In a day of ironies… Windows XP sp3 is announced….
Windows Vista SP1 and Windows XP SP3 Announcement – SBSfaq.com Blog Site:
http://blog.sbsfaq.com/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=6
on the very same day Autopatcher’s site is told to close up shop. http://www.autopatcher.com/134
Patching isn’t easy. And while I will take Rory to task a little bit more not setting his AU settings to “download but not install” to solve his reboot issue but it points out that Microsoft hasn’t made patching easy. From WGA that screws up, to XP sp3 now being next year… to Aussies who have to pay by the bit…. can Rory just promise me that after putting some clothes back on that he goes and marches that post he did up to the upper brass to get them to understand that patching …on dial up.. on standalone… in Australia …. when you just want your computer to work…..isn’t easy? There are times I think that people from Apple or Redhat have inflitrated the management levels at Microsoft and are behind the scenes making decisions that …..well just seem stupid.
Once upon a time there was a beta that I was on for a roll up cdrom to help build systems with the latest security patches for smaller shops. WSUS isn’t for everyone. My guess is all that Department of Justice stuff means that they want to keep offline patches on their servers in case they need to take patent-breaking bits off of them. But as a result, it means that it’s horrendous to be building slip media these days if you aren’t a big shop. I’m a genuine customer. Help me to build secure workstations without hours of downloads and reboots will ya?
Microsoft … we need an offline patching solution. And if you aren’t going to do one… and if XP sp3 is now out next year… how about you knock it off the legal threats on autopatcher until XP sp3 comes out will ya? Autopatcher is just doing your job for you. Build a new machine and we’re up to what is it….about 80 or 90 patches to install post SP2 build?
You may be unable to apply more updates at a certain point on a Windows Server 2003-based computer:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;925931
Isn’t that a concern as well on a XP sp2 machine?
We’re building secure systems for you.
Help us.
I agree, this does seem a little bizarre. I followed a recommendation to the site yesterday (having used a different free product to do the same thing previously).
At least it looks like the Vista Service Pack 1 will have a “stand-alone” version available when it finally releases, which addresses one concern, but of course does not provide an ongoing method to add more patches when they are released.
http://veroblog.wordpress.com/2007/08/31/patching-xp-and-vista-with-service-packs-and-hotfix-rollups/
The Autopatcher gang has announced their intention to return with a “web-oriented solution” (see the end of http://www.autopatcher.com/137#more-137). I sure hope they come up with something; I don’t care about being able to patch pirate machines, but it sure was nice to be able to patch rebuilds and new installs!
There is still a few mirrors open… such as http://www.ap.500words.ca.