Complete List of Bugs Fixed in SP2 531
callipygian-showsyst writes "Microsoft has published the complete list of bugs fixed in Service Pack 2.
They range from the obscure like: 'File Appears to Be Deleted Although You Do Not Have Permissions on the OS/2 Warp4-Based Server' to the serious-sounding: ' Stop error message on a blue screen when you transfer data to a USB device in Windows XP'"
Very long list (Score:5, Interesting)
Side note: one of my favorites:
MS03-021: A flaw in Windows Media Player may permit the Media Library to be accessed
At first, I was thinking that it was supposed to do that
Re:Very long list (Score:5, Funny)
Thats a personal favorite of mine. What the hell does sound recorder need to update the registry for?
Re:Very long list (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Very long list (Score:5, Informative)
That's like saying you know where every configuration file is because it's stored somewhere under '/'.
(Although you do have a point about every program using a different syntax. Using the same syntax does really help all that much because you still have to understand the semantics of what you're changing to screw something up).
Re:Very long list (Score:5, Insightful)
Regards,
Steve
It wouldn't be so bad... (Score:4, Interesting)
1) That the reg tool existed as early in NT as when the registry was first introduced.
2) That the reg tool would allow you to dump and restore hives and keys to flat/text files
3) That the registry would be broken up into many hives that applications could load and unload dynamically and keep independantly.
In this fashion, for example, all the settings for a particular app for a particular user might end up as %USERDIR%/Application Data/foobar/foobar.dat and would be dynamically added under HKCU or whereever until it the relevant app was closed (and the hive removed).
You could always go back and manually mount that hive and make changes...
In this fashion, complete rebuilds would become unnecessary because you could spread out your critical config, and backup/restore parts independantly, prevent corruption or slow access from large hives, etc.
Re:Very long list (Score:4, Insightful)
Life would be much easier (especially in the way windows installs programs. On the mac you can juts copy your apps folder over to a new install and they'll all work, try doing that with Program Files)
Re:Very long list (Score:5, Informative)
Windows XP keeps a list of programs recently run in the registry I believe... hey you asked! :)
OT: Favorite bug (Score:3, Funny)
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=276304
Imagine getting an error message like:
"Your password must be at least 18770 characters and cannot repeat any of your previous 30689 passwords. Please type a different password. Type a password that meets these requirements in both text boxes."
Re:Very long list (Score:5, Interesting)
"Windows XP Does Not Recognize a DVD-RW Disc"
I had to move all the files off of my DVD-RW disks, download a new version of InCD, reformat the disk then load all the files back onto them, resulting in hours and hours of wasted time.
SP2 recognized the disk but would not allow me to transfer any new files to the unallocated portion of the disks. Everything worked just fine before SP2.
Re:Very long list (Score:5, Insightful)
This is all most people need or want to know about an update.
Care to try your hand at a plain English explanation of a "buffer overflow?"
I think users want SOME explaination... (Score:3, Interesting)
I agree that it is hard to explain a buffer overflow to non-technical people, but I've done it before to their satisfaction. A lot of people want to know more about how their computers (and other appliances) work. Furthermore, lack of detail can translate to lack of trust. There has to be a balance between technobabble and plain, simple english.
If all a user wants to know about a bug is something general like you suggest then the list of critical updates in Wi
Re:Very long list (Score:5, Interesting)
no, but it should be:
"326863:Operating system throttling does not work"
Designed specifically to slow down your OS.
In the KB article they say it deals with overheating CPUs, but what I don't understand is why the OS specifically cares!?! If you have a properly designed heat solution then this should not be an issue. Why is it in the core OS to run slower!
-nB
Re:Very long list (Score:5, Funny)
This is called the 486sx method. Later on, they'll sell you an upgrade with the throttling disabled (Windows XP TURBO!!!).
(yes, mods, it is a joke).
Re:Very long list (Score:5, Informative)
Re:My experience with SP2 (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:My experience with SP2 (Score:4, Informative)
I installed SP2 and then it made me re-activate both Windows and Office 2003.
We've deployed it on approximately 100 machines here in the office, and haven't had any activation issues of any kind, with Visual Studio, Office, or Windows XP itself. I also fail to see how a service pack would force a re-activation.
spoke to numerous tech support and activation department employees before they gave me a new product key which could be re-activated. I felt like I was getting interrogated as to why I was re-activating the software
You've apparently never actually had to re-activate windows or office. The very first thing you can do is use the internet to re-activate. 90% of the time this works right off the bat. The second thing you can do is call their 1-800 number, and be connected to an automated phone system. You say/speak the code into your phone, and the system reads back an auth code. Bam, done. If for some reason the phone system cannot understand you, it transfers you to a Real Live Person (tm) who asks for your code, and gives you back an auth code. No interrogation. No questions at all, even.
