Hi,
I recently built two new systems and plan to have these access the Internet, so I downloaded SP2 on a Win98 system and installed SP2 on the new ones.
I want to update these machines and then save the barebones, fresh install, updated OS before installing any applications (which will include Microsoft Office 2003)---especially anti-virus, which goes in last so that it can be kicked out first if it misbehaves.
In other words, I want to do the updating before installing apps so that I can save an image of the OS partition and roll back to any point by restoring the partition image.
However, I am concerned about virus exposure while going online to run Windows Update, so it seems that doing all this requires some ingenuity.
First, I installed the 90 day Norton Internet Security that came with the motherboard, intending to download updates and install them after rolling the partition back to the pristine, pre-Norton image.
However, two problems:
1. Windows Update, which is very secretive about what it is doing, and astonishingly complicated and lacking in any clearly stated IT solutions. (Yes, I read about the MBSA utility, and downloaded version 2.0. But there is no simple, direct statement anywhere on Microsoft's website I could find that explains exactly what this is and how to use it. I had to search all over the place just to find a simple reference to the word "XP" that made it clear that this utility pertains to it. And SUS, whatever that is, is being phased out, so please migrate to another update management solution about which the online documentation states it is compatible with Windows 2000 and/or Server 2003 but says nothing about XP.) My need is very simple. Just give me a list of updates that need to be installed, in the order in which they need to be installed, and show me where I can download them.
Windows Update downloads updates to an unknown location. and then asks if I want to install unspecified them. I managed to read the fine print and wrestled control of my own computer away from Microsoft once again at the last minute so that it did not automatically install the updates when I shut down. But I cannot locate them.
So I figured I would go ahead and install them, and then look in Add/Remove programs afterward to see what they were so that I could download them again manually myself. Nice to see when I did that that I was finally told what they were (almost) if not where they were. (The Microsoft Installer 3.1 --- is it the 3.1 v2 or not? WAU didn't say.)
I've been talking with Microsoft support, and I appreciate the gesture, but I was told that it did not make any difference in what order I installed the updates. (???) This contradicts what I read in one Knowledge Base article. Now I am again waiting for a reply. (I seem to spend all of my time waiting and explaining something. When do I get to use my computer?)
Of course, if I simply let Windows Update automatically install them now, they will be gone when I roll the system back to the pre-Norton image, and I won't even know what they were, so I need to find out what updates should be installed, and in what order Windows wants to install them all.
Why can't a company as big as Microsoft make this as simple as it actually is? Why can't Windows Update just output on request a simple script file that lists the needed updates and security patches and performs the installation of every needed patch back to a fresh install of SP2 from a disk folder full of downloaded updates? DOS 3.0 could have done that much!
2. Norton Internet Security. Enough said. I don't want to complain, but the product smells like something spelled j-u-n-k. It so slows down the loading of XP I sometimes think the computer is locked up for five or ten minutes before the desktop icons appear. Most of the time, most of the usual taskbar icons do not appear. So it goes in the trash. One reason I'm upgrading my office system is that Norton routinely crashes it. I no longer have even the patience to endure the affront of this chokeware even for the limited period of time it takes to get these updates downloaded.
Two broad questions:
1a. How do I get and install the necessary updates? How do I download them to a known location so that I can then install them in the correct order on multiple computers without having to put each machine online to do that?
1b. How do I protect my machine while I am downloading the updates? I am no longer willing to let Norton assist with that. I am now more worried about what Norton will do to this system than I am worried about what a virus might do. I am not willing to kill the patient to keep it safe from viruses.
Perhaps this is not a legitimate concern. After all, I am going to restore the partition after I download the updates. The system will not again go online until after the applications have been installed and the long-term anti-virus and firewall solutions put in place. If an infection while downloading the updates is not likely to corrupt and infect the updates themselves, then it doesn't matter if I am at risk while downloading them, it would seem. Anyone know for sure?
2. What anti-virus and firewall solutions exist that provide effective protection from the threats without crippling either the system or the owner's budget in the process? Because this is a business, I cannot implement many of the free solutions available to home users out there. But Norton already has all of my AV budget for the next few months. What can I do in the near term (in addition to tossing NIS in the trash)?
I've read a variety of AV and firewall reviews. Apples and oranges. Six of this and half dozen of that. What I am looking for here is a consensus unanimity about one solution that is widely known to be effective and also lacks a significant negatively impressed community.
