QFE update confusion

[Guest]

Still confused about this new method of publishing QFE updates from MS
embedded OEM. I have several questions:

1. There are three versions of KB921883, they all link to the same file,
when i attempt to install the only KB921883 update it tells me that i cannot
install this because my operating system is already up to date. I have not
installed any of the 3 reissued updates yet? What’s happening?

2. KB920685 seems to be listed as an XPe update, but its only available for
XP 64 bit? In the QFE technical article it also says XPeSP2 is affected,
where do i get this update it does not exist?

3. What is the difference between file X13-19838.IMG and X13-14129.IMG, why
do all the recent QFE releases point to these same two files, its difficult
to tell if they are different files or the same file?


Please add documentation to your website on how to get QFE updates. Your new
process is not user friendly, requires licenced third party software to use.
It is incomplete and it is extreme waste of my time.

 

[Guest]

Anyone?

 

[Andy Allred [MS]]

Hi Paul, I'm sorry I don't know the answer, the windows sustained
engineering team is delivering these updates and the img files. I would
check with Jon Fincher via his XPe Servicing blog, he has a contact link
there: http://xpeqfe.blogspot.com/ , he's pretty responsive.

Take care.

 

[Jon Fincher]

Sorry for the delay, Paul - I got word of this last week, but haven't
had a chance to respond until today. My response, unfortauntely, has
some good news and some bad news.

The bad news first - I don't currently know the specific answers to your
questions. I could investigate and find out, but even then, it wouldn't
move us towards resolving the underlying problem.

The underlying problem is that there have been two sources for updates,
namely myself for componentized updates, and my release team for the XP
Pro updates. Two slightly different processes were used to get all the
applicable updates onto the OEM Secure Site. This causes a great deal
of confusion, both for you (as evidenced by your questions) and for the
people managing it internally. However, it also poses a much bigger
problem.

We rely on the Windows XP Pro security bulletins to provide desktop
version of Embedded security updates, as well as the raw material for
generating the componentized versions. However, right now Windows XP
SP1 is no longer in mainstream support, but XPE SP1 is until April 2007.
This means that the updates we need to service XPE SP1 aren't being
released, so I can't piggy-back my release on them anymore. This
problem, however, leads me to the good news...

From November 2006 onward, I will be releasing, every month, one, and
only one, Embedded update CD. This CD will contain the latest
componentized updates (we still do those once every two months), but it
will also contain the desktop updates for all supported SP levels of
XPE. Basically, if you download that single CD, you will have
everything in as complete a manner as possible. We released the first
of these in November, and will continue to do so.

One other thing we're working on is improved documentation on the site
itself - while the various changes we've made have been communicated
through various and sundry other channels, we've neglected to update the
site with the documentation changes. We're working on that now - we'll
be meeting next week to determine what needs documenting and where, and
I'll push to get the site updated as soon as possible after that. Our
support team will be part of that effort as well, as they're the people
who have to deal with questions caused by bad docs.

Finally, I can address some parts of the questions you asked. Regarding
your first question about three different versions of an update all
linking to the same download, that will continue - the single Embedded
update CD will still be listed on multiple pages for customers who have
one SP level or the other. The good news you only have to download it
once. This also explains part of your last question about all recent
releases referring to the same IMG file - those CDs contains all of
those updates, and so are linked to multiple times.

Let me know if you have any other questions or concerns.

--Jon

 

[steves]

After having the same ? myself, and reading Jon's response above, my
guess is:

DQI stands for "Desktop QFI Installer", those are for use on already
built images via the "Desktop QFE Installer".

The WINDOWSXPEMBEDDED_SP2\X86\ENU are the updates for the target
designer.
I also notice that when I install the ENU folder update, it talks about
installing ".sld" files, which confirms my gues...

Good Luck!
SteveS
stevesATeyeDASHimagingDOTcom