Tuesday, April 18, 2006
There is no excuse for this: (But there is an explanation: monopolies don't give a rat's ass) HP is, what, the largest seller of printers? And Microsoft can't be bothered to test their patches on typical systems? A "critical" Windows patch can cause trouble on computers that run certain Hewlett-Packard photo-sharing software or the Kerio firewall, Microsoft said.
The MS06-015 patch, designed to plug a flaw in Windows Explorer, can cause a myriad problems for users of HP printers, scanners and digital cameras, Microsoft said in an article on its support Web site dated Saturday. ...
The troubles include being unable to access or save files in special folders like "My Documents" and "My Pictures," and unresponsive Office applications, Microsoft said. Other issues include applications that crash after trying to open a file, no response after typing an address into Internet Explorer's address bar ...
While designed to fix a security issue in Windows Explorer, the patch can actually also impair that specific Windows feature. Clicking on the "plus" sign beside a folder in the file browser may have no effect ...
The problems occur because HP's "share-to-Web" software ... interfere[s] with a new file, verclsid.exe, delivered by the security update, Microsoft said. The HP software in question ships with cameras, printers, scanners and some DVD drives, Microsoft said.
Microsoft recommends that affected users of the HP products manually change their Windows Registry ...
posted by Quiddity at 4/18/2006 09:28:00 AM
7 comments
I still loves my Mac; even with Boot Camp bringing Microsloth's own brand of ineptitude to Apple hardware.
Let the Flaming begin!
I Think Different -- too!
Not that Microsoft is the greatest thing ever, but HP software can be pretty dodgy. You can tell just by looking at it that HP uses some unofficial hacks and non-standard hooks into the OS.
I'd rather puch a Mac than drive a PC...
until I actually go to buy a Mac, look at the price and then just curse and go a buy a cheap PC and yell at it about how inferior it is until it feels guilty and works better.
I wonder if HP subcontracts out it's tech support to India too. Wait, that was Dell...
I do tech support and actually saw this the other day. I simply did a complete reinstall of Office rather than try to manually edit the registry. It seemed to work.
> until I actually go to buy a Mac, look at the price and then just curse and go a buy a cheap PC...
Linux awaits you with open arms.eoqp
I'm hardly a fan of Microsoft, haven't used their OS for anything more than reformatting someone else's iPod in more than ten years…
But if HP was doing something in an unsuppported way, as developers used to use system calls Apple specifically reserved for OS use back in the pre-OS X days, what is MIcrosoft supposed to do?
They didn't create the issue. HP did.
They need to fix it.
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