Microsoft Security Bulletin Summary for November 2008

[Randy Knobloch]

On WU/MU now.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms08-nov.mspx

Patch-up folks!

 

[JJ]

I got 4 this afternoon, 2 were for security, can't remember the other 2, was

 

[JJ]

Oppps, 3 were for security, the other was the monthly malicious one.
************************************************
Windows XP Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool - November 2008
(KB890830) Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Windows XP Security Update for Windows XP (KB954459) Tuesday, November 11,
2008

Windows XP Security Update for Windows XP (KB955069) Tuesday, November 11,
2008

Windows XP Security Update for Windows XP (KB957097) Tuesday, November 11,
2008

 

[Randy Knobloch]

I got 4 this afternoon, 2 were for security, can't remember the other 2, was
on my way out. LOL Got to love getting old.

I got a "bunch" JJ - yes getting /older/ too <wink>
Seriously - Select Custom as there may be more updates available.

 

[JJ]

Yeah, I'll have to do that after supper, been grocery shopping half the day.
Good old senior discount day. LOL Got to love getting old..NOT! ;-)

 

[robinb]

there are 2 office 2003 updates also

btw has anyone had any problems installing them?
and how come there are 3 for xml core services?

robin

 

[Pat Willener]

No problems at all (I had 11 updates, including an optional one).

 

[occam]

Are you on Vista or XP?

I had 4 on XP (no Office updates offered) and 13 on Vista Biz (including
8 Office 2007 patches). Since I have Office 2007 on both machines, I
cannot see why XP was not offered these.

occam

 

[Bill Sanderson]

I'd recommend looking into that. I don't have enough experience with this
round of patches to say yet, but I have seen situations in the past where
Office patch detection has been blocked by various things--in one case, use
of a registry cleaner (Microsoft's!) and in another case, use of the Windows
Installer Clean-up tool. It isn't clear what the cure is--for the registry
cleaner, it was reversing the action (fortunately the cleaner created a .reg
file allowing reversal.) For the clean-up tool, I think the fix was a
repair of Office.

--

 

[occam]

I'd recommend looking into that. I don't have enough experience with
this round of patches to say yet, but I have seen situations in the past
where Office patch detection has been blocked by various things--in one
case, use of a registry cleaner (Microsoft's!) and in another case, use
of the Windows Installer Clean-up tool. It isn't clear what the cure
is--for the registry cleaner, it was reversing the action (fortunately
the cleaner created a .reg file allowing reversal.) For the clean-up
tool, I think the fix was a repair of Office.

Hi Bill. Thanks for the pointer. However, I use the same reg cleaner for
both machines, namely CCleaner. That it would pick up .reg entries in XP
and not in Vista (or vice versa) would be surprising.

PS. I have used Windows Installer Clean-up also, but that was to remove
specific obstinate entries which would not shift by simple 'add/remove
program'. I have not used it for general clean-up purposes.

 

[occam]

Hi Bill. Thanks for the pointer. However, I use the same reg cleaner for
both machines, namely CCleaner. That it would pick up .reg entries in XP
and not in Vista (or vice versa) would be surprising.

PS. I have used Windows Installer Clean-up also, but that was to remove
specific obstinate entries which would not shift by simple 'add/remove
program'. I have not used it for general clean-up purposes.

A quick follow-up:

When I swapped to Microsoft Update (from Windows Update)
http://update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate/v6/default.aspx?ln=en-us

I immediately was offered two 'missing' patches, KB 951550 and KB957829!

 

[Robinb]

it was- i got them
robin

Are you on Vista or XP?

I had 4 on XP (no Office updates offered) and 13 on Vista Biz (including 8
Office 2007 patches). Since I have Office 2007 on both machines, I cannot
see why XP was not offered these.

occam

 

[Robinb]

how come no one answered my question on why there are 3 for xml updates?
robin

 

[robinb]

oh and btw no problems with vista nor xp
I did it in 2 steps
I found that by throwing all of them at once on my test computer- it did not
like it and gave me a cpu usage of 100%- I just did it as a test to see what
would happen and it proved me right. That is why I separate them and do
them in steps.
I had to reboot that computer 3x to finally get the cpu usage back to under
1%

My other 6 computers including Vista I did all the office updates first with
all updates except the xml updates. - Rebooted
Then I did the xml updates- rebooted
and things went much smoother
robin

 

[Bill Sanderson]

That would do it--Windows Update only offers Windows updates. Microsoft
update offers a broader range, including Office. Office can be updated
directly via the Office website, but it sure is more convenient to use
Microsoft Update.

--

 

[Bill Sanderson]

I don't know the answer about the XML updates--I have not been looking at my
client installs at work--I decided this month to just update the servers and
let the clients fend for themselves and see how that worked. I've updated
two Vista and two XP at home, and only recall seeing on XML update.

I had one machine which would not put in the Malicious Software Removal (I
almost typed Retrieval!) tool. I downloaded it directly, and ran it from
the desktop. It installed and scanned without any issues, and the download
then disappeared from the queue (on Vista.)

One thing I learned in that process was that if you run it directly there is
a "full" scan option to scan the whole machine. Some time I'll try that out
just to see how long it takes--I don't have any doubt that the default scan
is sufficient for my systems.

--

 

[Chris]

You got a different package for XML 3/4 and 6 and if you ran Office you might
have got one for XML 5.

Chris

 

[Bill Sanderson]

Ok, Doug, in the MBSA 2.1 support group has reminded me of the answer with
regard to XML. There are a number of versions of the XML parser--at least,
3,4, and 6. They are designed to exist side by side, and individual
applications may require a specific version--this is a lot like Java... So,
you can have multiple versions of the XML parser installed, and thus require
patches for each separate version.

It is possible to uninstall the separate versions, but unless you know for
certain that they aren't needed by applications, a better course is to
simply apply the patches as recommended by either MBSA or Windows or
Microsoft Update.

 

[Bill Sanderson]

Thanks, Chris. (reading after posting, duh..)

You got a different package for XML 3/4 and 6 and if you ran Office you
might
have got one for XML 5.

Chris

 

[robinb]

bill did you get my email?
robin

Thanks, Chris. (reading after posting, duh..)