14 replies to this topic

[DJW]

RV

When I went shut down as usual I got the do not turn off or unplug. It then downloaded the 17 updates and the laptop shut down. Then I powered up to finish the process. It then went into a cdisk procedure. The screen looked like an old DOS window. It was a 3 stage process and took several minutes then it shut itself off a couple of times and then finished starting up and here were are now. All seems fine but what was up with the cdisk procedure?

Dennis

[RV]

Sorry Dennis, I haven't a clue. None of my four systems did that. However, I just finished cleaning a computer of an alueron rootkit two weeks ago and when I did a catch up on Windows updates his did that too. Like with your's, since all was well I did not pursue it. I did do some searches and found nothing consistent. If you are concerned you can run some hard drive utilities like those Seagate offers free of charge.

Sorry I don't have that answer yet. Maybe one of the others?

[TheDuke]

I'll see what my system does in a few minutes. Most of the 17 updates are Vista changes.

[Mike57]

On my older Pentium 4 with XP, it took about 5 minutes to download everything and then about an HOUR to do the install. I only had 15 items but it was probably the longest update I have ever experienced .

[TheDuke]

My Vista system with 17 downloads didn't experience any type of problem. It just installed as usual.
My XP system had only about 5 or so and didn't require a reboot.

[Paul Stough]

My Win 7 system had 21 updates, and when I rebooted it showed that it made 1872 changes to the Registry.

Paul

[rvpopeye]

22 on my vista,,It took quite a long time and about 1/2 failed on first try,
I'm assuming the cause was burps in the SLLLLLOOOOOWWWWWW campground wi-fi I have for the summer. I was spoiled by the high speed cable modem I had for the last year or so.
I did see a momentary DOS like screen on the reboot start up.

All went OK on the second pass though.

[Sigzy]

17 on my old Vista machine..no problems other than taking around 45 minutes.Wish they would have shown up 2 days ago when I was traveling and using free wi-fi.

[RV]

I just did all the Windows and MS Office 2010 updates on my new desktop which I still am configuring. 645 GB of updates and nary a snag. No issues on Windows 8 or 7 or XP.

[rvpopeye]

645 G-G-GIGs Glad I didn't have to do that here on Campground Wi-Fi...

[Bill Joyce]

It just shows that Derek is 1,024 times more secure than the rest of us.

Edited by Bill Joyce, 09 May 2012 - 07:39 PM.

[RV]

Really, no fooling it was that much. I strongly advise all to do images as I had to do a restore to factory on a Vista computer with Office and that one took days even with cable modem because Vista is sooooo sloooow to do the installations as well. I am finishing up the preliminary setup on this one and will be doing my restore disks and fist image in the next few hours. Popeye there is a great password manager for free on GOTD today BTW

[BrianT]

19 updates... 50 minutes. Windows XP.

This was one of the longer installs.

The restart did give the screen like I'd see with chdsk but only for a few seconds. Otherwise, no issues,at least so far. Just took quite a while to get 'er done.

Brian

[MtnHam]

MAC OS X USER: approximately one 5 minute update per month, done! I will never go back to Windows.

Edited by MtnHam, 10 May 2012 - 02:44 PM.

[RV]

That was pretty off topic MtnHam. I see you edited to remove the small updates comment you made originally. What was that a "My computer OS is better than yours taunt?" We don't do those here. So I won't reply to your statement in kind.

Since the thread has run its course, I will change the topic to the one you changed to in the interest of factual information. Here is a current article from the last day or two about Apple updates and security. The problem is that they foster user misconceptions by not talking about the size of their updates or the severity of their security breaches. I have heard many folks comment that Apple will not do security updates for versions of its software more than two years old. My large update set was from more than 5 years of Vista updates including service packs which are free and are equivalent to the new number and named versions of OSX that Apple customers pay for. I started from a factory restore and that was from 5 years ago so had a lot of updates to do to catch up that machine. I also update monthly my Windows XP machine, which will be 13 years old this October. Microsoft still supports it! I can run new programs on XP and programs from XP on my new machines. No "classic" users left behind.


Here is an excerpt from that article which contrasts the two, red color added by me:

Excerpt:
"Now, allow me to contrast [ Microsoft's ] exhaustive security response and thorough communication strategy with the equivalent response from Apple, the developer of the world's second most popular consumer operating system.In February, Oracle issued a security patch to fix a critical Java vulnerability. Apple, which retains responsibility for delivering and maintaining Java SE Update 6, did not release their version of that patch until April 3, 49 days later.

