OMG CRITICAL UPDATE!!!!

I have a question or two about Winblows critical updates.

It seems as though every time I download a critical updates package, my computer somehow mysteriously obtains 5 more errors. When I first installed Win98se on my computer, I had no errors...ever. Now after about 7 or so updates, there are all sorts of odd problems. More frequent BSODs, IE not loading certain things, what program opens what file getting screwed up...that kind of thing. It may be a virus, but these problems all seem to show up soon after the critical updates.

So this brings me to a couple questions: Do I really need these critical updates, and if not, how do I stop it from popping up that annoying message every time I boot up my computer?

7 Windows updates? Where from? Not Microsoft, by the sound of it.

Um...am I the only one who gets critical updates?

...I'd say you probably are...

Uh oh Dan, you might be infested with tons o' virii!

I have no problems with Windows critical updates. However, after much examining of your problem, I have found the cause of it:

the_Danarchist said:

...When I first installed Win98se on my computer...

:P

Turn off critical updates package, it's a pain anyway, popping up in middle of a Doom game etc.

I've never patched Windows on any of my comps. I never plan to.

Stay away from microsoft's website. That place is infested with viruses. The one virus I got *ever* I got from there.

Yeah, good advice, don't patch Windows. That's exactly why l33t kiddies keep exploiting stupid IE vulnerabilities fixed months ago.

My win98se machine is stable as hell, in fact it's the creation station for all my Doom projects, so it MUST work. But, i've only installed 98se, i've never downloaded a 'critical' update for 98. Did i mention that computer is 4 years old? It's an old pIII, but it's my baby

It's official, I'm the only person in the Earth that knows how to mantain Windows in one piece.

It's not that hard really. If people can handle Linux with no real concerns then this should be a piece of cake for them.

If Windows works just fine with few problems, why even bother to upgrade it? Until I saw this thread, I haven't even heard of a "critical update", and I've had this particular computer for nearly two years now.


I wonder if Bill Gates uses Windows...

this also occured to me Danarchist, make sure you don't have any spyware running on your system. spyware can mess up a computer almost as bad as a virus. I've never had a virus problem on my end, but spyware spanked the fuck out of one of my machines.

goto lavasoft.de and get Ad-aware, it kills spyware in the registry and in the filesystem.

The problem your describing in IE with not loading certain sites can be attributed to this. Also, do a file search for a file caleed host*.*

You should come up with a file called hosts or host with NO extension. edit that file with a txt editor and see if any IPs are logged in there. when an IP is logged into this file, IE will use that IP instead of drawing it from the DNS. Supposedly this 'saves time', but when that site changes their IP, you can no longer access the page cause you have some other dumb IP logged in that host file.
the only IP that should be logged in this file is 127.0.0.1 localhost

any more than that and you might have spyware (or a really shitty 'web accelerator').
Simply make this file 'read only' to prevent this from happening again. Those are a few ideas. Good luck fixin'! :)

Ichor said:

If Windows works just fine with few problems, why even bother to upgrade it?

Well I certainly don't like to get infected with a virus just by visiting a site.

Same here. I haven't had that problem though. I also don't like having to look at all those banners and popups, so I just turn off all Java and JavaScript, and installed a nice program called @Guard, which removes just about every banner it comes across. Unfortunately, you have to reinstall the thing every 20 days or so because it always shuts off when it expires, but that's a small price to pay.

Use3D: Thanks, the program found a few suspicious files and deleted them. I hope it runs better now. Also, there was nothing suspicious in the hosts file, so I guess that wasn't the problem.

Zaldron: You're right. I forgot what critical updates are for. I guess I should update it every once in a while to avoid l33t h4x0rs. But I REALLy wish it wouldn't turn Media Player into my default player every time I update. It's really annoying. >_<

bigbadgangsta said:

Uh oh Dan, you might be infested with tons o' virii!

I thought in that case it was viruses. Seriously, I'm not trying to start something. I really thought it was viruses.

Archvile64 said:

I thought in that case it was viruses. Seriously, I'm not trying to start something. I really thought it was viruses.

MANCUBI!!!!!!!111