Microsoft has released the single largest number of patches since it has started doing monthly updates. The dozen updates include patches for Office XP, IE 6, and Media Player and MSN Messenger. Also, a glitch in the latest version of Microsoft’s Tablet PC software is causing significant performance problems for those running the new operating system, the company has confirmed.
Microsoft releases “critical” patches; Tablet OS glitch
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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only MSFT would tell it’s users that you have to reboot daily to fix memory leaks, instead of just patching the software.
And to think people call XP an ‘enterprise’ OS. You aren’t supposed to reboot your machines daily to fix errors.
Yes I consider the program in question to be part of the OS. Since it’s an intergral part of the input system. It’s like having to unplug your keyboard and then plug it back in before you can get it to work.
Agreed, My home PC is a fully patched FreeBSD machine running several apps and it hasn’t been rebooted or turned off in 116 days…
so do the IT departments that have to fix this stuff. All the more reason for them to be around. At the last place I worked rebooting the PC during lunch time was an actual solution given out by the PC techs.
I turned on Windows Messenger this morning and it told me that it wanted to download an update. You can imagine my surprise when after I let it download and install the update, it rebooted. No dialog box informing me. No countdown. I never gave it permission. I was in the middle of writing a post to /. The computer just rebooted. I could understand if some critical kernel update required a reboot (although I’d appreciate some notice!), but an IM client? That’s just sad.
“only MSFT would tell it’s users that you have to reboot daily to fix memory leaks, instead of just patching the software.
And to think people call XP an ‘enterprise’ OS. You aren’t supposed to reboot your machines daily to fix errors.”
Indeed. The current version of Windows is certainly beta quality software, and an early beta at that. I’m not at all impressed with it. Other companies wouldn’t be able to get away by providing such a low quality OS. OK, when it is working, WindowsXP for instance is smooth to handle on the surface – pretty much where the latest GNU/Linux is just surpassing. But deep down as an OS, Windows is seriously poor quality and not what I would call either enterprise ready or dektop ready.
Lets see if the next version of Windows is finally the stable-release we have all been waiting so long for.
XP shouldn’t allow unapproved reboots. I’ve had that happen when installing various programs and updates. It should be an OS level decision.
Oh well… I don’t blame MS for telling people to reboot daily until they fix the problem. It’s incredible that they didn’t notice this before releasing the OS since it affects EVERY installation of XP Tablet edition.
i think ms should base their next windows on BSD …
XP shouldn’t allow unapproved reboots. I’ve had that happen when installing various programs and updates. It should be an OS level decision.
How do you expect the OS to discern the difference between a user deliberately and accidentally running a program that tries to reboot the machine ?
only MSFT would tell it’s users that you have to reboot daily to fix memory leaks, instead of just patching the software.
“A Microsoft representative said late Tuesday that the company is aware of the issue, which appears to affect all machines running the latest version of the Tablet OS. The representative said Microsoft hopes to have a fix soon.”
They *are* patching the software.
It is bug in Tablet PC- not on a server. Yes, it is bug.
Workaround: reboot Tablet PC regularly, i.e., turn it off when you go to sleep, turn it on when you need Tablet PC. It is not 24/7 server.
A bug is in OS application specific to Tablet PC. It is memory leak.
No, it is not memory leak in Windows XP Home, Windows XP Pro, Windows XP Media Edition, Windows 2000, Windows 2003 Server, Windows XP 64 bit. It is not.
It is memory leak in a very useful application running on Tablet PC only.
How bad it is: if left untreated, that applciation will consume 150 MB RAM in few weeks. Assuming “few” is at least 2, it is less than 10MB/day. If you turn off your Tablet PC before you go to bed, it’ll last all day.
Microsoft is working on patch.
+++++++++++++++++
Yes, it is not the end of the Universe. Just a memory leak, don’t pretend any other OS does not have badly coded software.
I’ve have just one gripe about TabletPCs; they are so fricken hard to get hold of. All the shops have some excuse, like “such and such a brand is not available in this region” and “no stocks available” and more often “what’s a TabletPC?”. No wonder they are not selling well.
OK I see some of you defending MS for some reason but considering that their software R&D budget is probably more than the net worth of Apple and they have more full time programmers than people actively working on Linux I don’t see how people find these problems more than acceptable.
I think you’ve failed to recognize the problem. Not everyone completely powers their machine down all the time, some put their machine on standby or hibernate the unit. This glitch will add up over time whether or not the machine is always on because of that fact. The “couple of weeks” figure given, if you would bother to read the link, is actually “a couple of weeks suspend/resume”.
Is it a huge issue? No, but one that must be addressed nonetheless. Who wants to deal with a memory leak like that?
Why is this
>>The Microsoft representative said that most users already reboot daily and said those who do so are unlikely to notice any performance problems.<<
Why are users rebooting daily. This should be unnessacary. My powerbook has been reboot 6 times since I got it in november. All 6 were updates including 10.3.8 tonight. The rest of the time it hibernates. plug in keyboards, mice, monitors, firewire drives. All live, pick it up carry it the couch. input data, surf the web etc.
reboots only take a few minutes, but you should expect more from your software. Though this is only Tablet PC edition. I have used Xp home and pro, and I have fixed them repeatadly from software errors.
