Re: file searching/vista help

[J R FOX jr_fox@xxxxxxxxxx]

--- "Patricia M. Godfrey"  wrote:

> Then you've probably already gotten WGA rammed down
> your throat,
> It's WGA (a
> piece of spyware, pure and simple) that really riles
> me.
>
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=6EBCFAD9-D3F5-4365-8070-334CD175D4BB&displaylang=en
> >
> Thanks, that looked promising, but on investigating
> I found it
> requires "validation"--that is, letting WGA be
> installed. Apart
> from its being spyware, I furiously resent the
> implication that
> I'm a crook.


Patricia,

Unfortunately, anyone who wants continued access to
Windows Update will be _stuck_ with WGA, in order to
gain access to it. I'm pretty sure I've seen a couple
of procedures and / or one utility for removing WGA,
once you've allowed it in -- willingly or not. But
then, after that, say goodbye to many of those
security fixes. (*Some* of them can apparently still
be downloaded elsewhere, individually, and
self-installed locally. Others not.)

I think you have in the past taken a sort of blanket
position against the WU patches and updates. Some of
them, I'm sure, have caused real problems, and right
now I have a long term and rather annoying problem on
the laptop with the KB941569 patch. It just hangs,
casting the whole WU process into gridlock. Nothing
I've been able to find or do -- even with the aid of a
well-experienced consultant -- has been corrective. 


Whenever you hit a roadblock like this, the standard
Windows mantra is sure to come up: "Well, you could
always reinstall the OS and everything else from
scratch . . . . "  Yeah, I COULD . . . if I had
nothing better to do for the next month ! This is
laughable, infuriating, and an indictment of gravely
flawed design. (I've NEVER had to reinstall ANY
version of OS/2 | eCS, or even perform major surgery
on it, and some of those installations were up and
running for many years !) Now you know why IT
departments consider it very important to have fully
slipstreamed, patched-to-current-levels Windows plus
their necessary apps, that can be readily deployed
from image or CD.

Nevertheless, I suspect that a lot of those security
fixes are probably important to have (unless your
computer is hermetically sealed, and you never
download anything or go out on the 'Net); if you
dismiss them en masse, I think this would be very much
at your peril.


 Jordan