Windows XP Update Library On a CD 166
KrispyKofta sends us to APC Magazine for a writeup on Project Dakota, a one-man effort to provide all Windows XP SP2 updates on one downloadable CD. It's poor man's XP SP3, but even when SP3 is out, the project will continue to offer a CD that will install all patches offline. "When was the last time you installed a fresh copy of Windows XP SP2? The process is still straightforward and relatively quick... but then you think 'I'll just make sure the patches are up to date,' and proceed to stare in horror at the 100+ security updates and critical fixes that Windows Update or WSUS demands you install. And it takes forever. A better option which we've just discovered is the innovative work of Alek Patsouris... it's a self-contained boot CD which contains all the necessary updates to automatically patch a Windows XP SP2 system with all the patches available at the CD's build time."
all the patches? (Score:2, Interesting)
Pirates are pirates...... (Score:5, Interesting)
Although it seems pretty silly, I can see MS's point of view. Autopatcher is essentially becoming a Windows patch "distro" and the more people that use this the less control MS have over patch roll out.
Say in the future MS want to push out a patch that is so mean and so unethical that Autopatcher refuse to include it (kids, don't say that's impossible - we all know MS has infinite Evilness). Suddenly MS has a large body of people that won't swallow the patch.
Less tinfoil-hat-wearing is that Autopatcher shows up MS's own ineptness.MS have shown for a long time that Windows users are their assets ("our install base") and don't treat them as customers. Customer service is secondary to asset control.
Re:sounds like a copyright violation (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:slipstreaming anyone (Score:5, Interesting)
Slipstreaming solves a different problem (new installs). A slipstreamed installation media is pretty useless (as far as I know) when I go to person B to update his/hers ancient installation. I just want to able to run program X from a CD/DVD/USB-memory and have the system fully up to date, preferably within a single reboot.
MS should really just put up a patch-OS-DVD torrent and keep it updated in such a way that new additions doesn't completely rewrite the structure (so a torrent update goes quickly). Would be a bit of work for them initially, but it would deliver something useful to their customers. Ah, well. Guess they're to busy marketing Vista.
Does it include genuine advantage? (Score:2, Interesting)
This cd would be great unless it included WGA. Can anyone enlighten me?
I often build SP2 machines (Score:4, Interesting)
However, I prefer to change the sequence up a bit:
-- Run a scripted build from a modified SP2 CD.
-- Install all the 'inside-the-case' hardware drivers: IMHO, Windows Setup isn't complete until Device Manager is clean.
-- Install the Micro$oft Java VM, and its latest updated version (must be done as two steps, thanks to $un).
-- Install a Google-tweaked version of IE7.
-- Install the latest versions of Flash Player, QuickTime, Real Alternative, and Nero.
-- Install Media Player 10 (which reclaims all the file associations that Media Player can handle).
-- If the machine will get Office, install it.
-- Finally, open the Windows Update page, and immediately click over to Micro$oft Update. Choose the options to hide Media Player 11, and any video driver updates from M$ (they usually break things). Launch the process. Go to lunch.
If the project included an option for starting with a machine that already has IE7, has the M$ Java, and is meant to be left with MP10, it would be perfect for me.
Re:Dial-up still exists (Score:3, Interesting)
For example, drop an unpatched Windows XP RTM box on the internet, no firewalls or anything, and watch it get infected within seconds. No one knew you were going to put that box online, but the quantity of machines scanning the internet for new vulnerable targets is just so high that any publicly routable IP probably gets scanned by every single major worm at least once a minute.
I know looking through my logs that before I implemented DenyHosts and a blacklist preventing logins from outside the country all of my Linux boxes were getting over 100 root login attempts per minute from a few different hosts trying to brute force my password. They didn't get in since I had password login disabled, but the logs were annoying.
Re:Pirates are pirates...... (Score:3, Interesting)
What I did use was a script to download and install updates automatically. I could read the script and verify that it was doing what it claimed to be doing, and that it was getting updates from Microsoft.
The answer: Offline-Update. Saves a lot of reading (Score:5, Interesting)
Why? Heise Offline-Update handles everything. It comes from a reputable company that makes money selling other security services; they have a strong incentive to do it right. To make the CD or DVD, it downloads all the patches from Microsoft's servers, and makes an
Shortcomings of Heise Offline-Update? 1) It does only security updates. 2) The web site is mostly in German, although there is an older English explanation [heise-online.co.uk].
Why not the others? 1) Autopatcher and others were much more amateurish. Autopatcher is now back with a scheme like Heise Offline-Update, but that is after months of experimentation. The volunteers at Autopatcher don't seem to have the resources necessary. See the Autopatcher downloads [autopatcher.com] page which says "This page will be back very soon
Problems with Slashdot: 1) Bad stories create bad discussions. Slashdot editors apparently don't know much about Microsoft Windows. Almost all Slashdot readers have to deal with Windows, even if only to help family and neighbors. Sloppy stories that have not been researched waste reader's time. 2) Lots of readers comment when they don't have much to say.
That said, Slashdot is by far the best web site I know for computer-oriented news.
Problems with Microsoft: What Microsoft offers is not complete, so volunteers try to help. In my opinion, Microsoft is often extremely adversarial toward its customers.
It has been more than 3 years since Microsoft issued a Service Pack for Windows XP; that has wasted the time of hundreds of thousands because Windows XP is so unstable and buggy and malware-prone that it often needs re-loading. Often malware replaces a system file, and the only way to recover is to re-load the operating system. Re-loading Windows XP preserves all the programs and settings; however, the latest Windows XP CD from Microsoft has only Windows XP Service Pack 2; there have been hundreds of megabytes of updates since then, making updating over a dial-up connection extremely slow.
Microsoft does have a system for updating, but the system requires the very expensive Windows Server 2003, which requires a network and at least one other computer. Obviously requiring all that creates problems in helping someone with his or her home computer, or with a cash register computer in a small store, for example.
More problems with Microsoft -- Windows Update often fails. Amazingly, Microsoft is unable to deliver an updating system that works reliably. I just worked on a friend's computer, for example, and running Windows Update gives a long numerical error message with no help for fixing the error.
There have been many, many different kinds of problems with Windows Update. See, for example, Microsoft's Windows Update Discussion Group [microsoft.com].
I guess that millions of hours are lost every year because of Microsoft's sloppy programming. Bill Gates deserves his title, Chief of Grief, although soon the chair-throwing, bad-mouthing Steve Ballmer [slashdot.org] will be the Chief, apparently. (The
Re:This was called AutoPatcher, and MS killed it. (Score:3, Interesting)
If I pay attention I can get a fully configured system going in 35 minutes using the image, and it'd be faster if we didn't have a hundred different hardware configurations that requires me use DriverGenius to inject the rest of the drivers once I'm booted.