AutoUpdates are Evil

Auto Updates of Windows has been the topic of I’ve covered before but I doubt its one that will go away. This week we have two interesting stories related to automatic updates.

Update breaks Windows Media Player
According to PC World recent security updates may cause problems with Windows Media Player.  “Users who have applied the patches may experience problems when seeking, rewinding, or fast-forwarding files”  I’ve been suffering from a weird Media Player DRM issue but doesn’t seem to be related.

Unlike Windows Movie Maker, at least I could find how to reinstall Media Player via Add/Remove Programs.

Update breaks Microsoft Excel
I used to say, “Well, auto-updates of virus definitions are probably still a good idea”.  Now McAfee has demonstrated that even virus definition files can be evil.  On Friday, McAfee customers discovered they could no longer use Microsoft Excel. The new virus definition for W95/CTX went through Microsoft Office and quarantined Excel.exe and Graph.exe.  It also found a problem with Adobe’s AdobeUpdateManager.exe. While removing AdobeUpdateManager wasn’t a bad idea, I’d be a little annoyed if anyone removed my access to Excel.   More from CNet, Click Here.

According to the Washington Post, Brian Krebs,

“The files identified by McAfee as malicious included excel.exe (Microsoft Excel) and gtb2k1033.exe (Google Toolbar installer), as well as programs that run Macromedia Flash Player, Sun's Java application and Adobe update manager. The erroneous flags even apply to updaterui.exe, McAfee's own update program.”