.
#20 He’s right Angel, you don’t have to upgrade the solitaire that comes with OSX everytime there’s a “free” mac patch.
Yes, stealth update like this can disrupt your life when you least expect it.
This is the reason I turn off automatic update, I just can stand being
disrupted with in the middle of something
I think the morons in Redmond just did not think of this in their testing procedures. They only had 1 million other situations to test before releasing the patch that caused the problem.
As the Winblows code, and Mac code, continues to bloat out, you will continue to see issues like this over time. Just look at Firefox lately. As they add more functions, and their user base has increased, more bugs pop up.
Now, is it possible that this was a deliberate attempt to trash XP? You bet.
Mark my words, MS will continue to release patches that cause problems for XP.
Don
#24 I wholeheartedly agree with you. On top of that, the death of efficient code in favor of bloatware only hightens this problem.
Society has lost its grip on itself
who actually uses Windows Update anyway? I havent used it in years. In fact Its the first thing I disable before then disabling about 85% of the Services.
if you do use it, make a *.bat file & drop these commands in it. run the batch file & then then go run WU
regsvr32 /s wuapi.dll
regsvr32 /s wuaueng1.dll
regsvr32 /s wuaueng.dll
regsvr32 /s wucltui.dll
regsvr32 /s wups2.dll
regsvr32 /s wups.dll
regsvr32 /s wuweb.dll
Enjoy
Paid subscription. The new model for automated updating. Force everyone to authenticate then make them pay to repair your product. I call it the Alfa Romeo service and support method.