How many have been checking your Update Logs (there are several different titles for these) and seen the escalating number of changes “slipping through” onto your systems?
The amount of ?security updates? appearing has risen rapidly over the last few months prior to the release of Vista using both IE7 and Media Player 11 and “security issues” as a smokescreen to allow Microsoft to get you to “validate your copy of Windows”.
Microsoft is driving the issue very hard at present (under the cover of security/DRM) and as other software vendors follow then the issue for IT personnel will bring significant unwanted and unnecessary work overload as updates flood the market with “security” (smokescreen words apply here) “fixes” that may unsettle some sites.
If you have legal copies there is no problem, but if you don’t…… then you won’t have long to wait for the crippling effects ? in true techno speak = ?enhanced reduced functionality? (Vista) to start taking effect. At worst you will be told to go out and buy legal copies of Windows, but the system is NOT foolproof.
The bottomline with these latest ?Updates??
Make sure you pick CUSTOM rather than Express so that you can check and see what is being installed BEFORE, so that you can asses & control the impact of what is installed.
Some desktop users may not be so tech savvy! So, unless you have your PCs locked down, users may inadvertently drive your update cycle when they click on the “Updates are Ready for your computer” balloons that are now popping up with regularity.
The consequences can be seen at http://www.pcprofile.com/Update_Now_Managing_Clouds_and_Moving_Goalposts.pdf
The article also lets you know (for those that don’t) how to undo the changes from the Update using the System Restore Point technique.
As an aside, Sony has just been forced by the FTC in USA to repay affected users $US150 (according to recent press releases) after the Sony RootKit fiasco in 2005, and it will be interesting to see if the Microsoft approach is similarly described.
What are your views on the MS push to validate your copy of Windows? Some already see it as a suicidal (for Microsoft) drive towards Linux!
