......apparently there's another bug in yet another Internet Explorer patch that's raised its ugly head. If you apply the MS04-004 patch to an Internet Explorer 5 system, or MS03-032 to an Internet Explorer 6 SP 1 system, you'll break any program that has to use one specific part of memory. Some folks can solve the problem by installing a later patch. Others have to contact Microsoft directly for a hotfix.
Knowledge Base Article 828432 for details about the patches to the patch.
Reflect on the fact that a few months from now, Windows XP Service Pack 2 will automatically update your machine by default, unless you choose - in two separate, confusing dialog boxes - to tell Windows to keep its mitts off your system. (At least, that's how it works in the current beta of Service Pack 2.) Mark my words. Some day soon, Microsoft will release a patch that brings a sizable percentage of all PC users to their knees. Most Windows users won't have the slightest idea what happened, or how to fix it, thanks to continued incompetence in the patching arena, and the wonders of automatically applied updates.
Trustworthy computing.
WWW Febr 19, 2004
Last week I warned you that many people were having problems with Security Bulletin MS04-004, which is tied to Knowledgebase Article 832894
Scot Finnie, one of the smartest Windows guys I know (he wrote a Windows book for my Underground Guide series many moons ago!), has gone on record recommending that people not install the patchMany Web sites went belly-up. Microsoft has issued a new Knowledge Base article, number 831167, which describes the problem thusly: "Programs that use Wininet functions to post data (such as a user name or a password) to a Web server retry the POST request with a blank header if the Web server closes (or resets) the initial connection request." If you can understand that gobbledygook, you're a far better geek than I, Gunga Din.
Bottom line: Microsoft blew it again. A substantial portion of all the people who installed this "critical" security patch ended up with dysfunctional systems that wouldn't run Web-based applications that have worked for years, and/or they found that they couldn't use Web sites that worked just fine previously.
Microsoft has (tell me if you've heard this one before) issued a patch for the patch. It's available at
KB Article 83116767
From: Woody's WINDOWS Watch <wow-robot@woodyswatch.com>

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