Re:My experience with SP2 (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Very long list (Score:5, Insightful)
If you have a 'properly designed heat solution' then you should never get throttled or should only be throttled very very little.
This is a case of the OS responding to a condition *prior* to the computer locking up. The Linux kernel has a similar feature.
You're a bit confused. (Score:4, Informative)
If the operating system determines that no user threads have anything to do, and the kernel has run out of stuff to do to... so it's just waiting for hardware interrupts (keyboard, mouse, network, video, disk, interval timer), rather than sitting around in a loop it executes the HALT instruction which brings the CPU into a low-power state until an interrupt or trap wakes it up.
Otherwise it would have to spin in a loop for a few milliseconds, and that eats juice it shouldn't otherwise need to.
Intel Speed Step CPUs let the operating system use special MTRRs that allow it to dynamically adjust the clock speed in reaction to an increase or decrease of thumb-twiddling time as well. Because a CPU at 1.2GHz halting 50% is still consuming more power than the same CPU at 800MHz in HALT only 20% of the time.
I believe this is the thing that doesn't work in XP without Service Pack II or hotfixes. I've heard about this gripe before.
Microsoft and Windows Topics Icons (Score:5, Insightful)
Why is it so hard that the editors can't use the appropriate icons for them?
It's time this site starts to grow up.
Re:Microsoft and Windows Topics Icons (Score:5, Funny)
But... (Score:4, Insightful)
But, but, but...then it wouldn't be slashdot any more!
Re:Microsoft and Windows Topics Icons (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Microsoft and Windows Topics Icons (Score:5, Funny)
I totally need this for my desktop wallpaper.
Re:Microsoft and Windows Topics Icons (Score:5, Funny)
>I totally need this for my desktop wallpaper.
Well you may want to check this [darkeye.net] out. Not exactly tux fucking a hooker, but still
1) Tux is involved
2) Fucking is involved
Re:Microsoft and Windows Topics Icons (Score:5, Funny)
Worksafe... unless your boss is a penguin.
Re:Microsoft and Windows Topics Icons (Score:3, Funny)
Because everyone knows that geeks wouldn't know what to do with a hooker if they had one anyway.
Re:Microsoft and Windows Topics Icons (Score:5, Insightful)
And besides, Microsoft has called Linux "a toy", "anti-american" and GPL "a virus". Why is that "professional" whereas Slashdots images are not?
Re:Microsoft and Windows Topics Icons (Score:5, Insightful)
microsoft.com is a corporate website, slashdot is an unofficial messageboard for geeks...
Besides, if slashdot used the real MS logo they're probably get sued into the ground for infringing the trademark every time someone made a bad comment about MS.
Re:Microsoft and Windows Topics Icons (Score:5, Insightful)
Whatever MS does, good or bad, is branded bad and accepted. Whatever linux does, good or bad, is branded good and anyone who says otherwise is a troll.
Re:Microsoft and Windows Topics Icons (Score:3, Insightful)
Microsoft calls Linux "a toy". Why isn't that immature?
Re:Microsoft and Windows Topics Icons (Score:3, Insightful)
"Wahhhh, Bobby hit me!! Wahhhh!"
How do you want the Linux community to be percieved? As a "name-calling four year old child" or a mature professional community producing good software quietly and consistantly becoming better and better?
"Gates-as-Borg" icons helps foster which image?
Re:Microsoft and Windows Topics Icons (Score:5, Insightful)
Last time I checked we're on the "IN-TER-NET". You know that place that is practially a blackhole of all things immature.
If you were to map the internet like a galaxy, Slashdot would be tucked over in the corner next to the obscene jokes and well stuff involving well hung midgets and horny lonely housewives.
Microsoft could release a patch that just by installing would cure world hunger and shrink maligant tumors and the headline on Slashdot would be "Microsoft distrupts food distribution and healthcare systems worldwide!"
So, in short, if your looking for unbiased punctunal and definitative coverage of the every evolving internet, this is not the place.
If however, your looking for the diatribes of cynical, world weary geeks, who know the whole world is basically built on match sticks and is gleefully waiting for the day the whole place comes tumbling down, you've found it.
