Microsoft halts automatic distribution of flawed Vista Service Pack 1 prerequisite
Citing problems with a “small number of customers in unique circumstances” who were stuck in looping reboots, Microsoft has temporarily stopped the automatic distribution of the prerequisite for the upcoming Vista Service Pack 1 release.
“We are working to identify possible solutions and will make the update available again shortly after we address the issue,” Microsoft spokesman Nick White said on the Windows Vista blog. White said that any Vista customers who have been hit by the problem should either call Microsoft or use System Restore to fix the problem.
Just mentioned this issue to my son, a junior in a high school, as he walked in the door. He said some classmates Vista PC’s at home were experiencing the looping reboot problem. What does MS consider customers in unique circumstances?
After all of these problems with Vista my switch to Linux Ubuntu seems like the best idea I’ve had since I retired!
May I recommend to those of you having all of these problems a similar switch–Linux is free.
How does one do a system restore when you’re stuck in a looping reboot?
George
You stick in your recovery disk–you made one didn’t you? Most computers come these days without an installation disk so it is up to you to make the system restore disk. Good luck!
As to what RedRat mentioned, that’s why I recommend staying away from all brand-name computers especially Dell and buying yours from a small system builder, or even building your own, it’s really not that hard. That way you can get your system with Windows XP which I recommend over Vista, or even Linux, In which case you don’t have to pay for a copy of Windows that you don’t want.
How are they are able to get away with such a flawed product? To answer my own question, if its not obvious to your readers already, its because there is still no credible competition. And they managed to muscle the PC companies into making XP “obsolete.” The fact that they have to make so many fixes and calling it “service packs” should be an embarrassment but yet it somehow becomes acceptable.
After taking lord knows how long to get XP to work properly they could have just put a “new coat of paint” and called it something else instead of subjecting us to this new mess. Talk about a “make work” project…
I did install Linux Ubuntu and the simpler Xubuntu on two older PCs. While they mostly work as advertised they are still not user friendly.
Good luck to you if you gets a compatibility issue with any hardware sub system. While the people in the forums are very helpful and friendly, the people, organization or the company promoting these operating systems must keep the most amateur user in mind when developing a product. Its not enough to say its free. In fact it need not be free if they are able to provide useful solutions.
@Gary Valan: You said “Good luck to you if you gets a compatibility issue with any hardware sub system.” (referring to using Ubuntu).
You will have EXACTLY the same problem if you try to install a version of Windows on a computer that has hardware not supported by that version of Windows. Numerous people are having exactly that headache with Vista not supporting peripherals only a couple of years old. Or people trying to install XP on brand new computers that contain hardware for which the manufacturers did not provide an XP driver (because the manufacturers believed everyone would be using Vista by now).
The main reason people think Windows has no driver problems (or other installation problems) is that almost all the time, the PC vendor installs Windows and works out any driver problems (and other problems) before the purchaser sees the computer. If you buy a PC from one of the PC vendors who offer pre-installed Linux as an option, you won’t have any hardware driver problems (or any other installation problems) on Linux, either.
I’ll grant that if you aren’t talking about a pre-installed OS, driver problems occur less often with Windows systems than they do with Linux systems, but they occur on both. And the frequency of them happening with Windows systems is increasing due to the Vista fiasco.
To repeat: That is not a Linux-only problem. It can, and does, happen with Windows, too.