arstechnica.com — With Vista freshly launched and company executives on record as saying that Vista is "high quality right out of the gate", Microsoft appears less than thrilled with web site owner Ethan Allen's decision to distribute Vista's hotfixes and patches, rolling them into what he calls an SP1 Preview.
Apr 9, 2007 View in Crawl 4
saskaApr 9, 2007
Fixes are always required after release when you attempt to support the tens of thousands of hardware devices that potentially come together to run Windows on any given computer. Issues with legacy and new software are discovered when the deployment broadens from beta to commercial. None of these things indicate a serious underlying flaw in the OS, and the one that did had been in process for months (see infra regarding compatibility and program impact) and was escalated when it got out in the wild.A third-party site that cobbles together all of the updates is problematic because when you download a file from Microsoft, Microsoft can be responsible for the content -- and can also gauge when the implementation of the fix has reached a level that indicates greater safety, compatibility, or functionality for the install base. If it were all about WGA, you wouldn't be able to get critical security updates automatically on unregistered systems. The mentality is similar to vaccination, I think, although that's just my opinion. The critical security issues have to be fixed in the ecosystem because one vulnerable system is a gateway to others.
meshmanApr 9, 2007
"Hot fixes not posted on Windows Update are not intended for individual installation unless the user is experiencing the specific symptoms mentioned in the corresponding KB article," In other words, call us and give us your credit card number for something free. Don't download their patches, we'd rather you go through WGA hell instead.
cyber_akumaApr 9, 2007
Why exactly would somebody use a 3rd party site for Windows updates?1. By default modern Windows OSes have auto update enabled so you don't need to go to a site at all.2. The official site is very easy to remember, windowsupdate.microsoft.com, and is likely the first result when searching for windows update sites.3. There is a link in your start menu by default to go to the windows update site.4. Anybody who bypasses the three above likely knows what they are doing and should already know how incredibly reckless it would be to install patches from a 3rd party site.5. MS's servers likely have more bandwidth to serve updates than any other 3rd party site.6. The official site would get patches first before anybody else does.Even if the site was legit, why would you want to use it compared to the official site?
mrsteveman1Apr 9, 2007
He said he has 6 real copies of XP PRO in his desk you f**king moron.
glennerooApr 10, 2007
RTFM: if you actually looked at the site, 100% ALL OF THE PATCHES are links to Microsoft's support section.but your comment still made me laugh ;)
jackchApr 10, 2007
Anyone who trusts to even VISIT thehotfix.net in the first place is a complete retard. The Hotfix is not only a site which distributes hacked up fake Service Packs, but also distributes warezed/pirated copies of various Microsoft applications.They have a bad reputation in the Microsoft community for CHARGING members to download pirated copies of MS software. There has also been occasions in the past where innocent visitors have paid to download would-be warezed apps only to discover a nice passworded RAR with no password.Plus The Hotfix community is full of ignorant 10 year old retards with literacy problems and no opinions of their own, who all seem to spend 90% of their time flaming/bashing other tech sites.On top of this all, their site is plastered with advertisements as further means of them gaining money that they don't deserve.Bottom line - AVOID The Hotfix like the plague, and I can't wait for them to get shut down by Microsoft.
feelmydiseaseApr 15, 2007
some of us dont have internet explorer installed on our machines. so microsoft has excluded us from their update site. sites such as windowsupdate.62nds.com/ cater to those nonIE users. also handy if you like to stay off microsofts radar.