More AutoUpdate Problems

Microsoft has acknowledged problems with last weeks multiple security updates and has posted some symptoms, the causes and an official solution. As I reported yesterday, they all seem related to software from HP and may appear as the following…

• Unable to access special folders like "My Documents" or "My Pictures".
• Microsoft Office applications may stop responding when you attempt to save or open Office files in the "My Documents" folder.
• Office files in the "My Documents" folder are not able to open in Microsoft Office.
• Opening a file through an application's File / Open menu causes the program to stop responding .
• Typing an address into Internet Explorer’s address bar has no effect.
• Right-clicking on a file and selecting Send To has no effect.
• Clicking on the plus (+) sign beside a folder in Windows Explorer has no effect.
• Some third-party applications stop responding when opening or saving data in the “My Documents” folder.

For solutions and more info go to http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/918165

It appears my recommendation to wait until the Friday after Tuesday Security updates needs to be extended.  It took until Saturday for these issues to be reported by Microsoft and it wasn’t until Sunday before news started to spread on various Blogs. While many other security experts continue to recommend using the autoupdate feature I stand by my previous post that AutoUpdates are Evil.

In the old days it was easy.  The general rule was, “Alway wait until version 3 for any Microsoft product. By that time they’d have it right.”