Why are users rebooting daily.
Because most people turn their computer on, use it for some task and turn it off again. In other words, they treat their computer like most of the other appliances in their lives.
Why shut down a laptop if you don’t have to? I work on mine, I’m done so I close the lid. I need to work on it and I open the lid. You actually wait to shut yours down and start it up?
Why is it that when Microsoft releases their security updates, choosing to do alot of them at once to help cut down on inconvienence, everyone is so quick to JUMP down their throats in how bad Windows is and how M$ sux, etc.
But when some OSS software (apache, MySQL, php, etc) has a major security flaw that requires immediete attention, or worse yet, Linux itself has a security flaw in their little cherished kernel, everyone seems to be dismissive and/or uplifting about it? Like “see how fast they responded to the problem?” or “Open Source RULZ.. instead of trying to hide the problem, the developers quickly put out a patch. I don’t even have to reboot”.
No one complains about the constant updating they do with Gentoo because the security updates are hidden behind the scenes of everyone thinking they are getting new software/features.
The automatic hate from among the new/young technology users for Microsoft and everything they do is getting sickening. I am *SO* SICK of hearing about how much more stable everything is EXCEPT Windows! But it is OK when mp3’s skip in Linux cause you opened a browser and OpenOffice at once. Linux, BSD, Xorg, etc have made wonderful strides over the years in useability and features as a desktop OS. But come on, this is like trying to teach a chicken to be and act like a cow. These FOSS’s are based on 25+ year old UNIX OS’s who’s main purpose since inception was to SERVE. All this wasted time/energy of the past 5 years to get Linux to BE LIKE windows and eventually replace windows could have been spent on something completely paradigm changing. Not playing catchup.
We could have had those neat hand motion see through computers/OS’s in The Minority Report by now instead of another Windows look-alike and function-alike that everyone is so amazingly excited about.
powerbook??!!
we’re talking about a Table PC not a laptop.
don’t think apple makes anything similar to Table PC’s (“i table” or “power table”). they’re busy patching their latest operating system and still call it VERSION 10.3.8! “OS X patched” is the correct name!
after all if i’m not mistaken MS is the only company offering an OS for Table PC’s!
so stop feeling so good about yourself.
You actually wait to shut yours down and start it up?
Nope, but I know a hell of a lot of people who do. Move over to desktops and the proportion of people who turn them off regularly is very high.
actually, previous messages about shutting down for the night and starting up in the morning brings up a point i’ve been pondering.
i’ve had to replace many harddrives recently (mostly 2.5″ toshiba’s) and have noticed a pattern in the problem. the majority of drives had problems with bad sectors in the first 16MB or so of space. my question is, does the HD arm actually sit and touch the platter as the disc is spinning while idle? if so, this would cause damage over time to a very important part of the drive.
Hmmm…Its just been a force of habit for me to turn off things if I’m not using them. The laptop is no exception. This is especially true overnight.
I’ve tried hibernate/suspend…
Suspend might be useful…but its still ‘on’. Hibernate is fine, but booting my XP just does’t take that long compared to hibernate to make it worth it.
I’d do it even more if I had a portable device like a tablet PC. My laptop is just there because it takes less space. I can’t imagine not turning it off at overnight.
But that’s the stupid tech mentatility I guess. Not the pratical engineering way to do it.
I was in the middle of writing a post to /.
that was reason enough for it to reboot
“Indeed. The current version of Windows is certainly beta quality software, and an early beta at that”
Are you sure you dont mean the softare being beta quality? Even Linux will have problems when you run poorly written software on it.
“Lets see if the next version of Windows is finally the stable-release we have all been waiting so long for.”
Wait no more. Windows has been stable since Windows 2000.
“Why is it that when Microsoft releases their security updates, choosing to do alot of them at once to help cut down on inconvienence, everyone is so quick to JUMP down their throats in how bad Windows is and how M$ sux, etc.”
Because there are a bunch of clueless anti MS zealots on here.
“All this wasted time/energy of the past 5 years to get Linux to BE LIKE windows and eventually replace windows could have been spent on something completely paradigm changing. Not playing catchup. ”
Can’t work with OSS? Get over it, but stop whining. For a lot of people Linux and BSD do work better than Windows, and if either of them had a 15,000 man division working on their OS like MS does, then a truly fair comparison could be made. As it is, OSS gives you real control over your OS, not just what some commericial software company thinks you ought to have. Get it through your head if you can.
//But deep down as an OS, Windows is seriously poor quality and not what I would call either enterprise ready or dektop ready. //
Good thing you don’t head up any IT departments worth a shit. Nothing like B2B interop, eh?
Have fun in your parent’s basement. Asshat.
The heads in a hard disk actually fly over the surface of the
magnetic platters on a cushion of air. If the head ever actually touches the surface, it will scratch the media & ruin the hard disk. This is known as a disk crash (the head is just like a tiny little airplane), better known as controlled-descent into terrain!
Jim Steichen