Aaaah The Infamous Blue Screen of Death
On Tuesday, Microsoft issued a patch, MS10-015, to fix a 17-year-old kernel bug in all 32-bit versions of Windows. Since then, Microsoft’s support forum has been flooded with complaints by angry users whose Windows XP machines have experienced blue screens after performing the update. The support thread was first noticed by security blogger Brian Krebs . It contained more than 120 messages as of this morning, making it the third-longest on the Windows Update support forum. The thread had been viewed more than 2,800 times since its inception.
Users are advised to boot from their Windows XP installation disc and launch the Recovery Console in order to regain control of their PC. This solution, however, leaves out netbook users as the lightweight, inexpensive laptops do not have optical (cd/dvd) drives and so can’t boot from an XP installation disc.
This isn’t the first time that a Microsoft update has crashed Windows PCs. Two years ago, a set of updates for Vista sent an unknown number of machines into an endless series of reboots. Similar problems affected users who tried to upgrade to Windows XP Service Pack 3 in May 2008, and others attempting to upgrade from Vista to Windows 7 last October.
Large enterprises with numerous managed desktop computers should always test patches before rolling them out. Unfortunately, home users just have to hold their noses and wish for the best. Good Ole Microsoft.
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William J McBorrough is a Security Expert with many years of success Managing, Designing, and Implementing medium and large enterprise Physical and Information Technology Security Solutions. His experience spans the spectrum from small e-commerce start-ups to multi-campus state and federal agencies to global financial sector organizations. He is on the faculty of various universities including University of Maryland University College, EC-Council University, George Mason University and Northern Virginia Community College where he conducts research and teach graduate and undergraduate courses relating to cybersecurity, cybercrime, cyberterrorism, and information security and assurance. He holds a Bachelors of Science in Computing Engineering with a concentration in digital networks and a Masters of Science in Information Security and Assurance. He is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), Certified in Risk Information System Control (CRISC), and Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH).He is well versed in personnel, systems and network security risk management. His core competencies include Developing cost effective solutions to enable mission assurance in the following areas: Enterprise Risk Management, IT Governance, Security Organization Development, Information Security and Assurance
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