Re:Microsoft and Windows Topics Icons (Score:3, Interesting)
Not necessarily true - you say this because you are pro-Linux and anti-Microsoft. But I bet if you went to someone who was the exact opposite, you'd hear the exact opposite.
Besides, I've taken part on meetings where Linux vendor X was telling us to switch from Windows to Linux, and in other companies it's been Micro
Re:Microsoft and Windows Topics Icons (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Microsoft and Windows Topics Icons (Score:5, Funny)
..says the guy with the all caps, boldface sig.
Re:Microsoft and Windows Topics Icons (Score:5, Funny)
I think that the education [slashdot.org] icon is somewhat belittling... 2+2=5 ?
-nova20
Re:Microsoft and Windows Topics Icons (Score:5, Insightful)
Why shouldn't the icons represent the distrust and dislike of MS this has created amongst the
Re:Microsoft and Windows Topics Icons (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Microsoft and Windows Topics Icons (Score:3, Insightful)
We're never going to disguise the fact that there are a lot of Linux users who fucking hate Microsoft, and we would be wrong to try. Sure, don't use these icons in the slideshow you make for your boss to convince them to switch, but don't insist we all pretend we're still undecided about whether Microsoft are a bunch of
Re:Microsoft and Windows Topics Icons (Score:5, Informative)
If you look very closely, its either a very nice stained glass window, or each pane is cracked.
I leave the decision of which it is to the reader, who shoudl bear in mind that this is
Re:Microsoft and Windows Topics Icons (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Microsoft and Windows Topics Icons (Score:5, Funny)
"Microsoft is not the Borg collective. The Borg collective has got proper networking."
Re:Look closer... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Microsoft and Windows Topics Icons (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not a geek thing, it's a lawyer thing
What I want to see... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What I want to see... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:What I want to see... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What I want to see... (Score:5, Interesting)
Let's say I need to fix a simple little bug, a misspelling in a message, which happens to be in source code file "abcd.c". I've got sitting on my hard drive this awesome new feature (at least *I* as the developer think it's cool), but nobody wants to accept it into the product. Hey! It's in file "abcd.c" too! I check in the misspelling fix, along with 2000 lines of new code for my new feature. In version control though it shows up as nothing but "fix a misspelling". That's slime.
With open source you can't do slime... well you could try but it'd never stay undercover. Thus I'd argue this *is* an insightful comment for a non-open source release, but possibly Flamebait for a Linux release.
Read what I wrote... (Score:4, Insightful)
I've done it, I know bunches of other people that have done it, and I've been directed by my manager at one company to do it.
The cutoff date for features is *way* earlier than the cutoff date for defect fixes, and on occasion we'd (i.e. my first level department) discover a feature that we needed to have in the product, but which higher level management would never agree to due to the schedule. Our first line boss would give us the OK to slime it in. It's the old "It's easier to beg forgiveness than to ask permission".
Would somebody lose their job? I guess it all depends on whether your first line manager goes to bat for you or not... but that being said I've *never* heard of a programmer losing their job due to slime.
Re:Read what I wrote... (Score:4, Interesting)
Depending on the group you work in and the phase of the dev cycle you're in, you also have to get triage approval -- this means you have to justify your change to a group of people trying to keep code churn to a minimum.
When code is checked in, the change is mailed to one or more mailing lists. Among the things in the mail are the changelist description and the file in the changelist. Again, red flags will be rased when someone looks at the diff (and believe me, some anal retentive fucker like me will catch it).
If, somehow an employee managed to get through all of those layers and snuck in those 2000 lines of easter egg code under the radar, and the "easter egg" is discovered (and it will be), they lose their job. It's one of the few things you can do at Microsoft which
Clarification (Score:5, Informative)
Oh no! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Oh no! (Score:3, Interesting)
Bugcheck 0x8E_nt!MiGetProtoPteAddressExtended+12
This is the bug track response from Microsoft for this bug report.
Update on 4/28/2004 10:45:54 AM by Microsoft:
moving to developement database for investigation
Update on 4/29/2004 8:35:35 AM by Microsoft:
Thanks for the report. This issue is currently under investigation. Is there any way we would be able to obtain a full dump of this issue? The minidumps are helpful, but there just isn't enough information in them to determine
Makes you wonder (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Makes you wonder (Score:3, Insightful)
Wrong time, OS/2 users left know to blame MS (Score:4, Insightful)
You can only pull this kinda crap (that MS has been proven and even admitted to of having done) when your sure it is the other guy that is blamed. Kinda like when IE fails to load a page it is the websites fault but when Mozilla fails to load a page it is Mozilla's fault.