During that seven-week window, more than 600,000 Apple customers were infected with malware simply by visiting a website they clicked in a list of Google search results. They did not indulge in unsafe behavior. They did not fall for social engineering or provide their administrator credentials. They did not know they had been infected, in fact. And now, by most estimates, several hundred thousand Mac owners are still infected with that malware, which contains a backdoor component that allows a remote attacker to download any software onto that Mac and to perform any action that the user can perform.

Apple, to this date, has acknowledged the existence of this malware only in a terse security bulletin, titled "About Flashback malware." It has not explained how the malware works, nor how to remove it if one is running Mac OS X 10.5.

Another incident was less widespread but potentially more severe. Apple released update 10.7.3 to OS X Lion, its latest version, on February 1. That update addressed 51 separate vulnerabilities in OS X, of which 22 could result in "arbitrary code execution," with one having the potential to execute arbitrary code with system privileges.

Given the sheer number of vulnerabilities fixed in that release, you'd be crazy to skip that update. But if you installed it, and you had previously encrypted your home directory using the version of FileVault included in Snow Leopard, a flaw in the update code would result in your system keeping a clear-text record of all login usernames and passwords in a file that any attacker could read with ease. The point of encryption is to prevent a thief from being able to access your data if he steals your computer. This blunder has the same effect as if you had written your PIN code on your ATM card and then had your wallet stolen.

This issue was first reported on an Apple support forum on February 6, five days after the update was released. It was publicized to the Cryptome mailing list on Friday, May 4. It has been widely reported in the media over the past 96 hours.

And yet Apple remains silent. The company has not published a support document acknowledging the issue. It has not offered any advice for affected Apple customers on how to tell whether they are a victim of this bug and, if so, how they can remediate it.

More importantly, no one has explained how such a horrendous security gaffe could pass code review and make it into the public release of a crucial OS X security update. If this kind of mistake can happen, who knows how many smaller, potentially more serious mistakes might also have slipped in to what are supposed to be security updates? And what does that kind of boneheaded code mistake say about the quality of iOS?

With great fanfare, Apple hired Window Snyder more than two years ago, with the avowed goal of helping to secure the Mac ecosystem. Snyder worked for Microsoft for several years before moving to Mozilla to work on securing Firefox.

Last year, Apple hired David Rice, a security superstar from the U.S. Navy, as its global security director. His name and title are nowhere to be found anywhere on Apple's website.

Despite that influx of talent, Apple in the past year has been hit with its two biggest malware attacks in history, and the company's response has been weak and mostly ineffectual.

As far as I'm concerned, Apple has serious work to do to restore its customers' confidence. That work needs to start with a competent Chief Security Officer and a commitment to communicate with its customers about security issues. And it needs to cooperate with independent security researchers and its competitors. And yes, that includes Microsoft, which has a tremendous amount of knowledge gathered over more than a decade."
End Excerpt.
The whole article by one of the most respected cross platform online tech writers is here: http://www.zdnet.com...987?tag=nl.e539

The Apple section quoted begins in the middle of the article. If you take umbrage with any part of the article, take it up with the author, as you can register there on ZDNET and post your comment under the article. They allow demeaning personal comments there to an extent we do not here. I did not take yours as demeaning, and mine is certainly not. I do agree with all of his premises and conclusions. You're free to disagree there in comments under the article as I did too.

Security is a concern for everyone using any OS. Linux websites and users have been attacked and Apple has been under attack for several months now very successfully. Apple OSX systems are even more vulnerable than Windows because of the slow response times and trying to hide them, and disclose little that business and enterprise IT people can use to adapt to their changing threatscape.

I also have a Windows XP computer with Service Pack One, Service Pack two, and Service Pack three, which are the equivalent to what Apple people pay for in new versions. Did you know that XP is now officially 13 years old this October, when Windows 8 will debut? http://redmondmag.co...cial-debut.aspx I update my one remaining XP3 computer each month too. If I had to do one from scratch it would take days. That is why I image them all. Then I can restore them in minutes if I ever have to do a change of hard drive without doing all the programs and updates too. NO classic user left behind! I can get security updates for 13 year old Windows computers on all versions since then and run programs on them interchangeably, can an Apple User get updates past two years or so ago? I also am testing Windows 8 and all my XP programs, Vista Programs, and Windows 7 programs run on it as well!

Windows users with updated computers of the last decade and this one, rarely if ever get any infections they do not allow by commanding a download unintentionally by pressing a button on a zero day site.

I am glad you posted if I might have been of service with some eye openers for you to take your updates seriously when they finally come out for your OS as well.

Safe computing, regardless of the OS you choose to run!

Edited by RV, 11 May 2012 - 02:27 PM.