OneCare upgrade brings headaches
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Previously satisfied users say the newest release of the software is causing a variety of problems, including an issue where the software won't load at startup. Microsoft says it is looking into at least one issue, but said overall the number of problems
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If you think you don't like the program you just downloaded or the new computer you just booted up, wait. A bug-fix patch, a driver update or a new third-party program might arrive to smooth out the problems. Or maybe some lurking glitch or mechanical fault will surface and give you a reason to...
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One in ten desktops will have problems with the Microsoft Service Pack 2 (SP2) update for Windows XP, claims an integration consultancy.
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(InfoWorld) - Windows VistaÂ isn't the only recently released Microsoft software that will give users headaches when they upgrade their systems. Corporate users, partners, and analysts said upgrading to Exchange Server 2007 from previous versions also may be a lengthy and painful process for companies, which may want to take a wait-and-see approach to the new software. New hardware requirements, incompatibilities with other Microsoft software, and the complexity of the product's new architecture are just a few of the issues that will make a move to Exchange 2007 from Exchange 2003 or earlier versions costly and difficult for IT administrators, said Microsoft partners and analysts. "There are about 6,000 pages of documentation that an IT administrator will have to wade through to deploy [Exchange Server 2007], said Keith McCall, a former Exchange director at Microsoft and now chief technology officer and founder of Azaleos, which offers an Exchange Server appliance and turnkey product. You need to think hard, and you need to plan your server infrastructure to add the value and new functionality of Exchange 2007." Exchange 2007 is the first major update since Exchange 2003, and it is the first version of the software that runs only on 64-bit servers. Previously, Exchange ran on 32-bit servers, so customers will not be able to just switch out their current version of Exchange to a new one. They will be required to update the hardware. To its credit, Microsoft alerted customers in November 2005 that this would be the case. But the 64-bit transition is not the only hardware headache associated with upgrading to Exchange 2007, McCall said. Because of the various server "roles" Microsoft has introduced for Exchange Server 2007, the software can no longer be set up for high availability on two servers -- one for the roles and one for failover, he said. There are five different server roles for Exchange 2007 -- mailbox, client access, unified messaging, routing and hub transport, and edge transport, which filters e-mail before it hits the mail store. "If you want to run all of the three primary Exchange 2007 roles (mailbox server, hub transport, and client access) with high availability, you need at least four servers, twice as many as you needed in Exchange 2003," he said. "If you want to add the unified message and edge transport roles, you need six servers." If you don't want high availability, you can run all the roles of Exchange Server 2007 on one server, except for the edge transport server, which requires its own, according to Jeff Ressler, director of the Exchange Server Group at Microsoft. He said Microsoft created Exchange 2007 with these new roles clearly defined because it is easier for administrators to proactively choose which role they want Exchange to play in a network. Previously, they had to go in and turn off the roles they didn't want. "In the new world, you would choose, 'I want that to be a client access server,' and just install those components," Ressler said. Hardware is not the only pain point for customers upgrading to the new version of Exchange. Duncan Greatwood, CEO of PostPath, in Mountain View, Calif., said there are some incompatibilities between Exchange Server 2007 and Windows Vista, the new version of Windows that was released to business customers in November and to consumers earlier this week. PostPath has a mail and messaging server that runs on Linux and can connect seamlessly with Exchange Servers on a network. A key problem is that the management tools for Exchange Server 2007 don't run on Vista, Greatwood said. Typically, an IT administrator will deploy Exchange and its management tools on a server and then deploy the tools on his or her own desktop machine so the server can be maintained from there, he said. However, if an administrator's desktop is running Vista, that desktop can't run the tools, Greatwood said. PostPath developed its software by figuring out Exchange's proprietary network protocols and building them into its product to enable the migration, Greatwood said. Microsoft also licenses some of Exchange's networking protocols to third parties, Ressler said. "If you have an Outlook desktop, in a completely unmodified way you can use PostPath just like Exchange," Greatwood said. "Outlook doesn't know it's talking to PostPath; it thinks it's talking to Exchange." For some companies, this could be a good alternative if they don't want to undertake the task of upgrading to Exchange Server 2007, said Maurene Grey, founder, and principal analyst of Grey Consulting. She said the move from Exchange 2003, which many people are running, to Exchange 2007 is the same as the leap from Exchange 5.5 to 2000, when Microsoft made a similar overhaul in the product's architecture. For some companies that are diehard Microsoft loyalists, however, the question of upgrading to Exchange Server 2007 is not one of if but when, Grey said. "When an organization made their last major upgrade will determine to a great extent when they'll make this upgrade," she said. "If a company just spent $2 million two years ago to upgrade from 5.5 to 2003, the CFO isn't going to be that eager to give them the money to make this upgrade."
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Worries about how well SP2 will work with existing software, combined with concerns about possible security vulnerabilities, have led many corporates to hold back from installing the security update.
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Applying the&#160;SP1 update to Vista&#160;does nothing to improve its application compatibility, with almost 20 percent of software still unable to run, a study has found.Recently founded application testing company AppDNA ran a &#39;before&#39; and &#39;after&#39; on Vista using SP1 (service pack 1) using its AppTitude system, finding that it made no difference whatsoever to its ability to run a test suite of corporate 500 applications, 18 percent of which failed to work without help.As bad as this sounds, the company rated this as good news because service packs normally introduce as many problems as they solve. That SP1 left compatibility performance unchanged was in stark contrast to the experience with SP2 for Windows XP, which&#160;unexpectedly broke many applications&#160;that had worked before.&quot;Organizations have been waiting to see SP1. But people have been wary after SP2 [for XP],&quot; said AppDNA&#39;s CTO, Paul Schnell. &quot;The updates have been incremental and had no impact on compatibility.&quot;The AppTitude testing software used an algorithmic technique to look at applications for behavior known to break Vista. The company also ran usability tests by loading software and digging around to see whether there were issues, Schnell said.Customers running the tests on their own applications using AppTitude would receive an indication of the severity of compatibility issues using a red, amber and green light system, giving them the information needed to plan migration. The software also provided a report on possible fixes.According to its official history, AppDNA is in its first month of independent operation, having been spun out of application migration specialist Camwood, which remains a channel partner. The company won&#39;t be keen to annoy Microsoft too much - its early business has it working closely with the latter on migration projects.Equally, Microsoft has long given up worrying about the Vista&#39;s difficult image. The news that it might still have issues with one in five applications won&#39;t come as a surprise.Redmond has announced its own application migration tools for Vista and prepared for the long haul. The company has pursued a policy of open access to the SP1 refresh, making as few claims as possible regarding the specific issue of compatibility.Techworld is an InfoWorld affiliate.
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Rolling update method deprives Java users of needed  patches, security vendor says.
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US Airways passengers at Logan International Airport and other US Airways hubs faced a second day of long check-in lines and delayed flights yesterday after a computer system upgrade generated a host of glitches.
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10.3.7 fixes bugs, fills security holes
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Even users of a new version complain of hours-long outages, feature malfunctions and data loss.
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Blog: This security update for Windows users piggybacks patches for Apple users.
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The insurance-focused software firm struggles for growth.
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Software vendor mulls how to compensate Chinese comupter users effected by a buggy antivirus update last week.
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A year out, Windows Live OneCare gets low marks for security from analysts and users.
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A hacker group has released what it says is a one-click way to install unauthorized third-party applications on an iPhone or iPod Touch. You still can't switch the iPhone to another wireless carrier.
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Reinstalling Mac OS X and migrating your files from your old system to this new one is more complicated than it has been in the past.
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One year on and deregulation disappoints