OS/2 has been killed but it is still being used. Those customers are smart enough to know that any problems are not OS/2 fault but MS. Since MS wants them at one time or another to switch it is probably not to wise to alienate them by showing them how buggy MS software is. Once they switched and are totally locked in THEN you spring the bugs on them. It helps sell the next version. Just explain to me exactly why I should have upgraded from Win95? What exactly has been added that is so helpfull? Stability? Stabilty is a bug, it should have been fixed in a patch.
Re:Makes you wonder (Score:3, Funny)
Hey! not everybody on
Enough Paper ? (Score:5, Funny)
13 bugs found that could lead to code execution. (Score:5, Interesting)
Were these bugs found internally by their team or were these found by outsiders and then patched months later because knowledge was never released?
Not Prompted to Obtain a Digital Rights Management License for Installations Created by Using Sysprep
This was one bug they could have left unfound
Individual vs Cumulative fixes (Score:5, Insightful)
805 bugs (Score:5, Funny)
Some programs do not work as expected when large files are opened
Re:805 bugs (Score:3, Funny)
What about usability? (Score:5, Funny)
Like the damn message that comes up VERY TIME I wake a windoze laptop from sleep: "Hi! You're connected to your wireless network again. The same network as always, but I just wanted to remind you. The signal strenght is excellent. Click me, and I'll disappear. But be sure that I'll return the next time you start or wake your computer!"
I wonder how many suicides are directly related to windows error and/or informational messages.
Ciryon
Re:What about usability? (Score:5, Informative)
Check out no. 825062 (Score:5, Interesting)
* Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server SP4
* Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional SP4
* Microsoft Windows 2000 Server SP4".
Are they intentionally driving up the number of bugs fixed?
Re:Check out no. 825062 (Score:3, Informative)
My Favourite (Score:5, Funny)
Angry Users Demand Return of "Backdoor" Feature (Score:5, Funny)
Here's an excerpt from a recent article [ridiculopathy.com] on the debacle.
Resolution (Score:5, Funny)
Error message on a blue screen when you transfer data to a USB device in Windows XP.
Resolution:
Error message now placed on gradient green screen when you transfer data to a USB device in Windows XP.
"Stop error message on a blue screen" (Score:3, Funny)
How about this bug in the firewall (Score:3, Insightful)
There was a story on slashdot about this already (Score:4, Insightful)
If I logged on to linux as root and ran a program it could cause the same sort of problems
Re:How about this bug in the firewall (Score:4, Interesting)
Local applications running with administrator privilege are inside the security perimeter of the firewall and have the same rights as the firewall management GUI. Microsoft would need to be enforcing mandatory access control to actually prevent third-party applications with appropriate right from managing the firewall, so all they could do would be to leave the management API undocumented and create a false sense of security.
Don't complain, you should be applauding them for avoiding another "security through obscurity" dead-end.
Re:How about this bug in the firewall (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:How about this bug in the firewall (Score:4, Funny)
Re:How about this bug in the firewall (Score:3, Insightful)
You're missing the point. It is not possible for Microsoft to do anything else. Their options are to document the API the firewall management control panel or application uses, or to not document it and depend on "security by obscurity".
This isn't possible with zone alram or sygate firewalls
Anyone who tells you that their firewall software can not be disabled by a third party application is lying to you, or confused about th
Re:How about this bug in the firewall (Score:5, Insightful)
I agree 100%. The Windows security model is broken. As I just commented in another discussion: "I hope Microsoft decides to join the 21st century and changes the default configuration so ordinary users do not run with excessive privileges, and instead requires an explicit action (as in the UNIX 'su' command, or Apple's authentication dialog) to grant installers and configuration tools temporary rights when they need it."
I honestly can not comprehend the selective blindness that Microsoft seems to suffer from when it comes to understanding freshman-level computer security.
However.
Going back to my original point: this is not a security flaw in Windows Firewall, and other firewalls like Zone Alarm are not inherently any safer... they are simply depending on security by obscurity. Unless they lose market share to the point where they don't matter to malware authors there will undoubtedly be software that disables them.
Look at antivirus software. They don't have a "Disable" API, but there are still viruses that disable them... and the code to do it as available to anyone with a copy of the world's premier virus distribution tool (Outlook).
