=?Utf-8?B?Sm9ubmlWQQ==?= added these comments in the current
discussion du jour ...
It did not go away, it changed. I got an alert from the
firewall. It would not surprise me except that I expect to see
that on the initial reboot, not a subsequent one. I am perhaps
overly cautious since the December update blew the laptop
away. Seems all is well. Thank you.
OK. Yes, Explorer was updated, to what extent, I cannot say.
Couple of comments, besides being relieved you fixed it: I would
say you are generally correct, if it fails, it should fail the
first restart. But, nobody needs to elaborate on how complex
Windows is, so exactly what you did next may be relevant.
If you follow my advice on how to be safe and cautious but at the
same time get the updates you need/want, try to take more
preventative medicine protections in future. If you had a major
melt-down in December, maybe it was a harbinger of future doom.
To quickly summarize:
1) NEVER install a large number of updates in one lump. this one
was 9 or maybe 10.
2) ALWAYS set your own RP, don't rely on the one MS does
3) ALWAYS lurk in these multiple MS NGs to see if the early
updaters are reporting problems
4) Do your updates in two or more slices. I did mine in 3 this
time
5) If you don't have a good imaging utility like Acronis True
Image, pay the price. If you ever have a major disaster that
requires the nuke and reinstall shuffle, and you image your C:\
one every month or two, you can recover at least that far back
with little trouble AND restore any customizations you made, AND
restore all your apps AND restore any of your lost personal data.
Your comment that your firewall gave you an alert puzzles me a
bit. I got several from my commercial Zone Alarm, but that was
because it was detecting MS altering systems files. ZA doesn't
care if it is MS updating itself or some app updating system
files, it'll flag it. Supposedly, when I check the box that says
"approve this activity when seen again" - or words to that effect
- I generally see the same ones over and over. I also get
notified by ZA when eTrust Pest Patrol updates and when NAV 2006
updates its detection engine along with new malware signatures.
These interuptions can be a PITA, but I'd rather know and look to
see that it is something I DO want to do and not something that
came in from the ether and is attempting to masqurade itself as
an update.
So, to satisfy my curiosity, learn more myself, and perhaps let
lurkers reading this learn, what firewall do you have? MS? ZA?
McAfee? Symantec? What? And, what was your firewall telling you,
what I said above which is essentially some system files were
going to be modified?
One last comment, you are hardly overly cautious. Many people say
that /I/ am so overly cautious as to be anally retentive plus I
am seemingly cynical, pessimistic, and distrustful of not only MS
but all SW developers. All of those are both true and untrue.
Circa summer of 1995 it suddenly dawned on me that I was spending
more time beating my PC into submission than I was using it to do
useful work. So, I instantly stopped my previous mad rush to
immeidately install any and all free updates, and I stopped
buying each and every new version. e.g. of the latter, these
days, my detection subscriptions for both eTrust Pest Patrol and
Zone Alarm were about to expire. I renewed PP and will do ZA
soon. What I will NOT do, at least not today, is upgrade the
software. Ditto for True Image. Since v9.0 works, why risk a
visit from Murphy?
In short, since I am a verbose poster, when it comes to efficient
use of YOUR time and effort as well as minimizing frustration and
anger, I would say there is no such thing as being overly
cautious. I would say that it is prudent and wise.
Glad to hear you're running hot, straight, and normal again. Have
a great day!