--torandson
I recently built two new systems and plan to have these access the Internet, so I downloaded SP2 on a Win98 system and installed SP2 on the new ones.
I want to update these machines and then save the barebones, fresh install, updated OS before installing any applications (which will include Microsoft Office 2003)---especially anti-virus, which goes in last so that it can be kicked out first if it misbehaves.
In other words, I want to do the updating before installing apps so that I can save an image of the OS partition and roll back to any point by restoring the partition image.
However, I am concerned about virus exposure while going online to run Windows Update, so it seems that doing all this requires some ingenuity.
First, I installed the 90 day Norton Internet Security that came with the motherboard, intending to download updates and install them after rolling the partition back to the pristine, pre-Norton image.
However, two problems:
1. Windows Update, which is very secretive about what it is doing, and astonishingly complicated and lacking in any clearly stated IT solutions. (Yes, I read about the MBSA utility, and downloaded version 2.0. But there is no simple, direct statement anywhere on Microsoft's website I could find that explains exactly what this is and how to use it. I had to search all over the place just to find a simple reference to the word "XP" that made it clear that this utility pertains to it. And SUS, whatever that is, is being phased out, so please migrate to another update management solution about which the online documentation states it is compatible with Windows 2000 and/or Server 2003 but says nothing about XP.) My need is very simple. Just give me a list of updates that need to be installed, in the order in which they need to be installed, and show me where I can download them.
Windows Update downloads updates to an unknown location. and then asks if I want to install unspecified them. I managed to read the fine print and wrestled control of my own computer away from Microsoft once again at the last minute so that it did not automatically install the updates when I shut down. But I cannot locate them.
So I figured I would go ahead and install them, and then look in Add/Remove programs afterward to see what they were so that I could download them again manually myself. Nice to see when I did that that I was finally told what they were (almost) if not where they were. (The Microsoft Installer 3.1 --- is it the 3.1 v2 or not? WAU didn't say.)
I've been talking with Microsoft support, and I appreciate the gesture, but I was told that it did not make any difference in what order I installed the updates. (???) This contradicts what I read in one Knowledge Base article. Now I am again waiting for a reply. (I seem to spend all of my time waiting and explaining something. When do I get to use my computer?)
Of course, if I simply let Windows Update automatically install them now, they will be gone when I roll the system back to the pre-Norton image, and I won't even know what they were, so I need to find out what updates should be installed, and in what order Windows wants to install them all.
Why can't a company as big as Microsoft make this as simple as it actually is? Why can't Windows Update just output on request a simple script file that lists the needed updates and security patches and performs the installation of every needed patch back to a fresh install of SP2 from a disk folder full of downloaded updates? DOS 3.0 could have done that much!
2. Norton Internet Security. Enough said. I don't want to complain, but the product smells like something spelled j-u-n-k. It so slows down the loading of XP I sometimes think the computer is locked up for five or ten minutes before the desktop icons appear. Most of the time, most of the usual taskbar icons do not appear. So it goes in the trash. One reason I'm upgrading my office system is that Norton routinely crashes it. I no longer have even the patience to endure the affront of this chokeware even for the limited period of time it takes to get these updates downloaded.
Two broad questions:
1a. How do I get and install the necessary updates? How do I download them to a known location so that I can then install them in the correct order on multiple computers without having to put each machine online to do that?
1b. How do I protect my machine while I am downloading the updates? I am no longer willing to let Norton assist with that. I am now more worried about what Norton will do to this system than I am worried about what a virus might do. I am not willing to kill the patient to keep it safe from viruses.
Perhaps this is not a legitimate concern. After all, I am going to restore the partition after I download the updates. The system will not again go online until after the applications have been installed and the long-term anti-virus and firewall solutions put in place. If an infection while downloading the updates is not likely to corrupt and infect the updates themselves, then it doesn't matter if I am at risk while downloading them, it would seem. Anyone know for sure?
2. What anti-virus and firewall solutions exist that provide effective protection from the threats without crippling either the system or the owner's budget in the process? Because this is a business, I cannot implement many of the free solutions available to home users out there. But Norton already has all of my AV budget for the next few months. What can I do in the near term (in addition to tossing NIS in the trash)?
I've read a variety of AV and firewall reviews. Apples and oranges. Six of this and half dozen of that. What I am looking for here is a consensus unanimity about one solution that is widely known to be effective and also lacks a significant negatively impressed community.
--torandson
