Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
After a bad experience with Windows Update it's tempting to bail on the idea completely. That could leave your machine vulnerable to malware.
I updated my Windows software at Microsoft's update site to include IE 8. I thought things went well, didn't even consider there was a problem. Until I tried to use my computer. I was now not authorized to view video online in my IE browser. No matter what I did to give myself (administrator account) permission, nothing worked. It was through this problem that I found I no longer had permission to change folder names, delete files or rename them, copy them, move them, or update my other software.
I contacted MS and was told that because it was an HP computer it was not their responsibility to fix the problem. (?????) Was further told that I should stay away from the site that caused the problem (???) To make sure, I told them over again, that it was the MS Windows Update site. They affirmed I should stay away from that site. I hung up.
Called back and got a different person who said they were very sorry and would have my computer up and running in minutes. ...5 MS techs and weeks later the problem is worse, now my computer cannot even find the hard drives...just a little flashlight searching and searching......
I figured I couldn't hurt my computer any more than it already was so I went to the MS site (on one of my other computers) read up on a few things and fixed the problem myself by rebooting to safe mode and rolling the computer back then creating a new administrator account.
Since you are experienced I was wondering if you can tell me 1) Do you know why the MS Windows Update I downloaded on July 14 of 2009 could have corrupt my user permissions? 2) Try as they may, ALL of the MS techs that worked on my computer, remotely, failed to create a new administrator account. Because I now have no faith in MS, I am terrified of the update site and have stayed away. Is this foolish?
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What a horrific story.
I can absolutely sympathize that you'd be very skittish about returning to Windows Update, or relying on Microsoft for support ever again.
And yet...
But before I get to that, let me cover what I think happened. Then I'll also cover how you should prepare for if ... no, I'll just say when it happens again.
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What Happened?
I'll be clear: I have no clue as to what actually happened on your machine.
However, I can make some guesses.
Even though you're scrupulous about avoiding malware, it's exactly that - malware of some sort, frequently a rootkit - that causes exactly these kinds of disaster scenarios when applying updates.
Rootkits can be particularly nasty, and in fact have been implicated in at least one fairly widespread Windows Update patch failure. To be clear, the patch was fine and worked - as long as your machine was malware free.
So that's my first reaction since it's by far the most common case.
Less common are simply other Windows and application installation issues. I suppose one could run the System File Checker prior to each update, just in case. But this path is very rare and I'm hesitant to recommend to anyone that they begin doing this.
Avoiding Windows Update
Based on your experience, I'm certainly not going to say that it's foolish to avoid Windows Update. It's a natural reaction to what was a very serious and painful situation for you.
However, I will definitely say that it's ill-advised.
Microsoft Support is not Microsoft Development
Don't let your bad experience with Microsoft's support people influence you about actual product quality. The people who write the software and test the software are completely separate from support.
I don't mean to demean Microsoft's support staff - by and large the support staff is "good", but for various reasons I've experienced a much wider range of support staff quality. Some are brilliant, and others are to put it bluntly duds, particularly on difficult problems.
Having personally worked in Microsoft's software development divisions, I can speak to the overall exceptionally high caliber of the people that I worked and interacted with during my 18 years there.
Cleaning Up ... and Continuing to Use Windows Update
After what you've been through I would most certainly not rely on a "roll back". I would backup, reformat and reinstall everything cleanly from scratch and get completely up to date before continuing on. I still feel like there was a pre-existing problem on that machine that caused the initial problem and that reformat and reinstall will clear that up right away.
The problem, if you want to call it that, is that keeping your system up to date with Windows Update is critical to keeping your system safe from malware - you want the security updates that are regularly and routinely made available.
You simply must keep your system up to date.
Moving Forward
With your bad experience I might advise taking Windows Updates manually for a while, but remembering to do so religiously and regularly so that you do keep your machine up to date.
Regardless of when or how you return to Windows Update, being manually via the web site or Windows tool, or by enabling Windows Automatic Update, you do need to return to it.
You also need to back up your system regularly. And by backup I do mean a true system image that you could revert to in the case of catastrophic failure.
You actually encountered two problems: the failure of the update, and then the (lengthy) failure of any support solution to help you recover from that.
With a recent backup the second point becomes a non-issue. If you encounter a catastrophic failure of the nature you encountered you can immediately revert to your most recent backup taken prior to the update and just pick up where that backup left off; no support staff - competent or otherwise - required.
You can even use that backup after you've failed at resolving the problem for a while. I know I'm hesitant to immediately say "I can't fix this, let's revert to the backup", but after a while it becomes pretty obvious.
An up-to-date system image backup is a wonderful safety net.
Article C4489 - October 16, 2010
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
I once got burned by a Windows Update that got corrupted when the power shorted (my mom refuses to get a UPS because she thinks that the power strip is enough) and every update would fail. I had to eventually reinstall the OS. Could there been another solution instead of doing that?
Also on my old computer the updates would keep auto-installing the wrong graphic drivers. It was a real pain in the butt until I turned off the auto-updates.
Posted by: Me at November 23, 2010 7:39 PMI want to download updates from Windows Update that I need. The problem is that no matter how I try to exclude '1 important update' which is "Windows Live Essectials 2011" which I don't want, Microsoft insists on wanting to include it in my downloads?
Posted by: jim mcconnell at November 30, 2010 11:32 AMIf ain't broke ,don't fix it ! microsoft doesn't listen. After XP all went downhill.
Posted by: DVR Tony at December 1, 2010 8:41 AMI've lost the trust in microsoft updates a few years back when all of my systems became well simply crap. Some idiot re wrote the code for all good working microsoft product.
Reinvented new ones . Now internet explorer ,msn messenger and hotmail is more annoyingly disfunctional then ever was. I fear thats not the end to it it'll get worse.I still deal with mountain of trojans and spyware on machines that I service with vista and win 7. My windows 98 pentium one was faster on a 56k dialup in 1998 then these new "high-speed" pc-s on fios. Its all downright business more money to them less money for you.
I just simplify it to get you to the point.
Posted by: DVR Tony at December 1, 2010 8:56 AMCan you answer to yourselves.
What updates, optimization good for?
what does it do?
Most certainly not preventing malice!
It becomes a malice when applies to your operating system. Do you have that experience?
Yes you do I've just read it.
Now what ?
I too got burned updating my husband's computer to IE8. I couldn't even do a System Restore as Internet Explorer would just pop open and close again no matter what. I finally reinstalled the whole operating system and after all the updates on Windows XP and Service Packs reinstalled, can only get to IE6. IE7 refuses to open. This all began when I finally gave in to the update for IE8. We've been using Firefox, but I'm worried that the computer isn't secure.
Posted by: Sue at December 1, 2010 8:19 PM