Vista SP1 horror stories start to appear 11:54AM, Wednesday 19th March 2008
The first Service Pack for Windows Vista appears to be creating more problems than it solves for a number of users.
PC Pro reader Douglas Tresias emailed us this morning, claiming the Service Pack had rendered his PC inoperable. “Started installing at 7.15am this morning on a HP with Vista Home Basic less than six months old,” he wrote. “SP1 failed to install. Machine started to reset back to previous state. Computer still not usable three hours later.”
The Official Windows Vista blog also contains several tales of woe among the many congratulating Microsoft for a fine job.
“I have installed Vista SP1 today, now I have no sound and my DVD drive doesn’t work,” reports one user.
“I installed Vista SP1 after seeing it on Windows Update last night. In retrospect, not my finest decision,” writes another unhappy customer. “What a disaster! It exiled all of my Nvidia drivers to the Bermuda Triangle… they’re simply all gone. OK, no big deal, go to the Nvidia site, download the latest drivers, install and nada. Zip, zilch, nothing changes… the install fails… every time.”
Others claim that SP1 – which is meant to improve system performance – is actually having the reverse effect. “Isn’t a Service Pack suppose to fix issues?” another user comments on the Windows blog. “[I] went from using 650MB of RAM idle to 1 gig… I’ll be be switching back.”
Microsoft was unable to comment on any potential problems with SP1 at the time of writing.
The Windows blog also carries several complaints from users who have been blocked from downloading the Service Pack because of known driver issues. Microsoft said last month that “As updates for these drivers become available, they will be installed automatically by Windows Update, which will unblock these systems from getting Service Pack 1.
“The result is that more and more systems will automatically get SP1, but only when we are confident they will have a good experience.”
Source PC Pro
Half of all broadband customers are dissatisfied with their service, according to a new report.
The survey conducted by Uswitch ranked nine internet service providers and found that the gap between best and worst is widening, with a difference of almost 21% in customer satisfaction scores – an 8% increase on the year before.
Topping the list is PlusNet, which won the survey’s Best Overall Provider accolade by polling 86% in customer satisfaction. Resting at the foot of the list is Orange, with the survey claiming that over a third of its customers were unhappy with the service they were receiving.
Sky continued its ascent, clambering above arch rival Virgin Media in the rankings with an 81% customer satisfaction score. Virgin Media held steady with three quarters of its customers satisfied, but losing ground on value for money, customer and technical support.
Outside the big winners customer satisfaction scores slipped across the board, with the big losers being Pipex which slipped 9% to 45% and AOL dropping 6% to 59%.
No more excuses
“The ISPs used to put these problems down to teething problems, but it’s been seven years now,” says Uswitch spokesperson, Charlotte Nunes. “The technology’s bedded down and customers expect more than they did. Broadband is an essential part of people’s lives now, they depend on it and so when things go wrong they expect their ISP to sort it out.”
“Companies like TalkTalk have invested a lot of money in their customer service, it’s better now but it’s still got a way to go. But some companies like Orange are still charging premium rates for technical support and that’s a big part of why people are dissatisfied. We’d certainly like to see Orange making the same sorts of promises on technical support we’ve seen from TalkTalk.”
However, Orange says it’s on the right track.
“Our own customer satisfaction research, along with independent testing of our service, has revealed extremely positive findings,” claims an Orange spokesperson.
“This has come as a direct result of us having recently taken steps to improve our network capacity and customer services, which included investing heavily in our teams and we will continue to do so.
“Our focus is on getting things right for our customers and we shall continue working to improve the levels of service we provide as well as to offer clear, value for money propositions.”
Source – PC Pro
Microsoft looks set to make Vista Service Pack 1 available this week.
The company said last month that it would release SP1 in mid-March, giving it time to deal with a series of driver bugs discovered in the beta testing phase.
Now, it seems retailers are preparing for the full launch this week. A search on Amazon reveals that pre-packaged retail versions of Vista with SP1 will be released on 19 March.
Curiously, Amazon says the Vista SP1 products won’t be released until 4 April, suggesting that either the British arm of the web retail giant has failed to update its release dates or that British buyers may be in for a longer wait for the full retail versions to go on sale.
However, rival British retailer Dabs says that Vista SP1 boxes will be ready for delivery for within 3-5 days.
Rumours also suggest that Vista owners will be able to download the Service Pack from Tuesday, giving them a narrow headstart over retail buyers.
More than 10,000 web pages have been booby trapped with malware in one of the largest attacks of its kind to date.
Compromised web pages include travel sites, government websites, and hobbyist sites that have been modified with JavaScript code that silently redirects visitors to a site in China under the control of hackers.
Miscreants likely reprogrammed the web pages after scanning the net for insecure servers.
The malware cocktail attempts to exploit vulnerabilities in Windows, RealPlayer, and other applications to break into insecure PCs, according to an analysis by net security firm McAfee.
Components of the malware attempt to steal passwords to online games while others leave a back door that allows the installation of additional malicious programs.
McAfee Avert Labs first spotted this attack on Wednesday, 12 March. Of the 10,000 pages that were compromised, a number have already been cleaned up.
A single organisation or small group is likely behind this attack, as the malicious code on all these pages is served up from the same server in China.
Craig Schmugar, threat researcher at McAfee Avert Labs, said the attack illustrated that the conventional wisdom that surfers are safe providing they stick to trusted sites (and away from warez and porn) no longer holds true.
“Often you hear warnings about not going to untrusted sites,” said Schmugar. “That is good advice, but it is not enough. Even sites you know can become compromised. You went to a place before that you trust, but that trust was violated through a vulnerability that was exploited.”
Source – The Register
Microsoft has submitted an early version of Windows 7 to the US government, sparking speculation that the successor to Vista may arrive sooner rather than later.
According to court filings, Microsoft has handed over a test version of the next-generation operating system to a technical committee that is overseeing Microsoft’s compliance with its antitrust settlement.
“The TC [technical committee] has begun to review Windows 7 itself. Microsoft recently supplied the TC with a build of Windows 7, and is discussing TC testing going forward,” the report states. “The TC will conduct middleware-related tests on future builds of Windows 7.”
Microsoft has said very little publicly about either the contents or the release date of Windows 7. The new operating system was initially expected to arrive next year, although recent reports have suggested that launch date could be pushed back to 2010 or even 2011.
The fact that the US government has (presumably) a working version of the software indicates that Microsoft might be looking at next year after all. Given the current lack of enthusiasm for Windows Vista, Microsoft will certainly be keen to get Windows 7 into the market as soon as possible, although it certainly can’t afford another lacklustre release.
A “wishlist” of Windows 7 features was leaked last year, giving a few potential clues to features that could arrive in the new operating system, including a virtual desktop and a tabbed Windows Explorer.
Source – PC Pro