My personal favourites - (Score:3, Funny)
So...if it's working fine then no code runs..?
Your access to network resources is slower in Windows XP than in earlier versions of Windows
That's a bug? I thought it was just a symptom of bloat.
The Display Rotates 180 Degrees When You Lower Your Screen Resolution Using the Accessibility Wizard
Now that's just funny. I wanna see it
My favorite (Score:4, Funny)
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:And people think Linux is HARDER????? (Score:3, Insightful)
Would you be happier to have to fix a pc that someone installed XP SP2 - Intel Tualatin edition on instead of AMD Thunderbird edition? Or carry around 12 cds with various permutations of SPs?
ostiguy
Service Packs are for another reason. (Score:3, Informative)
Now for the most part I agree, lots of this should be available for download separately. The update process in windows is tolerable. However there may be enough inter dependancies among these various updates to require them all to be available in one neat package.
I know people who will not use Windows Upda
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
This is news? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:This is news? (Score:5, Insightful)
I want to see slashdot's webserver statistics showing what people are really running. I wouldn't be surprised if it's only 10-15% of people running linux.
I think in addition to our karma, we should have a linux-o-meter linked to our ID name. That would expose that asshole who shouts out "winblowz," "Micro$oft" and all that other childish crap who's really running windows xp in his mother's basement. There's nothing wrong with people using windows. Hell, I use it at work. It's just when the slashdot "politics" skew the reality of the situation that it starts to get aggrivating.
And by the way, yes I did switch to linux to seem cooler on slashdot because that is all that matters in life.
Here is another list... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:First Dupe! (Score:4, Informative)
Re:First Dupe! (Score:3, Funny)
Ripping the shit out of microsoft for no good reason is an impossibility. M$ is such an amazingly efficiant producer of reasons that no one attempting to produce an unjustified attack is likely to succeed in avoiding all of them.
Re:great! (Score:3, Interesting)
Last time, the list was not complete. (Score:4, Informative)
SP1 fixed very serious bugs in Win XP that were not on the SP1 bug list. Also, serious bugs that had been reported a long time before were NOT fixed.
Re:How many months did it take? (Score:5, Insightful)
Modifying a large operating system while attempting not to "break" any end-user configurations is nothing short of a prodigious task.
The modifications were probably developed and committed to the Windows source tree in a relatively short period of time. However, Windows must accommodate a diverse array of configurations, including many that are very "fragile" and obscure. Because of this, the modified build likely endured an extensive testing process, hence the multiple delays.
Re:How many months did it take? (Score:3, Insightful)
Is this the usual anti-MS knee jerk reaction, or could you actually name any bugs in particular which haven't been fixed? I certainly couldn't name more than 20 bugs (I'm talking about bugs in the operating system, not instabilities linked to 3rd party device drivers, etc). The list seems pretty long to me, waaaaay longer than I would have expected.
Re:Eh... WTF? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Bugs Not Yet Fixed (Score:3, Interesting)
Your computer becomes a spam zombie within minutes of being connected to the Internet.
Yep, that's the firewall and security changes. Unless you open infected mail, which is harder but still possible, and always will be, unless you prevent the user from ever running a suspect program even if they choose to.
Outlook Express has no junk mail filtering.
Sadly, no.
Your screen becomes deluged with popup windows with no escape because closing one opens about ten others.
Yes, IE now has a pop-up blocke
Re:Bugs Not Yet Fixed (Score:3, Informative)
If you recall, it used to have junk mail filtering. Then Blue Mountain Arts sued Microsoft and forced them to take it out - because not only were they not willing to work with MS to ensure that their greetings cards got through, but they were assinine bastards as well.
Re:Jeeze, it's BIG (Score:3, Insightful)
It's 250MB of patches for XP Pro, XP Home, and XP Meida edition. 3 slightly different OS.
Regular for a single one of these would only be around 50-60 meg.
Steven V>
Re:Jeeze, it's BIG (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Jeeze, it's BIG (Score:5, Insightful)
I beleive a lot of files have been re-compiled to prevent buffer overflows and take advanateg of the NX flag on processors that support them. Many of these programs don't have a 'bug' as such, but are being made more secure.
It is a bit scary watching the install and seeing all these things being replaced.
Also the ~250MB is the admin version, that has every update. The version for home users will only have the necessary ones they need, and should be quite a bit smaller if the machine is reasonably up to date.
Probably still the biggest SP for windows ever though.