Number 245 - October 2003

Mind That Patch
by Timothy Everingham
You hear that there is a minor upgrade, a service pack, or a patch for software on your computer. It is recommended by the manufacturer for you to install it. Should you? Just because a software company says you should is not a valid enough reason to do it.    A worldwide fast food franchise sent out a minor upgrade to the software running on the servers in their Southern California stores. They just sent out the software to the managers with detailed instructions on how and when to install it. This minor upgrade froze all systems connected to the server, including the cash registers, in all their Southern California stores right after installation and all on the same day. I was in one of their stores the day this happened.    Confused employees were trying to replace pre-programmed cash registers, which automatically send orders to video screens, with calculators, paper, and at times, employees were shouting to each other. This caused some long lines, some customers deciding to eat someplace else. The company sent a technician to every store to get the stores operational.    There have been free upgrades to Microsoft Office and NT Servers which were such disasters that they had to be pulled quickly from distribution to be reworked and reissued, telling everyone who had upgraded to download the upgrade again. Those who waited until the upgraded upgrades came out, rather than using the original ones, avoided some severe problems.    There is an old phrase "If it isn't broken, don't fix it." If your software is running correctly, wait just a little longer to upgrade. If it does not have any new features you want, wait even longer. Ask around and find what other people's experiences are with the upgrade.    There are also some websites that report on this: Woody's Watch www.woodyswatch.com/, which reports on Microsoft's Windows, Office, Access, Project, and Palm PDAs; Mac Fix It www.macfixit.com/ for things Mac. Also check out C|NET www.cnet.com/ and ZDNet www.zdnet.com/, too. Look at UpdateXP www.updatexp.com/ for timely articles.    If the patch or upgrade has been out for a while and you only hear good things about it, you are safer in going ahead and doing the upgrade. Be sure that system requirements for the patch, service pack or upgrade are met. Be aware, sometimes you may have to upgrade other software before your intended upgrade.    An example of this is if you wish to upgrade the driver for your video card on a Windows system you may have to first upgrade Microsoft's DirectX. Check the release notes for known problems or conflicts with software and hardware.	To be totally on the safe side you need to back up your computer and have the installation disks and codes of all your software on that machine. Some software allows you to take a system snapshot, such as the "Restore Point" feature in Windows XP; which actually works in many instances, but not always.    A recent viewer of TechTV'S The Screen Savers made the comment, "The only time computer security becomes a problem is when you think you have it." As such, security patches are a different category. You may think your computer software is secure, but most people do not do the testing required to really find out. A firewall is good, but relying only on that is questionable. A layered defense is better.    That includes installing security patches on all of your software. So not waiting too long to install is probably warranted. However, bad things can happen. I have Microsoft critical update alert (free service from Microsoft) on a computer running Windows. An alert popped up saying that there was a new security patch for my Windows Media Player. I installed the patch. However, I was running a three year old version of Qualcomm's Eudora Pro e-mail program on the computer, and now Eudora crashes whenever I start it. I wound up fixing the problem by downloading a patch from Qualcomm.    Another issue is to get your patches, service packs, and upgrades only from trusted sources. Get them from the manufacturer or sources that are well known and trusted. There have been e-mail scams that advise people to install a patch, either arriving as an attachment or as link to a website that wasn't the manufacture's. Those patches contained viruses or Trojan horse programs.    Even if someone you know sends you a patch, be cautious. It may not be them who is doing the sending (someone spoofed your friend's e-mail address) or someone may have already fooled your friend. You do not want to be in the position of having sent all of the people in your e-mail address book a virus or put on more spam lists, nor do you want your and your friends' computers being enlisted in the army of someone doing Denial of Service attacks on Web sites.    So be cautious before installing that patch, service pack or upgrade. Wait until the real-world users put it through the real-world grind. Don't rely only on the manufacture's advice. Watch where you get it. "Mind That Patch" means using your mind before installing that patch.    Timothy Everingham http://home.earthlink.net/~teveringham is CEO of Timothy Everingham Consulting in Azusa, CA. In addition, he is the Vice President of the Windows Media Users' Group of Los Angeles. He is also part-time Press in the areas of high technology, video, audio, and entertainment/media and has had articles published throughout the United States and Canada. He is a member of TUGNET.
Number 245 - October 2003